The House of Pappenheim
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.
After the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War the Imperial Hereditary Marshal Gottfried Heinrich became “Bayerischer Rittmeister” (Bavarian cavalry captain) under Field Marshal Tilly in 1619. In 1620 during the battle on the White Hill near Prague he suffered stab wounds and was further injured in battle the following year. As a result he was nicknamed “Schrammheinz” or “Schrammhans” (scratched Hans) because of his many scars. In 1623 he was knighted by Emperor Ferdinand II and promoted to “Oberst” (colonel). In 1625 he pawned the lordship of Treuchtlingen to the Margrave of Ansbach for 26,000 Imperial Thalers in order to arm his troops. In 1627 he paid back half of it.
In 1628 he was promoted from colonel to “Reichsgraf” (count of the empire) by the Emperor. In 1630 the king of Sweden Gustav Adolf advanced into Germany. Gottfried Heinrich was able to secure Magdeburg by a surprise attack and following this he was promoted to General Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall). The battle near Luetzen on November 16th 1632 ended with Gustav Adolf’s death and the fatal wounding of Gottfried Heinrich. His personal trumpeter brought him to Leipzig where he died on November 17th 1632. Wallenstein had his body brought to Prague on the Hradcany where he was buried in the chapel of our Lady of perpetual succour of the collegiate church Strahow.
The lordship went to Gottfried Heinrich’s 14 year old son Wolfgang Adam (1618-1647). When he died during a duel the 200-year-old lordship of the Pappenheim-Treuchtlingen line ended. The Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach took over half of the castle and half of the market town as part of his fiefdom. He based his ownership of the second half of the castle on the fact that Gottfried Heinrich only paid back half of what he owed him.
The last Margrave of Ansbach, Karl Alexander, abdicated in 1791 and gave his possessions to his relations the Brandenburgs and thus to the Prussian royal family. From 1806 on Treuchtlingen belonged to the newly founded kingdom of Bavaria.
Wallenstein’s quote from Schiller’s drama “The death of Wallenstein”, “Therein I recognize my Pappenheimers,” refers to the bravery and loyalty of the Pappenheim cuirassiers, the imperial elite troop led by Gottfried Heinrich. The phrase is now used colloquially to denote certain people whose peculiarities, mannerisms and particularly weaknesses one knows.
