Carl von Isenburg-Birstein

This article describes the German prince (1766–1820). For his grandson (1838–1899) see Karl zu Isenburg-Birstein .

Carl (Karl) Friedrich Ludwig Moritz von Isenburg-Birstein (born June 29, 1766 in Birstein ; † March 21, 1820 ibid) was Prince of Isenburg and Büdingen in the old German Empire from February 3, 1803 and more sovereign from July 12, 1806 Prince of the Rhine Confederation State, Principality of Isenburg .

Carl Friedrich Ludwig Moritz von Isenburg-Birstein, contemporary lithograph

Life

origin

Carl was the son of Wolfgang Ernst II , Prince of Isenburg and Büdingen, (born November 17, 1735 in Birstein ; † February 3, 1803 in Offenbach am Main ) and Sophie Charlotte von Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym (* 3. April 1743; † December 5, 1781), who married on September 20, 1760 on the Schaumburg an der Lahn .

War school and military service

In his youth he attended the École militaire war school for Protestant boys of the blind fabulous poet Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel in Colmar in Alsace (since 1782 Académie militaire ) and joined an infantry regiment as a lieutenant in 1784 , the regiment owner from 1775 Joseph von Tillier and from 1786 William of Klebek was (100 years later it was called kuk Oberösterreichisches Infantry regiment "Ernst Ludwig Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine" no. 14 ), the association was part of the imperial army and had once its location in Linz and Braunau am Inn . In 1785 he took part in the campaign in the Netherlands , in 1786 in the campaign against the Turks in the staff of the Quartermaster General and in 1791/95 in the campaign against the French in Italy and the Netherlands . In 1794, as a lieutenant colonel , he took leave of the imperial service in order to get married.

The young officer does not seem to have been thrifty; on October 28, 1791, his father published a newspaper report in which he declared the Hereditary Prince insolvent. The debts from the Austrian military era do not seem to have all been serviced. In October 1801 there is talk of Carl's "flight" from his creditors from Offenbach to Birstein. But Minister Wolfgang von Goldner managed to settle the debts and replace them with a new overall loan.

family

Carl married on September 16, 1795 in Erbach Charlotte Auguste, daughter of Count Franz zu Erbach-Erbach (born June 5, 1777 in Erbach; † May 21, 1846 in Heidelberg). He had six children with her:

• Viktoria Charlotte Franziska Luise (born June 10, 1796 in Offenbach, † July 2, 1837 in Birstein)
• Amalie Auguste (born July 20, 1797 in Offenbach, † November 30, 1808 in Offenbach)
• Wolfgang Ernst (born July 25, 1798 in Offenbach; † October 29, 1866 in Birstein) ∞ Adelheid Countess zu Erbach-Fürstenau (born March 23, 1795 in Fürstenau; † December 5, 1858 in Birstein) on January 30, 1827
• Franz Wilhelm (born November 1, 1799 in Hanau ; † May 21, 1810 in Offenbach)
• Friedrich Karl (born January 22, 1801 in Offenbach, † February 19, 1804 in Offenbach)
• Viktor Alexander (born September 14, 1802 in Birstein; † February 15, 1843 in Heidelberg ) ∞ Princess Maria zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (born August 3, 1813; † March 19, 1878) on October 4, 1836

The married couple Carl, Hereditary Prince zu Isenburg-Birstein, and Charlotte Auguste as well as Wolfgang Goldner and Amalie Wilhelmine were about the same age, their children were born in the same decade. The children played together almost every day (the chronicler of the von Goldner family, Richard Forsboom, speculated over a hundred years later that the children might not have had too many other friends in Offenbach if they had been together almost constantly.).

Act

Hereditary Prince in waiting

Carl had been a knight of the Bavarian Order of Hubert since August 28, 1801 and - later - the bearer of the Compturkreuz of the Order of St. John. Between 1802 and 1804 he sponsored the first excavations at the Roman fort " Altenburg " in his father's territory (in what is now the Rückingen part of Erlensee ). From 1805 he was a bearer of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor (GC LH).

