Joseph Anton von Destouches

Joseph Anton von Destouches (born March 12, 1767 in Munich ; †  May 13, 1832 there ) was a German playwright and civil servant. He wrote a dozen plays, including Alix, Countess of Toulouse and The Revenge of Albert III. His younger brother was the composer Franz Seraph Destouches .

life and work

Destouches was born in Munich in 1767 as the eldest son of the Bavarian court chamber councilor Joseph des Touches and his wife Sabina. 1785-1787 he studied at the Ingolstadt University of Jura . He then entered the service of the Electorate and later Kingdom of Bavaria . During his long career, he held various management functions: In 1790 he was Rentkammerrat in Amberg , 1792 Hofkammerrat, 1797 Chamber of fiscal 1799 Landesdirektionsrat, 1808 County Council of Naabkreises , 1817 Kronfiskal, 1818 Councilor in his native city of Munich and 1820 employees of the National Archives, today's Bavarian State Archives . Destouches, who had also been a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences since 1810 , died in Munich in 1832 at the age of 65.

In addition to his civil service, Destouches wrote numerous dramas mainly on historical subjects. As early as 1790 he published the plays Marie of Burgundy , The Patrizier and Bondelmont, followed in 1794 by Friedrich IV , Elector of the Palatinate. Alix, Countess of Toulouse appeared in 1795, Der Bürgerfreund in 1798 and Albert III's Revenge in 1804 , a continuation of the successful tragedy Agnes Bernauerin by his compatriot Joseph August von Toerring . In 1805 Destouches' comedy Die Probe der Freyer was printed in Augsburg without his knowledge and under a strange name. In the same year his tragedy Graf Arco was published , then in 1815 Fürstenglück and in 1820 Zenger. He also published a speech on the connection of a good head with a good heart in a businessman in 1795 , a treatise on the decline of cities and markets in 1803 and a statistical representation of the Upper Palatinate in 1809 and "The Capital and Residence City of Munich" in 1827.

tomb

Grave of Josef Destouches on the old southern cemetery in Munich location

The grave of Josef Destouches is in the old southern cemetery in Munich (grave field 21 - row 5 - place 2) location .

Family and offspring

Joseph Anton von Destouches had two younger brothers, including the composer Franz Seraph , for whose singspiel Die Thomasnacht he wrote the libretto in 1791 , and was married to Walpurg von Rauchstein. His son Ulrich (1802–1863) was the municipal librarian in Munich and in this capacity wrote the Munich city chronicle , which was later continued by Ulrich's son Ernst (1843–1916).

literature

• Ernst von Destouches: Munich's city archive and city chronicle . In: Archival Journal . tape 15 , 1908, pp. 121 .
• Karl Goedeke: Outline of the history of German poetry from the sources . tape 3 . Dresden 1881, p. 864-865 .
• Joseph Kehrein: Lexicon of Catholic poets, folk and youth writers in the 19th century . Würzburg 1872, p. 71-72 .
• Paul Legband: Munich Stage and Literature in the Eighteenth Century . Munich 1904, p. 282–285, 348–352 (also dissertation, University of Munich 1901).
• Rochus von Liliencron :  Destouches . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 77.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Member entry of Joseph Anton von Destouches at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on January 26, 2017.