Ernst Christoph von Manteuffel

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Ernst Christoph von Manteuffel

Ernst Christoph von Manteuffel , Count von Manteuffel since 1719 , (* 1676 in Kerstin , Pomerania ; † January 30, 1749 in Leipzig ) was the Electoral Saxon envoy and cabinet minister, Habsburg secret agent, writer and patron of the enlightened Christian Wolff and his followers.

Life

The Manteuffel , who came from a Pomeranian noble family , was the owner of the Polish indigenous society under the nickname Kielpinski. In March 1705 von Manteuffel was appointed court and legation councilor and sent to Copenhagen as envoy . His task was to prepare a new alliance between Denmark and Saxony against Sweden in the Great Northern War , which came about in 1709. In October 1707 he returned to Saxony for two years and was entrusted with the correspondence with Polish greats. In 1708 he received the title of Real Chamberlain. In 1709 Manteuffel was raised to the baron status by Emperor Joseph I. From September 1709 to the end of 1710 he was again active as the Saxon envoy in Copenhagen. From the end of 1711 to 1717 he held the position of a Saxon envoy in Berlin . In 1715/16 he was promoted to cabinet minister and real secret council. He stayed at both the Polish court in Warsaw and the Saxon court in Dresden . From 1728 he directed the Saxon-Polish foreign policy and organized it both pro-Habsburg and pro-Prussian. One of Karl Heinrich Graf von Hoym mentioned court party, which advocated closer ties to the French crown and a innerreichische policy of greater confrontation with Vienna, forced him in 1730 to the resignation .

Manteuffel retired to his ancestral estate Kerstin in Hinterpommern until 1733 and had a country house built there called Kummerfrey , which later served Friedrich II as the inspiration for the Potsdam “ Sanssouci ”.

In the further course of the 1730s Manteuffel stayed mainly in Berlin and served as an informant to the Dresden court and at least until the death of Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1736 also to the Viennese court. At the same time he began to campaign for the rehabilitation of the philosopher Christian Wolff, who was expelled from Brandenburg-Prussia in 1723. From 1736 Manteuffel gradually built up a network of scholars, theologians, publishers and journalists, which became the most important basis for the dissemination of Wolff's Enlightenment philosophy in the late 1730s and 1740s. The focus was on the “ Societas Alethophilorum ” founded by Manteuffel , which included Johann Gustav Reinbeck , Jean Henri Samuel Formey , Jean Deschamps , Ambrosius Haude , Johann Christoph Gottsched and his wife Luise Adelgunde Victorie Gottsched . Up to the end of the 1740s there were almost 50 members. In 1743 Manteuffel joined the Freemason Lodge Minerva to the three palms in Leipzig.

The palace "Zum Kurprinz" in Leipzig

In November 1740, Friedrich II had Manteuffel deported from Berlin. A few days later, the Prussian attack began on Habsburg Silesia and thus the territory that separated Saxony and Poland ( first Silesian War ). Manteuffel moved to Leipzig and lived there in the “Zum Kurprinz” palace on Roßplatz . From 1729 he also owned the Lauer estate south of Leipzig. His salon in the Kurprinz and in summer in Gut Lauer became the meeting place for Leipzig scholars. The network of Wolff's supporters in Central Germany was controlled from here. The high point of its effectiveness can be seen in the debate about Leibniz 's doctrine of monads through the price question advertised by the Berlin Academy in 1746 , in the course of which Manteuffel succeeded in forcing the Academy under its President Maupertuis to partially revise its price decision directed against Leibniz and his pupil Wolff . In the same year Manteuffel joined the German Society in Greifswald .

family

Katharina Elisabeth Freiin von Chwałkowsky

Manteuffel got engaged on February 15, 1712 to Katharina Elisabeth Freiin von Chwałkowsky (* July 31, 1700 - September 19, 1712), a daughter of Samuel von Chwałkowo-Chwałkowsky . However, she died of peeling in the same year. In 1713 he married in Teschen with Gottliebe Agnese Charlotte von Bludowsky (* August 31, 1690 - † May 4, 1756) (also: Gottlieba Agneta Bludovska) widow of Sylvius Erdmann von Trach and Birkau . The couple had the following children:

