500th birthday of Ulrich von Hutten - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1988 - 80 Pfennig

Ulrich von Hutten was born on April 21, 1488 at Burg Steckelberg near Schlüchtern. He was the first-born of the Frankish knight Ulrich von Hutten and his wife Ottilie von Eberstein. At the age of 17 he left the nearby convent school of Fulda to live a wandering life with his friend and teacher Rubeanus, which brought him into contact with the most important political, religious and above all humanistic centers and personalities of his time. After Erfurt, Frankfurt / Oder (1506 Baccalaureat) and Leipzig, he met in Vienna on the circle of the legendary Conrad Celtis and sat down for the first time with the national German past. Twice he went to study in Italy, where he found essential writings of the Italian humanists and by Greek studies, especially Lukians, the model for his militant and satirical dialogues (1517 "Phalarism"). Emperor Maximilian I crowned Ulrich von Hutten on July 12, 1517, the poet laureatus with the poetic laurel. For almost two years, he now entered the service of the Archbishop of Mainz Albrecht of Brandenburg. During this time he traveled to France, to the Diet of Augsburg, took part in campaigns against Ulrich von Württemberg, engaged in the Reuchlin dispute, studied and maintained the correspondence with his humanist friends (1518 "Letter to Pirckheimer"). After the election of Emperor Charles V, Hutten expected the strengthening and reform of the empire and the imperial central power, the curbing of the power of the territorial principality and the entrance of the emperor against papal tutelage and exploitation by the Roman church. Because of his anti-Romance writings (»Inspicientes«, »Triassic Romana«), Hutten was persecuted by the Inquisition and excommunicated. At the Ebernburg of Franz von Sickingen he found refuge and now began to publish in addition to the Latin in German. He sided with Luther, whom he regarded as an ally in his fight against the church. At the beginning of the Worms Reichstag (1521), Ulrich von Hutten was at the height of his journalistic significance. His hopes for a religious renewal independent of Rome were not fulfilled by the emperor's reconciliation with the pope. Hutten now appealed to his classmates to join forces with the city bourgeoisie against the sovereign princes. This concept, which did not involve the peasants as allies, failed after the campaign of Franz von Sickingen against the Archbishop of Trier. Hutten was now in emigration to Switzerland and sought again connection with the humanists, especially to Erasmus of Rotterdam, to which he was friends since 1514. In Basel, there was a break between the two. Hutten brought to his last literary blow with a writing against Erasmus (1523 "Expostulatio"). The answer, a scathing script against Hutten ("Spongia"), did not hit him anymore. Under the protection of Zwingli he had fled to the island of Ufenau in Lake Zurich. There he died at the age of 35 from the consequences of syphilis on August 29, 1523. Ulrich von Hutten was a humanist whose writings were much printed and read in his day. His literary significance was due to his long-lasting, the literary, cultural and political development influencing Latin writings that had European rank. The motive shows Ulrich von Hutten with his attributes: armor (= knight), poet laurel (= poet) and book (= humanist and publicist); Excerpt from the woodcut first published in his book "Conquestiones" - printed by Johann Schott in Strasbourg after September 28, 1520 - which measures 11 x 11.7 cm with the laurel wreath and the four escutcheons. (Text: Renate Nettner-Reinsel M.A., Schlüchtern)