Ruling prince

After the death of his father on February 3, 1803, he was 36 years old, the ruling prince. The "Chronological Overview of the Brandenb. Prussian Generality" listed under "XVIII." Generals ... from 1798–1807 "under No. 1048. Prince von Ysenburg-Birstein. Employed as titular-general-major in 1803. Active duty in the Prussian military, but he informed the Prussian king ( Friedrich Wilhelm III. ) before he took over his service in the French military (1805), who informed him in February 1806 that military service conditions for different powers were incompatible and he See Carl's letter as a waiver of Prussian rank.

Carl as a lobbyist for the "little" princes - Frankfurter Union

Wolfgang von Goldner, Paris 1806

The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (1803) had many small territories, imperial direct dominions, counties, principalities, liquidated and incorporated larger territories. Isenburg also followed this development with suspicion. Carl's Minister Wolfgang von Goldner attempted to unite as many of the endangered smaller princes and counts ( less powerful imperial estates or also called small courts ) into a negotiating unit, with joint diplomatic missions in Paris, Vienna and Berlin, the Frankfurt Union . A certain number of Rhenish, Hessian and southwest German rulers joined it. The organizers of this covered association were Minister Goldner and Count Friedrich zu Solms-Laubach - and Prince Carl appeared in public for the association. Carl “officially represented the Frankfurter Union to the French, without ulterior motives, a figure of Goldner and the Laubach Count. Presumably he was hardly intelligent enough to develop political guidelines and implement them consistently ”.

With the establishment of the Rhine Confederation in 1806, all members of the Union (exception: Isenburg) lost their sovereignty to the newly formed states (e.g. Leiningen to the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Kingdom of Bavaria; Solms-Laubach to the Grand Duchy of Hesse). The Frankfurter Union dissolved in autumn 1806 at the latest. The former members kept in touch; Isenburg, on the other hand, was formally outlawed. Leiningen withdrew the power of attorney from Minister Goldner and Solms-Laubach kept his distance. Carl von Isenburg himself suffered personally from the consequences of his political isolation: my existence as an independent prince is saved, he wrote to Goldner on July 21, 1806, I am still standing on a pile of rubble, but my friends and relatives are all sinking, I can hardly rejoice ... O how ungraciously I will be judged by all others who were less happy than me, and how little do I deserve this judgment.

From imperial prince to sovereign head of state in the Rhine Confederation

Prince Carl led the country as one of the founding members on July 12, 1806 in the Rhine Confederation , whereby he became a "sovereign prince over all Isenburg lands"; The sovereign Prince Carl von Isenburg-Birstein became the sovereign Prince of Isenburg (as he often called himself afterwards).

Head of State and French officer

Carl Fürst zu Isenburg was an active French officer from autumn 1805 to summer 1809. He recruited two foreign regiments for France (there were four in 1810) and took an active part in combat operations; but he never commanded the Isenburg (Rhine Confederation) contingent or one of the two French foreign regiments he had recruited ( Isenburg Regiment or Prussia Regiment ) in combat.

Carl, whom Napoleon had appointed as Colonel of the regiment he had recruited in 1805 (later referred to as the 2nd Imperial French Foreign Regiment), recruited another regiment for the Kaiser (later referred to as the 4th Imperial French Foreign Regiment), which he partially sold off won the prisoner of the defeated Prussian army after the battle of Jena and Auerstedt . Carl briefly took part in the campaign in Spain , but was not the commander of one of the regiments he had recruited (Carl was French brigadier general from December 12, 1806). He retired from active service in 1809 (because of his gout ), but remained an officer in the French service (major general) until December 1813.

