Alexander von Elverfeldt

Alexander von Elverfeldt on a 1983 election poster

Alexander Josef Maria Freiherr von Elverfeldt (* 19th March 1929 in Niedermarsberg , now part of Marsberg in Hochsauerlandkreis , † 24. August 2018 in Canstein ) one was German agriculture and forestry , as well as association functionary and author .

family

Alexander von Elverfeldt came from the old Westphalian noble family of the Barons von Elverfeldt . He was born on March 19, 1929 as the first of a total of seven children to his parents Hubertus Freiherr von Elverfeldt and Franziska, née Freiin Ostman von der Leye , in Niedermarsberg.

Alexander von Elverfeldt married on June 18, 1957 in Drensteinfurt Helga Freiin von Strachwitz and Groß-Zauche (* May 4, 1935, † October 7, 1984 at Canstein Castle), the daughter of Mauritz Freiherr von Strachwitz and Groß-Zauche and Elisabeth Freiin from Landsberg-Velen. From this marriage there were six children. After the early death of his first wife, he married Juliane Freiin von Strachwitz and Groß-Zauche (born October 17, 1952), daughter of Mauritz-Bodo von Strachwitz and Groß-Zauche and Margot Erdmann, at Canstein Castle on October 19, 1985. He has two more daughters with her.

Life

Von Elverfeldt attended grammar school in Arolsen / Waldeck . Shortly before the end of the Second World War , he joined the Volkssturm as a 16-year-old in 1945 and was taken prisoner of war . In 1946 he was able to attend grammar school again and passed his Abitur in 1949. He then completed training in the fields of agriculture , forestry and trade . From 1949 to 1950 he studied at the Rhoden / Waldeck forestry school , then did an agricultural apprenticeship in Westphalia and the Rhineland and from 1951 to 1952 attended the Soest Higher Agricultural School , which he graduated from as an agricultural engineer . After an internship in mechanical engineering at Claas in Harsewinkel , he studied agricultural machinery for one semester at the Cologne Engineering School in 1953/1954 . This was followed in 1954/55 by a forest internship at the Glindfeld Forestry Office in the Sauerland and another visit to the commercial school.

From 1956 von Elverfeldt took over activities at several technical companies in the USA and Germany, before in 1962 at the age of 33 he took over the management of the family-owned agricultural and forestry operation of 320 hectares of agricultural and 610 hectares of forestry area at 400 meters altitude in the eastern Hochsauerlandkreis took over.

He soon became involved in forest policy and represented the interests of private forest owners in various forestry committees. He was chairman of the forest farmers' association in North Rhine-Westphalia , the forestry committee at the highest forest authority in North Rhine-Westphalia and the German Forest Protection Association (SGDW) in the Hochsauerland district. He was also on the board of the SGDW regional association of North Rhine-Westphalia and the German Society for Wood Research . He was also a board member of the Westphalian-Lippian agricultural employers' association, the Westphalian-Lippian agricultural association and the Westphalian agricultural social insurance . He was also involved in the advisory board of the Board of Trustees for Forest Work and Forest Technology (KWF) and in the “ Forest Products” committee of the Central Marketing Agency of the German Agricultural Industry (CMA) . In addition, he was a member of the advisory board of the higher landscape authority North Rhine-Westphalia and the State Hunting Association of North Rhine-Westphalia .

Canstein Castle is the family seat of the von Elverfeldt family

The Working Group of German Forest Owners' Associations sent him to the General Assembly of the German Forestry Council (DFWR) in 1974 , where the members immediately elected him to the Standing Committee. In 1980 he was elected President of the DFWR as a member of the Presidium and representative of the private forest on May 10, 1983 in Cologne. He held this office for seven years before resigning for health and personal reasons. The main focus of his presidency was the relationship between forestry and nature conservation discussed in the 1980s, as well as the debate about immission-related forest damage ( forest death ). Von Elverfeldt considered it necessary to change people's awareness in industrial society towards more respect for the natural foundations of life. Other important forest policy issues, which he worked on during this time, were the preparation of a forestry performance report, the elaboration of funding principles for forestry measures in the course of the joint task as well as the removal of obstacles that prevented greater use of wood .

In addition, he was a member of the CDU for over 50 years . From 1975 to 1979 he was a member of the district council and from 1979 to 1982 chairman of the CDU city association Marsberg.

