Christian Friedrich Pfeffel von Kriegelstein

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Christian Friedrich Pfeffel von Kriegelstein

Christian Friedrich Pfeffel von Kriegelstein (born October 3, 1726 in Colmar , † March 21, 1807 in Paris ) was an Alsatian historian , lawyer and diplomat . He was the older brother of the writer Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel .

Life

Christian Friedrich Pfeffel was the eldest son of Johann Konrad Pfeffel (1682–1738) and Anna Katharina (1694–1773), daughter of Johann Georg Herr, a patrician in Colmar. His father was born the son of a pastor at Mundingen in Baden, had come to Strasbourg as a tutor and, recommended by the Intendant d'Angervilliers and the Praetor Klinglin , joined the French Foreign Affairs Service in 1722 as Jurisconsult du Roi . Then he had settled in Colmar and had become Stettmeister (mayor of the city) there. Christian Friedrich Pfeffel was born here in 1726. After the death of his father in 1738 he completed his training in Colmar and in 1742 moved to the University of Strasbourg , where he studied history and constitutional law. Here he particularly joined Johann Daniel Schöpflin , whose table companion he was for a while. For Schöpflin's Alsatia illustrata (2 vols., 1751–61) he did source research and took over the management of the historical and political studies of several young foreign nobles recommended to Schöpflin.

In 1749, the Saxon court turned to Schöpflin for legal assistance for the claims of Saxony on the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg . On Schöpflin's recommendation, Pfeffel went to Paris for this purpose. The Saxon ambassador to France, Johann Adolf Graf von Loß , obtained Pfeffel's appointment as secretary of the embassy in 1750. Now Pfeffel began his first literary activity with the historical work Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire et du droit public d'Allemagne (Paris 1754). In the meantime he had followed Count Loss to Dresden in 1753 and entered the service of Count Heinrich von Brühl . He was Prime Minister of the Saxon Elector and King of Poland August III. and learned to appreciate Pfeffel's talent. In 1754 Pfeffel accompanied Count Brühl to Warsaw and worked on Brühl's behalf for the politics that led to the Seven Years' War . When he surrendered in Pirna in 1756 he was in the king's entourage. Then he took the young Count Brühl to Strasbourg and visited Paris himself. Appointed as Legation Councilor to Warsaw in 1758, he was claimed as a French subject by the French Minister Bernis . In fact, he only had permission from the French King Louis XV. can enter the Saxon service on the condition that he, if necessary, on the orders of Louis XV. would return immediately. Now he was sent to the Reichstag in Regensburg as the French legation secretary and then as an interim chargé d' affaires.

But as early as 1761 Pfeffel was dismissed as a victim of an intrigue and, as compensation, was granted permission to serve any foreign court that was not currently at war with France. At first he thought of the Saxon court, but he was refused by Count Brühl, who was still angry with him because of his earlier resignation from the Saxon service. Through the mediation of Hubert de Folard , the French ambassador in Munich , he entered the service of Duke Christian IV of Pfalz-Zweibrücken , his godfather, who made him resident in Munich. But he continued to work for France. His historical research into Bavarian history won him the election of director of the historical class of the newly established Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1763 . In the collection of sources on medieval Bavarian history, the Monumenta Boica , compiled by this academy , the first nine volumes of which he published from 1763 to 1767, he played a key role in researching the documents kept in Bavarian monasteries. In the first volume of the Academy's treatises (pp. 151–170), in 1763 he presented the borders of the Bavarian northern district in the 11th century ; In the same volume he also wrote an attempt to give a thorough description of the history of the old margraves in the Nordgau, from the Bamberg and Vohburg families . In the 2nd and 3rd volume: experiments and explanations of Bavarian seals. Sample of an explanation of German constitutional law from the laws of Poland, among others

In 1768 Pfeffel was called back to Versailles and after a long effort was given the position of Jurisconsulte du roi at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , which the Duke of Praslin had promised him in 1763. As such, he was particularly active in the regulation of borders against the Netherlands and Germany. He was also consulted on many other important diplomatic missions and worked with the Gazette de France . Both Louis XVI. as well as the minister Vergennes showed great respect for Pfeffel. In fact, as a diplomat in the service of France and its allies, he represented France and its allies loyally, discreetly and actively. As a publicist, too, in August Ludwig von Schlözer's Stats advertisements from Volume 4 to Volume 13, France's conditions, especially his financial situation under Necker, appear in a more favorable light than one was inclined to assume in Germany after the general accusations by Rousseau and others . So the "Austrasian", under which name Pfeffel hid himself, came into conflict with German journalists, in which, however, he was assisted by a more precise knowledge of the real circumstances. He later also refused to provide a historical account of the events he had experienced. Like his father, he was awarded the title of Stettmeister in his hometown for his services.