  • August Jakob (* / † 1719)
  • Charlotte Sophie Albertine (August 4, 1714, † 1768)
  • Wilhelmine Ernestine (* July 4, 1715; † 1771) ⚭ March 28, 1730 Friedrich August Edler von Plotho († 1735) Chamberlain
  • Friederike Marie Margarete (* 1716)
  • Henriette Johanna Konstantia (* February 4, 1718 - October 20, 1785), 1761 first lady-in-waiting of the Princess of Nassau-Weilburg
⚭ Balthasar Friedrich von der Goltz (1708–1757)
⚭ October 23, 1765, The Hague Albrecht von Hammerstein
  • Luise Marianne (January 4, 1719 - October 11, 1778) ⚭ February 15, 1743 Ferdinand von Münchhausen (1719–1780) Imperial Postmaster

In 1741 the couple adopted Christoph Friedrich von Mihlendorff (1727–1803) in order to secure the family legacy. His descendants then also bore the name of Mihlendorff Freiherren von Manteuffel for about 3 generations, until it was finally replaced by the sole name of Freiherren von Manteuffel . It cannot be ruled out that the son of the count from a liaison with Friederike Charlotte von Moggen is hiding behind the adopted son.

coat of arms

Depiction of the coat of arms of Count Ernst Christoph ( ex-libris from the 18th century)

Manteuffel was raised to the rank of imperial count in 1719 . The following coat of arms was awarded to him: A red bar in the silver field . On a crowned helmet , which stands on a nine-pearl crown covering the shield , two black eagle wings . Red and silver helmet covers . Shield holder, two backward-facing, gold-crowned white eagles with red-lipped tongues.

Trivia

In a historical novel by Luise Mühlbach , an entire chapter is devoted to Manteuffel as a diplomat. There she describes a meeting between Sophie Caroline Countess von Camas , geb. von Brandt , a confidante of Friedrich II, and Manteuffel at the Rheinsberger Hof . Both talk about Friedrich II. And Manteuffel's activities for the Austrian court, in which Manteuffel made no secret of his political convictions against Prussia and for Austria and the marriage between the Crown Prince and Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern , niece of the Austrian Empress, sponsored. In fact, Manteuffel was never invited to Rheinsberg.

In the historical novel The Master of Sanssouci, Manteuffel openly flirts with allegations of plagiarism against Friedrich II, who calls Rheinsberg his Sanssouci. Manteuffel had only recently told him about his country house "Sanssouci".

literature

Web links

Commons : Ernst Christoph von Manteuffel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dedication of the book by Christiane Mariane von Ziegler : Attempt In Bound Writing Art. Leipzig 1728 to the Imperial Count Mr. Ernst Christoph, von Manteufel, Kielpinski ( online )
  2. ↑ Otto Werner Förster: Registries of the Freemason lodges Minerva to the three palms as well as the earlier, independent lodges Aux trois compas and Minerva to the Circul 1741 to 1932 . 2nd corrected delivery 2005 edition. TAURUS Verlag, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 978-3-9807753-2-8 , p. 124 .
  3. ↑ Detlef Döring et al .: Johann Christoph Gottsched. Correspondence. July 1739 - July 1740: Including the correspondence from Luise Adelgunde Victorie Gottsched. 2012, p. 682. ( online )
  4. ^ Johann Christoph Gottsched , Rosemary Scholl: Selected works: Collected speeches. Edited by PM Mitchell; edit by Rosemary Scholl, Volume 9, Leipzig 1728. to the Imperial Count Herr Ernst Christoph, von Manteufel, Kielpinski ( online )
  5. ^ Julius Theodor Bagmihl : Pommersches Wappenbuch. Volume 1, 1843, p. 147. ( online )
  6. ^ Luise Mühlbach : Friedrich the Great and his court: historical novel. Volume 4, 1853.
  7. ↑ Claus Back , Martin Stade : The Master of Sanssouci: Histor. Novel. 1971, p. 54. ( online )
predecessor Office successor
Jakob Heinrich von Flemming Electoral Saxon envoy in Copenhagen
1705–1711 		Jost Friedrich von Arnstedt
Establishment of diplomatic relations in 1711 Electoral Saxon envoy in Berlin
1711–1717 		Albrecht von der Lieth
personal data
SURNAME Manteuffel, Ernst Christoph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Manteuffel, Ernst Christoph Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saxon envoy and cabinet minister
DATE OF BIRTH 1676
PLACE OF BIRTH Kerstin , Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1749
Place of death Leipzig