With the handover of his business to his son in 1991, von Elverfeldt largely withdrew from his national offices and into private life. In the following years he wrote, among other things, his autobiography , which covers the years 1935 to 1990 in three parts, a local history treatise on the Marsberg district of Canstein including the family seat, Canstein Castle , and the novel Love in the Years of Forced Labor (2003) .

For his services to the German forest and forestry, he received several awards, including the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon in 1986 and the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class in 1992 "for his outstanding services to the interests of forestry, the forest and the agricultural professional group".

Alexander von Elverfeldt was involved in numerous social projects and the Christians in the Holy Land . He was a member of the German Association of the Holy Land . In 1985 he was appointed Knight of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher by Cardinal Grand Master Maximilien Cardinal de Fürstenberg and invested in the Fulda Cathedral on October 26, 1985 by Franz Cardinal Hengsbach , Grand Prior of the German Lieutenancy .

honors and awards

• Schorlemer badge in gold from the Westfälisch-Lippischer Landwirtschaftsverband e. V.
• Golden plaque from the North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture
• 1985 - Knight of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem
• 1986 - Merit Cross on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1990 - Lorenz Wappes Prize from the German Forestry Association
• 1991 - Professor Wilhelm Niklas Medal
• 1992 - Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Works

• Cansteiner memories
  • Part 1: 1935-1950 . Marsberg around 1995, ISBN 3-9804216-1-9 .
  • Part 2: Apprenticeship and traveling years at home and in America 1945 to 1957 . Marsberg 1999, ISBN 3-9806428-0-1 .
  • Part 3: 1957-1990 . Marsberg and Norderstedt 2001, ISBN 3-8311-2796-4 .
• Canstein in the Sauerland region of Cologne. History and stories . Marsberg and Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-8311-1173-1 .
• Experienced history. Travel to three continents . Norderstedt 2001, ISBN 3-8311-1876-0 .
• Love in the years of forced labor. Novel . Norderstedt 2003, ISBN 3-8334-0172-9 .
• All sorts of things from my hard drive . Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-938297-95-6 .
• From the shameful vice of magic. Witch trials in the Canstein Patrimonial Court in the second half of the 17th century , Canstein 2006 (PDF; 1.8 MB), accessed on April 28, 2016.
• A manor with a stable smell. Country life on Gut Canstein (1929–1997) . Edited and introduced by Gisbert Strotdrees . Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-7843-5164-3 .

literature

• St .: Alexander Freiherr von Elverfeldt new President of the DFWR . In: The forest and wood host . Volume 38, issue 13/1983, ISSN  0932-9315 , p. 340
• Anonymous: Alexander Freiherr von Elverfeldt 65 years . In: Holz-Zentralblatt . Volume 120, No. 32/1994, ISSN  0018-3792 , p. 512 (with photo)
• Anonymous: Alexander Freiherr von Elverfeldt 70 years . In: Holz-Zentralblatt . 125th volume, No. 34/1999, ISSN  0018-3792 , p. 488
• Annette Dülme: Made a contribution to agriculture and forestry: Alexander Freiherr von Elverfeldt is 80 years old . In: Westfalenpost from March 18, 2009 ( online version at www.derwesten.de )

Web links

• Literature by and about Alexander von Elverfeldt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography at the German Forestry Council (DFWR) ( memento from February 18, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) in the Internet archive
• Alexander Baron von Elverfeldt on thepeerage.com , accessed on September 18, 2016.
• Internet presence of the von Elverfeldt family
• Excerpts from Baron von Elverfeldt's Canstein book on the website www.canstein.de
• Chris Bolgiano: In the fatherland of forestry - Baron Alexander von Elverfeldt's forest management approach - World Forests , in American Forests , May / June 1992 edition (engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexander von Elverfeldt's obituary notice , Waldeckische Landeszeitung , August 28, 2018
2. ↑ Alexander Baron von Elverfeldt on thepeerage.com , accessed on September 18, 2016.
3. ↑ Biography at the German Forestry Council (DFWR) ( Memento from February 18, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ -wp-: Baron von Elverfeldt honored with the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class . In: Sauerland. Journal of the Sauerländer Heimatbund No. 1/1992, ISSN  0177-8110 , p. 33 ( as pdf ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )