Wolfgang
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Duke Wolfgang succeeded his brother Ernst in 1567. Although like most of his predcessors, he was pressed by financial difficulties and was often forced by them to dispose of important possessions and to impose high taxes on his subjects, he was still much loved as a father of the people. In 1581 granted the citizens of Herzberg the right to provide themselves with firewood and building timber as well as with leaves for fertilizer. With the founding of the court school in Herzberg, he improved the level of education in the country. In 1593 he moved against the power claim of the Counts of Stollberg that the Grafschaft of Lauterberg-Scharzfeld was a vacant fief and thereby strengthened the castle and position of Herzberg. Furthermore, in the same year he approved the Harz mining regulations of 1554 and granted the citizens of Herzberg the right of brewing and the license for selling wine. For his wife Dorothee, he constructed a pleasure garden below the Herzberg castle. His marriage remained without descendents, so his younger brother Phillip inherited the principality of Grubenhagne in 1595.
--Adapted from the website, Die Welfen
Sources
- Schloss Herzberg und seine Welfen, Herzberg am Harz 1993