Hieronymus Roth

Jerome Roth ( * 1606, † 1678 in the fortress Peitz, Lausitz) was aldermen masters (judges ) of the district Kneiphof in Königsberg, politician and one of the most original and most powerful figures in the city's history.

Life

Little is known about the life of Jerome Roth, but it is certain that he was a merchant and representative citizenship in Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia. He was leader of the opposition against the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, who made ​​the tax burden of Konigsberg always unsustainable and simultaneously degraded the privileges of the estates.

Through contracts, the Elector reached the abolition of the Polish suzerainty in Prussia, which did not please the East Prussian bourgeoisie, because by the incorporation of Prussia into Brandenburg, Jerome Roth and others feared a curtailment of their relative independence. The resistance Roth began in Parliament, where he served as a representative of his hometown. Roth was the government nuisance and put pressure on the administration of Königsberg, it should conduct a trial for treason on behalf of the Electoral ducal authority, but this was denied. It slowed Roth only in his enthusiasm by abberief him on November 4, 1661 from parliament. He remained unmolested. Roth went in 1662 to the Polish court to ask the king for help, he promised the liberation of the Prussian resident of Brandenburg, broke his promise but from chronic money and soldiers never lack a. When the Königsberg excise duty, taxes to the elector refused, this act went as Königsberg uprising in history, reached this by force of arms.

The Elector promised the nobility several privileges and calmed him down, but only to focus exclusively on Jerome Roth to: This provided the backbone of the urban opposition dar. Frederick William marched the end of October 1661 troops into Königsberg, was Hieronymus Roth arrest and treason sentenced to a long imprisonment. He was imprisoned in the fortress Peitz in Lusatia, where until 1668 he had very loose prison conditions first, which were tightened after 1668, as came out that Roth used secret correspondence with King Mountain. In 1676 Roth asked in a letter to the Elector for his release, which was not granted, so that he died in prison in 1678. After the elimination Roth Konigsberg had the Brandenburg- Prussian Elector of 17-18. October 1663 solemnly pay homage in Königsberg Castle.