| Music Encyclopedia: Fugger |
German family of merchants and bankers. Under their patronage Augsburg flourished throughout the Renaissance as a centre of art, literature and music. Over 40 printed music volumes were dedicated to members of the family by such composers as Aichinger, Eccard, A. and G. Gabrieli, Hassler, Lassus and Monte.
| German Literature Companion: Fugger |
Fugger, a prosperous merchant family in Augsburg, which became a great banking house in the later Middle Ages. The name is first mentioned in the 14th c., at the end of which the head of the family, Johannes (d. 1409), was a recognized patrician. His second son, Jacob (d. 1469), greatly extended the activities of the house and founded its fortune. His three sons, who survived into the 16th c., made the family one of the richest in Europe. In 1514 Jakob (styled Jakob II, 1459-1525) founded the Fuggerei, a complex of almshouses for 106 families, which still exists in Augsburg. In 1535 the Fuggers received the privilege of minting coinage. The head of the house was made a count in 1530; from him sprang three noble lines, all of which survived into the 20th c. One branch was raised to the rank of prince (Fürst) in 1913.
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Fug·ger (fʊg'ər)  |
| Wikipedia: Fugger |
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The Fugger (German pronunciation: [ˈfʊɡɐ]) family was a historically prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and venture capitalists like the Welser and the Höchstetter families. This banking family replaced the family known as the Medici who influenced all of Europe during the Renaissance. The Fuggers took over many of the Medici assets as well as their political power and influence.
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The first reference to the Fugger family in the Swabian Free City of Augsburg is the arrival of Hans Fugger recorded in the tax register of 1357. He married Klara Widolf and became an Augsburg citizen. After Klara's death, he married Elizabeth Gfattermann. He joined the Weaver's Guild, and by 1396 he was ranked high in the list of taxpayers.
His eldest son, Andreas Fugger, was a merchant in the weaving trade, and was nicknamed 'the rich Fugger', buying land and other properties.
Andreas's son, Lucas Fugger, was granted arms by the Emperor Frederick III, a golden deer on a blue background, and he was soon nicknamed 'the Fugger of the Deer'. However, he was too ambitious and went bankrupt.
Hans Fugger's younger son, Jakob the Elder, founded another branch of the family, This branch progressed more steadily and they became known as the 'Fuggers of the Lily' after their chosen arms of a flowering lily on a gold and blue background. Jakob was a master weaver, a merchant, and an alderman, and married Barbara Basinger, the daughter of a goldsmith. His fortune progressed, and by 1461, he was the 12th richest man in Augsburg. He died in 1469.
Jakob's eldest son, Ulrich, took over the business on his father's death, and in 1473 he provided new suits of clothes to Frederick, his son Maximilian I, and his suite on their journey to Trier to meet Charles the Bold of Burgundy and the betrothal of the young prince to Charles's daughter Maria. This started the very profitable relationship between the Fugger family and the Habsburgs. Ulrich died in 1510.
Ulrich's youngest brother Jakob Fugger (illustration, below) was born in 1459, and was to become the most famous member of the dynasty. He married Sibylla Artzt in 1498, but they had no children. He was elevated to the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire in May 1511, and in 1519, led a consortium of German and Italian businessmen that loaned Charles V 850,000 florins (about 95,625 oz(t) of gold) to procure his election as Holy Roman Emperor over Francis I of France[1]. The Fugger's contribution was 543,000 florins. Jakob died in 1525. He is considered to be one of the richest persons of all time,[citation needed] and today he is well known as Jakob Fugger 'the rich'.
Jakob's successor was his nephew Anton Fugger, son of his elder brother Georg. Anton was born in 1493, married Anna Rehlinger, and died in 1560.
In 1511, Jakob deposited 15,000 florins as an endowment for some almshouses. In 1514, he bought up part of Augsburg and in 1516 he came to agreement with the city that he would build and provide a number of almshouses for needy citizens. By 1523, 52 houses had been built, and the Fuggerei had come into existence. It is still used today.[1]
The burial chapel of the Fuggers in St. Anne's Church, Augsburg is the earliest example of Renaissance architecture in Germany.
 Jakob Fugger (1459–1525), by Albrecht Dürer |
 Christoph Fugger, by Christoph Amberger, 1541 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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 | Music Encyclopedia. The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| German Literature Companion. The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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