Ernst Friedrich Herbert of Munster

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Count Ernst zu Münster Freiherr von Grothaus;
Oil painting by Eduard Ströhling , 1822

Ernst Friedrich Herbert Graf zu Münster , also von Münster , (born March 1, 1766 in Osnabrück , † May 20, 1839 in Hanover ) was a German statesman and politician in the service of the United Kingdom and the House of Hanover .

Life

Origin, family

Ernst zu Münster came from the old Westphalian noble family von Münster and was born as the son of the Prince-Bishop's Court Marshal Georg Ludwig Dietrich von Münster (until 1792 also von Mönster ) and his second wife Eleonore von Grothaus , who in addition to his ancestral seat Surenburg from his first marriage through the Ledenburg estate near Osnabrück and lived in both places until Surenburg was sold. His father served the last Prince-Bishop Prince Friedrich August of Great Britain and Ireland , who was made bishop as early as 1764 as an infant and ward. This resulted in the good relations between the von Münster family and the Hanover family. The family was raised to the rank of count in 1792 by the Imperial Vicar Elector Karl Theodor von der Pfalz .

education

After attending school at the Philanthropinum in Dessau (1778–1781) and the Knights' Academy in Lüneburg (1781–1784), he enrolled in the winter semester 1784/85 to study law at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . This had already achieved an extraordinary reputation on the 50th anniversary of the university and, as the state university of the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Electorate of Hanover), was also held by the three youngest sons of King George III. visited. The acquaintance with the three Guelph Princes determined the further life of Münster, who stood out as a student at the university, also in the dispute between his student order of the Unitists and the order of the black brothers .

During his studies he heard from Christian Gottlob Heyne and Johann Dominik Fiorillo, among others .

First job

After completing his studies in July 1787, he joined the state service of the Electorate of Hanover in Hanover in 1788 as an administrative lawyer. He frequented at this time on the nearby Brunswick court of Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Braunschweig , who with the sister of the British King, Augusta , was married.

Consolidation of the relationship with the royal family

He was appointed court and chancellery advisor in Hanover in 1791, but was commissioned by the court in London in 1793 to pick up his former fellow student from Göttingen, Prince August of Hanover, the Duke of Sussex , from Rome and bring him from Italy to London. This assignment demanded all the more sensitivity since August had secretly married Lady Augusta Murray , daughter of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore , in Rome . With travel delay due to the war, this order was probably completed to the satisfaction of the court until September, and Münster stayed with the court at Windsor Castle for another four months . The mutual relations continued to strengthen during this time. King George III had ordered that his second youngest son, who had married Lady Murray a second time in London, be brought to trial for violation of the rules under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 . The Duke of Sussex was sent out of the country again in 1794, under von Münster's company, to Italy, where both of them studied art and culture in different places for the next five years, but also cultivated relationships at the Italian courts.

Start of political career

1801: Count Ernst Friedrich Herbert zu Münster on a painting by Emil Tischbein

Münster returned to Hanover in 1798 and became a councilor at the domain chamber, which is important for the electorate . In 1801 he made his first political appearance with a diplomatic assignment. The German states each tried to secure their territorial share from secularization , the Electorate of Hanover had strong interests in the Prince Diocese of Osnabrück and the Prince Diocese of Hildesheim , in the latter in strong competition with Prussia , in establishing a land connection between Brandenburg and the Rhenish-Westphalian Parts of the country. The Hanoverians sought Russian support from Tsar Alexander I in Saint Petersburg for their interest . From there he reports with horror about the previous murder of Tsar Paul and the “What do you want?” The successful completion of the mission, at least as far as the Prince Diocese of Osnabrück is concerned, was included in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , but the Electorate of Hanover was occupied in the course of the war between England and France in 1803 by the troops of Napoleon under Mortier . In the course of this crisis, von Münster stayed in Petersburg, where he was able to establish important contacts, particularly with Austrian diplomats.

Promotion to minister and time of coalition wars up to the Congress of Vienna

On his return to England, he was appointed Cabinet Minister to the King in May 1805 by the Chamber Council. Previously, he had brokered the treaty concluded on April 11th between England and Russia in London, which formed the basis of the 3rd coalition and also had the recapture of the Electorate of Hanover as its main subject. After the French withdrew, the Duke of Cambridge was appointed military commander in chief of Hanover in December 1805, while Münster was to take over civil administration. In early 1806, however, Prussia anticipated this by taking Hanover into "administrative custody", ie by occupying it. This occupation was followed in November 1806 by the French again. While Hanover was divided between France and the Kingdom of Westphalia over the next few years , the coalition forces in exile were forging future plans. Münster kept in touch with almost everyone.

