Andreas Peter von Bernstorff

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AP v. Bernstorff, portrait by or after Jens Juel

Andreas Peter Graf von Bernstorff (born August 28, 1735 in Hanover , † June 21, 1797 in Copenhagen ) was Foreign Minister of the entire Danish state from 1773 to 1780 and from 1784 to 1797. The Enlightenmentist followed the radical reformer Johann Friedrich Struensee after his fall and execution and continued the tradition of German ministers at the head of the state as a whole.

origin

Augusta Louise zu Stolberg-Stolberg (1753–1835)
Painted by Jens Juel

Andreas Peter von Bernstorff was the great-grandson of Andreas Gottlieb von Bernstorff , Prime Minister of the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and advisor to King George I of England . His father Andreas Gottlieb the Younger (1708–1768) held no state office, but his uncle Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff was the Danish Minister of State. His mother was Dorothea Wilhelmine von Weitersheim († 1762), a daughter of the Imperial General Field Marshal Lieutenant Freiherr Bechtold von Weitersheim and Claudia Magdalena von Zedlitz .

family

Bernstorff had been married to Henriette Auguste Luise Friederike zu Stolberg-Stolberg (1747–1782) since 1763 , with whom he had eleven children, including:

  • Johan Hartvig Ernst (Hans Hartwig) (* April 5, 1767; † May 13, 1791) ∞ Countess Konstanze von Knuth auf Gyldensteen, heir to the liege Count Johan Heinrich Knuth -Gyldensteen, ancestors of the Bernstorff-Gyldensteen line
  • Sophie Magdalene Charlotte (born May 9, 1770; † October 30, 1841 in Dresden-Neustadt) ∞ Magnus von Dernath
  • Christian Günther (born April 3, 1769 in Copenhagen, † March 28, 1835 in Berlin) ∞ Auguste Luise Elisabeth von Dernath
  • Friedrich (* July 24, 1773; † April 3, 1838) ∞ Ferdinandine Marianne Charlotte Caroline Antoinette von Hammerstein-Equord (* November 19, 1783; † February 24, 1853)
  • Joachim Friedrich (1771–1835) ∞ Elisabeth Henriette Sophie von Blücher (1770–1807)
  • Emilie Louise Henriette (* October 7, 1776; † 1856) ∞ Cay Friedrich von Reventlow
  • Emilie Hedevig Caroline (* November 7, 1777; † May 14, 1811) ∞ Karl Emil von Rantzau (* February 17, 1775; † October 25, 1857)
  • Magnus Karl (born June 13, 1781; † December 8, 1836) ∞ Charlotte Louise Josephine von Baudissin (born January 27, 1788; † February 13, 1830)

After the death of his first wife in 1782, Bernstorff married her sister Augusta Louise zu Stolberg-Stolberg the following year , who went down in literary history as Goethe's Gustchen through her lively correspondence with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . The only child (* 1788) from this marriage died in childhood in 1791.

Life

Bernstorff studied in Leipzig and Göttingen from 1752 to 1755 and then toured England, Switzerland, France and Italy for several years. Supported by his uncle Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff , he entered the Danish civil service in 1759. At the beginning of his career he was mainly concerned with economics and was a member of the board of commerce, which his uncle presided over, thus supporting Denmark's positive trade balance.

After the death of King Friedrich V , both Bernstorffs initially held the leading position in the state under Christian VII . In 1769 Andreas Bernstorff was promoted to privy councilor and raised to the rank of count together with his uncle and father . But as early as 1770 it ousted Johann Friedrich von Struensee . After his fall and the death of his uncle, Andreas Bernstorff returned to his position on the Finance College. In 1773 he succeeded his uncle as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and - under pressure from the Schleswig-Holstein knighthood and against the resistance of the Copenhagen court - head of the German Chancellery , the central authority for the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . Bernstorff held this position initially until 1780 and then from 1784 to 1797.

Bernstorff earned a great deal of merit in the fact that he was able to bring the negotiations with Russia already begun by his uncle about the exchange of Gottorp's share in Holstein to Oldenburg and Delmenhorst in the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo of 1773 to the desired end. During the Anglo-French-Spanish naval war in connection with the American War of Independence , he brought about armed neutrality in connection with Russia, Sweden and Prussia, to which Denmark owed a long-term peace during pernicious wars between other peoples.

But as a result of differences with the widowed Queen Juliane and her minister Ove Høegh-Guldberg , who wanted to strengthen the Danish court party through an indigenous law that was supposed to benefit people of Danish origin, Bernstorff resigned from his office in 1780 and moved to the Dreilützow family estate in Mecklenburg back. However, as soon as the young Crown Prince Friedrich VI. In 1784 a change in the Council of State had been enforced and the Queen's influence had broken, Bernstorff was recalled and reinstated in all of his offices and positions. From then on until his death he remained the leading center of the external and internal administration and raised Denmark to a high prosperity under the most difficult circumstances. He knew how to end the inevitable war with Sweden , which the alliance with Russia forced, after only one battle. Through Bernstorff's event in 1791, Denmark even appeared with the happiest success as a mediator between Russia and England in the Turkish war . In 1792 he declined an invitation from the powers allied against France, Austria , Prussia and Sardinia-Piedmont, to participate in the war against the republic. Even later he did not join coalitions against France.

Through this peace and neutrality system as well as through truly benevolent measures affecting all matters of administration, finances, trade, shipping, manufacturing and manufacturing as well as military affairs, Bernstorff became the benefactor of Denmark. He is especially to be thanked for the liberation of the peasant class in Denmark from personal and economic fetters. He also played an important part in the abolition of serfdom in Schleswig-Holstein, although it did not take place until after his death. In the interests of the Enlightenment, he was a staunch defender of liberal government principles and always declared himself resolutely against any restriction on freedom of the press . Bernstorff's private character appears everywhere in the most favorable light.

literature

Web links

Commons : Andreas Peter von Bernstorff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Reliable news of the great change of state that occurred in Denmark on the 17th Jenner in 1772, the living conditions of the strangest people at the royal Danish court as well as the prisoners of state p.55 .
  2. ^ Manfred Jessen-Klingenberg : The Schleswig-Holstein Canal - Eider Canal. Prehistory, origin, meaning. In: Communications from the Kiel Society for Urban History , Volume 85, Issue 3/2010, p. 116.