bavarikon4UThe Tuchers. A patrician family from Nuremberg
For the briefest time in its history, the city of Nuremberg belonged politically to Bavaria – since 1806 to the Kingdom, today to the Free State as the "Franconian Metropolis". For a much longer time, the former imperial city was ruled by the Inner Council and its merchant families, the patricians. This elite was the first class to shape Nuremberg’s political and social life from the late Middle Ages onwards.
The Tucher family, which has lived in Nuremberg since the 14th century, is representative of the rich activities of the Nuremberg patrician dynasties, whether in the field of foundations, art or long-distance trade. Since the Tuchers were able to preserve a significant part of their art and cultural possessions, they are particularly ideal as an exemplary study. Today, the collections from the Tucher’sche Kulturstiftung (Tucher Cultural Foundation) are distributed among several Nuremberg institutions. The virtual exhibition uses selected objects to trace facets of the family’s history.
The first chapter focuses on the magnificently illuminated manuscript of the "Großes Tucherbuch" (Great Tucher Book) from the city archives as a prime example of family historiography. Some personalities are then presented as patrons and donors. The following chapter is devoted to the fate of the building in which a part of the collections is presented as a museum: Tucherschloss (Tucher Castle). Furthermore, the diversity of the patrician domestic culture is examined through various genres of arts and crafts. The Tucher family’s increased need for representation finally culminated during the era of Linhart II and his sons in a number of works of art that are among the most important of their kind. Letters from Linhart’s extensive archive show the personal, political and business interrelationships.
All the objects in the exhibition exemplify the high, aristocratic self-image of the Nuremberg patrician families and their quest to be remembered over generations and centuries.
Claudia Däubler-Hauschke