Münster, who had an established relationship of trust with the House of Hanover at the British court, developed on this basis during the subsequent coalition wars into a "continuity officer" in London who survived the numerous, often alternating Prime Ministers with their cabinets. It was certainly his knowledge of the conditions on the continent and in the lost electorate that secured him in this outstanding position for decades.

With Gneisenau he discussed the plan for a large Guelph empire in northern Germany as a counterweight to Prussia and the southern German states, but also to the Netherlands under the working titles Austrasia and North Germany , a continental coastal state between the Schelde and Elbe in a secondary school connected to England as a loyal trading partner. However, these thoughts were rejected by Karl August von Hardenberg in relation to Gneisenau in 1813 because they contained a provocation to Austria.

The illness of the British king meant that the heir to the throne and Prince of Wales had to take over the reign. To guardians about the personal assets of the diseased king were from Munster and Sir Herbert Taylor ordered together. Munster remained cabinet minister in London even under the reign.

Shortly before the outbreak of the war between France and Russia in 1811, he and Gneisenau established contacts with Duke Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig, who had meanwhile also arrived in London .

The variants discussed between the diplomats and the military in exile also included the division of Germany on the Main line into a Prussian and an Austrian sphere of interest ( protectorate ), which Lord Castlereagh should not have thought to be implausible. The personal policy of Münsters, however, was more likely to be aimed at restoring the old constitution of the Holy Roman Empire in a modified form.

For the interests represented by him, the discussion came to an end with the Reichenbach Convention of June 15, 1813. This contract guaranteed the reinstatement of both Braunschweig-Lüneburg lines and the expansion of Hanover by 250,000 to 300,000 residents, including the Hildesheim Monastery.

In 1814, during the Congress of Vienna, he married Princess Wilhelmine zu Schaumburg-Lippe .

Peace of Paris and Congress of Vienna

In January 1814 he represented England alongside Castlereagh in the negotiations in Paris and, after the conclusion of the First Peace of Paris, remained there until June of that year with settlements. From September he then took part in the Congress of Vienna as the regent's agent . Hanover was by Minister Ernst von Hardenberg represented England and Castlereagh. Münster participated without instructions. Among the representatives of the medium and small states in the Congress, von Munster was one of the most prominent. In terms of the negotiation results, it was even highly effective for the House of Hanover : First of all, because of its geographical size, the "South German surveys" such as Württemberg "automatically" raised it to a kingdom. According to the previous agreements, the national territory was expanded by 1/5 of the previous area or 250 thousand inhabitants. On the imperial political level, von Munster saw the polarity between Prussia and Austria, which would endanger everything, in front of the stage of the manifold vanities of German rulers of small states and hoped for the Netherlands (represented by the Hessian statesman and politician Hans von Gagern, who is well known to him ) as the third force in the middle of Germany and the Prince of Orange as a ruler associated with Hessen-Nassau . In summary: von Münster was concerned about the future ambitions of Prussia and at the same time was not only uncertain about the possibilities and limits of Austria. Russia did not enjoy the sympathies of London under its Tsar Alexander I, but Alexander had already given the much larger Hanover to his relative, the Duke of Oldenburg . Against this background, von Münster first had to “rethink” the possible incorporation of Saxony by Prussia; a division of Saxony would increase the diplomatic scope for action in the power structure of the smaller and medium-sized German states for a resurrected Hanover. In this respect, von Münster pursued a policy at the Congress of Vienna that was determined by the aversion to a hegemony of Prussia, especially in (north-west) Germany, as well as at the European level by a rejection of the coalition between Prussia and Russia. Here, the stepped German Confederation debilitating conflict between the German powers Prussia and Austria is clear that should shape the future development of the 19th century. The assertion of the independent Hanoverian interests of the British royal family was certainly the most important of the diplomatic achievements of Münster.

