The House of Pappenheim(1)
The masters of Pappenheim held the office of “Reichsmarschall” (imperial marshal). Georg I. (c. 1430-1485) founder of the Treuchtlingen line inherited the upper and town castle and the market town of Treuchtlingen from his brother and mother. One of Georg’s grandsons, Ulrich, was the imperial marshal who brought Luther to the questioning before the emperor in Worms in 1531.
Marshal Hans Georg (1535-1568) established the Reformation in 1559 and his successor, Reichserbmarschall Veit (1535-1600) had the castle renovated in 1575. Through his second marriage Veit had a son, Gottfried Heinrich, who was born on the 8th June 1594 in Treuchtlingen castle. In 1607 Gottfried was accepted into the University of Tuebingen. In 1610 he attended the Academy of Altdorf near Nuremberg. His eloquence was praised along with his written finesse: the young man was fluent in Latin, Italian, French, Spanish and went on to learn Dutch and Czech. He undertook long journeys to France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy on which he spent more than half of the lordship’s annual income. At the age of 20 Gottfried became imperial court counsellor (“kaiserlicher Hofrat”). In 1614 he converted to the Catholic faith. According to the rule “cuius regio, eius religio” (“whose region it is, his religion”), Treuchtlingen became Catholic once again.
