Ernst Christian August von Gersdorff

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ernst Christian August von Gersdorff, portrait from 1829
Memorial plaque on the house at Wielandstrasse 2 in Weimar

Ernst Christian August Freiherr von Gersdorff (born November 23, 1781 in Herrnhut , Saxony , † October 19, 1852 in Weimar ) was Minister of State of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenachs , diplomat and participant in the Congress of Vienna from 1819 to 1848 .

origin

Ernst Christian August Freiherr von Gersdorff was born in the pious and strictly Protestant community of Herrnhut near Zittau in Saxony. The families living there lived according to their understanding of the gospel and voluntarily imposed strict rules on godly behavior, for example through daily Bible readings. All residents wore the same simple costume. His parents were Ernst Sigismund von Gersdorff (1737–97) and his wife Beata Christiane Charlotte von Schweinitz (1738–1785), a daughter of Hans Christian von Schweinitz . His father was a master on Ober- and Niederaltseidenberg as well as Neuklix in Upper Lusatia, as well as senior civis of the Moravian Brothers University. The lawyer and homeopath Heinrich August von Gersdorff was his stepbrother and his father's second marriage to Countess Charlotte von Pfeil.

Youth and career advancement

Von Gersdorff lost his mother at the age of four and attended the Niesky pedagogy from 1788 . There he learned Latin and ancient Greek , which should prove useful in his further life.

From 1801 he studied at the University of Leipzig , later in Wittenberg , Jura and classical philology . After three years, however, he had to leave the university because of a duel and became lieutenant in the Dresden Corps of the Saxon Guard , although this did not particularly inspire him.

In 1807 von Gersdorff became an assessor through Herrnhuter Relations , and a short time later he even became a councilor in the community service of the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. As early as 1810, due to his “erudition and business acumen”, he was appointed to the “Secret Consilium” - the duke's advisory body - in Weimar by decree of Duke Karl August .

With the position of Vice-President of the Landscape College, he was entrusted with an important financial office in 1812. Barely 30 years old then followed the office of President of the Chamber College.

In a few years von Gersdorff was able to prove himself in the various branches of practical state administration before he entered a completely new field, that of European diplomacy. Instead of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who did not want to take part in the Congress of Vienna due to his old age, the Duke entrusted the 32-year-old Gersdorff to lead the Saxon-Weimar-Eisenach delegation.

In recognition of his services, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the House Order of the White Falcon of the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach on January 30, 1816 .

Participation in the Congress of Vienna

After eight days of travel, the delegation arrived in Vienna on September 15, 1814 , where they were to stay for over a year. For von Gersdorff it was to be the time in which he met the most famous statesmen of his time and which shaped his political thinking. Despite his difficult position as a representative of a small state, he received a lot of attention for the interests of his country due to his cosmopolitan appearance. He succeeded in getting the Prussian ambassadors Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein , Karl August von Hardenberg and Wilhelm von Humboldt to represent the little princes.

Despite his limited resources, his work in Vienna was so successful that the Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach was able to record a considerable increase in territory as a result of the Vienna agreements (even if the state lost some previous territories) and was subsequently elevated to the status of a Grand Duchy .

As a sign of recognition, von Gersdorff was appointed Privy Councilor . However , he modestly refused a manor as a gift of honor and asked for a life-size picture of his prince instead.

Constitution and State Reform

In April 1816, von Gersdorff took part as a representative of the government in the deliberations on a state constitution for the Weimar state. This new Basic Law was published in May of the same year. However, the constitution that u. a. also provided for provisions on freedom of the press, but did not last long. Under pressure from Prussia and Austria, who saw it as a violation of the Karlsbad resolutions , it had to be withdrawn.

After the Grand Duke von Gersdorff had also made head of the “regional financial budget”, he devoted himself to the financial reform of the Weimar state in the following years. Not only were various administrative deficiencies remedied, the administration and determination of the princely chamber's assets were also bound to legal norms. One result of a reform of the tax administration was the introduction of an income tax in 1822 .

