Anton I

Stadtarchiv Nürnberg, E29/III, 258, fol.55r
Anton I Tucher and Barbara Stromer, Miniature in the "Großes Tucherbuch", 1590–1606

Anton I Tucher was born in 1417 as the eldest of 14 children of Hans II Tucher, the progenitor of the elder line of the family, and the patrician daughter Hedwig née Valzner. The magnificently illuminated Tucherbuch gives Anton’s year of birth in his vita as around 1412. In 1436 he married Barbara (died 1484), the daughter of the Nuremberg patrician Siegmund Stromer. Of his 13 children, impressively represented by coats of arms above the portrait figures on a vine in the miniature, only four reached adulthood. Among them are the later head of the city Anton II and the humanist Sixtus Tucher. After his marriage, Anton I became a member of the Great Council in 1437, and of the Inner Council in 1450 in place of his father, and continued to rise until he reached the highest office in the imperial city in 1474 as Vorderster Losunger (chamberlain and head of the city).

In response to the question from Emperor Frederick III, how such a large crowd as the people of Nuremberger could be kept in such good order, he is said to have given an answer that has become famous: "With good words and harsh punishments". Anton I died on 26 December 1476.

A tapestry made around 1460 showing scenes from the story of the Prodigal Son and originally intended for St. Sebald goes back to Anton I.

Horst-Dieter Beyerstedt, Claudia Däubler-Hauschke