Junker Stamer from Lüchow
( from Hans Rinck )
In Ratzeburger tithing register from 1230 Lüchow, the world-secluded village, is mentioned for the first time.
The year of its founding is not fixed, the name only indicates that it is a Slavic foundation.
1230 it belongs to the parish Nusse, only 1314, when the bishop inaugurates the church to Sandesneben, also Lüchow
is pasted there. The settlement was once created as a perfect Rundling, which is still clearly recognizable today,
and the excerpt from the map of 1771 proves this also very clearly.
We do not know who the peasants were who founded the village, and in the first few centuries, the forested and bush-covered Lüchower Feldmark west of the vast Duvensee cleared and plowed, because only from 1513 come the oldest register of names. From them we learn for the first time, which farmers families were then based in Lüchow, and also the amazing fact that only 5 of the 9 homesteads in the village at that time Stamerstellen. On A lived Hinrich, on G Hans, on H Detlev and on J Hinrich Stamer. And certainly the owner of F, Hinrich Pawels, is also a stamer, because his successor Claus Pawels, 1550 and 1553 Claus Stamer, 1555 again Claus Pawels, from 1558 it remains then at Claus Stamer. The Hinrich Pawels of 1513 is probably the son of a Pawel (Paul) Stamer, about whom otherwise no information is available.
The many Stamer in a village there had to be clearly marked, of course, only with the help of the first name that was not well possible, because all always led only the usual name Hinrich, Hans, Jochim or Claus. Therefore, the farmer Vogt Hinrich Stamer on A was simply called "de Burmeister", Hans Stamer on G repeated "de Koter" = Kätner, because his homestead was initially a Katstelle. Often we find Olde Hans Stamer and boy Hans Stamer, Jochim the Elder and Jochim the Younger, Hinrich Stamer senior and Hinrich Stamer junior, without them always being father and son. And certainly had for domestic use synonymous nicknames, "Ökelamen" serve to distinguish the many Stamer. However, they are not known, only one, who is also a few times in Sandesnebener church book and often in official records, has been preserved. A descendant of that Hinrich Pawels from 1513 to F, Hinrich Stamer, was called "Junker Stamer", also his son Johann. From the eventful life of this Junker Stamer and the history of Hooves F, which today owns Richard Koop's widow, will now be reported. Only scant news has been received from the first owners of hoofs; we know little more than their names and the dates in which they are immediately identified:
- 1513 - 1532 Hinrich Stamer ( Pawels)
- 1536 - 1564 Claus Stamer ( Pawels )
- 1626 - 1636 Claus Stamer
- 1637 - 1667 Jochim Stamer
- 1680 - 1702 Claus Stamer
Under Claus and Jochim Stamer, from 1626 experienced Lüchow the horrors of the Thirty Years' War with its oppressive levies and perpetual billeting, but it seems that the hoof F has survived the tribulations without permanent damage, because the livestock of 1633 is 7 horses, 10 cows and 6 oxen and is very respectable. And his successor Jochim Stamer, who burned down with all his possessions in 1639, can still call 6 horses, 6 cows and 6 oxen in 1648. Under Jochim Stamer 1667 a new land register of the office Steinhorst is put on. According to this, Jochim Stamer is an "old Hufner", his homestead thus an original hoof, in contrast to the "made Hufnern" G and J, the former Kätnern. He owns a dwelling house of 8 subject, in addition already a Altenteilskaten of 3 subject and an "old Scheure" of equal length. No huntsman reaps as much "meadow-wax" as he does, namely 18 furs, and his livestock, 4 horses, 4 oxen and 5 cows, is considerable, although the decline has been noticeable since 1648.
From about the beginning of the 18th century, the history of the hoofs F can be followed without interruption, especially since 1687 the Sandesnebener church books (baptismal register) use. Claus Stamer, "the young innkeeper", probably took over the job from his father in 1702 and got married, because from 1703 his children are born, ten in number. Of 4 sons, only 2 remained alive, Hinrich, born in 1712, and Jochim, born in 1714. About the whereabouts of the 6 daughters nothing is known, since the marriage and death registers do not begin until 1753. The Hinrich Stamer, born on 27.1.1712, marries Margret Martens, a Hufner daughter from Schiphorst, in 1742 and becomes his father's successor on F. He is the one of his tribe who will live in the future "Junker Stamer" is called and throughout years Lüchow and the whole office Steinhorst holds in breath, and whose history is to be treated here primarily.