Humanist and Freemason

On September 5, 1812, eleven men decided to found a Masonic lodge in Offenbach, among them the Privy Councilor Marshal the Elder, court doctor to Prince Carl. “In constant grateful memory” of the ruling prince and his wife Charlotte, née Countess von Erbach-Erbach, the brotherhood was named “Carl and Charlotte zur Treue” (No. 250). The accession was recorded on September 14, 1812. Six days later, the first official election takes place, in which Prince Carl becomes master of the chair . In their former domicile, the “Merz'schen Haus”, on December 21, 1812, 27 Offenbachers and 11 visiting Freemasons experience the “introduction of light” (= ceremonial opening of a newly founded lodge that begins with their ritual work) at the festive foundation festival. On February 3, 1813, the lodge decided on a charity fund, which probably marked the beginning of modern social work in Offenbach.

After Napoleon

"Proven attachment to Napoleon"

Thanks to the Frankfurt accession treaties , most of the German princes of the Rhine Confederation were able to “save” themselves from sanctions by the great powers (Austria, Prussia, Russia), and joining the anti-Napoleonic coalition made them victorious instead of defeated before 1814. This is probably one of the reasons why Prince Carl declared his resignation from the Rhine Confederation and the end of his French employment on November 26, 1813, and applied to join the Anti-Napoleon Alliance. He was refused entry to the alliance because of his proven attachment to Napoleon (others excluded from joining were: the "fickle" King of Saxony , because he was on Napoleon's side at the beginning of the Battle of Nations and only made the "turn" at the last minute, the Napoleon relatives in Düsseldorf (Grand Duchy of Berg) and Kassel (Kingdom of Westphalia) , the Francophiles : the Grand Duke of Frankfurt Prince Primas Dalberg ( Napoleon's house prelate ), his nephew Philipp von der Leyen and Carl Fürst zu Isenburg (because he was before the Confederation of the Rhine French officer and it stayed too long: Une animent regardé comme un satellite napoléonien )).

Asylum for the political refugee in Basel

After the disintegration of the Rhine Confederation, Prince Carl fled to Basel , not without reason, because the Grand Duke of Würzburg, the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Grand Duke of Frankfurt ( Prince Primate of the Rhine Confederation and Archbishop of Regensburg ) fled for fear of capture, because the King of Saxony had been captured by the Allies. But Carl soon returned because of his ailment (gout in his legs) (to Erbach (Odenwald) to his in-laws).

Apparently he no longer wanted to be active in the military: ... on January 27th [1814] Se. Your Royal Highness [the Grand Duke of Baden] graciously approves of the two major general à la Suite of the Corps, Count Casimir von Isenburg and Prince Carl von Isenburg ... is in the Grand Ducal Baden Government Gazette of August 8, 1814, been read.

The Principality of Isenburg was not only occupied under martial law, but later mediated and annexed under international law. While Austria ultimately only criticized the "incorporation of all other states of its houses" to Carl zu Isenburg ( Metternich to his Kaiser), the Prussian stance was much clearer: With the recruitment of the Prussian regiment from the prisoners of war of the defeated Prussian army (1806 after the battle near Jena and Auerstädt ), Carl apparently incurred the hatred of the Prussian king and even more sharply that of Freiherr vom Stein . The house arrest of Minister Goldner served as intimidation ; For several weeks at the end of November 1813, during this time all official and private papers were searched.

Vom Stein apparently set four conditions if the prince wanted to "get off scot-free",

• once the abandonment of French military dignity,
• Second, the defection from the Rhenish Confederation (Rheinbund),
• third, the return to the principality, and
• fourth, the transfer of the reign to his wife Charlotte and
• the dismissal of Minister Wolfgang von Goldner on March 17, 1814 by the princess as regent; However, Goldner was also available as a consultant in the period that followed.

All conditions were met.

Protest against the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna

After the resolutions of the Congress of Vienna, a medal appears in Isenburg, which is said to have been minted there, with the monogram of the prince and the following outer legend FRUCTUS LIBERTATIS GERMANIA PROMISSAE and inner legend PEU OE VBMVMAR (= P reuss E ngland U nd OE sterreich V ereint B wrestle m I U m m an a ngestammtes R real). Further forms of this medal had to be omitted.