Guardianship and execution of wills in the Duchy of Braunschweig

Count and Countess Münster with their son Georg Herbert (1820–1902)

The Black Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Brunswick had before his death in 1815 in the Battle of Quatre Bras , his brother the British heir to the throne , as guardian of his children Karl and Wilhelm ordered. In this will he had delegated the administration of his property affairs to Ernst zu Munster, Lord Liverpool and George Canning . The custodial government of the Duchy of Braunschweig did not take place through the Royal Ministry in Hanover, but directly by von Münster in cooperation with the Secret Council College in Braunschweig under Count Gebhard von der Schulenburg-Wolfsburg , after his death in 1818 under Count Johann Ernst von Alvensleben . The Hanoverian diplomat Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Linsingen was appointed as tutor of the two princes. When Duke Karl was 18 years old, he claimed government power in Braunschweig from his guardian and his executors, and a dispute arose about the correct age: 18 or 21 years, but against the background that Duke Karl II. Was either not yet or not at all considered capable of governing. Prince Metternich , who had made the acquaintance of the young duke in Vienna, exercised his influence, so that the guardian then recognized that Charles had reached the age of nineteen. Immediately after taking over the throne in Braunschweig, the latter began a campaign that also damaged von Münster and prompted the drafting of justifications to defend and exonerate King George IV, who was included in the campaign. The Duke replied to this with another diatribe and asked Munster for a duel . He had the demand conveyed to the count through the horse auctioneer Richard Tattersall from London, which, according to the comment of the time , amounted to a further insult. Münster was forbidden to accept the claim by the British King. The matter escalated, there was a further demand from a forester from Munster, which was then concerned not only with the governments of Prussia and Austria, but also with the Federal Assembly of the German Confederation . The uprising of the Braunschweig population against the hated diamond duke ended the public part of this unpleasant affair for von Münster as well.

The restoration of the Hanoverian state

After the Congress of Vienna, von Munster, as the Hanoverian cabinet minister based in London, was responsible for stabilizing the internal structures of the new kingdom . Even from his "forced" time in London, he was already in a strong personal rivalry with the general and founder of the King's German Legion Friedrich von der Betten . He also supported the reign of the Prince of Wales in Braunschweig, which is adjacent to Hanover, with advice and action. In the Kingdom of Hanover, the regent with his liberal basic positions and the cabinet under the leadership of August Wilhelm Rehberg stood against the restoration- oriented interests of the Hanoverian nobility, who increasingly organized themselves out of their minority under the leadership of Münster's nephew von Schele . This aristocratic faction knew how to set a qualified civil servant in contradiction to Munster through intrigue and cabinet justice with Rehberg. The way for the bicameral constitution of December 1819 was clear. Münster maintained political contact with Metternich and visited him annually at Johannisberg Castle in the Rheingau . The two met for a conference in Karlsbad in 1819 . The relationship between Münster and Metternich deteriorated in the following years , despite agreement on questions of the Karlsbad resolutions . The reasons for this lay in Metternich's positive attitude towards the person of Duke Karl von Braunschweig.

In the Kingdom of Hanover, from 1820 onwards, the state organization was not only adapted to the territorial reorganization due to the expansion of the area as a result of the Congress of Vienna, but at the same time there was also a streamlined centralization of the administration. Domain chamber Country drosteien and offices were created 1822/1823. The center of power, however, was not in the city of Hanover, but in the person of the cabinet minister Munster in London. The Münster cabinet did not know how to make use of the fact that Hanover had become a coastal state since 1815 . The port on the Lower Weser was sold to Bremen in 1827 . The government evidently achieved little in terms of customs, monetary and trade policy because it was constantly forced to evade the embrace of its double neighbor Prussia. Munster increasingly personified an unpopular system, and at the end of 1830 pamphlets against him were circulating across the country, which were eagerly received and circulated by the population.

Following the July Revolution of 1830 in Paris, there was early 1831 unrest in the Kingdom of Hanover. The lawyer Georg Friedrich König from Osteroder found a great response from public opinion with his text, Indictment of the Münster Ministry . Unrest arose particularly at the University of Göttingen . The university and the population demanded a new constitution, the resignation of the Münster cabinet, and law and order had to be restored by the military. In England in the meantime, on June 24, 1830, King Wilhelm IV succeeded the von Münster patron King George IV on the throne. As a consequence, the more conciliatory Duke of Cambridge , who had toured the country during the unrest, was appointed Viceroy of Hanover and Count Munster was dismissed as Minister on February 12, 1831 after 26 uninterrupted years of service.

