Adolph Carl von Humbracht

Adolph Carl von Humbracht (born March 18, 1753 in Frankfurt am Main , † March 24, 1837 there ) was a German patrician and politician .

life and work

Humbracht came from a family of Frankfurt patricians who went back to the goldsmith Martin Humbracht († around 1390/1393). He came from Speyer and acquired citizenship in 1366 by marrying a Frankfurt citizen's daughter. His descendants married into the patrician families of Appenheimer and Brungen. Faut von Monsberg, through which they found their way into the noble society of Alten Limpurg in 1416 .

Adolph Carl von Humbracht was born as the son of the Austrian captain Ludwig Casimir von Humbracht (1719–1793) and his wife Anna Sibilla. Hasslocher (1733–1755) born. He became a councilor in 1777 and a lay judge in 1778. In 1791, 1794, 1797, 1799 and 1801 the council elected him senior mayor .

Coalition wars

In July 1796 French revolutionary troops under General Jean-Baptiste Kléber besieged Frankfurt. Since the city was being occupied by Austrian troops, the French army deployed guns on the hills north of the city, between Eschenheimer Tor and Allerheiligentor . In order to force the Austrian commander, Count Wartensleben, to surrender, Kléber had the city bombarded several times from July 12 to July 14. In particular, the northern part of Frankfurter Judengasse and the district around the Konstablerwache were hit and caught fire. Numerous houses were completely destroyed. The Austrian occupiers then had to surrender, and the French troops occupied the city and gave it a contribution of six million francs . As an additional reprisal , respected citizens, including the councilors Georg Steitz and Humbracht, were taken hostage and brought to Paris until the contribution was slain.

Even after the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , Frankfurt am Main tried to maintain its independence. In order to avoid mediatisation , the city council began to establish a network of diplomatic relations in which Humbracht played an important role. He represented the city several times at the court of Emperor Franz II in Vienna . On September 23, 1804, Humbracht and Johann Wilhelm Metzler were received by Napoléon Bonaparte in Mainz , and in December Humbracht and Metzler represented the city at the imperial coronation in Paris.

Dalberg time

Nevertheless, with the end of the Holy Roman Empire , the hour struck for the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt. When the Rhine Confederation was founded, the city was added to the newly founded Principality of Aschaffenburg by Prince Primate Carl Theodor von Dalberg . In 1807 Humbracht became Princely Primatic Chamberlain and, as First Mayor, head of the city administration. When this office was abolished in 1810 and replaced by a mayor based on the French model, Humbracht was given the title of Princely Primatic Major General , which he also held during the period of the short-lived Grand Duchy of Frankfurt .

Free City of Frankfurt

After the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , the Grand Duchy dissolved. Frankfurt regained its independence and, under constitutional law, largely reverted to the structures before 1806. So the two mayor's offices were reintroduced. From 1813 to 1816, Humbracht held the office of senior mayor , until the new constitution of the Free City of Frankfurt came into force with the adoption of the constitutional amendment and two senators were elected as mayors every year.

Humbracht no longer held any offices in the Free City of Frankfurt. He died on March 24, 1837 in Frankfurt am Main. In Frankfurt the Humbrachtstrasse in the north end and that of Maria Philippine von Humbracht, born in 1776, are a reminder . Humbracht Foundation founded by Glauburg to support women and young ladies from the Limpurg family to the family that died out in 1896.

See also

• Humbracht
• List of city leaders of Frankfurt am Main

literature

• Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 .