Zacharias Meier

Zacharias Meier , also Mayer or Meyer , (* around 1550 ; buried on May 2, 1617 in Lübeck ) was a German merchant, customs clerk and diplomat.

Live and act

The names of Meier's parents and the background to his family are not known; what training he received is largely unknown. He probably lived mostly in Lübeck, where his name can be found for the first time in 1574 as part of a wine menu for 38 people that he offered. From 1598 to 1614 he made himself available several times as surety, witness, guardian, authorized representative and estate administrator. It can therefore be assumed that he was a respected citizen of Lübeck. Secured from 1598 to 1602, but probably for a longer period, he worked as a deposit clerk for goods that reached Lübeck or were exported. Thus he took a high position in the city.

Meier has probably been active mostly in the Russian trade since the beginning of the 1570s and probably learned the Russian language in this context. As a merchant he was only mentioned in documents in 1580. Here in Narva he took a shipload of flax, honey, salt and paper and argued for a long time with a citizen from Szczecin about the settlement. The legal dispute ended in 1592 before the Reich Chamber of Commerce .

Meier's main importance lay in the diplomacy of the Hanseatic League and Lübeck's exchange with Russia. The Hanseatic League reportedly sent him 16 times as a diplomat to Russia over a period of more than twenty years. Evidence exists for two trips in 1586 and other such ventures in 1588, 1593, 1596, 1600 and 1603. Contemporaries reported of further trips in 1586 and 1603. On a trip from January to June 1586, Meier received the for Hanseatic cities Permission from the Tsar to trade freely in Moscow, Novgorod and Pskov . Lübeck was also allowed to set up courtyards in Novgorod and Pskov. From July to November 1586 he visited Moscow again and there successfully negotiated a letter of safe conduct for a Hanseatic embassy. The embassy never came into being; the merchants of the Hanseatic League did not receive any privileges in trade with Russia in the following years.

Meier visited Moscow several times and tried to find new trading houses there, also with letters of recommendation from Emperor Rudolf II . Due to ongoing clashes between Russia, Poland and Sweden, his attempts ended unsuccessfully. In the autumn of 1595 he traveled to Moscow again with the aim of obtaining trade facilitation. He was also given the secret assignment to determine which role was intended for the Hanseatic cities in the provisions of the peace treaty concluded between Russia and Sweden. During this time the Russians granted the English free trade rights, which the new Tsar Boris Godunov promoted and thus angered the people of Lübeck.

In 1575 the Hanseatic cities decided to put together an embassy to Russia. The planning was finalized at the end of the 16th century. In the fall of 1599, Meier received an order from the Lübeck Council to visit Moscow again. He traveled via Prague , where he was supposed to ask for letters of introduction from Emperor Rudolf II. Due to the widespread outbreak of the plague, his path led from November 1599 to February 1600 via Silesia, Poland, Prussia, Kurland and Livonia to Moscow. The tsar issued him a letter of safe conduct for an embassy here. In the Russian capital he was able to avert the confiscation of German trade goods. In May 1600 he reached Lübeck again.

The question of Meier's remuneration for his planned trip with the embassy, ​​about which few sources exist, evidently sparked a dispute. There was no agreement among the Hanseatic cities about the purpose and goals of an expensive embassy. A committee that finally decided on the delegation consisted of more than 40 people. These were the mayors, councilors, servants, coachmen and merchants from Lübeck and Stralsund , including the Lübeck mayor Conrad Garmers , the Lübeck councilor Heinrich Kerkring and the Lübeck council secretary Johan Brambach . Meier was supposed to interpret during the trip. The journey began on January 13, 1603 in Lübeck. On March 25, 1603, the delegation arrived in Moscow by land. Meier was also responsible for the finances of the Lübeck part, which amounted to more than 50,000 marks. He documented the expenses for accommodation, provisions and repairs, renting horses, tips, donations and gifts for guests in detailed accounts.

In Moscow, Meier housed the embassy in a representative hostel. He took part in elaborate, extremely complicated negotiations with the Tsar and his councilors, which ended on June 1, 1603. The tsar merely agreed to grant the Hanseatic cities limited tariff privileges. In addition, they should have trading yards in Novgorod, Ivangorod outside Pskov, but not be allowed to build churches. The ambassadors and Meier tried unsuccessfully for better contracts and traveled from Moscow to Novgorod on June 11, 1603. Participants of the legation from Stralsund drove from there over the Narva to their homeland. The people from Lübeck chose the overland route via Pskov and demanded their privileges on the way.

On August 29, 1603, the ambassadors from Lübeck reached their hometown. Then there were violent arguments with participants from Stralsund. Meier was accused of having acted arbitrarily during the trip, of maintaining personal contacts with the Tsar's Chancellor and of having unilaterally advocated Lübeck's interests. The people of Lübeck took Meier under protection for his independent appearance. The matter was discussed at a Hanseatic Congress in 1604 . Lübeck and Stralsunders wrote their own travelogue about it.

Meier's name can only be found in Lübeck documents in 1614. His efforts to open new trading yards in Novgorod and Pskov were not implemented until after his death in the 1630s.

literature

• Ortwin Pelc : Meier, Zacharias . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 303-305.
• Stephan Macropus: Stephani Macropi [i] Andreaemontani Panegyricus In Reditum Magnificorum ... Virorum, Dn. Conradi Germeri, Coss. Dn. Henrici Kerckringi Senatoris Et Patricii. Dn. M. Joannis Brambachi [i] Secretarii Lubecensis: Nomine Totius Famosissimae Et celeberrimae Societatis Hanseaticae, una cum Stralesundis, ad magnum Muscoviae Ducem, Legatorum. Lubecae: Albrecht 1603

Digitized , Hamburg University Library

• Otto Blümcke: Reports and files of the Hanseatic legation to Moscow 1603 , in: Hansische Geschistorquellen , Volume 7, Verlag des Waisenhauses, Halle a. S. 1894 digitized version (PDF; 30.0 MB)
• Iwan A. Iwanov: A forgotten source on the history of the Hanseatic embassy to Moscow from 1603. The travel description of Zacharias Meyer in the Lübeck Rehbein Chronicle. In: Zeitschrift für Lübeckische Geschichte , Volume 93 (2013), pp. 67–120

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 303.
2. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 303.
3. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 304.
4. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 304.
5. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 304.
6. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 304-305.
7. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 305.
8. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 305.
9. ^ Ortwin Pelc: Meier, Zacharias . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 305.