Zollikofer from Altenklingen

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Zollikofer coat of arms at Altenklingen Castle

Zollikofer von Altenklingen is a Swiss family that was ennobled in the 16th century and has been based at Altenklingen Castle since 1585 .

history

Origins and Lines

The first known Zollikofer, Hans, lived in the free imperial city of Constance in the 14th century . A Konrad Zollikofer died there in 1443 as a butcher and guild master . In the 15th century the Zollikofers emigrated to St. Gallen , where the brothers Hans the Younger (1395–1471) and Jobst (1398–1476) acquired citizenship. From the end of the 15th century they founded linen mills and trading houses for canvas and dominated this sector for at least 200 years. Until around 1750, numerous members of the long-distance trade were wholesalers who belonged to the Society for the Notenstein . Among them was a part u. a. settled in Lyon and Marseilles .

The sons of Hans the Younger, Sebastian (1444–1502), first of the black line, whose later members were called Zollikofer von Nengensberg , and Ludwig, first of the red line, founded the Zollikofer'sche Handelsgesellschaft. Based on Leonhart (1529–1587) and his brothers Laurenz (1519–1577), Georg (1525–1600) and Jos (1535–1617), lines with the surnames of Altenklingen and Sonnenberg can be distinguished. The latter owned Sonnenberg Castle from 1580 to 1618 . From 1691 to 1790, Castell Castle near Tägerwilen in Thurgau was also owned by Zollikofer von Altenklingen. Georg's descendants produced numerous military personnel in Brandenburg-Prussia after the middle of the 17th century and also made their way to Electoral Saxony . In 1760 Sabine Zollikofer supported her brother-in-law Paul von Gonzenbach financially during his year and a half imprisonment in Landshut . New branches sprang up in America in the 18th century.

With Johannes (1633–1692), Kaspar (1707–1779), Caspar Tobias (1723–1800) and Georg (1730–1788) the family provided important theologians. In addition to theology, from 1750, after the decline of the linen trade, various Zollikofers also turned to the medical profession and the craftsmen; Johannes founded a book printing company in St. Gallen in 1789, which from 1841 published the “Tagblatt der Stadt St. Gallen and the Cantons St. Gallen, Appenzell and Thurgau” and was run by the family as Zollikofer AG until 1991. The family also provided government councilors for the St. Gallen cantonal government and supported the public school system in St. Gallen with foundations.

Familienfideikommiss Altenklingen

Altenklingen Castle

The St. Gallen city judge, councilor and bag master Leonhart Zollikofer (1529–1587) acquired the country seat of Schloss Pfauenmoos in Berg SG in 1564 . In 1582 he was a delegate from Sankt Gallen with other representatives of the federal cantons to King Heinrich III. from France. In 1585 he also bought Altenklingen Castle from Berthold Brümsi for 25,500 guilders . He had the old complex torn down and commissioned the architect Mathäus Höbel from Kempten to build a new castle.

In 1586 the childless Junker Leonhart Zollikofer donated the castle and the Freiherrschaft Altenklingen as entails for the four sons of his deceased eldest brother Laurenz (who had married Dorothea von Watt , the daughter of the reformer Joachim Vadian ) and the six sons of his second brother Georg. These had contributed a sum of 22,000 guilders for the opening of the rule and were given the designation "co-founder". In 1585 Leonhart Zollikofer was issued a Landsässenbrief by the Eight Old Places , according to which Altenklingen received all freedoms, rights and justice of the aristocratic class in Thurgau, including lower jurisdiction and thus membership of the court lordship in Thurgau .

The rule of Altenklingen lasted for centuries until 1798. Since the Fideikommiss Schloss Altenklingen, founded by Leonhart Zollikofer with his nephews of the Georg and Laurenz lines, continued to exist after the dissolution of the manor , the castle estate has remained in the family's possession to this day, administered by a family council.

Nobility and coat of arms letters

Already in 1471 both branches (the "red-haired" and the "black-haired" ) of Emperor Friedrich III. received a letter of coat of arms and on October 19, 1578 Leonhart and his brothers and nephews were raised from the "red branch" to the hereditary and tournamentable imperial nobility; In 1594 the same happened for the "black" Zollikofer. Danish and French letters of nobility were also issued in the 17th century .

coat of arms

With the acquisition of the Altenklingen rulership, the Zollikofers combined their own family coat of arms (a blue quarter in gold, heraldic top left) with that of the Barons von Klingen, who died in 1395 (a black shield covered with silver shingles with a gold crowned and red tongue upright silver lions).

Significant family members

Johannes Zollikofer von und zu Altenklingen (1633–1692), theologian

literature

Web links

Commons : Zollikofer family  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zollikofer on geneal-forum.com
  2. ^ End of a long story , Tagblatt of October 21, 2011
  3. ↑ See Konrad Falko Wutscher: Altenklingen Castle in Thurgau. In: ARX. Castles and palaces in Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol. Vol. 35, No. 2, 2013, ISSN  0394-0624 , pp. 10-14.