What was the situation at Amte Steinhorst then, and to whom did the peasants owe their obedience?
Often the Steinhorster villages had changed their owners, most recently only a few years ago, in August 1739, when Gottfried von Wedderkop sold the whole office to Hanover. The Elector of Hanover - at the same time King of Great Britain - was thus the sovereign; the highest judicial and administrative official but was the administrator and later Amtmann Christoph Sierow. He had to ensure that there was order, that the taxes were paid, and that the peasants provided their manual and clamping services properly. Until May 1795 Sierow also managed the two Vorwerke Steinhorst and Mühlenbrook in his official capacity, then he leased it privately. And then began those incessant disputes with the peasants who were liable to pay, which almost led to a revolution of the subjects. Sierow, the tenant, now demanded the hand and tension services for himself, and Sierow, the magistrate, accused the defaulters and punished them. Obviously the Hanoverian bailiff was a very energetic and tolerant gentleman, a reckless collector of all taxes and services; however, he overstepped the arc and after his death, 1757, the official service was also separated from the lease in Steinhorst.
The "unmeasured services with the hand and the staves" were an oppressive burden for the peasants. For this reason alone they were forced to hold two staves of four horses each, one for the men's service, one for one's own economy. However, both teams were not busy all year round, and this again seduced commercial haulage. It is understood that the latter again often had to give service failures on Steinhorst cause. Always and at all times, this or that farmer had had to miss a hand-or-span days, "it had not been taken so accurately, and the service had been very muddled", but when Sierow had become a tenant, every failure came to a failure private income and he tried by all means to prevent it. In the fall of 1751, Sierow must already report that the Lüchower are in arrears with 25 credit and 67 business days and he adds:
Especially in the office Steinhorst are very many unruly subjects, among them mainly in Lüchow Hinrich Bruhns (E) and Hinrich Stamer (F). The two have the best hooves in the village, and the latter is therefore called Junker Stamer. But they prefer to drive merchandise and will not come home in two or three weeks. The annual punishments do not want to get caught. Recently I gave them 20 Rthlr. Abandoned punishment, which, however, did not help. They love the useless life on the highway and are always happy when they are citiret by the merchant to freight, as then the host, farmhand and boy with 10 to 12 horses forgets, but does not care about their own household and the men's service. What the peasant now earns with nine men and horses, and also wasted food, between Hamburg and Lübeck, without those of Lüchower and others who travel to Stralsund, Rostock, Neubrandenburg, Magdeburg, Berlin and Leipzig, is not more like 5 Rthlr., so he can only come home with a loss of food, cars and horses.
A truly adventurous life led the farmer's freight drivers of yesteryear, who can certainly be compared with the truckers of our day, and no wonder, if they "love life on the highway". On Sundays, following the service, services were scheduled in Sandesneben for the next week, but the announcement often had little use if the peasants were on a freighter and only returned weeks later.
On 3. 6. 1752 once again all Lüchower were ordered to the office. It all appeared "only Junker Stamer was yesterday with cargo extended"! Sierov urged everyone once again to serve the guilty court services if they wanted to avoid corporal punishment, but the Lüchow replied defiantly that they wanted to serve, but only if they are not on the move! Sierow even pointed out that "in Holstein and Mecklenburg it is customary to obligate the Renitenten with the whip to the service", wanted to refrain from it, however, the jail he presented to every defaulter! The Lüchower already considered it to be an improvement, "if the office buys an hourglass, so four hours, to set up the service afterwards, because the current runs only one hour, which can not be held so accurately with the frequent reversal". Whether Sierow has fulfilled at least this modest wish of the Lüchower is not known.
But the folk soul began to cook and foam over. It was Junker Stamer who was at the head of a movement and stalked on a path that nobody had dared to enter. In the fall of 1752, he personally handed over a letter of complaint to King George the Other (George II) in his hunting lodge at Göhrde near Dannenberg, "when His Majesty is in their Teutonic lands," in which the oppressed Steinhorst peasants vent and sorrow :
When we came to Hanover in 1739, we were told that everything should be the same, but there is no room for restraining Sierov's cruelty. In the past, the land was only plowed twice, but now three or four times. The paddocks of the Vorwerke are made ever larger by eradication; But we peasants are not allowed to cut off a bush on our fields and have to watch our land grow with bush and our free pastures are made into wooden paddocks and laid. Cauldrons, pitchers and grapen are seized to us that we can not even cook a dish of groats and peas.
