Philipp von Hutten (December 18, 1505 – May 17, 1546 in
El TocuyoEl Tocuyo is a fertile valley and city in west-central Venezuela at elevation. It is located in south-central Lara State about 60 km southwest of Barquisimeto. The town of El Tocuyo was founded by Juan de Carvajal in 1545 on the banks of the Tocuyo River and it was the administrative capital of...
,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
),
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
knight, was a relative of
Ulrich von HuttenUlrich von Hutten , was an outspoken German critic of the Roman Catholic Church and adherent of the Lutheran Reformation.-Life:...
and passed some of his early years at the court of the emperor Charles V.
Later he joined the band of adventurers, under
Georg von SpeyerGeorg von Speyer was a German conquistador in New Granada, now Venezuela and Colombia. His birth name was Georg Hohermuth but he chose to call himself after his place of birth...
, who sailed to
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
, or Venosala as Hutten calls it, with the object of
conquering and exploitingThe German colonization of the Americas consisted of failed attempts to settle Venezuela , St. Thomas, the Crab Island , Nicaragua and Tertholen in the 16th and 17th centuries....
this land in the interests of the Augsburg family of
WelserWelser is the surname of an important German banking and merchant family, originally from Augsburg. Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled various sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the Americas....
. The party landed at
CoroCoro may refer to:*Santa Ana de Coro, a Venezuelan city, the capital of Estado Falcón *Coro region, a geographical region of Venezuela*Coro , a Dominican singer/actor...
in February 1535 and Hutten accompanied von Speyer on his long and toilsome expedition into the interior in search of treasure (
El DoradoEl Dorado is a legend that began with the story of a South American tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and would dive into a lake of pure mountain water....
).
Philipp von Hutten (December 18, 1505 – May 17, 1546 in
El TocuyoEl Tocuyo is a fertile valley and city in west-central Venezuela at elevation. It is located in south-central Lara State about 60 km southwest of Barquisimeto. The town of El Tocuyo was founded by Juan de Carvajal in 1545 on the banks of the Tocuyo River and it was the administrative capital of...
,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
),
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
knight, was a relative of
Ulrich von HuttenUlrich von Hutten , was an outspoken German critic of the Roman Catholic Church and adherent of the Lutheran Reformation.-Life:...
and passed some of his early years at the court of the emperor Charles V.
Later he joined the band of adventurers, under
Georg von SpeyerGeorg von Speyer was a German conquistador in New Granada, now Venezuela and Colombia. His birth name was Georg Hohermuth but he chose to call himself after his place of birth...
, who sailed to
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
, or Venosala as Hutten calls it, with the object of
conquering and exploitingThe German colonization of the Americas consisted of failed attempts to settle Venezuela , St. Thomas, the Crab Island , Nicaragua and Tertholen in the 16th and 17th centuries....
this land in the interests of the Augsburg family of
WelserWelser is the surname of an important German banking and merchant family, originally from Augsburg. Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled various sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the Americas....
. The party landed at
CoroCoro may refer to:*Santa Ana de Coro, a Venezuelan city, the capital of Estado Falcón *Coro region, a geographical region of Venezuela*Coro , a Dominican singer/actor...
in February 1535 and Hutten accompanied von Speyer on his long and toilsome expedition into the interior in search of treasure (
El DoradoEl Dorado is a legend that began with the story of a South American tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and would dive into a lake of pure mountain water....
). In December 1540, after the death of von Speyer in June 1540, he became governor (captain-general) of Venezuela.
Soon after this event he vanished into the interior, returning after five years of wandering to find that a Spaniard, Juan de Carvajal, had been appointed governor in his absence. With his travelling companion, Bartholomew Welser the younger, he was seized by Carvajal in April 1546 and the two were afterwards put to death.
Hutten left some letters, and also a narrative of the earlier part of his adventures, this
Zeitung aus India Junkher Philipps von Hutten being published in 1785.
In 1983, Venezuelan author Francisco Herrera-Luque (1927-1991) published the novel
La Luna de Fausto (
Faust's Moon) narrating the adventures of von Hutten (called Felipe de Utre in old Spanish accounts) in a journey from Europe to wild American territories in the XVI century, until beheaded by Juan de Carvajal over a power dispute. According to the legend, his death was prophetized by Dr.
FaustFaust or Faustus is the protagonist of a classic German legend who makes a pact with the Devil in exchange for knowledge...
himself, who foretold he was going to die under a "red moon".