Stromer von Reichenbach


The Stromer von Reichenbach are one of the oldest patrician families of the Imperial [City of Nuremberg], first mentioned in a document in 1254. The Stromers were represented in the Inner Council from the beginning of the tradition in 1318, with longer interruptions in the 16th and 17th centuries, until the end of the Imperial City period in 1806, and according to the Dance Statute they belonged to the twenty old councilable families.
Family seat since 1754 until today is the Grünsberg Castle, which originally came from the Paumgartnern and came to the Stromers through marriage via the Haller.

History

The origin of the Stromer is in the environment of the staufer Reichsministerialenfamilie of the -''-Schwabach. The progenitor Conrat Stromeier, who appeared as a witness in legal transactions in Nuremberg around 1240, called himself Stromeier von Schwabach. By their admission to the Inner Council, already since the beginning of records in 1318, the family belonged early to the ruling Nuremberg Patriciate. Mostly the family was represented twice in the Inner Council.
Relationships to the and the Stromer von Auerbach. have not been satisfactorily clarified.
With the Gruber-Podmer-Stromerschen Handelsgesellschaft, the Stromers played a central role in the Nuremberg trade of the 14th and 15th centuries, one of the largest and most important economic enterprises of the time. They traded the typical assortment of goods of the late Middle Ages. The trade network extended across Europe, from Barcelona to Riga and Azov, from Naples to Copenhagen and London. In addition to long-distance trade, there was iron ore mining in the Upper Palatinate, copper mining in Bohemia and in Upper Hungarian Slovakia, financial transactions and factories for the production of paper and metal products. Through this, the Stromers also had influence on the production of cutting, stabbing and firearms. Affiliated were Hammer mill and Mining, for whose sustainable wood supply Peter Stromer undertook planned afforestation in the Lorenzer Reichswald as early as 1368. Co-shareholders or trading partners were the Groß, Mendel and Pfinzing. This circle expanded around 1400 to include the merchant families Pirckheimer, Imhoff, Aislinger and Gruber, who had come to Nuremberg from the Lauingen area.
In the 14th/15th century, a particularly prestigious line of the family called itself "zur goldenen Rose" after its ancestral home. From the late 16th century, when many patrician families extended their family names to include place names, following the example of the nobility, the Stromers called themselves von Reichenbach after their traditional place of origin. In 1697 the addition became a title of nobility, when the Nuremberg patricians were allowed the title Edler.
During this period, close contacts of the family with Roman emperors and high imperial princes. Ulman I. Stromer was closely associated with the Palatine Wittelsbach elector Ruprecht II, and his financial support contributed in 1400 to the overthrow of King Wenceslaus and the election of Ruprecht II's son Ruprecht III as Roman-German king. King Ruprecht was a guest of Ulman Stromer on the occasion of stays at Nuremberg Imperial Castle and in 1401 his wife, Queen Elisabeth, née Countess of the Castle of Hohenzollern-Nuremberg, stood godmother to a granddaughter of Ulman.
The plague, which claimed the lives of eight Stromers working in the family firm alone in 1406/07, almost led to the ruin of the company. Ulman's surviving son Georg subsequently opened together with his father-in-law Hans Aislinger from Lauingen, who had become a Nuremberg citizen in 1370 and was also a named in the greater council of the imperial city between 1380 and 1407, as well as his grandson Hans founded their own company, the Handelsgesellschaft Stromer-Ortlieb, which took over the business of the old Gruber-Podmer-Stromer company. The new company granted loans to King Sigismund. The latter was guided by Georg Stromer in the fall of 1414 through the, where he produced the first paper north of the Alps, because the king was looking for alternative sources of purchase for paper, which had already become indispensable in the news business of the time, for his economic war against Venice. In 1412, Hans Gruber joined the company as a factor. Sigmund I Stromer zur goldenen Rose played an important role in 1424 in the rescue of the Imperial Regalia for King Sigismund from Hungary, which was besieged by the Hussites. The king gave the crown treasure to the imperial city in trust, where it was henceforth kept in the Heilig-Geist-Spital for almost 400 years.
The Hussite Wars, Sigismund's economic war against Venice, losses in London and Copenhagen, and enormous embezzlements by Hans Ortlieb led to the bankruptcy of the second Stromergesellschaft around 1430. It was succeeded by the trading companies of Imhoff and Gruber, which had now become independent.
The Stromers could not recover from the resulting loss of importance for a long time, so that they were not represented at all in the ruling "Inner Council" for long periods in the 16th and 17th centuries. , a member of the Inner Council, then played an important role as city architect in the period before the Thirty Years' War, however; among other things, he had the fortifications expanded, bridges built, the imperial city Fortress Lichtenau reinforced, and designed the four-wing Renaissance building of the Altes Rathaus.
The Stromer window in the east choir of Sebaldskirche contains representations of coats of arms from various periods: In the second row it contains the older coat of arms representations from the 14th century, with Ulrich II Stromer and his children and children-in-law. He died in the year of the consecration of the choir in 1379 and had this foundation executed as a legacy. The lowest row contains coat of arms representations from the early 16th century.
After the end of the imperial city period and the takeover of Nuremberg by Bavaria in 1808, the Stromers, along with the other patrician families, were enrolled as nobles in the Bavarian nobility in 1813. As one of the old council dynasties under the Dance Statute, the Stromers of Reichenbach were elevated to the Freiherrenstand in 1820. was the last and only member of the patriciate to provide a First Mayor for 24 years during the Gründerzeit.
Today the Stromer'sche Kulturgut-, Denkmal- und Naturstiftung'' is in charge of preservation and maintenance of the remaining Stromer heritage at Grünsberg Castle, in whose foundation board several family members still sit.

