Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia

Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia

Statue of Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia in Strasbourg

Paul-François-Marie-Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia (* 18th October 1769 in Moutonne ; † 9. October 1814 in Haguenau ) was 1806-1810 prefect of Rhin-et-Moselle and 1810-1814 prefect of the department Bas-Rhin .

Life and work

Lezay-Marnésia was the son of the agronomist Claude-François-Adrien marquis de Lezay-Marnésia (1736-1810). He was married to Françoise de Briqueville. He fled to Switzerland under the Directory and returned to France on May 17, 1801 . During long trips through Germany, he got to know the country and was also able to speak German. He studied in Göttingen and translated Schiller's Don Karlos into French in 1800 . His sister Claude (1768–1791) married Claude Beauharnais (1756–1819), a cousin of Alexandre de Beauharnais . Napoléon sent him on a diplomatic mission to Hungary in 1803 .

On May 15, 1806 he was appointed Prefect of the Department de Rhin-et-Moselle, based in Koblenz . There he mainly took care of the school system, agriculture and road construction. The first attempts to design the promenade on the left bank of the Rhine also go back to him. The Koblenz population was so enthusiastic about its Rhine facilities that the city council named it Parc Lezay-Marnésia . During his term of office in 1806 he established a law school (university) in the Metternich house , the birthplace of the Austrian statesman Prince von Metternich, and in 1808 the casino company was founded .

On March 1, 1810, he moved to Strasbourg, where he was previously appointed prefect of the Bas-Rhin department . He died in 1814 as a result of an unfortunate fall. In front of the Hotel Klinglin in Strasbourg, a statue created by Philipp Graß in 1853 commemorates the prefect.

literature

• Wolfgang Schütz: Koblenz heads. People of the city's history. Namesake for streets and squares. Edited by Bernd Weber. 2nd revised and expanded edition. Publishing house for advertising papers, Mülheim-Kärlich 2005.
• Louis Goldberger: Adrien de Lezay-Marnésia, ministre de France (1803-1806). In: La Révolution française. Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine. NS Tome 1, 1935, ZDB -ID 208594-x , pp. 111-136 (on: 1803 ff. In Salzburg and Würzburg).