When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, Pfeffel was in shops in Zweibrücken. But he stuck to the form of government of the monarchy , saw the throne of Louis XVI through the revolution. in danger and sent the Foreign Minister Montmorin in 1790 and his successor Lessart his resignation in 1791 . Both ministers refused and, on the contrary, instructed Pfeffel to negotiate in Pfalz-Zweibrücken about the compensation to which the duke there and other princes with possessions in Alsace could claim. In the midst of these negotiations, Pfeffel learned in April 1792 that he was being dismissed on the instructions of Foreign Minister Dumouriez . He was put on the emigrant list and lost his life in country estates - e.g. B. the castle in Fortschwiler -, especially in Upper Alsace, invested assets. He entered the service of Duke Karl II August von Pfalz-Zweibrücken and was promoted to State Council. As early as 1787, the duke had given him a fiefdom and granted him a naturalization patent. As a result, he did various important business for the duke. After the death of Karl II. August 1795, his successor (and later King of Bavaria) Maximilian Joseph Pfeffel stopped working.

From 1795 Pfeffel lived in Mannheim as a private citizen until the new outbreak of war between France and Austria in 1799 caused him to move to Nuremberg . Then he lived with his brother in Colmar, with whom he had been closely connected since his youth. Napoleon rehabilitated Pepper again; At the end of 1800 he was allowed to return to Paris and Talleyrand endeavored to compensate him for his losses. As a knight of the Legion of Honor and a member of the commission for the Rhine Shipping Octroi , he spent the last few years in comfortable conditions, cared for by his wife. He had always been healthy and died on March 21, 1807 at the age of 80 in Paris.

Title of nobility

The imperial nobility letter of 1598 for his ancestor Martin Kriegelstein, to which Pfeffel referred to the Reichstag in 1759

He adopted the name "Pfeffel von Kriegelstein" in Regensburg in 1759 after he had asserted a letter of nobility from Emperor Rudolf II at the Reichstag , which on January 13, 1598, was given to his maternal ancestor Martin Kriegelstein († 1603) with the predicate name "Kriegelstein von Wandelburg “Was awarded. Since Martin Kriegelstein, brother of Colmar councilor Ludwig Kriegelstein, only had two daughters, they were given the rare privilege in the imperial nobility diploma of being able to pass on the nobility to their children. One daughter, Magdalena von Kriegelstein, married the Colmar councilor Georg Herr on December 15, 1595. He was the great-grandfather of Pfeffel's mother, who died in 1773. The binders from Krieglstein also descend from Martin von Kriegelstein, who was ennobled in 1598 . Johann Binder of Krieglstein, the first tie that the combined name resulted (from 1723, from 1759 in Empire baron ), was a cousin of Pfeffel mother and imperial Reichshofrat .

family

Family coat of arms

Pfeffel had married Anna Katharina in 1759, a daughter of the Strasbourg pastor Lucas Gernler. His mother-in-law was Anna Catharina Bischoff , who was found as a mummy in the Barefoot Monastery in Basel in 1975. Five years after his wife's death in 1776, he was married to Maria Katharina (1754–1823), a daughter of Lieutenant Johann Stoertz, in his second marriage. One of his sons, Christian Hubert, Baron Pfeffel von Kriegelstein (* 1765 in Strasbourg, † as Bavarian envoy in Paris in 1834), appeared as a writer with the thesis Limes Galliae (Strasbourg 1785).

Fonts

In addition to his merits as a businessman and diplomat, Pfeffel also earned a reputation as a thorough editor of the history of Germany and the statistics of France. Following the example of a work by the historian Charles-Jean-François Hénault on French history ( Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire de France jusqu'à la mort de Louis XIV ) published in 1752 in the fourth edition, he processed the history of the German Empire in tabular and chronological form Shape. This work, which was received with great acclaim at the time, was published in Paris in 1754 under the title Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire et du droit public d'Allemagne (4th edition 1777; German translation 1761). The work was particularly praised by the Protestants. Robertson often cited it as a source in his story of Charles V. The authors of L'Art de verifier les dates also frequently used it as a guide.