Coat of arms

In red a fallen silver triangle, at the tips studded with half silver lilies. On the helmet with red-silver blankets on a red cushion three silver Glevenstäbe, alternatively a lily.
Stromer's coat of arms was taken over by the related, which led to a coat of arms dispute, which was decided by the council in 1380 that the Nützels were allowed to use the same coat of arms. It was not until 1548 that the shield of the Nützels was quartered to distinguish them from the Stromers, with a black eagle on silver. A similar triangular coat of arms, but with stars instead of lilies and on a blue shield, was used by the.

Possessions

In and around Nuremberg the Stromers had large possessions. Their Nuremberg ancestral home was located from 1387 behind the Lorenzkirche at the corner of Lorenzer Platz/Totengäßchen, which they sold in 1795.
Bis heute sind sie als Stiftungs-Administratoren an der Verwaltung folgender Besitzungen von patrizischen „Vorschickungen“ beteiligt:
  • Grünsberg Castle, since 1766 in the possession of the Stromers, as heirs of the Haller and Paumgartner
  • Land of the former Stromerschen Herrensitz in Almoshof.
As administrator of the Tetzelsche Family Foundation:
Furthermore, they owned:
  • 1310–1336 ca. the Zeltnerschloß in Gleißhammer
  • 13??–1391 the keep in Nuremberg-Sündersbühl
  • 1354–1576 ca. the manor and possessions in Mausgesees
  • 1356–1506 the Haus zur goldenen Rose
  • 1368–1479 Magnificent commercial and residential building immediately north of the Frauenkirche.
  • 1370–1411 estate with castle Harrlach near Allersberg
  • 1391–1463 the Hadermühle
  • 1412–1414 Kalbensteinberg
  • 1448–1454 ca. the Hallerweiherhaus.
  • 1453–1491 the Unterbürg in Laufamholz
  • 1559–1943 the Stromerschen manor house in Almoshof, Almoshofer Hauptstraße 84
  • 1747–???? Manor in Fischbach near Nuremberg
  • 1750–1853 Castle Holnstein
  • 1880–1891 the Waldstromerschlösschen in Reichelsdorf.

