Jakob Heller
Jacob Heller (* 1460 in Frankfurt am Main, † January 28, 1522 ) was a Frankfurt patrician and councilor. He had several times held the office of elder Mayor of the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt. He put his considerable fortune for a number of religious and artistic foundations, including the famous Heller-Altar of Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grünewald.
Life
Jacob Heller was born about 1460 in Frankfurt am Main. He came from a family that had risen from the artisan class in the patriciate and come through the cloth trade to a considerable fortune. His parents were the merchant and councilor Bechthold Heller and Katharina Blum. From this marriage came 12 sons and seven daughters.
Even Jacob Heller was a respected merchant who to Mrs. Stein was a member since 1483 of the Ganerbschaft. In 1485 he was councilor and alderman in 1494.
1490 he was the younger Mayor, 1501 and 1513 Senior Mayor of Frankfurt. Heller represented the city several times successfully on diets, so in 1510 in Augsburg and 1512 in Cologne. 1515 he met in Worms Emperor Maximilian I, who valued him as a consultant and financier.
Heller was the owner of the Heller Court, an estate organized west of the city in what is now Gallus, and the Nuremberg court in the old town, where the Nuremberg merchants took during the Frankfurt fairs quarters. 1517 Emperor Maximilian lived during his last stay in Frankfurt at Heller at Nuremberg court.
He was married to Catherine of melem, the eldest daughter of Johann Melems. The marriage remained childless. Jacob Heller died on January 28, 1522 in his hometown. He was buried alongside his late wife in 1518 in the Dominican Church. With it, the Heller family died out.
Importance
Jacob Heller left behind an extensive 1519 currently mounted after the death of his wife will in which he listed all legacies and foundations accurate. His writings provide a detailed picture of the social and religious beliefs of the patriciate shortly before the beginning of the Reformation.
Brighter than a patron of the arts
Among the donated by his art works is the 1509 created by Hans Backoffen Crucifixion for St. Bartholomew's Church, situated in the tower hall to highlight, but especially the 1508 painted by Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grünewald for the Dominican church Heller-Altar, a representation of the Assumption and Coronation Mary. The image came later to Munich, where it was destroyed in a fire in 1729. A contemporary copy is now in the Historical Museum. Jacob Heller is shown on the left in the picture, his wife Catherine of melem on the right wing.
Heller had made the acquaintance of Dürer in Nuremberg in 1507, where he had as a cloth merchant and owner of the Nuremberg court a variety of relationships. In his nine copies obtained in letters to his client Dürer gives important insights into his working methods.
Foundations and legacies
Heller sold in 1510 to the city council the house Viole. It was integrated into the town hall complex, the Romans and served in the future as Archive and Library. Beginning of the 20th century it was demolished along with its neighboring houses Frauenrode and black stone for a new historicist.
After Jacob Heller an applied after the Second World War road in Frankfurt's bush is named.