Erdmann von Stein

Erdmann von Stein (born November 13, 1662 in Bayreuth , † August 18, 1739 at Birken Castle near Bayreuth) was Chief Steward, Real Privy Councilor and Prime Minister of Bayreuth .

Life and family environment

Christian Erdmann Freiherr von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim auf Emtmannsberg , Ruppers , Nord- und Ostheim , Hochfürstllch-Brandenburgischer Hofrat, Kammerjunker, Erbtruchseß of the Burgraviate of Nuremberg , Governor in Hof (1701–1720) and then Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Lord Chamberlain was born as the son of the Chancellor of the Bayreuth margrave , Baron Carl von Stein . He came from the old Frankish imperial knighthood dynasty of the Stein zu Nordheim and Ostheim, who were wealthy in Franconia and Thuringia. His mother was his father's first wife, Maria Katharina von Oeppe (1632–1664). Erdmann von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim died on August 18, 1739 at Birken Castle near Bayreuth.

He was married since November 12, 1684 to his first cousin Erdmuthe Sophie von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim (1662–1715), daughter of Lorenz von Stein, his father's brother and Margaretha Barbara von Laineck . Erdmuthe had inherited her mother as early as 1671 and, after the death of the last lord of the Laineck family on July 5, 1684, became the universal heir of a huge fortune consisting of the estates of Förbau , Schwarzenbach an der Saale , Isaar , Joditz and Zedtwitz . The entire property had once been amassed by her great-grandfather Urban Caspar von Feilitzsch († September 17, 1649), who was also the Margravial Brandenburg Privy Councilor and Chancellor. In the absence of male descendants, he made his two grandchildren from the Laineck family, the children of his last daughter, who died in 1644, universal heirs in his will. The inheritance should be passed on to their children in a straight line as a son and daughter loan. Amazingly, the property was passed on to daughters from 1684 until the end of the 18th century. In these cases, however, men had to be provided as fiefdoms who performed the knightly service and received the fiefdom for the heiress. On September 6, 1684, Lorenz von Stein, Brandenburg privy councilor and governor of Wunsiedel , took possession of the inheritance and everything that went with it, as the fief of his daughter Erdmuthe Sophie von Stein. After the death of her father, Erdmann von Stein moved up as her husband as the fiefdom holder of the goods. Since only two daughters of the couple's children remained alive, this was repeated in a similar way when Erdmuthe died in 1715.

These processes did not go smoothly, especially when Erdmann decided to marry again in 1718. The chosen one was Christiane Charlotte Freiin von Erffa (1687–1752), daughter of Hans Wilhelm von Erffa auf Birken, Oberhofmarschall of the Margrave Christian Ernst von Bayreuth . This marriage remained childless. Undreamt of this, his daughters, Countess Catharina Sophie von Schönburg and Baroness Eleonore Magdalene von Bodenhausen, with the support of their husbands, demanded the surrender of the property administered by their father as a Fidei commissum . He had been owing his payment obligations for a long time. When the father asked the daughters to redeem the fiefs that were still in his hands, he estimated the value at 90,000 guilders , and they felt compelled to contact the Imperial Councilor in Vienna. As the highest German court, this was the final instance. There her complaint was dismissed as unfounded, as it was not a Fideikommiss, since the father was the owner of the goods neither during his wife's lifetime nor after her death and she gave him the use of it voluntarily, in a "harmless interim settlement", would have allowed.

He lived with his second wife from 1724 until his death in 1739 at Birken Castle not far from Bayreuth. The palace, in which his wife Christiane Charlotte spent her childhood, was not completed until 1692. During the summer months, Birken was the permanent residence of the margravial minister. In the audience hall he received court officials, envoys and petitioners, in the baroque hall splendid celebrations took place, in which Margravine Wilhelmine and Margrave Friedrich also took part.

Erdmann von Stein, who in addition to his public duties also took on the administration of his wife and daughters' estates, also had his inherited lands, in particular Nordheim, which his father inherited in 1675. He had made it his business not only to manage the property, but also to beautify it. From 1686 to 1689 he had Emtmannsberg Castle built, in 1704 he had the Johanneskirche (Joditz) built on the foundations of an older predecessor building as the patronage church, and from 1717 he worked at Gut Zedtwitz , where he had farm buildings and the extensive baroque castle built. His younger half-brother Carl von Stein auf Völkershausen had died in 1733 without leaving any sons. After Erdmann's death, Emtmannsberg fell to the Margraviate Bayreuth as a reversion in 1739. Schloss und Gut Zedtwitz came to Erich Christoph von Plotho through his daughter Eleonore Magdalene .

progeny

The two daughters of Freiherr von Stein from his first marriage to Erdmuthe Sophie von Stein were:

• Catharina Sophie Freiin von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim (born March 13, 1688; † January 23, 1748)

⚭ January 27, 1706 Count Ludwig Friedrich von Schönburg- Stein (November 4, 1681; † April 3, 1736)

• Eleonore Magdalene Freiin von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim († 1762)

⚭ February 21, 1718 Baron Otto Wilke von Bodenhausen (* August 18, 1681 † 1742)

The two sisters agreed to share the maternal inheritance. Förbau and Schwarzenbach an der Saale came to the Schönburg house through Catharina Sophie . Isaar , Joditz and Zedtwitz came to the House of Plotho through Eleonore Magdalenes daughter .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Succincta Species facti , 1722
2. ↑ Peter Rothenbücher KG: Tour Margravial Castles - Birken Castle [1]
3. ↑ Safe news from Brandenburg-culmbach or the Fürstenthume Des Burggrafthums Nürnberg above the mountains, with touching its borders, communicated with gracious permission by Paul Daniel Longolius , 1761, page 243 [2]
4. ↑ Parifikationsrezess between Countess Catharina Sophia of Schönburg and Dame Eleanor Magdalenenstrasse of Bodenhausen on the distribution of goods and Förbau Schwarzenbach / S. as well as Isaar, Joditz and Zedtwitz, 1748 [3]