Carl Gottfried von Degenfeld

Carl Gottfried von Degenfeld (born September 19, 1690 in Waibstadt ; † December 5, 1727 in Philippsburg ) was co-lord of Wagenbach , Waibstadt, Unterbiegelhof and Ehrstädt . He was denounced because of his inappropriate wedding and the inadequate care of his stepmother and his sisters and died in custody in Philippsburg.

Life

He was the eldest son of Ferdinand Friedrich I. von Degenfeld (1661-1717) and Maria Philippine Dorothea von Helmstatt († around 1706). Two brothers died at a young age, so that when their father died, only Carl Gottfried and his brother Christoph Ferdinand I (1699–1766) were still alive. As an heir, Carl Gottfried received the Electoral Palatinate fiefdom from a third of Wagenbach, which his father had inherited from his wife's property as a kunkelle fief . Christoph Ferdinand was not yet of legal age at the time of his father's death and only received his father's remaining goods when he came of age, namely the wormsy half of Ehrstädt and the family fideikommiss estates in Waibstadt and Unterbiegelhof.

Carl Gottfried was a lieutenant in the Palatine regiment of Prince von Sulzbach.

In 1719 he married Susanna Magdalena Buhl from Wimpfen in Sinsheim , the daughter of a white tanner . This marriage, which was still forbidden by the father on his deathbed and not befitting of his status, gave Christoph Ferdinand and his cousin Johann Friedrich I von Degenfeld the opportunity to report their brother to the elector in Heidelberg and to the knightly canton of Kraichgau in Heilbronn . Further lawsuits against Carl Gottfried came from his stepmother Maria Magdalena von Stetten (1665–1744) and his sister Charlotte and Luise, who were looked after by Carl Gottfried in Wagenbach more poorly than well. There were more and more lawsuits and judgments from various instances, which Carl Gottfried opposed, however, so that he was finally in custody in Philippsburg in September 1724 .

After Carl Gottfried's imprisonment, many other disputes broke out. His wife tried to petition him to get him released. His relatives claimed the Wagenbach fief. The matter became completely political when the Emperor and Elector also got into a dispute over the matter.

Carl Gottfried, who had already been imprisoned sick, died in custody in a fortress in 1727. He was not brought to Neuhaus for the Degenfeld's hereditary burial , but buried in the Catholic Church of Graben despite his Lutheran denomination.

The disputes over his property in Wagenbach dragged on for a few years after his death. The fiefdom had been withdrawn from the Palatinate as early as 1722. It was not given to the male descendants of the Degenfeld-Neuhaus, but instead to Carl Gottfried's stepmother, sisters, widow and daughters to secure their maintenance. The estate was leased to Mennonites by the daughters in 1765 and was not returned to male descendants of the Degenfeld-Neuhaus family until 1784 as an Electoral Palatinate fiefdom.

family

He married Susanna Magdalena Buhl, daughter of the Wimpfen white tanner Friedrich Kraft Buhl, on May 23, 1719 in Sinsheim. The marriage had two daughters.

• Caroline Margaretha ∞ Johann Philipp von der Mühlen
• Philippina ∞ N. von Massenbach

literature

• Friedrich Hub : Genealogy of the von Degenfeld family at Schloss Neuhaus, Ehrstädt, Waibstadt and Wagenbach. In: ders .: Ehrstädt and Neuhaus Castle. Ehrstädt 1967, pp. 420-438