St. Clair from Gemmingen-Steinegg

St. Clair von Gemmingen-Steinegg (born April 1, 1863 in Mannheim , † April 26, 1951 in Gernsbach ) came from the Hagenschieß line of the Barons of Gemmingen . With Steingg Castle, she took over a dilapidated family seat, which she began to rebuild at great personal financial sacrifice and which she initiated to use today as a Protestant youth leisure home.

Life

She was the daughter of Lieutenant Julius von Gemmingen-Steinegg (1838–1912) and his first wife, St. Clair von Struve (1842–1863), who died shortly after the daughter was born and after which she received her first name. The father ran the Watthalden estate near Ettlingen , but gave it up after his father's death and, after his second marriage with Sophie Countess zu Castell-Rüdenhausen, moved to Gernsbach, where he had already acquired the former district court building for St. Clair in 1872 . She lived in that building until her death, but sold it back in 1919, granting a lifelong right to live on the upper floor. Today it serves the district court again.

Even the father was involved in numerous evangelical welfare institutions and was a. a. involved in the establishment of the evangelical girls' home in Gernsbach. The highly musical St. Clair received a Christian upbringing and continued the work of her father. From him she also took over the enthusiasm for the ruin Steinegg, an old seat of the family, which was abandoned and sold after 1839.

She took over the ruins from another branch of the family who had bought them back in 1840 and had the oldest parts (the rear wall and the reel tower) rebuilt from 1928, at great financial sacrifice. After the keep had also been rebuilt, the Steinegg-Bund was founded in 1933 , which was intended not only to consolidate the cohesion among the descendants of St. Clair's great-grandfather, Baron Julius von Gemmingen-Steinegg (1774–1842), but also to support the evangelical life in the former Gemmingen possessions in Hagenschieß .

The Castle Steinegg came through Erbbaupachtvertrag 1961 to the Protestant community of Pforzheim, the castle further reconstructed and goal for the youth castle.

literature

• Maria Heitland: Family chronicle of the barons of Gemmingen. Continuation of the chronicles from 1895 and 1925/26 , Elztal 1991, pp. 21/22 and 29/30.