County of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn Grafschaft Kirchberg und Weißenhorn
State of the Holy Roman Empire
←   ←   ← 1536–1806 →   →
Coat of arms
Map of Württemberg before the French Revolutionary Wars, showing the County of Fugger, with the Danube shown running through the centre of the image and the Iller forming the border between Württemberger lands (coloured) and Bavarian lands (non-coloured)
Capital	Weißenhorn (nominally) Imp. City Augsburg (de facto)
Government	Principality
Historical era	Early modern Europe
- Pledged non-immediate     County of Kirchberg and     Lordship of Weißenhorn	1507 1536
- Raised to Imperial nobility	1511
- Gained immediate     Lordship of Glött	1536
- Fugger lands' immediacy	1541
- Joined Swabian Circle	1563
- Mediatised to Bavaria     and Württemberg	1806

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 de' Medici family, 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.

History[link]

The founder of the family was Johann Fugger, a weaver at Graben, near the Swabian Free City of Augsburg.^[1] His son, also called Johann (or Hans), settled in Augsburg, and the first reference to the Fugger family in Augsburg is his arrival, 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. He added the business of a merchant to that of a weaver.^[1]

His eldest son, Andreas Fugger, was a merchant in the weaving trade, and was nicknamed “the rich Fugger,”^[2] buying land and other properties. It is also now understood the Fugger family itemized and inventoried a large number of Oriental rugs, an unusual undertaking during this time period.^[3]

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.”^[1] 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.

With the help of their brother Markus in Rome Ulrich and his brother George handled remittances to the papal court of monies for the sale of indulgences and the procuring of church benefices. From 1508 to 1515 they leased the Roman mint. Ulrich died in 1510.

When the Fuggers made their first loan to the Archduke Sigismund in 1487, they took as security an interest in silver and copper mines in the Tirol. This was the beginning of an extensive family involvement in mining and precious metals.^[4] The Fuggers also participated in mining operations in Silesia. The Fuggers also owned copper mines in Hungary and their trade in spices, wool and silk extended to almost all parts of Europe.

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.^[5] The Fugger's contribution was 543,000 florins.

In 1494 the Fuggers established their first public company. Jakob's aim was to establish a copper monopoly by opening foundries in Hohenkirchen and Fuggerau (named for the family, in Carinthia) and by expanding the sales organization in Europe, especially the Antwerp agency. Jakob leased the copper mines in Neusohl (modern Banská Bystrica, Slovakia) in 1495, eventually making them up into the greatest mining centre of the time.

At the height of his power Jakob Fugger was sharply criticized by his contemporaries, especially by Ulrich von Hutten and Martin Luther, for urging the Pope to rescind or amend the prohibition on the levying of interest and for the sale of indulgences and benefices. The imperial fiscal and governmental authorities in Nuremberg brought action against him and other merchants trying to halt their monopolistic tendencies.

Jakob died in 1525. He is considered to be one of the richest persons of all time,^[6] 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 1525 the Fuggers were granted the revenues from the Spanish orders of knighthood together with the profits from mercury and silver mines.^[7] The formerly rich yield of the Tirolean and Hungarian mines decreased but Anton established new trade ties with Peru and Chile and started mining ventures in Sweden and Norway. He was involved in the slave trade from Africa to America but was more successful in the spice trade and the importation of Hungarian cattle. Eventually he was forced to renounce the Maestrazgo lease after 1542 and to give up the silver mines of Guadalcanal.

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.^[8]

Anton's oldest son, Markus, carried on the business successfully and during the period 1563–1641 the Fugger company which was completely dissolved only after the Thirty Years' War, earned some 50,000,000 ducats from the production of mercury at Almadén alone.

The burial chapel of the Fuggers in St. Anne's Church, Augsburg is the earliest example of Renaissance architecture in Germany.

Acquisitions[link]

• Gablingen (1527)
• Mickhausen (1528)
• Burgwalden (1529; (German) Burgwalden, in Landkreis Augsburg, Baden-Württemberg)
• Oberndorf an der Donau (1533)
• Lands in Hungary (1535)
• Pflege Donauwörth (1536)
• Glött (1537)
• Babenhausen und Brandenburg (1539)
• Pleß (1546)
• Rettenbach (1547)
• Lands in Alsace (1551)
• Kirchheim (1551)
• Duttenstein Castle, near Dischingen (1551; (German) Schloß Duttenstein, in Landkreis Heidenheim, Baden-Württemberg)
• Eppishausen (1551)
• Niederalfingen (1551)
• Stettenfels Castle (1551; (German) Burg Stettenfels, in Landkreis Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg)
• Reichau, near Boos (1551)
• Kettershausen und Bebenhausen (1558)