After the Grand Duke's death, his son and successor Carl Friedrich kept the father's adviser. Von Gersdorff was a member of the new government as minister and head of the finance department. On March 26, 1832, as Minister of State, he led the funeral procession through the streets of Weimar for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on behalf of the absent Grand Duke.

Against the resistance of various circles, von Gersdorff spoke out in favor of joining the Prussian customs system. His advocacy for rapprochement with Prussia was honored with the award of the Grand Cross of the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle . The Grand Duchy therefore joined the Zollverein in 1833. Von Gersdorff was no longer able to implement the intention to replace the grand duke's landlord rights . In Weimar, too, the old government was replaced in the spring of 1848 by a “ March government ”. Von Gersdorff then withdrew from all state affairs, but still wrote a few memoranda in the 1850s.

Familiar

Jenny von Pappenheim ,
daughter of Jerôme Bonaparte

Gersdorff's first wife Amalie von Damnitz, daughter of Chancellor von Damnitz in Eisenach , died after only four years of marriage after the birth of their second child in 1811.

On January 20, 1816, Ernst von Gersdorff entered into a second marriage. He married Countess Diana Rabe von Pappenheim , a young widow who had lived with her three-year-old daughter Jenny for a year with her older sister Isabelle, the wife of General August Karl von und zu Egloffstein , in Weimar. Diana came from the Waldner von Freundstein family , an old German- Alsatian aristocratic family whose property and income had been greatly reduced as a result of the French Revolution . At a young age, in 1804, she became lady-in-waiting to Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna , who had recently married the Hereditary Duke Carl Friedrich. Diana married the chamberlain, Wilhelm Maximilian Rabe von Pappenheim , who was 20 years her senior and with whom she had two sons. Her husband was appointed chief master of ceremonies by the King of Westphalia , Jérôme Bonaparte , and raised to the rank of count , but only after his beautiful wife had given birth to a daughter to the Westphalian king. Another daughter of the two was born in 1813. After Wilhelm Rabe von Pappenheim's death in January 1815, Diana moved back to Weimar and married Gersdorff after his return from Vienna. The marriage lasted 28 years and was based on mutual respect, affection, and trust.

Since 1830 Diana von Gersdorff took part in the fountain cures in Karlsbad or Bad Kissingen , suffering from a steadily increasing gallbladder disease, but refused an operation because she considered it too dangerous. She died of her illness on December 18, 1844.

About eight years later, Ernst Christian August Freiherr von Gersdorff died of jaundice on October 19, 1852 .

The daughter Cécile (* 1821) married Count Friedrich von Beust (1813–1889), who was a real secret councilor of Saxony-Weimar, upper court marshal, as well as lieutenant general and adjutant general. Both also had a son, who was named Karl August von Gersdorff. He married his cousin Augusta Theodora Waldner von Freundstein, daughter of Count Theodor Waldner von Freundstein (1786–1864). This was the brother of Diana von Gersdorff.

Fonts

  • Philoctetes: tragedy of Sophocles. (Translated by: Ernst Christian August von Gersdorff). Weimar 1827.
  • Prussia's hereditary partnership brought about by the Royal Embassy of January 7, 1850. Weimar 1850.
  • Family tables of the Grand Ducal House of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. Weimar 1842.
  • View of the relationship between the declaration of Sr. Majesty of the King of Hanover Ernst August I to the state constitution of September 26, 1833 "not to be bound either formally or materially" to the public rights of the German Federation and the federal states. Weimar 1837.

literature

Web links

Commons : Ernst Christian August von Gersdorff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/rsc/viewer/jportal_derivate_00226358/Weimarisches-Wochenblatt_1816_0045.tif
  2. ↑ Hubert Erzmann / Rainer Wagner (editor), Weimar viewed from below. Fragments of a chronicle from 1806 to 1835 recorded by Franz David Gesky . Glaux-Verlag Jena, 1997, p. 199. ISBN 3-931743-15-2
  3. ^ Genealogical website for the couple
  4. ↑ On the couple's property in Silesia
personal data
SURNAME Gersdorff, Ernst Christian August von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gersdorff, Ernst Christian August Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and participant in the Congress of Vienna
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1781
PLACE OF BIRTH Herrnhut
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1852
Place of death Weimar