In individually printed speeches, Pfeffel spoke of the usefulness of historical knowledge of the middle ages (Munich 1763), of the former legal use of the Schwabenspiegel in Bavaria (Munich 1764), of the oldest feudal system in Bavaria (Munich 1766) and of the origin and the real nature of the Bavarian servants in the middle centuries (Munich 1767).

Similarly, Pfeffel discussed the legal situation in France, e.g. B. in:

  • Recherches historiques concernant les droits du Pape sur la ville et l'État d'Avignon, avec les pièces justificatives (Paris 1768). Pfeffel wrote this work on the instructions of the ministry to justify the occupation of the county by French troops.
  • Mémoire historique concernant les droits du Roi sur les bourgs de Fumay et de Revin (1769)

Pfeffel wrote the treatise État de la Pologne, avec un abrégé de son droit public et les nouvelles constitutions (Paris 1770) on the public law of Poland . Most of what he wrote about the statistics of France he communicated in individual treatises which Schlözer had printed in his state advertisements, so u. a .:

  • Letters from France…. 4th Volume (1783), pp. 326-344
  • About France's trade and national capital. 4 volume, 15th issue, p. 331 ff .; 7th Volume (1785), 25th Issue, pp. 92-134; 28th issue, p. 401 ff.
  • Justification against the senior consistorial advisor Büsching and against a correspondent for the political journal. 8th volume, 30th issue, p. 220 ff.
  • About the latest coin operation in France. Volume 8, Issue 31, p. 369 ff.
  • About the establishment of the seven free ports in the French West Indies. Volume 8, Issue 32, pp. 385 ff.
  • Explanation of the Lettres de Cachet in France. 9th Volume (1786), 34th Issue, pp. 129-153
  • About parliament, imperial estates, cour plenière… in France. 9th volume, 50th issue
  • About the teaching concept of spiritual goods in France. 10th volume, p. 3 ff.
  • The alluvial law in Guienne. 10 volume, p. 7 ff.
  • About the table. Volume 11, p. 34 ff.
  • Grain barrier lifted. 10th volume, p. 42 ff.
  • Assemblées provinciales. 10th volume, p. 48 ff.
  • Assemblées des Notables. 10th volume, p. 50 ff.
  • Necker's salvation of honor for a better understanding of his writings. Volume 10, pp. 129 ff.
  • About the geometric size and the yield of the lands in Germany. Volume 10, pp. 129 ff.
  • State income and actions of the French colony at St. Dominique. 13th volume, p. 88 ff.
  • Letters from Versailles. 13 volume, p. 133 ff.

Pfeffel also played a part in Westenrieder's contributions to patriotic history and the Monumenta Boica . In the first-mentioned journal (1st volume, p. 31 ff.) There is, among other things, the article Doubt about the alleged fragmentation of the Bavarian state body, which is said to have occurred after Henry the Lion's declaration of eighth .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Peter Fuchs:  Pfeffel von Kriegelstein, Christan Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 306 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ Ernst Martin:  Pfeffel von Kriegelstein, Christian Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 612 f.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Ernst Martin:  Pfeffel von Kriegelstein, Christian Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 613.
  4. ↑ a b c Pfeffel (Christian-Frédéric). In: Biography universelle ancienne et moderne. 2nd edition, 1843-65, Volume 33, p. 5.
  5. ^ Heinrich Döring: Pfeffel von Kriegelstein (Christian Friedrich). In: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. Section 3, Part 20 (1845), p. 289, note 1.
  6. ↑ a b c d Pfeffel (Christian-Frédéric). In: Biography universelle ancienne et moderne. 2nd edition, 1843-65, Volume 33, p. 6.
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Heinrich Döring: Pfeffel von Kriegelstein (Christian Friedrich). In: General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts. Section 3, Part 20 (1845), p. 290.
  8. ↑ GHdA , Adelslexikon. Volume I, Volume 53 of the complete series, Limburg an der Lahn 1972, p. 404 f.
  9. ^ Yearbook for the history, language and literature of Alsace-Lorraine. XIV. Year, Strasbourg 1898, p. 98 f. ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
  10. ↑ Alois Feusi: Boris Johnson's Basel ancestor . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . January 25, 2018 ( nzz.ch ).
  11. ^ New necrology of the Germans . Volume 12, Weimar 1834, p. 1044 f.
  12. ^ Ernst Martin:  Pfeffel von Kriegelstein, Christian Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 613 f.
personal data
SURNAME Pfeffel von Kriegelstein, Christian Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Alsatian historian, lawyer and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1726
PLACE OF BIRTH Colmar
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1807
Place of death Paris