Family seat in Derneburg

The pyramid-shaped mausoleum of Count Ernst zu Münster

For his services to the restoration of the Kingdom of Hanover within expanded borders, especially at the Congress of Vienna, he received the 1803 secularized but neglected monastery of Derneburg from King George IV .

However, the property guaranteed him an annual income of 6,000 thalers . In 1815 the aristocratic rule began in Derneburg. With the help of his architect Georg Ludwig Friedrich Laves , he completely rebuilt the interior of the old monastery into Derneburg Castle and set up an English landscape garden . The glass house is the greenhouse designed by Laves for palace gardening.

On November 7, 1814, he married Princess Wilhelmine Charlotte zu Schaumburg-Lippe (* May 18, 1783; † August 6, 1858), the daughter of Philipp von Schaumburg-Lippe . The couple had a son and seven daughters. His son Georg Herbert Graf zu Munster was born on December 29, 1820 (later ambassador of the German Empire in Paris). In 1831 he retired from civil service and lived at Derneburg Abbey and in Hanover. He had the mausoleum of Count Ernst zu Münster built by the architect Laves as a burial site for himself, his wife and his daughters in Derneburg in 1839. The mausoleum is the eleven meter high imitation of an Egyptian pyramid.

literature

  • Ferdinand Frensdorff :  Münster, Ernst Friedrich Herbert Count v . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, pp. 157-185.
  • Martin Vogt:  Münster, Ernst Friedrich Herbert to. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , pp. 533-535 ( digitized version ).
  • Carl Haase (ed.): The life of Count Münster (1766-1839). Notes of his wife Countess Wilhelmine, b. Princess of Schaumburg-Lippe. (Publications of the Lower Saxony archive administration, 43), Göttingen 1985.
  • Georg Herbert zu Münster : Political sketches on the situation in Europe from the Vienna Congress to the present (1815–1867); together with the dispatches from Count Ernst Friedrich Herbert zu Munster about the Vienna Congress.
  • Wilhelm Rothert : General Hannoversche Biography , Volume 2: In the Old Kingdom of Hanover 1814–1866 ; Hanover: Sponholtz, 1914, pp. 347-376
  • Anna-Franziska von Schweinitz: The Derneburg funerary pyramid and its model in the Schaumburg Forest. In: Hildesheimer Jahrbuch für Stadt und Stift Hildesheim 70/71, 1998/99, pp. 219–231
  • New necrology of the Germans 1839, part 1, page 490 ff.
  • Susanne Schilling: Ernst Count of Münster (1766–1839). A Hanoverian statesman caught between reform and restoration. Wehrhahn, Hannover 2018 ( sources and representations on the history of Lower Saxony 141), ISBN 978-3-86525-592-1 .

Web links

Commons : Ernst Friedrich Herbert zu Münster  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Good Derneburg  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Münster, Ernst Friedrich Herbert Graf zu (Reichsgraf and Bavarian Count 1792) . In: German biography. From: deutsche-biographie.de, accessed on June 10, 2017
  2. ↑ que voulez-vous? c'est notre magna charta: la tyrannie tempérée par l'assassinat!
  3. ↑ 1775–1839, first private secretary to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and Lieutenant General in the British Army; see. en: Herbert Taylor (British Army officer)
  4. ↑ The Prince of Wales had rejected one such: no, you know my sentiments, and you will always do what is right (quoted from F. Frensdorff: Ernst von Münster in: ADB 23, p. 166)
  5. ^ Ernst zu Münster: Refutation of the dishonorable accusations which Se. Your highness, the ruling Duke of Braunschweig, against your lofty guardian and the men entrusted with the administration of your country and your upbringing when you were a minor. 1827; Heinrich Rudolph Brinkmann : Publicistic examination of the complaints of His Highness the Duke Karl von Braunschweig regarding the custodial administration of His Majesty of Great Britain and Hanover , 1829 ( digitized version )
  6. ↑ Corresponding refutation of the published Libell. Strasbourg 1828.
  7. ↑ Duke Charles II, as is well known, persuaded the forester to duel by raising him to the baron class.
  8. ↑ In the same period, the UK had 9 prime ministers .
personal data
SURNAME Münster, Ernst Friedrich Herbert to
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Münster, Ernst Friedrich Herbert Graf to; Münster, Ernst Friedrich Herbert Count of; Münster, Ernst von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German statesman and politician in the service of the United Kingdom and the House of Hanover
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1766
PLACE OF BIRTH Osnabrück
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1839
Place of death Hanover