The Minister of Finance and Homeland, Albert Füracker, who is inspired by the spirit of fulfilling his duty, rarely allows himself to be carried away with hymns of praise. So if he begins to eulogize, then it must truly be a remarkable person. And time doesn’t matter anymore. After all, that Prince Ottheinrich, whom Füracker recently paid tribute to, intervened in the course of the world half a millennium ago. “No one else shaped the residential town of Neuburg an der Donau like the Prince of Neuburg and later Elector of the Palatinate Ottheinrich,” said Füracker when the prince’s accession to power recently marked the 500th anniversary. “June 2nd, 1522 was the start of an extraordinary work by the young Renaissance prince as builder, client and art collector,” enthused the minister.
And one cannot contradict him at all, because evidence of Ottheinrich’s splendor and glory are omnipresent in Neuburg to this day. On the one hand, there is the magnificent residential palace with its art treasures. But also in the streets of Neuburg, strollers will come across testimonies that are reminiscent of great times. Not to forget the castle chapel, which Ottheinrich had painted with a Protestant picture cycle, which turned it into an outstanding monument of Reformation and Renaissance art.
One of the most beautiful historical city views in Bavaria: view of the Renaissance castle in the city of Neuburg an der Donau.
(Photo: City of Neuburg)
Even though Neuburg is hailed as the Florence on the Danube, this historical place suffers from a lack of attention. The school children in the country learn little about the great history of Neuburg, only in the town itself does the name Ottheinrich enjoy a heroic rank as ever. The Bavarian State Exhibition of 2005, in particular, made it abundantly clear how strongly his fame spread throughout Europe in the 16th century. At that time, the exhibits were brought in from all over the world. These include valuable tapestries, an alabaster figure by Ottheinrich from the Louvre in Paris and the planetary clock commissioned by Ottheinrich from the Vienna Technical Museum. The value of the exhibits added up to an amount in the hundreds of millions.
Ottheinrich was an outstanding figure in every respect. One of the prince’s jackets shown in the state exhibition had a chest circumference of 2.46 metres. However, his corpulence did not prevent him from setting European standards as a patron of art, science, astronomy and music. Of course, that had its price. Ottheinrich was a much worse debt maker than today’s federal government, which is why he slid into bankruptcy in the end. The Historical Association of Neuburg once recognized him as a “superstar and debt king”.
The fact that Neuburg would one day grow into the center of a small but important empire was due to chance. The Principality of Pfalz-Neuburg, founded in 1505 and existing until 1806, arose from the Landshut War of Succession, which broke out after the death of Landshut Duke George the Rich. That Recken Georg, who is popular as the bridegroom of the famous Landshut wedding from 1475 to this day. Because he had no male descendants, the dispute over his inheritance sparked a civil war in which – unforgotten to this day – the knight Götz von Berlichingen lost his right hand. In order to settle the inheritance claims of George the Rich’s grandsons, a new principality, Palatinate-Neuburg, was removed from the Wittelsbach family without further ado. It was a curious structure with six non-contiguous areas that today belong to the administrative districts of Swabia, Upper Bavaria, Middle Franconia and Upper Palatinate.
The magnificent manuscript of the Ottheinrich Bible (here a scene from the Gospel of John), created up to 1532, is considered to be one of the most important testimonies of late medieval court culture.
(Photo: Imago)
Ottheinrich ruled the principality for more than three decades. He had the Residenzschloss expanded by three mighty Renaissance-style wings, he also commissioned portraits, monumental tapestries and precious handicrafts, and he had the famous Ottheinrich Bible, one of the most valuable illustrated manuscripts in the world, completed. He gained a political profile when he introduced the Reformation in his principality in 1542. Due to his lavish lifestyle, however, Ottheinrich was always threatened with bankruptcy.
The journey that took Ottheinrich back to Neuburg in 1536 via Prague, Kraków, Breslau and Wittenberg also enjoys a legendary reputation. He wanted to collect the remaining part of the dowry from his grandmother Hedwig, who had married Duke George the Rich at the Landshut wedding in 1475, at the Polish court. The trip became famous because of the watercolor paintings that were made on the trip – including the earliest cityscapes of Berlin and Leipzig.
In 1544 Ottheinrich’s debts amounted to more than one million guilders. Hundreds of creditors queued up in front of the castle until the estates finally took over the debts. In return, they took over government power and sold Ottheinrich’s property, who then went into exile in Heidelberg. The much praised Ottheinrichsbau of the palace, built there during his reign, is named after him. His grave in Heidelberg was destroyed by soldiers in 1693. But Ottheinrich’s reputation is unbroken, especially in the Bavarian state government.