Clemens Lothar Ferdinand von Fürstenberg

Clemens Lothar von Fürstenberg. Painting today at Herdringen Castle

Baron Clemens Lothar Ferdinand von Fürstenberg (born August 18, 1725 in Aachen , † June 26, 1791 in Herdringen ) was Fideikommissherr of the Westphalian house of Fürstenberg as well as hereditary support of various offices in the Duchy of Westphalia .

family

He was the son of Christian Franz Dietrich von Fürstenberg-Herdringen and Maria Anna Theresia Agnes Luise von Hochsteden. Patrons of his baptism were among others the Electors Lothar Franz von Schönborn and Clemens August von Bayern. He was married to Sophie Charlotte Wilhelmine von Hoensbroeck, with whom he had eight children. There were five sons and three daughters. Some of them died young. The youngest daughter Maria Franziska, the eldest and the two youngest sons remained. The relationship with his eldest son Franz Clemens was fraught with conflict. He called the son a fool. Because of the completely broken relationship with his eldest son, he designated his second son Friedrich Leopold von Fürstenberg as the main heir in his will in 1787. The son Theodor von Fürstenberg received the possessions on the Rhine and Maas. He became the founder of the Fürstenberg-Stammheim line.

Life

He spent the first few years mostly in Aachen. After his father remarried, he lived at Herdringen Castle and was tutored by spiritual tutors. Since 1742 he pursued foreign studies and was accompanied by a clerical court master. First he attended the Dreikönigsgymnasium in Cologne . He then studied law in Cologne, Fulda , and finally at the University of Würzburg and in Salzburg . As early as 1733 he received his first tonsure in Paderborn and in 1742 a Paderborn cathedral priest. A short time later he also received a prebend in Trier .

By assuming the maternal inheritance as a result of the deaths of both sisters, he soon left the clergy again. The prebende in Paderborn took over his brother Friedrich Karl von Fürstenberg. Instead, Clemens Lothar von Fürstenberg took over the ownership of the von Hochsteden family. From 1749 he lived at Obsinnig Castle in the Duchy of Jülich .

Public offices

From 1744 he held the honorary office of an Elector of Cologne Chamberlain . Around 1749 he was sworn up to the knighthood of the Duchy of Westphalia . In 1753 he was appointed to the Westphalian aristocratic council. After the death of his father, he also succeeded him as heir to the offices of Bilstein , Waldenburg and Fredeburg . He was also court lord in Oberkirchen and hereditary bailiff of the monasteries Grafschaft and Ewig . As Bishop of Munster, Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels appointed him a real secret council in 1763. His actual political activity remained limited. Although he attended the Arnsberg state parliaments, he was rarely present at the state parliaments of Münster and Paderborn. Nevertheless, he kept himself up to date on the political situation through extensive reading and contacts, especially with his brothers Franz von Fürstenberg and Franz Egon von Fürstenberg . Most of the official business as Drost was also carried out by agents. He became directly active in 1765/66 when he turned against the wave of emigration to Hungary. Extensive political correspondence has come down to us in connection with the episcopal elections after the death of Clemens August von Bayern . He then maintained good relationships with Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels.

Management of property

More important than the political life was the administration of the strongly grown family property. Through a settlement in 1756 with the step-siblings through severance payments, he became the sole owner of the family entourage. As a co-administrator of the family property, he had already been active during his father's lifetime and ran various initiatives to improve income, including from hammer mills and mining. Heavy loads were connected with the Seven Years War . These problems were kept within certain limits by the fact that the properties outside Westphalia were not affected by the war. Nonetheless, he was temporarily forced to melt down parts of the family silver. He introduced a precise income and expenditure accounting on his estates. As an administrator, he preferred practitioners to theoretically trained people. In this context it also belongs that he strictly had lease arrears collected. Clemens Lothar did not rely on the written reports of his administrators, but also regularly inspected distant properties personally.

He increased the property. Clemens Lothar Ferdinand von Fürstenberg acquired the Fresekenhof in 1766 , which combined 208 acres of land and hunting rights . He also acquired Gut Valbert in the parish of Oedingen in 1788. Clemens Lothar also acquired the Burgholdingshausen estate from those von Brabeck and the associated shares in the Müsener Stahlberg in Siegerland. Associated with this was membership in the imperial knighthood. He managed the inherited mines and hammer mills carefully, but unlike his son, he hardly expanded this part of the property. He lived at Adolfsburg Castle from 1758 until the end of the 1780s . Under his direction, the von Fürstenberg family's property holdings, which had grown continuously over the centuries, were closed in one hand for the last time. On the basis of his will of July 27, 1787, the property was divided among his three sons.

Private life

He ran considerable horse breeding at Herdringen Castle. He also made a name for himself as a dog breeder. At the same time he was bibliophile and expanded the library at Adolfsburg. Among other things, he acquired the former library of the Liege Carthusians. He was in close correspondence with other book lovers. He also organized and recorded the castle archives.

In old age he had an eccentric lifestyle and was placed under guardianship at the instigation of his brothers in 1787. At that time his relatives had already placed him in the monastery of the observants in Paderborn for care and control. He fought vehemently and successfully against the attribution of a mental illness. In 1788 he was allowed to manage his estates again.

literature

• Helmut Richtering: Clemens Lothar von Fürstenberg (1725–1791). In: Fürstenberg's story. Vol. 4. Münster, 1979. pp. 87-100

Individual evidence

1. ^ Objects from Südsauerlandmuseum Attendorn (museum-digital: westfalen). Retrieved February 7, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Welcome to the portal of the archives in NRW. Retrieved February 7, 2017 .