Erich Christoph von Plotho

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Erich Christoph von Plotho

Erich Christoph Edler Lord and Baron von Plotho (born September 23, 1707 in Parey ; † January 27, 1788 in Zedtwitz ) was a German politician.

origin

He came from the noble family of Plotho . His parents were the later Prussian Justice Minister Ludwig Otto Edler Herr and Freiherr von Plotho (1663–1731) and his wife Christiane von Brandenstein.

Life

After studying law at the University of Frankfurt , on March 30, 1734, he became Legation Councilor of the Prussian embassy in Regensburg under Baron von Danckelmann. Then he received from King Friedrich Wilhelm I the order to negotiate with the Bishop of Salzburg Leopold Anton von Firmian about the compensation for the Protestants expelled from Salzburg .

On August 20, 1737, Plotho asked to be recalled so that he could look after his property. The negotiations with the Salzburgers did not end until 1740. On September 16, 1739, he was appointed secret judge of justice and higher appeal judge in Berlin, which earned him a salary of 700 thalers. In 1741 he took over a diplomatic mission to Hanover, where he became an authorized minister. There he had the task of preventing the rapprochement between Brandenburg and France leading to a break with Hanover. Plotho was even discussed as ambassador for England, but was called back after two years.

On November 5, 1742, he was appointed district president in Magdeburg as the successor to Karl Friedrich von Dacheröden (1705–1742). He held this office until 1748. After the Peace of Dresden , he initially withdrew to his wife's estates and lived for several years in Hessian at Arnstein Castle or in Franconia on the estates near Ansbach and Bayreuth.

When the Brandenburg ambassador von Pollmann died on November 29, 1753, it was difficult to find a successor, not least because the offered salary of 1200 thalers was too low. Because of his fortune, Plotho was not dependent on it, and it was proposed to the king that he be appointed. As compensation he should get the title of a real secret budget and war minister. And so on February 19, 1754 he was appointed Brandenburg Comitial Envoy and Prussian Minister of State. On April 22nd he received his instructions and in July 1754 he arrived in Regensburg. He took up his position there during the Seven Years' War to the satisfaction of his King Frederick II . At the beginning of the war, however, his presumptuous demeanor meant that the declaration of the imperial war against Brandenburg and Hanover was also supported by most of the Protestant imperial estates. With the attempt to convene a Protestant counter-Reichstag in Mühlhausen , Goslar or Nordhausen , he only aroused the suspicion that Brandenburg wanted to destroy the Reich. He then became more cautious and traveled to many royal courts during the war. Protected by his immunity as a member of parliament, he also visited the royal courts in southern Germany and was able to achieve a change in mood. Ultimately, this led to the failure of a process aimed at by Austria to take Frederick II into imperial ban . Plotho had many expenses during this time that cost him his fortune. He had agents in many cities, for example Isaak Iselin in Basel , for whom he received money from the king.

After the war, he wanted the king to reimburse this money, which he did not do well because he was now out of favor. In addition, he had withheld payments from the Archbishop of Salzburg, 18,427 thalers and 8 groschen. Against the advice of his ministers, the king collected the arrears from Plotho. But he could not pay, and so the judiciary withdrew 392 thalers a year from the brother's possessions on Parey. On April 26, 1766, Plotho submitted his departure and withdrew to his wife's property.

On April 30, 1770, the ministers asked the king to discontinue the proceedings and referred to the merits of Plotho. And so he spent the last few years on the estates of his wife in the margravates of Ansbach and Bayreuth; outside of his homeland. He died there on January 27, 1788.

family

On August 13, 1743 he married Freiin Charlotte Wilhelmine Eleonore von Bodenhausen (* February 11, 1720; † 1780), daughter of Otto Wilke von Bodenhausen (1681–1742), on Arnstein, and Eleonore Magdalene von Stein . The couple had several children including:

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Genealogical tables of the von Bodenhausen family with documents, panel IV.
  2. ↑ Bayreuther Zeitung: 1815, p.1100 obituary notice
personal data
SURNAME Plotho, Erich Christoph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plotho, Erich Christoph Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian diplomat and district president
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1707
PLACE OF BIRTH Parey
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1788
Place of death Zedtwitz