Bleickard from Helmstatt

Bleickard Graf von Helmstatt (born September 4, 1871 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † December 30, 1952 in Hochhausen ) was one of the last male descendants of the von Helmstatt family and the last noble owner of the Tiefburg in Handschuhsheim . From 1935 he sold the family property in Handschuhsheim and retired to Hochhausen Castle . His mansion in Handschuhsheim, not far from the Tiefburg, bears the name Helmstätter Herrenhaus today as a restaurant . Shortly before his death, he adopted the son of a niece, so that the von Helmstatt name still exists today.

Life

He was the eldest son of Raban Karl Ludwig von Helmstatt (1844–1932) and Gabriele von Falkenstein (1853–1927). He spent his childhood in Hochhausen, where he received private lessons until he was ten . He then attended the Julianum study seminar in Würzburg and studied law. After completing his studies, he was bailiff in Karlsruhe and Schopfheim . In 1904 he married Clara Freiin von und zu Bodmann in Baden-Baden, with whom he lived first in Karlsruhe and later in Schopfheim. After the First World War, in which he took part as an officer, he retired from civil service and moved with his wife to his Helmstätter manor in Handschuhsheim, east of the Tiefburg . There he took an active part in cultural life and became an honorary member of the district association. He also appeared as the author of numerous articles on the history of his family and the history of the family-owned Handschuhsheimer Tiefburg. In 1930 he and his wife moved to Hochhausen Castle with their elderly father, where he managed the family assets. As a sensitive art and music lover, he acquired numerous antiques to furnish his house in Handschuhsheim and the castle in Hochhausen. After the death of his uncle Viktor, who remained without male descendants, in 1935, he gradually sold the Handschuhsheim property. As the last property in Handschuhsheim, he sold the Tiefburg, last renovated by his father, to the city of Heidelberg in 1950 . The manor house that Bleickard von Helmstatt in Handschuhsheim once lived in is now home to the Helmstätter Herrenhaus restaurant , and the town handed over the Tiefburg to the administration of the Handschuhsheim district association. Since Bleickard and his younger brother Franz (1874–1956) had remained childless, he adopted the son of a niece in 1951, so that the name von Helmstatt still exists today.

literature

• Hans Heiberger: Handschuhsheim. Chronicle of a Heidelberg District , Heidelberg 1985, pp. 160–161.