Caspar von Saldern

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Caspar von Saldern by Vigilius Eriksen, Hermitage

Caspar von Saldern (born July 11, 1711 in Aabenraa , † October 31, 1786 in Schierensee ) was a politician in the ducal-Holstein , Danish and Russian services. His political career fell into the so-called grand ducal era .

family

Caspar von Saldern was the eldest son of the ducal Holstein administration administrator Friedrich von Saldern (actually Sallern) and Anna Maria Kamphövener (born January 14, 1691 in Aabenraa, † June 8, 1775 at Gut Schierensee , daughter of the chancellery in Gottorf and Hardesvogt der Riesharde, Berend Caspar Kamphövener and Anna Catharina Callisen). His father was a clerk in Aabenraa from 1709–1714, tenant of the Hellevad mill in 1715 and the first ducal administrator in Neumünster and Bordesholm from 1720–1722 . During the Great Northern War he fled with the official archives to Hamburg , from there to Sweden . After his death in 1722, his widow managed the office until 1724.

Life

Caspar von Saldern and his daughter Christine Agathe, called von Schnell

Caspar von Saldern studied in Kiel and Göttingen in 1724 . In 1735 he entered the service of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf and became ducal Holstein chancellery, 1737 chancellery and administrative administrator in Neumünster , 1741 judicial councilor and 1745 budget councilor. He married Catharina Lucia Thiede in Bargteheide in 1737 . In 1745, partly with his own financial means, he had a new office building for the Neumünster office, today's Caspar-von-Saldern-Haus , built, into which he moved in 1746. Disputes between Saldern, who is known for his idiosyncrasy, and his superior Gerhard von Dernath led to his being removed from office in 1748. The official occasion was the unauthorized approval to found a free rifle guild . He also had to vacate the office. In 1751 he acquired the Schierensee estate and had a baroque mansion and park built there in Versailles style by 1782, with interior furnishings in the Rococo style and with paintings etc. a. Equipped by Greuze and Juel .

In 1761 Caspar von Saldern went to Russia to make a career there. Since this was officially forbidden to the subjects of the Duke of Gottorf, he chose the disguise of a merchant. He became the confidante of the Russian Foreign Minister Count Panin . Von Saldern had a quick temper - a French diplomat certified that he could combine "the rudeness of a Holstein peasant with the pedantry of a German professor" - but he was very successful as a diplomat in Russia. As a camerawoman he organized the Gottorf state finances. 1762 appointed him Tsar Peter III. to the Imperial Russian Conference Council and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Peace Congress convened by Frederick the Great in Berlin, where Saldern negotiated with the Danish Foreign Minister Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff . It was about the grand princely shares in the Duchy of Holstein , to which Peter III. even when the tsar did not want to do without and therefore even planned a war against Denmark. This war was prevented by the death of the tsar. Nevertheless, Saldern was named a Knight of the Elephant Order by the Danish King Friedrich V for his efforts .

Even after the overthrow of the controversial Tsar Peter III. through his wife Catherine the Great , Saldern remained in the inner circles of power. At the end of 1762, Catherine the Great appointed him real privy councilor and state minister in the grand princely Privy Council. One of Saldern's main concerns was that his Holstein homeland should no longer be the bone of contention among the Nordic great powers. Therefore, as a minister in Russia, he operated the annexation of the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorf to Denmark. In his diplomatic work he worked for an understanding with England, Prussia and Denmark, in accordance with the goals of his sponsor Count Panin. In July 1768, Saldern reached an agreement between Denmark and Hamburg with the Gottorf Treaty on the imperial immediacy of the Hanseatic city and its independence from the Danish-ruled Duchy of Holstein . In 1768 King Christian VII elevated him to the Danish (feudal) count status together with his son Carl Hinrich von Saldern-Günderoth .

The culmination of his political career was the final signing of the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo between Russia and Denmark on June 1, 1773. In this territorial exchange treaty , the Russian heir to the throne, Grand Duke Paul, renounced all claims to the Gottorf share of Schleswig and his share in Holstein. For this he got the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst . The preliminary contract had already been signed in 1767, but at that time the Grand Duke was not yet of legal age.

Hall at Gut Schierensee with the portrait of Catherine the Great

Caspar von Saldern fell out of favor in 1773. He had tried to convince Grand Duke Paul of a plan to rule over Russia together with his mother and regent Catherine the Great. His patron Count Panin found this out and tried to protect him from the wrath of Catherine. But when she found out about the plan, she wanted to be delivered "the scoundrel tied around the neck". Caspar von Saldern left Russia immediately and never returned.

Back in Schleswig-Holstein, Saldern was accepted into the knighthood . Apart from Schierensee, where he settled, he owned the Blockshagen and Annenhof estates . He carried out various reforms such as the coupling , which he had already started in Russian service. He supported the declining Christian Albrechts University in Kiel by introducing the rule that every future Schleswig-Holstein civil servant - including the pastors - must have studied there for two years.

Von Saldern is buried in a crypt in the monastery church in Bordesholm , where his son was a clerk and his wife, daughter and mother were already buried.

The Saldernstrasse in Kiel-Ravensberg is named after him.

literature

  • Otto Brandt : Caspar von Saldern and Northern European Politics in the Age of Catherine II. Palm & Enke, Erlangen and Mühlau, Kiel 1932
  • Otto Brandt: Spiritual life and politics in Schleswig-Holstein at the turn of the 18th century. Mühlau, Kiel 1927, 1981, p. 13 ff.
  • Adolf Eichler: Kaspar von Saldern, the organizer of the 'rest in the north'. In: Deutsche Post from the East. May 1941, p. 15 ff.
  • Antje Erdmann-Degenhardt: In the service of Holstein - Katharina the great and Caspar von Saldern. Heinrich Möller Sons, Rendsburg 1986.
  • Eckhard Huebner: Saldern, Caspar von. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 9, Wachholtz, Neumünster 1991, pp. 329-334.
  • David L. Ransel: The Politics of Catherinian Russia: The Panin Party. Yale University Press, New Haven 1975, pp. 241-250 and SIRIO 19 399-400, respectively.
  • Carl-Heinrich Seebach: Schierensee. History of a good in Holstein. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1981.
  • Axel Volquarts: Friedrich von Saldern (1685–1722) and his wife Anna Maria, b. Kamphövener (1691–1775), their ancestors and descendants. Self-published, Hamburg 1999.

Web links

References

  1. ↑ Otto Brandt: Spiritual life and politics in Schleswig-Holstein at the turn of the 18th century. Mühlau, Kiel 1921, 1981, p. 13.
  2. ↑ Gut Schierensee.
  3. ↑ Otto Brandt: Spiritual life and politics in Schleswig-Holstein at the turn of the 18th century. Mühlau, Kiel 1921, 1981, p. 14.
  4. ↑ Otto Brandt: Spiritual life and politics in Schleswig-Holstein at the turn of the 18th century. Mühlau, Kiel 1921, 1981, 14 f.
  5. ↑ Hans-G. Hilscher, Dietrich Bleihöfer: Saldernstrasse. In: Kiel Street Lexicon. Continued since 2005 by the Office for Building Regulations, Surveying and Geoinformation of the State Capital Kiel, as of February 2017 ( kiel.de ).
personal data
SURNAME Saldern, Caspar von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Minister, Privy Councilor
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1711
PLACE OF BIRTH Aabenraa , North Schleswig
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1786
Place of death Schierensee