Popular culture references[link]

• In Joseph Heller's book "Something Happened", Bob Slocum remarks, "The Fuggers were all right as long as they stayed in Germany; then they sent their mothers here."
• The Fugger family is referenced frequently in Robertson Davies' "What's Bred in the Bone" (the second volume in "The Cornish Trilogy").
• The Fuggers are mentioned in Mika Waltari's book Mikael Ludenfot. A prominent feature is the Fugger copper monopoly.
• The Fuggers are mentioned in Charles Reade's novel The Cloister and the Hearth which is partly set in 15th-century Augsburg.
• The Fuggers play a large role in the 1999 novel Q by Luther Blissett

Gallery[link]

• 

  Jakob Fugger (1459–1525), by Albrecht Dürer

• 

  Christoph Fugger, by Christoph Amberger, 1541 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich)

Family tree[link]

v t e Fugger family tree Founder                       Hans Advenit 1367 †1408                                                                                                           2nd generation       Andreas vom Reh (1394–1457)                                   Jakob d.Ä. von der Lilie (1398–1469)                                                                                                                                                         3rd generation   Lukas (1439–1499)   Hans (* 1443)     Ulrich d.Ä. (1441–1510)                     Georg (1453–1506)               Jakob d.R. (1459–1525)                                                                                                             4th generation           Gastel (1475–1539)     Ulrich d.J. (1490–1525)       Raymund (1489–1535)                     Anton (1493–1560)                                                                                                                                       5th generation           Wolfgang (1519/20–1568)         Hans Jakob (1516–1575)   Georg (1518–1569)   Ulrich (1526–1584)     Markus (1529–1597)   Hans (1531–1598)   Jakob (1542–1598)                                                                                                     6th generation           Johann Christoph († 1612)         Sigmund († 1600)   Philipp Eduard (1546–1618)   Octavian Secundus (1549–1600)             Christoph (1566–1615)                                                                                                               7th generation                                                         Hans Ernst (1590–1639)   Otto Heinrich (1592–1644)                                                                                             8th generation                                                         Christoph Rudolph (1615–1673)   Paul (1637–1701)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Later generations               Henryk Maria Fukier (1886-1959)                                     Carl Ernst (1859–1940)         Anselm Maria (1766–1821)                                                                                     Still existing branches of the Fugger family                                 Fugger von Kirchberg und zu Weißenhorn                 Fugger von Glött         Fugger-Babenhausen

See also[link]

• German colonization of the Americas

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fugger

Wikisource has the text of the 1906 New International Encyclopedia article Fugger.

• Fugger family website (multilingual)
• Article in Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911 edition
• Fugger family on History.com
• The Fugger family manuscripts
• Fuggers & textiles
• The Fugger Newsletters

v t e Swabian Circle (1500–1806) of the Holy Roman Empire Ecclesiastical Augsburg Constance Ellwangen Kempten Abbey Lindau Secular Baden Buchau Heiligenberg Hohenzollern-Hechingen Klettgau Liechtenstein Tengen Waldburg Scheer Trauchburg Waldsee Wolfegg Wurzach Zeil Württemberg Prelates Baindt Buchau Elchingen Gengenbach Gutenzell Heggbach Irsee Kaisheim Mainau Marchtal Neresheim Ochsenhausen Petershausen Roggenburg Rot Rottenmünster Salmanweiler St. George's in Isny Schussenried Söflingen Ursberg Weingarten Weißenau Wettenhausen Zwiefalten Counts Lords Altshausen Baar Bondorf Eberstein Eglingen Eglofs Fugger Jakob Johann Markus Gundelfingen Gutenstein Hausen Heiligenberg Hohenems Hohengeroldseck Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Justingen Kinzigerthal Königsegg and Aulendorf Lustenau Meßkirch Mindelheim / Schwabegg Oberdischingen Öttingen Baldern Öttingen Wallerstein Rechberg Rothenfels and Stauffen Stühlingen and Hohenhöwen Tettnang / Langenargen Thannhausen Wiesensteig Cities Aalen Augsburg Biberach Bopfingen Buchau Buchhorn Dinkelsbühl Eßlingen Gengenbach Giengen Heilbronn Isny Kaufbeuren Kempten Leutkirch Lindau Memmingen Nördlingen Offenburg Pfullendorf Ravensburg Reutlingen Rottweil Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Hall Überlingen Ulm Wangen Weil Wimpfen Zell

