Bretzenheim (noble family)

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Karl Theodor (1724–1799) , founder of the noble family (unknown artist)
Josepha Seyffert (1748–1771), painted by Johann Wilhelm Hoffnas

The princes of Bretzenheim were a Palatine - Bavarian noble family .

history

origin

The ancestor of the family was Josepha Seyffert (1748–1771), an actress and dancer at the Mannheim Theater, who between 1768 and 1771 had four illegitimate children with Elector Karl Theodor of Palatinate and Bavaria (1724–1799). She was the daughter of a secretary and chancellor and later figurine of the Mannheim Opera Ballet and in 1765, at the age of 17, became the elector's lover. In 1767 she was raised to the nobility by Karl Theodor as "Frau von Haydeck" (later mostly written Heydeck ). Their first daughter Caroline Josepha (1768–1786) was immediately legitimized. In 1769, Elector Karl Theodor raised mother and daughter to hereditary counts. Later the son Karl August (1768-1823) and the twin daughters Eleonore (1771-1832) and Friederike (1771-1816) were born. The mother died at the age of 23 as a result of puerperal fever after the twins were born.

As descendants of the elector born out of wedlock, these children were not members of the Wittelsbach family and were not part of the Palatinate-Bavarian line of succession, but Karl Theodor, who had no legitimate descendants, looked after them very lovingly. Among other things, they received piano lessons from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . In addition to them, Karl Theodor had other illegitimate children from other relationships. In order to secure the provision of his four children with the Countess von Heydeck, in 1772 he acquired the rulership of Bretzenheim near Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate , whose name they would use in the future. In 1774 Bretzenheim received the status of an imperial county . The Bretzenheim coat of arms symbol, a pretzel , was also included in the children's family coat of arms, which they received from their father.

development

Karl August Graf von Heydeck, Prince von und zu Bretzenheim since 1789, with a breast star of the Order of St. George as its Grand Prior (painting around 1790)
Friederike von Bretzenheim , Princess Abbess of Lindau (painting around 1790 at the age of 19)

To support Karl August (1768–1823), Elector Karl Theodor founded a “Bavarian-English tongue” of the Order of Malta from former possessions of the Jesuit Order, which was dissolved in 1773 . As a boy, Karl August became Grand Prior of the Bavarian Order of Malta and the Order of St. George with corresponding ongoing appanage . When his father moved from Mannheim to Munich as the new Bavarian elector in 1778, Karl August followed him as general of the cavalry . In 1788 he married in Oettingen the same age Maria Walburga (1766-1833), a daughter of Prince Anton Ernst of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg , with whom he had nine children. After the death of his father in 1799, Karl August moved with his family to Vienna, rented a room there and lived here until his death in 1823. After the move, he lived in the Palais Bretzenheim in Mannheim , which his father had built for him from 1782 to 1788 to Austria no more. With the death of his son Alfons (1805–1863), the princely house of Bretzenheim died out after 74 years in the male line.

Karl August's sister Caroline Josepha (1768–1786) received the Thanstein and Pilmersreuth reigns from her father , which she spent with her husband when she married. She married in Amberg in 1784 Maximilian Joseph Graf von Holnstein (1760–1838), governor of the Upper Palatinate, whose father Franz Ludwig Graf von Holnstein (1723–1780) came from an extramarital union of Emperor Charles VII . Caroline Josepha died at the age of 18 giving birth to her son Karl Theodor (1786–1831), who died unmarried and without any descendants. This family line, which went back to two illegitimate Wittelsbach children, therefore no longer existed. Caroline Josepha von Holnstein b. von Bretzenheim was buried in the Theatinerkirche in Munich , a traditional burial place of the Wittelsbach family, where an epitaph with the alliance coat of arms Holnstein-Bretzenheim commemorates them.

