The Geuder von Heroldsberg were one of the oldest patrician families of the Imperial City of Nuremberg, first mentioned in a document in 1253. The family seat giving the name was the imperial fief Heroldsberg, acquired between 1387 and 1391. The Geuders were represented in the "Inner Council" from 1349, with short interruptions, until the end of the imperial city period in 1806 and, according to the "Dance Statute", belonged to the twenty old families eligible for the council.
The Geuders probably came from Bohemia to Franconia and are said to have settled first in Kammerstein near Schwabach. Later, the Geuders moved to Nuremberg, where they can be traced since 1303. They acquired Nuremberg citizenship and quickly became one of the most respected families of the Nürnberg patriciate. They belonged to the "Inner Council" of the free Reichsstadt for about half a millennium and at times held the most influential offices there, such as that of Reichsschultheißen as well as the high office of the foremost Losunger.[1] Their wealth increased the Geuders, among other things, by the long-distance trade. They traded in the 14th century with spices and cloth to Cologne. In the late 14th century they were found in Venice and in the early 15th century in Frankfurt am Main and Flanders. By 1418 they were doing financial business in Paris. They were also involved in mining companies.
In 1391 Konrad and Heinrich Geuder acquired the imperial fief Heroldsberg, where descendants of the family still reside today. In 1417, the Geuders obtained a coat of arms for themselves from King Sigismund, which is today the coat of arms of the market town of Heroldsberg. In 1471, Emperor Friedrich III granted the Geuders their own coat of arms. In Heroldsberg the Geuders gained all the powers of the Imperial Knighthood, which included the Fraisch, i. i.e. the high jurisdiction. They built the Green Castle there on the site of the older castle, as well as the White Castle in 1471, the Red Castle in 1489, and the Yellow Castle in 1580. The builder of the Red Castle was the councillor and Reichsschultheiss Martin Geuder (1455-1532), a friend of Albrecht Dürer, who during a visit to Heroldsberg in 1510 made the drawing "Das Kirchdorf"', the oldest pictorial representation of the village, on which the new building can be seen in the foreground (see illustration below). Through clever trade and marriage policies and subsequent inheritances, the Geuders expanded their land holdings. For example, in 1440 they first acquired a share in Neunhof bei Lauf and as early as 1445 the whole place as well as by marriage the place Emskirchen and in 1501 the place Stein, which remained in the possession of the family for over 300 years.
They were successful since the 16th century also as officials and officers in imperial and princely service. In the Middle Ages they fought "infidels" on crusadess and went as army commanders against Hussites. In later centuries, they fought as officers in the Turkish Warss. They were in Dutch service and served the Swedish king Gustav Adolf as well as Friedrich the Great. At all times they occupied leading positions of the ruling council of their father city Nuremberg and were active in some legations of the "Republic of Nuremberg", with increasing dispersion of the family also as princely privy councillors in the service of Brandenburg, Nassau, the Electoral Palatinate and Anhalts.
By the end of the 16th century, the previous trade flows from the Levant, through Italy and the Alps to the southern German imperial cities, had shifted northward. The precious metals from America led to a monetary and sales crisis. Spain, France and the Netherlands declared state bankruptcy several times. The Welser, from whom the related Geuders had borrowed, also ran into difficulties; their Augsburg trading company was insolvent in 1614, and the Welser branch in Nuremberg had already been sold in 1610. The Geuders had been increasingly in financial difficulties since the beginning of the Thirty Years' War in 1618. When they also became insolvent, the matter came before the Reichshofrat in Vienna, where it was pending for decades. In the so-called "Laufer Settlement" in 1660, the Welsers were compensated for their outstanding loans by possession of the Geuders. The Welsers received the entire Geuder share in Neunhof near Lauf, Beerbach, Tauchersreuth with all rights, the Geuder estates in Groß- and Kleingeschaidt, Simonshofen, Dehnberg, Pettensiedel and Letten as well as the ponds in Simonshofen and Laipersdorf.
In 1612 the Geuders gave up their Nuremberg citizenship and divided into two lines in the 17th century: The Geuder-Rabensteiner (after name and coat of arms union with the extinct Rabensteiner zu Döhlau in 1643) on the Green Castle in Heroldsberg became a member of the Imperial Knighthood in the Frankish Knights' Circle and carried a supplemented coat of arms. The Nuremberg line resumed Nuremberg citizenship in 1662 and continued the tradition of serving the Imperial City of Nuremberg as councillors, foremost Losungers and Reichsschultheißen, custodians and guardians of the Imperial Regalia, and knights "De la Générosité".
In the Holy Roman Empire the Geuders were Imperial Knights, and in the Nuremberg patriciate they bore the predicate "Hochedelgeboren" since 1689. With the fall of the Old Empire, the Geuders gradually lost their imperial knighthood and jurisdiction; in 1810, they had to give up the High Court to the Kingdom of Bavaria. Until 1848, they were limited to lower jurisdiction through a patrimonial court II class. In 1813, the Geuders of Heroldsberg were enrolled in the class of knights to the Bavarian nobility and in 1822 were elevated to the Freiherr status.
