Elisabeth Dorothea von Wiser
Elisabeth Dorothea von Wiser (born December 12, 1718 in London , † February 8, 1771 in Friedelsheim ) was a Palatine countess, landlady and benefactress of the village of Friedelsheim.
origin
She was the daughter of the Prussian general or minister Christoph Martin von Degenfeld-Schomberg and through her mother Maria von Schomberg (1692–1762), daughter of general Meinhard von Schomberg (1641–1719) and the Raugräfin Karoline Elisabeth (1659–1696) , at the same time a great-granddaughter of Elector Karl I. Ludwig von der Pfalz .
Life
According to the house laws of their strictly reformed family, the children were only allowed to marry Protestants or to marry only such partners. Nevertheless, Elisabeth Dorothea began a liaison with the Catholic Count Carl Joseph von Wiser , colonel of the Electorate of the Palatinate , privy councilor and chamberlain . He was the son of Franz Joseph von Wiser (1679–1755), Electoral Palatinate Vice Chancellor and Oberamtmann in Kaiserslautern , Neustadt an der Weinstrasse and Heidelberg . After his death in 1755, Carl Joseph inherited the village and half of Friedelsheim Castle in 1758 . In order to be able to marry her bridegroom, Elisabeth Dorothea von Degenfeld-Schomberg fled from her parents' house in Heidelberg with the help of the inaugurated stable master Holtzmann, a regimental comrade of her future husband. This happened on the night of May 11th to 12th, 1751. In Mannheim she met Carl Joseph von Wiser and both fled to the Oggersheim monastery , where they were married by a priest that same morning. With this illicit love marriage, the parental family was faced with a fait accompli.
Her father then tries to disinherit her. She was originally entitled to 40,000 guilders as dowry. The Wiser couple litigated this money for three years. Finally, the Palatinate Court in Mannheim confirmed the legality of the claims, under threat of expropriation of Degenfeld's land. The father then turned to the King of England for help. The dispute ultimately escalated into a political issue between the Protestant and Catholic nobility. In the end there was a compromise in which Christoph Martin von Degenfeld-Schomberg managed at least to save face. The daughter Elisabeth Dorothea von Wiser submitted to parental grace, confessed to “her disobedience and mistakes made” and finally received a severance payment of 30,000 guilders, renouncing any further claims, “solely from parental grace”.
From 1758 the couple lived in Friedelsheim as rulers and local rulers. The connection is said to have been happy and harmonious, but remained without offspring.
Carl Joseph von Wiser died on April 14, 1770, at the age of 46, and was buried in his parents' grave in the Catholic Carmelite Church in Heidelberg . His widow survived him for almost a year and died on February 8, 1771 at Friedelsheim Castle. Still of Reformed faith, they were buried in a crypt under the choir of the Protestant Church in Friedelsheim . She had given their congregation a silver baptismal set in 1770, with the stipulation that they would never be sold. This is also recorded in the dedication inscription on the bottom of the baptismal bowl . The baptismal set is visible today in the choir of the church, above her grave. It is located in an openwork metal shrine mounted on a sandstone stele. This modern "font" is the work of the Palatinate artist Gernot Rumpf .
In her will, Elisabeth Dorothea von Wiser bequeathed 50 guilders each to the Reformed, Lutheran and Catholic communities in Friedelsheim. It also has a foundation of 500 guilders for the benefit of the Reformed community. Of this, 300 guilders should be invested in such a way that a schoolmaster could be paid from the annual interest income, and the school building should be maintained from the interest of the remaining 200 guilders. If a new school building were necessary in the future, these 200 guilders could also be used for it. She left a further 1200 guilders to the reformed parish, from whose interest income the local pastor's salary was to be increased. After her death, the castle and local rule of Friedelsheim fell to her husband's nephew, Joseph Johann von Wiser (1764–1840).
literature
- Paul Richter, Karl Urban: Elisabeth Dorothea Countess von Wiser, née Countess von Degenfeld-Schonburg - a remarkable lady of the castle in Friedelsheim. Friedelsheimer Heimatblätter, year 2000, No. 1, Friedelsheim community; (Find hint)
- Helmut Meinhardt: The church district Bad Dürkheim. Evangelischer Presseverlag Pfalz, Speyer, 2002, ISBN 3-925536-85-X , p. 34f.
- Wilhelm Henning Spindler: The Evangelical (Protestant) Church in Friedelsheim. Protestant parish Friedelsheim, 1986.
Web links
- Website on personalities from Friedelsheim (Countess Wiser as 1st person)
- PDF document of the Protestant church district Bad Dürkheim on the history of the couple ( Memento from July 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Finding information on the Countess's estate files in the Landersarchiv Karlsruhe in the German Digital Library
Individual evidence
- ^ Parents at Degenfeld-Schomburg, Christoph Martin Graf von. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- ↑ Tomb inscription handed down from the parents in the Heidelberg Carmelite Church
- ↑ Chronik von Friedelsheim, 1758 ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Website for the Carmelite Church in Heidelberg
- ↑ Website about the burial place in the Heidelberg Carmelite Church
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wiser, Elisabeth Dorothea from |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Elisabeth Dorothea von Degenfeld-Schomberg (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Countess of the Electorate of the Palatinate and benefactress of the village of Friedelsheim |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 12, 1718 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 8, 1771 |
| Place of death | Friedelsheim |