The third daughter, Friederike (1771–1816), was appointed by her father as abbess of the canon monastery of Lindau at the age of ten and was solemnly consecrated seven years later by the prince-bishop of Konstanz . At the age of 25, she married Count Maximilian Friedrich von und zu Westerholt-Gysenberg (1772–1854) in 1796 . Her husband's father was raised to the rank of imperial count in 1790 by Elector Karl Theodor, who was imperial vicar at the time . Five days before the wedding, she gave up her position as abbess. Her husband Maximilian Friedrich von Westerholt later received a prestigious court office in the Grand Duchy of Berg as court marshal Joachim Murats and had Oberhausen Castle built as his residence . After the death of the last abbess Maria Anna von Ulm -Langenrhein in 1800, the Lindau canonical monastery continued to be administered, from 1802 onwards by Friederike's brother Prince Karl August von Bretzenheim. He dissolved the monastery and swapped the holdings of the women's monastery together with the city of Lindau with Austria in 1804 for the Hungarian lords of Régecz and Sárospatak .

Possessions

Bretzenheim Palace ; the three-branched central building with the courtyard entrance, above the balcony in front of the large hall and the staircase, which was intended as an entrance to the large hall.
Epitaph of Caroline Josepha von Holnstein geb. von Bretzenheim (1768–1786) in the Theatinerkirche in Munich , with the family coats of arms Holnstein (left) and Bretzenheim (right)

In 1789 , after a corresponding payment from his father, Karl Theodor von Bayern, Karl August received the 300,000 guilders expensive Bretzenheim an der Nahe (today the Bad Kreuznach district) and the Zwingenberg am Neckar rulership , which cost 400,000 guilders and 1,000 Ducat key money was purchased. In this new principality of Bretzenheim , the former castle of the previous owner was renovated and converted into a baroque castle after a fire in 1774. A residential palace was not necessary as Karl August did not reside there. The former Hatzfeld estates Weisweiler and Pallandt and the estates of Breitenbend and Merfeld in the Duchy of Jülich were added to the Bretzenheim rulership . The principality was later expanded by the goods Mandel , Planig , Ippesheim , Rümmelsheim (today some districts of Bad Kreuznach) and Leyen .

In the course of the transfer of the rulership of Bretzenheim to Karl August, he, who had previously carried the count's name Heydeck like his mother, was also raised in 1789 by Emperor Joseph II to the rank of “ Imperial Prince of Bretzenheim” . Under this name he also received a seat and vote in the Reichstag under the counts of the Upper Rhine District as well as the coin shelf , which he gave expression in the minting of the "Bretzenheimer Taler". Since he lost the principality again in 1795 through the First Coalition War , he was compensated for it by the princely monastery and the imperial city of Lindau . In 1799, the prince also acquired the Styrian goods Thannhausen , Unter-Fladnitz , Sturmberg , Ratmannsdorf and Wachseneck, which Karl August sold again in 1809.

On April 25, 1803 Karl August sold Lindau to Austria for 46,000 guilders and also received the Hungarian dominions of Régecz and Sárospatak . This made him a Hungarian magnate and from then on called himself "Karl August Friedrich Joseph Prince Bretzenheim von Régecz". In 1822, shortly before his death in Vienna, Karl August received the reigns of Paland and Weisweiler in the Düren district from the Prussian government . At the time of his death, the prince's income was estimated at 130,000 guilders. The Bretzenheim heirs sold the Palais Bretzenheim to Konrad Rutsch in 1842, and the Rheinische Hypothekenbank acquired the building in 1899. The building was completely destroyed during the Second World War, but reconstructed in 1948 and 1949. It has been used by the Mannheim District Court since 2004 .

coat of arms

The coat of arms of the Princes von und zu Bretzenheim (1768–1823) was developed based on the coat of arms of his father, Elector Karl Theodor, and represents a Wittelsbach bastard coat of arms :

Coat of arms of Karl August von Bretzenheim
Coat of arms of Karl August von Bretzenheim

Similar to the father, it shows a squared shield with a shield head in red with a silver cross (as Grand Prior of the Order of Malta ). Fields 1 and 4 show a lion crowned in gold on the inside ( Palatinate lion in other tinctures ), fields 2 and 3 are split in silver-red. The applied heart label shows a golden pretzel on a red background. The pretzel has no handicraft reference here, but is the speaking coat of arms of the Bretzenheim rule. If, as here, the knot of the pretzel points to the base of the shield, the pretzel is called overturned or pointing downwards.