Shortly thereafter, a second complaint goes to the king, "that Sierow punishes us with jail and Ganten, Halseisen and festification at the church door, fines and seizures, that the servants run away and prefer to serve in Lübeck and Hamburg, as we often only three "After the Lüchower had not bargained to deal with His Majesty three times", an official investigation was bound to follow, and on December 4, 1752, the bailiffs of all the villages and several other prisoners were ordered to serve bring them out, who would have prompted the inputs and financed the trips, but especially who the "writer" would be. All have to admit, more or less torturously, of contributing to the costs; but the Stubbeners "insist that they have not started", and the Labenzer testify that "the Lüchower had animated them". Hinrich Groth and Hans Funck von Klinkrade explain: "Yes, they would have arranged this together with the Lüchower, and each hoof would have given 32 shillings; but they would not know the writer ". So much, however, the investigation revealed that the Lüchower farmer Hans Stamer (A), Jochim Pein (H) and Junker Stamer (F) had been the leaders and that the meetings, the "secret gatherings", took place on the Sunday Kirchstraßen and cargo driving have. The bailiffs received a heavy reprimand, "because they did not report such secrets," so they came off rather unscathed.
And now came the interrogation of the three main culprits, "who gave them authority to complain and who the writer was". All three, however, remained obstinate and bold and denied knowing anything about it! From the spot, Sierov had her imprisoned, and for one and a half days they kept the arrest out, then "let the bailiff indicate that they want to call the writer". It is the citizen Cravaak in Boitzenburg with whom they have probably contacted on their freight trips. Although Sierow applies for all three carts, Hannover decides very mildly: "two days in prison for each of these ringleaders with the hope that they will improve".
However, there was no prospect of improvement; On the 20th of February, 1753, Sierow had to report to Hanover that Junker Stamer was collecting money again in order to make a journey to the King, and in March the three were in fact back in Hannover, this time at the Chamber! Now Sierow applies for "a far harsher punishment of the godless subjects; either the cart or a few Sundays with the church-neck-iron and hard prison with water and bread ". The three ringleaders are ordered back to Steinhorst, but do not appear as a precaution. After the second call only the farmer Hans Stamer comes, while Jochim Pein went without permission on freight and Junker Stamer categorically answers, "he wants, he could and he will not come"! But even the farmer remains obstinate and does not want to reveal who collected and who gave money; but he has no fault, but only Junker Stamer and Hans Funck von Klinkrade. Next is nothing to bring out the peasant, and he is put two days in prison. In June and July, Junker Stamer and Jochim Pein are ordered to the office more often after returning from their long-distance journeys, "but always stay willful" until they are finally arrested by the house guard and forced to appear. But both insist in their stubbornness, and the question of the author both answer: "They can, they can not and they do not want to say that!" The stubborn Junker Stamer adds threateningly: "If he were punished, the whole office would become When the two are taken to prison - at that time still housed in a stable on the Vorwerkshof -, it actually begins to come alive in front of the town hall: peasants from all the official villages arrive, "without orders, a whole unusual process, "as Sierow notes in surprise and reports" It was an almost dangerous accumulation. But I have not found an expansive Inquisition to be useful in order not to alarm the whole office, but only to seriously exhort and dismiss it. "
Now finally the chamber in Hanover breaks the patience, and the measure of the two ringleaders is full. She orders: Farmer Stamer immediately receives four days in prison for bread and water, and the other two are to be tried by the Court Court in Ratzeburg. This condemned Junker Stamer to six months cart "on the limestone mountains" to Lüneburg, Jochim Pein to three months in Harburg. This was a verdict that completely satisfied Sierov, and he reports on the progress.
As soon as the verdict was sent to me, I arranged everything in silence and cautiously cited both of them to office on 12 December. But both are missing. Then I wanted to arrest both, but the culprits have leaked. Finally I attraped Jochen Pein in the house and on December 31 I took her to Harburg. Junker Stamer, however, is not found until today, and his wife proves to be very defiant and daring and shows no remorse. It is reported that he has gone into Danish service as a soldier and occasionally let himself be seen by Oldesloe. His hooves are otherwise in good condition.