Of the four Geuder castles in Heroldsberg, the White Castle was sold in 1928 and the Yellow Castle in 1957; the Green or Rabenstein Castle (Kirchenweg 8) was inhabited by the Rabenstein line until their extinction in 1963 and sold in 1977; the Red Castle is now owned by the Geuder descendants Brunel-Geuder.[2]
1391-1580 the manor house Grolandscher or Alter Sitz, Schwaiger Straße 18-26, Behringersdorf
1441-1661 castles and the manor Neunhof (sold to the Welser, who own it to this day).
1570-1632 the manor Geuderschloss in Neunhof
1476-1634 the manor Steinhaus (Fürther Straße 47-49) in Bruck (Erlangen) (built in 1476 by Geuderschen Amtsleute and later lent to Erbrechtler, destroyed in the 30-year war around 1632/34)
????-1801 the official residence "Keltschenschloss" (Fürther Straße 53) in Bruck, both on old Heroldsberg feudal estates
1501-1848 the imperial fief Stein (1501-1717 Geudersitz Stein, 1922 demolished for the construction of new factory buildings of the Faber-Castell company)
Endres Geuder (1431-1496), alderman, negotiator for Nuremberg on important political occasions. Imperial commissioner for the restoration of order, in the shattered imperial city of Weissenburg.
Martin Geuder III. (1455-1532), patrician, imperial sheriff of Nuremberg, councilor, Losunger, from 1518 keeper of all male monasteries in Nuremberg, from 1524 keeper of the two Nuremberg parish churches, builder of the Red Castle in Heroldsberg (1489), friend of Albrecht Dürer.
Jakob Geuder (1575-1616), gave up his Nuremberg citizenship in 1612 and tried to introduce Calvinism in the Heroldsberg area. As a result, a dispute developed with the city of Nuremberg, which eventually led to a military confrontation. He published Latin translations of Italian writings on the Turkish question, which, along with other texts, including Giosafat Barbaro's Persian accounts, appeared in Pietro Bizzarri's Rerum Persicarum Historia in Frankfurt in 1601.
Johann Philipp Geuder von Heroldsberg called Rabensteiner zu Heroldsberg und Stein (1597-1650), high official with the imperial knighthood and with the counts Löwenstein-Wertheim, cavalry captain in Swedish service, councilor in Anhalt and Brandenburg. Director of the entire Imperial Knighthood in Franconia, Swabia and on the Rhine. Founder of the so-called Geuder-Rabenstein line.
Carl Benedikt Geuder von Heroldsberg (1670-1744), councillor, lotunger and imperial sheriff, knight de L'Ordre de la Générosité, custodian of the imperial regalia. He reacquired the Rote Schloss in Heroldsberg from the Pfinzing.
Johann Adam Rudolph Carl Geuder von Heroldsberg (1718-1789), real imperial councillor, crown guardian and custodian of the imperial jewels, knight councillor at the free knighthood of Franconia, privy councillor of Nuremberg, second lotunger, senior curator of the monasteries of St. Clara and Pillenreuth and curator of the University of Altdorf.
Adolph Freiherr von Geuder von Heroldsberg (1827-1906), He studied law and philosophy and as a Heidelberg student was involved in the 1848 Incidents. He emigrated to the United States, but later returned. Descendants of his still live in the USA. He is the donor of the cemetery area and the funeral hall of the municipality of Heroldsberg.
Martin III. Geuder (1455–1532), Ratsherr, Losunger und Reichsschultheiß
Julius Geuder von Heroldsberg (Kirchenpfleger in Nürnberg um 1590–1594)
Anton Geuder von und zum Heroltzberg († 1604), Ratsherr
Johann Philipp Geuder-Rabensteiner (1597–1650), Direktor der Reichsritterschaft in Franken, Schwaben und am Rhein, Begründer der Geuder-Rabensteiner Linie, gemalt von Justus Sustermans, ca. 1620
Johann Adam Geudern von und auf Heroldsberg und Stein, Pfleger der Landauerschen Zwölfbrüderstiftung (1694)
Johann Adam Georg Christoph Geuder von Heroldsberg (1720)
Carl Benedikt Geuder von Heroldsberg (1670–1744), kaiserl. Rat, Kronhüter und Verwahrer der Reichskleinodien, mit Sohn Johann Adam Rudolph Carl (1718–1789)
Christoph von Imhoff (ed.): Berühmte Nürnberger aus neun Jahrhunderten. Nuremberg: Hofmann, 1984, 425 p., ISBN 3-87191-088-0; 2nd, erg. u. erw. edition, 1989, 459 p.; new edition: Edelmann GmbH Buchhandlung, October 2000.
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