Clemens von Waldburg-Zeil-Lustenau-Hohenems

Clemens Alois Graf von Waldburg-Zeil-Hohenems (born August 13, 1753 , † March 10, 1817 in Kempten ) was the founder of the Waldburg-Zeil-Hohenems line .

Life

Clemens Alois, portrait around 1785

Alliance coat of arms Clemens with Maria Rebecca 1779

He was married to Maria Walburga Josepha Cajetana (* October 22, 1762; † May 25, 1828), daughter of Franz Xaver, Count of Harrach-Rohrau , Austrian field marshal , and Maria Rebecca Countess of Hohenems .

On November 6, 1759, the last male member of the old Hohenems family, Franz Wilhelm III, the ruling Count of Hohenems, died . His daughter, Countess Maria Rebekka, who was born in 1742 and was married to Count Franz Xaver von Harrach and Rohrau († February 15, 1781), took possession of the imperial court Lustenau on November 17, 1759, while the county and the imperial fief of Hohenems passed lawfully to Austria.

On December 6, 1766, Lustenau was also taken over by Austria . After Maria Rebekka had initially given up trial efforts against Austria, Count Clemens von Waldburg-Zeil-Lustenau-Hohenems resumed the legal dispute on September 9, 1784, after he became Maria Rebekka's only daughter, Countess Maria Walpurga von Harrach-Hohenems-Rohrau in 1779 , had married.

After twenty years of legal dispute, Austria recognized the sovereign rights of Countess Maria Rebekka over the Reichshof Lustenau on January 24, 1786. These rights were confirmed and ratified on March 22, 1790 by a state treaty between Austria and the Countess. Thus Maria Rebekka remained the ruling Countess of Lustenau. Accordingly, Lustenau remained officially independent, but should remain in close contact with Austria.

After the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of February 28, 1803, the principalities of the Waldburg-Zeil and Waldburg-Wolfegg families lost their independence and were mainly part of Württemberg . The county of Lustenau was incorporated into Bavaria in 1806. Bavaria, under the title of sovereignty, withdrew all payments from direct and indirect taxes without compensation and assigned them to the state treasury by ordinance. As a result, the Bavarian State Treasury received tax revenues of 356 guilders and 17 cruisers annually from the use of Lustenau.

By means of a contract concluded on May 21, 1813 in Kempten / Bavaria and June 23, 1813 in Kunewald in Bohemia , Countess Maria Walburga retroactively transferred all possessions in the state of Vorarlberg, including Lustenau, to her husband, Count Clemens, to January 1, 1813 to Waldburg-Zeil. Count Clemens, the new lord of Lustenau, formed a local court there. Bavaria confirmed the Count's Lustenau patrimonial court by rescript of December 24, 1813 .

On June 3, 1814, in accordance with the Paris Convention, Bavaria, as a former ally of France , had to return Salzburg , the Innviertel , Tyrol and Vorarlberg - as had been achieved by the Peace Treaty of Pressburg - with the exception of the Weiler regional court .

On February 14, 1816, Count Clemens demanded the restitution of Lustenau from Austria, which would have meant Lustenau's full state independence. He invoked the State Treaty of 1790 and demanded the restoration of the sovereign rights that had been withdrawn in 1806 and the reparation of the injustice committed by Bavaria and subsequently by Austria. Furthermore, he demanded a reimbursement of the financial losses incurred.

Count Clemens, who died in Kempten on March 10, 1817 after two sons and two daughters had died in childhood, had appointed his nephew, Count Maximilian, as his universal heir in his will. This had now become master of all Hohenems and Lustenau allodial possessions . In 1830 Maximilian decided to renounce Lustenau de jure .

literature

• Wolfgang Scheffknecht: The nobles from Embs to Hohenems. Lustenau 1982.
• Priscilla Waldburg-Zeil: The palace of Hohenems light and shadow. From the family history of Waldburg-Zeil-Hohenems and Schönborn-Wiesentheid . Self-published, Hohenems 2004, ISBN 963-86305-9-0 .