But quite so harmless but this action was not lost, as is apparent from the complaint, which directed the Steinhorst farmers on February 11, 1754 to the King and in it u. a. called:
Sierow and his brother in law Steding (Government Secretary in Ratzeburg) have torn us in a tyrannical and barbaric way. Latched Lüchow at night, smashed windows and got into the house. The one man (Junker Stamer, F) quickly lay down on the floor and hid in the hay, then the householder with his sword had the hay pierced and mortally wounded the man in the chest of a penis long finger, and so he naked in the great frosty weather has gone so bloody that his wife gets a blow and the child a fit. The other man, if they receive (Jochim Pein, H), sent Sierow twelve weeks after the cart.
The letter bears the names of almost all Steinhorster farmers, e.g. all Klinkrader Hufner, also all Lüchower, even that of the absent "Jochim Petjen" (= Pein), but added is: "go in the cart!" The truth was in the middle, because a later report says Sierows.
I went to Lüchow the night before Christmas. Jochim Pein has also been detained without compulsion; Hinrich Stamer's house, however, is open when the resistance is found by breaking the window, but searches in vain for it, as it creeps into the hay and straw, and without warning after a warning by a stag-catcher, nevertheless finds an opportunity to escape, and is in mortal danger naked and got away in the cold. However, he did not specify a wound that had actually happened, just as the stroke of the wife's wife and the attack of Stamer's child were lost in a fainting and terrified state.
Nevertheless, the action of Sierov is characteristic of his strict administration, which is evident from a complaint of the peasants of October 30, 1753: "Sierow treats us as if we were his serfs. At the least he lets us conclude in the Turkish instrument, the Ganten, about which barbaric procedures the royal Danish subjects are most astonished!"
But the daring Junker Stamer was free and nobody knew where he was. The rumor wanted to know that he had come to the Oldesloer executioner and sometimes he should also have been secretly in Lüchow. The rumor continued to whisper that he had personally traveled to London for the king, but one Sunday he suddenly appears in Sandesneben and attends the public service in the church! The slyly bewildered and angry sergeant Sierow "even insisted on wanting to capture him in the church, so God defended in grace that he did not get it"! Sierov used all means of pressure to seize the squire, and repeatedly had Hinrich Stamer's wife announce "that hooves would dispose of her" if her husband had not returned within a certain period of time. None of his threats, however, caught.
In the fall of 1754, it finally manages to capture the notorious Junker Stamer, this "daring subject," and to bring him and all the others who had participated in the last complaints, the process. At Stamer, a six-month jail sentence remains and eight farmers each receive one week in prison. It also turns out that Stamer had not even been to London, but that the Oldesloer executioner had promoted the post. When the Junker Stamer is reproached for his outrageous audacity to approach the most gracious king over and over again, he replies. "The Oldershausen Landdrost had once told him of his complaint that only God or the King could help him", and he would have kept that word! He was only barred from increasing the sentence because he had to spend nearly three months in remand in Ratzeburg, which was subsequently counted as a punishment. This long imprisonment was due to the fact that once again the animal epidemic was rampant in the Amte Steinhorst and during this time all passenger traffic beyond the official border was forbidden, so the negotiations in Ratzeburg had to be postponed again and again. In the summer of 1755, Junker Stamers wife filed a pardon, but was "turned off and to rest," and Junker Stamer had to serve his carreer in the fortress Lüneburg full.
Tumults of this kind did not occur again in Lüchow and in the office Steinhorst. The Lüchower, in particular Junker Stamer, but had achieved that in the future "the Justice separated from the lease" was. Sierow died on March 19, 1757. In the Sandesnebener church found this "tyrannical bailiff" his final resting place from which still announces the grave plate under the pulpit. For two decades Junker Stamer, his sworn enemy and unforgiving opponent, survived him. He died on July 11, 1777, 65 years old. He was buried on Sandesnebener Kirchberg, as all stamers had been before him for almost half a millennium. The Kirchweg from Lüchow to Sandesneben was his last path, which he had so often, bursting with strength and arrogance, eight- or ten-horse piled up to drive for Hamburg or Lübeck merchants cargo into the enticing distance! A truly adventurous life, the life of a capable farmer, a troubled long-distance driver and a rebellious tribune of the people had come to an end.