Finances

The prince was worried about money. Minister Goldner attributed the claims raised by the creditors in 1815 primarily to the recruiting and equipment costs of the regiments that had been advanced by Carl and not reimbursed by Napoleon. However, critics cite the amusing lifestyle in Toul and Nancy , frequent trips to Paris, especially between 1809 and 1811 (New Year's gifts, expensive food). In the spring of 1811 Goldner tried to clean up the debt, which had grown to 1,328,751  florins . On September 20, 1811, a Debt Liquidation and Amortisements Commission was established. In the public newspapers there were calls for the demands to be made within six months (October 19, 1811); after the deadline had expired unsuccessfully, a waiver was assumed. However, this repayment campaign was not completed, which is why the proceedings were to be continued on August 13, 1817 (now in the Grand Ducal Hessian). The numismatist Karl Wilhelm Becker became court advisor in Isenburg in 1814.

Objections from relatives

His relatives, the mediatized Counts in Büdingen, in Meerholz and in Wächtersbach, were dissatisfied with their new status after the loss of imperial immediacy and tried to complain to everyone they suspected of being influenced by and for the regaining of their lost rights fight (in the case of the prince against his government, in the case of the prince primate about the non-assurance or non-regulation of their rights). Among many other things, they complained E.g. at the Congress of Vienna on the abuse of sovereignty in judicial matters, because despite a regulation on the conduct of business in judicial matters there was no functioning third instance in civil disputes in the Principality ; Abuses of sovereignty could not be proven.

literature

• Martin Bethke: The Principality of Isenburg in the Rhine Confederation. In: Zeitschrift für Heereskunde - Scientific organ for the cultural history of the armed forces, their clothing, armament and equipment, for army museum news and collector's messages. Berlin (West) (German Society for Heereskunde eV) 1982, pp. 94–99
• Bernd Müller: The Principality of Isenburg in the Rhenish Confederation - From Territory to State. Büdingen (Fürstlich Isenburg and Büdingische Rentkammer) 1978.
• Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldier leadership . Volume 3, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1937], DNB 367632780 , p. 150, no. 1057.
• Georg Schmeißer: Le regiment de Prusse. A military-historical sketch from the Napoleonic era. Landsberg a. W. 1885, digitized
• Bernhard von Poten :  Ysenburg-Birstein, Karl Fürst zu . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 610-612.

