August Wilhelm Julius Count von Bismarck

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August Wilhelm Julius Graf von Bismarck (born April 5, 1849 in Konstanz , † March 14, 1920 at Weiler Castle in Stegen ) was a German officer and horse breeder .

Life

As a scion of the noble family Bismarck , who traditionally served in state and military service , August von Bismarck, son of the Württemberg General Inspector Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Bismarck and his wife Amalia Julie, née Thibaut (1824–1918), acquired Konstanz at the age of 17 after attending the Lyceum Years in the cadet house of Karlsruhe the lieutenant patent of the Grand Duchy of Baden . After he had distinguished himself in the Baden field service in the German War in 1866 , he switched to the services of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1867 , whose Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck was his third cousin. He became an officer of the 2nd Westphalian Hussar Regiment No. 11 and in 1870 moved from Düsseldorf , where his regiment was stationed, to the Franco-German War .

In this city, in the elegant town house of the landscape painter Oswald Achenbach on Goltsteinstrasse , he met his future wife, Clara Achenbach (1851–1906), a niece of the landlord's second degree, who came from a wealthy merchant family from St. Petersburg. The couple, to whom their father-in-law gave the Gut Lilienhof am Kaiserstuhl as a gift for their wedding , married in January 1872. The estate enabled the horse lover and his wife, who was also enthusiastic about horses, to set up their own horse breeding. After temporary employment in Hamburg , he served in the Hanover Military Riding Institute until 1874 , then again in Düsseldorf until 1881, where he used his own horses to participate in competitions, especially in obstacle races, in the Rhine Province and in Westphalia . During this time he led a second cousin of his wife, the son of Oswald Achenbach and painter Benno Achenbach , who later emerged in driving , became the founder of a world-leading driving system and was to make a career in the Berlin Marstall as head of the imperial driving stable Equestrian sport and its actors. In 1881 August von Bismarck was transferred to the rank of Rittmeister in the Dragoon Regiment "Prince Albrecht of Prussia" (Litthauisches) No. 1 in Berlin . As a Catholic with excellent connections to the imperial family, he was commissioned in 1888 to notify the Holy See of Wilhelm II's accession to the throne , for which Leo XIII. awarded the Order of Pius .

From the 1880s onwards he also experienced his heyday in equestrian sports. With the racing rider Leutnant Hans von Kramsta (1850-1912) he maintained a racing stable that achieved great success on renowned racetracks in the German Empire. In the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm I , one of his horses won the Great Army Hunting Race in Iffezheim in 1882 . August von Bismarck also held a prominent position in equestrian club life, especially in the field of trotting in the 1890s, through a large number of honorary posts and honorary memberships. This was in connection with his own horse breeding, which endeavored to lead German trotters through breeding experiments with English thoroughbred , Anglo-Normans , Orlov trotters and the American Standardbred on the American trotter. In 1890 he set up a stud for trotter breeding on his estate Lilienhof , which was classified as a "German main trotter stud ". The breeding project was carried out by the umbrella association for harness racing, the so-called "Technical Commission", which August von Bismarck headed from 1892 to 1913.

When Kaiser Wilhelm II dropped a flippant remark that suggested that August von Bismarck was neglecting his career as an officer because of his passion for horses, he spontaneously resigned in 1890 and retired to the Villa Turgenew in Baden-Baden . Max Egon II zu Fürstenberg , who was friends with both the Kaiser and Bismarck and shared his passion for horses, later ensured that the conflict was resolved. From 1893 August von Bismarck lived on his manor on the Kaiserstuhl. There he made the decision to replace it from 1898/1988 with a palace built according to plans by the Munich architect Manuel Seidel. After the death of his wife (1906) and differences with the Oberlandstallmeister Burchard von Oettingen , he sold the property to Max von Wogau in 1913 and moved to Weiler Castle.

When the First World War broke out in 1914 , August von Bismarck volunteered and was deployed as a lieutenant colonel in positions in Alsace and Belgium. He returned from the war in 1917 with a rose on the head . Not only was his wife's Achenbach inheritance in Russia perished in the October Revolution , the unfortunate outcome of the war hit him too. However, he did not give up his courage to live and in February 1918 married his longtime partner Helene "Lonja", born von Redlich, shortly after his mother, who had refused to consent to her son's second marriage, died.

About his sister Konstanze Maria Amalia Clara (1851–1946) August von Bismarck was brother-in-law of Ulrich Wille , a general in the Swiss Army during the First World War.

literature

  • Renate Liessem-Breinlinger: Bismarck, August Wilhelm Julius Graf von . In: Baden biographies . New episode 6, pp. 29–31.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility. Count's houses . Volume 2, 1952, p. 54 ff. And Volume 56, 1973, p. 57
personal data
SURNAME Bismarck, August Wilhelm Julius Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and horse breeder
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Constancy
DATE OF DEATH March 14, 1920
Place of death Webs