Jakob Fugger
Portrait of Jakob Fugger by Albrecht Dürer, 1518 (Staatsgalerie Altdeutsche Meister), Augsburg
Born	(1459-03-06)March 6, 1459 Augsburg
Died	December 30, 1525(1525-12-30) (aged 66) Augsburg
Resting place	St. Anna's Church
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Spouse	Sibylle Artzt
Parents	Jakob Fugger the Elder, Barbara Fugger-Bäsinger
Relatives	Anton Fugger, nephew

Jakob Fugger of the Lily (German: Jakob Fugger von der Lilie) (6 March 1459 – 30 December 1525) also known as Jakob Fugger the Rich or sometimes Jakob II. Fugger was a major merchant, mining entrepreneur and banker of Europe between ca. 1495-1525. He was a descendant of the Fugger merchant family located in the Free Imperial City of Augsburg, where he was also born. Within a few decades he expanded the family firm to a business operating in all of Europe. He began his education with the age of 14 in Venice, which also remained his main residence until 1487. At the same time he was a cleric and held several prebendaries, even though he never lived in a monastery.

The foundation of the family's wealth was created mainly by the textile trade with Italy. The company grew rapidly after the brothers Ulrich, Georg and Jakob began banking transactions with the House of Habsburg as well as the Roman Curia, and at the same time began mining operations in Tyrol, and from 1493 on the extraction of silver and copper in the present Czech Republic and Slovakia. As of 1525 they also had the right to mine quicksilver and cinnabar in Almadén.

After 1487 Jakob Fugger was the de facto head of the Fugger business operations which soon had an almost monopolistic hold on the European copper market.^[1] Copper from Upper Hungaria was transported through Antwerp to Lisbon, and from there shipped to India. Jakob Fugger also contributed to the first and only trade expedition to India that German merchants cooperated in, a Portuguese fleet to the Indian west coast (1505/06) as well as a failed Spanish trade expedition to the Maluku Islands.

With his support of the Habsburg dynasty as a banker he had a decisive influence on European politics at the time. He financed the rise of Maximilian I. and made considerable contributions to secure the election of the Spanish king Charles V to become Holy Roman Emperor. Jakob Fugger also funded the marriages which later resulted in House Habsburg gaining the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary.

Jakob Fugger secured his legacy and lasting fame through his foundations in Augsburg. A Chapel funded by him and built from 1509 to 1512 is Germany's first renaissance building and contains the tombs of the brothers Ulrich, Georg and Jakob. The Fuggerei which was founded by Jakob in 1521 is the world's oldest social housing complex still in use. The Damenhof, part of the Fuggerhäuser in Augsburg, is the first secular renaissance building in Germany and was built in 1515.

At his death on 30 December 1525 Jakob Fugger bequeathed to his nephew Anton Fugger company assets totaling 2,032,652 guilders.^[2] He is considered to be one of the richest persons of all time,^[3] and today he is well known as Jakob Fugger 'the Rich'. He is among the most well known Germans and arguably the most famous citizen of Augsburg. In 1967 a bust of him was placed in the Walhalla, a "hall of fame" near Regensburg that honors laudable and distinguished Germans.

Life[link]

Background, education and early years in Venice[link]

Coat of arms of the Fugger of the lily family, granted in 1473

Jakob Fugger was born as the tenth of eleven children to Jakob Fugger the Elder (1398–1469) and his wife Barbara (1419–1497), daughter of Münzmeister Franz Bäsinger. The Fugger family members, by now second generation burghers in Augsburg, had already established themselves as successful merchants in the city. Hans Fugger, grandfather of Jacob Fugger the Rich had taken up residence in Augsburg in 1367, became a burgher through marriage and acquired considerable wealth by trading textiles with Italy. A few years before his death his son Jakob Fugger the Elder was already one of the richest citizens of Augsburg.^[4]

Jakobs older brothers Ulrich (1441–1510) und Georg (1453–1506) created the basis for the rise of the company in Europe. Around 1470 they founded manufactories in Venice and Nuremberg, then important centers of trade. Jakob Fugger's brothers Andreas and Hans both died young in Venice. His brother Markus was a cleric and from 1470 on a writer in a papal chancery in Rome where he died in 1478. His brother Peter died of an epidemic in Nuremberg in 1473.^[5][6]

Loans given to Emperor Frederick III and supplies given to his entourage by Ulrich Fugger were the reason for the family being granted the lily coat of arms in 1473.^[7] The "of the lily" (German: von der Lilie) naming after this coat of arms distinguishes this line of the Fugger family from the "of the doe" (German: vom Reh) branch.