The princely coat of arms of the 1st Imperial Prince von und zu Bretzenheim can still be found today on the main altar of the Bretzenheim Church of Mary's Birth. This coat of arms was also placed above the courtyard entrance at the rebuilt Palais Bretzenheim in Mannheim .

Genealogy (extract)

Karl Philipp Theodor (* December 10, 1724 - † February 16, 1799 ), Count Palatinate and Elector of the Palatinate since 1742 and Duke of Jülich-Berg , since 1777 also Elector of Bavaria , had from his relationship with Maria Josepha Seyffert (* 1748 ; † December 24, 1771), later Countess von Heydeck, 4 children:

  1. Caroline Josepha Philippina (* January 11, 1768; † 1786) ⚭ 1784 Count Maximilian Josef von Holnstein (* 1760; † 1838)
  2. Karl August Friedrich Joseph, Count von Heydeck, 1st Imperial Prince von und zu Bretzenheim (* December 24, 1768; † February 27, 1823) ⚭ April 27, 1788 in Oettingen Maria Walburga von Oettingen-Spielberg (* August 29, 1766; † May 8, 1833), and had the following children with her:
    1. Elisabeth Auguste (* / † 1790)
    2. Maria Anna (1793–1796)
    3. Karl Theodor (1794–1796)
    4. Leopoldine (1795–1844) ⚭ 1816 Count Ludwig Almásy († 1836)
    5. Amalie (* / † 1797)
    6. Maria Crescentia (1799–1866) ⚭ 1816 Count Joseph Somogyi († 1865)
    7. Ferdinand (1801–1855), Count von Heydeck, 2nd Imperial Prince from and to Bretzenheim ⚭ 1831 Princess Karoline von Schwarzenberg (1806–1875)
    8. Amalie (1802–1874) ⚭ 1822 Ludwig Graf Taaffe († 1855)
    9. Alfons (1805–1863), Count von Heydeck, 3rd Imperial Prince von und zu Bretzenheim ⚭ 1849 Johanna Hoffmann (1823–1866), niece of the writer Johann Nestroy
  3. Eleonore Caroline Josephine (December 9, 1771; † December 23, 1832) ⚭ November 21, 1787 (divorce 1801) Count Wilhelm Carl zu Leiningen-Guntersblum , from 1803 Leiningen-Billigheim (* July 5, 1737; † January 26, 1809 )
  4. Friederike Caroline Josephine (* 1771; † 1816); Twin sister of Eleanor; Abbess of the canonical monastery Lindau ⚭ 1796 Count Maximilian von Westerholt-Gysenberg (* 1772; † 1854)

With the death of Prince Alfons von Bretzenheim (1805–1863), the male line died out after 74 years.

See also

literature

  • Günther Ebersold: Karl August Reichsfürst von Bretzenheim. The political biography of an apolitical. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-1350-6 .
  • August Menninger: Prince Carl August von Bretzenheim and his coins. 1826.
  • Christian von Stramberg, Anton Joseph Weidenbach: Memorable and useful Rhenish antiquarius. Volume 16, part 2, RF Hergt, 1869, p. 268 f.
  • Genealogisches Staats-Handbuch , Volume 67, Varrentrapp, 1839, p. 441 digitized
  • Müller, Wilfried: University and order. The Bavarian State University of Ingolstadt 1773–1803; ISBN 3-428-06135-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Eduard Vehse: History of the German Courts since the Reformation , Volume 24, Hoffmann and Campe, 1853, p. 153
  2. ^ Genealogical website about the son
  3. ↑ Genealogical website of the son Karl Theodor von Holnstein (1786–1831)
  4. ^ Johann Friedrich Schannat: Eiflia illustrata or geographical and historical description of the Eifel. Volume 1, Johann Peter Bachem, 1824, p. 532
  5. ^ Johann Friedrich Schannat: Eiflia illustrata or geographical and historical description of the Eifel. Volume 1, Johann Peter Bachem, 1824, p. 533