Web links

Commons : Carl von Isenburg-Birstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Carl von Isenburg-Birstein in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carl never called himself "from", but always only "to"; Even his descendants did not have a "from" but a "to" until 1913 (as is evident from the award in the imperial deed of 1744). Incidentally, the name designation was to the family by legislation (Electoral edict of 29 May 1833, kurhess GS 1833 S. 113 et seq.) Set.
2. ↑ Monday Frankfurter Kaiserliche Reichs-Ober-Post-Zeitung No. 50
3. ↑ http://geneall.net/de/name/5328/karl-i-friedrich-ludwig-moritz-fuerst-zu-isenburg Information at geneall.net
4. ^ Richard Forsboom: Memories of the von Goldner family - my descendants Helene, Wolfgang and Franz , Mannheim (typescript, bound) 1906 (presented to the Frankfurt am Main city library on June 22, 1931 by Wolfgang Forsboom, today: Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library), Handwriting collection
5. ↑ Karl Arnd: The pile ditch according to the latest research and discoveries. In addition to contributions to research into the other Roman and Germanic architectural monuments in the lower main area . Second increased edition, Heinrich Ludwig Brönner, Frankfurt am Main 1861, p. 10
6. ↑ Karl Arnd (Landbaumeister): The Romans and their Monuments in the Kinzigthale In: Journal for the Province of Hanau - To clarify their history, their natural condition and their cultural status, as well as the obstacles opposing this, Volume I, Friedrich König, Hanau 1839, p 197, 216
7. ^ The coins and medals of the House of Isenburg . In: Hermann Grote (Ed.) Münzstudien , Seventh Volume (Booklet XIX, XX, XXI), Hahn'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1871 p. 234
8. ↑ Kurd Wolfgang von Schöning: The Generals of the Chur-Brandenburg and Royal Prussian Army from 1640 to 1840 - A historical overview, together with many interwoven documentary notes, dedicated to the patriotic war army as a cheer (printed by the Unger brothers), p. 194
9. ^ Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg. M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich 1891, p. 171 f., Supplement I. No. 6a and 6b
10. ^ Manfred Mayer: History of the Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg , M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich 1891, pp. 162-164
11. ↑ This is how Martin Bethke sees it, Das Fürstentum Isenburg im Rheinbund in Zeitschrift für Heereskunde - Scientific organ for the cultural history of the armed forces, their clothing, armament and equipment, for news from the army museum and collectors' messages, Berlin (West) (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Heereskunde e. V.) 1982, p. 96
12. ↑ Eva Kell The Frankfurter Union (1803–1806) - A Prince Association for the “constitutional self-preservation” of the smaller secular aristocratic rule In: Journal for Historical Research , Quarterly Journal for Research into the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1991 (Issue 1 ) P. 95 ISSN  0340-0174
13. ^ Carl zu Isenburg from Montpellier on July 21, 1806 to Goldner; Carl was with the Regiment Isenburg (Grande Armée) set up by him in southern France.
14. ↑ http://www.carl-und-charlotte.de/geschichte.html Accessed on June 14, 2013
15. ^ Austrian observer of December 7, 1813 (No. 341) p. 1759
16. ^ Marchese [Cesare] Lucchesini Historical Development of the Causes and Effects of the Rhine Confederation , Parts 1–2, Leipzig (Brockhaus) 1821, p. 530
17. ^ Konrad M. Färber Emperor and Arch Chancellor - Carl von Dalberg and Napoleon Regensburg: Mittelbayerische Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft 1994, pp. 77 f., ISBN 3-927529-51-6
18. ↑ Alexander von Daniels Handbuch der deutschen Reichs- und Staatsrechtsgeschichte Part Two , Volume Three, Lapp & Siebeck, Tübingen 1863, p. 234
19. ↑ Isabella Blank The punished king? - The Saxon Question 1813–1815 , dissertation Univ. Heidelberg 2013, pp 137 et seq. Digitalisat
20. ^ Grossherzoglich-Baden Government Gazette of August 8, 1814, twelfth year, Nro. 1 to 22 , Carlsruhe, Verlag bei Gottlieb Braun, 1814 p. 94 f.
21. ↑ Bernd Müller, The Principality of Isenburg in the Rhenish Bund - From Territory to the State , Fürstlich Isenburg and Büdingische Rentkammer, Büdingen, 1978 p. 212 f.
22. ↑ Wolfgang Eichelmann Hessian coins and medals: Thoughts and reflections on coins and medals of the House of Brabant 2010 (Verlagshaus Monsenstein and Vannerdat oHG) Münster, ISBN 978-3-86991-060-4 , p. 192 with illustration of the medal
23. ↑ Establishment patent printed by Manfred Mayer: History of Mediatization of the Principality of Isenburg. M. Rieger'sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Munich 1891, p. 182 f.
24. ↑ Summons of the creditors of the Prince of Isenburg by the Grand Ducal Hessian Higher Appeal Court Council Knapp to report their claims by November 30, 1817 in: No. 249 of the Frankfurter Ober-Postamts-Zeitung of Saturday, September 6th, 1817; Supplement (last page); Digitized
25. ^ Philipp Walther:  Becker, Karl Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 223 f.
26. ↑ Bernd Müller: The Principality of Isenburg in the Rhenish Confederation - From Territory to State. Büdingen (Fürstlich Isenburg and Büdingische Rentkammer) 1978, p. 231 f.