Known family members

  • Konrad III Stromer before the preachers, the "long Stromer", builder of the Schuldturm in Nuremberg.
  • Ulrich I. "Hasto" Stromer vom Zotenberg/ bei unser Frauen, banker and merchant, council of sedition 1348/49, negotiator of the fateful Markturkunde Karls IV. in Prague, which cost the lives of about 500 Jews, close connection to the Frauenkirche
  • Ulrich II Stromer zur goldenen Rose, merchant lord, 1st chief captain, acquisition of the House of the Golden Rose, keeper of the Egidien Monastery, host of Duke Rudolf IV, window donation in the east choir of the Sebaldus Church.
  • Peter I. Stromer, councilor and merchant, inventor of coniferous forest seeding.
  • Ulman I. Stromer, councilor and merchant, mining entrepreneur, author of the Püchel von meim geslecht und von abentewr and founder of the first paper mill north of the Alps, acquisition of a magnificent estate on the main market square, participation in the Jewish debt settlement and in the overthrow of King Wenceslas.
  • Sigmund I Stromer zur goldenen Rose, played an important role in the rescue of the Imperial Regalia from Hungary, confidant of Emperor Sigismund
  • Hans IV. Stromer, Nuremberg city judge, the so-called Bratwurst-Stromer, imprisoned for life in the Luginsland Tower and in the Schuldturm from 1559 for betrayal of secrets and foul speeches ; his request to deliver two bratwursts to him every day was granted. After 38 years, vom Turm threw himself to his death.
  • Wolf Jacob I Stromer of Reichenbach, city architect of Nuremberg : supervising the construction of the Fleischbrücke, Fortress Lichtenau, completion of the city fortifications.
  • Wolf Albrecht Stromer von Reichenbach, author of Die edle Gartenwissenschaft and a travel description of Germany
  • Christoph Friedrich I Stromer, Vorderster Losunger and Reichsschultheiß, hostage of Prussian Major General Friedrich Ludwig von Kleist.
  • Christoph Wilhelm Friedrich Stromer von Reichenbach, assessor at the city and marriage court, initiator of the Select of the Nuremberg Patriciate
  • Freiherr Karl Otto Stromer von Reichenbach, First Mayor of the City of Nuremberg.
  • Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach, German paleontologist and dinosaur researcher.
  • Friedrich Stromer von Reichenbach, philosopher of history.
  • Wolfgang Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach, professor of economic, social and technological history.

Foundations

  • Stromer window in Lorenzkirche largely re-glazed around 1500, retaining the lower row of coats of arms from the original window of the family.
  • Stromer window in the Marthakirche

Additional reading and sources

  • Diefenbacher, Michael; Hamberger, Joachim; Schmidt, Frieder; Sperling, Barbara, , in Neue Deutsche Biographie 25, pp. 574–578.
  • Peter Fleischmann, Rat und Patriziat in Nürnberg. Die Herrschaft der Ratsgeschlechter vom 13. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, Nuremberg 2008, vol. 2: Ratsherren und Ratsgeschlechter.
  • Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach: Our Ancestors in the Imperial City of Nuremberg 1250 to 1806. Nuremberg: Fromman, 1951, 44 pp.
  • Wolfgang Stromer von Reichenbach: The Nuremberg trading company Gruber-Podmer-Stromer in the 15th century. Dissertation University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Nuremberg: Association for the [History of the City of Nuremberg], 1963, 192 pp.
  • Adalbert Scharr: Die Nürnberger Reichsforstmeisterfamilie Waldstromer bis 1400 und Beiträge zur älteren Genealogie der Familien Forstmeister und Stromer von Reichenbach. In: Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg, vol. 52, 1963/64, pp. 1–41.
  • Christoph von Imhoff : Famous Nurembergers from nine centuries. Nuremberg: Hofmann, 1984, 425 p., ISBN 3-87191-088-0; 2nd, erg. u. erw. edition, 1989, 459 p.; new edition: Edelmann GmbH Buchhandlung, October 2000.
  • Pfefferwette und Safranschau, Gewürzspekulationen im Mittelalter, BR 1997, A film by Bernhard Graf, with statements by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Stromer von Reichenbach