["Thus it was rendered to us great honour and complaisance." On the history of Ottheinrich of Pfalz-Neuburg].
One of the most scintillant German princes of the 16th century was Count Palatine Ottheinrich (1502-1559). Even while he was still alive, he became a legend. Ottheinrich was the first reigning prince of the principality of Neuburg on the Danube, which, as a result of the so-called Landshut succession war, was founded in 1505. From 1556 until his death in 1559, he was Elector Palatine. As a memorial to himself he has left the famous Ottheinrich building of the Heidelberg Palace. The present text gives an account of his life. First, Ottheinrich's career is explained in view of the discrepancy between his immense self-assurance and his small material resources. It was his magnificent ancestry that affirmed his exuberant self-confidence. He descended from the Palatine lineage of the house of Wittelsbach that held in higher esteem than the Bavarian branch of this family. Moreover, he was even of royal descent. He therefore regarded himself of equally high birth as the Hapsburgs who had held office of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire since 1438. With his sumptuous manner of living, without regard for economic considerations, he tried to build a reputation that he considered adequate. His adventurous travels, his expensive buildings and his costly collections aimed at this purpose. But the principality of Neuburg was not able to cope with this financial burdens. in 1544, it went bankrupt, and Ottheinrich had to live in exile for nearly eight years.A self-determined participation of Ottheinrich in the politics of the Empire is scarcely detectable till the late fifteen thirties. However, Ottheinrich was studying the ideas of the Reformation intensely and finally, felt a religious mission that becomes clearly discernible in the beginning of the forties. His desire to spread the Reformation is decisive for the interpretation of his further life. His conversion gained considerable importance, because, by mere biological chance, he at last became Elector Palatine. yet even then, it turned out that Ottheinrich lacked a suitable understanding of the political, confessional and constitutional stages of development that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire. He was associated more with the stormy early years of the Reformation than with the phases of juridificiation and the enclosing of the confessional conflicts that he had to face. Thus, politically, he remained a figure of transition, while his passion for art and architecture has bestowed a rich cultural inheritance upon us.
Bergerhausen
Hans-Wolfgang
HW
D005858:Germany; D006076:Government / Q000266:history*; D049669:History, 16th Century