Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg

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Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg, painting by Ferdinand Collmann after Anton Graff , 1789, Gleimhaus , Halberstadt

Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg , also written Herzberg , (born September 2, 1725 in Lottin near Ratzebuhr in Western Pomerania , † May 27, 1795 in Berlin ), Count von Hertzberg since 1786, was a Prussian statesman .

Life

Hertzberg was a descendant of an old Pomeranian noble family . His father was Kaspar Detlof von Hertzberg (1684–1753) heir to Lottin and a former Sardinian major. His mother was Elisabeth Christine von Kettwig († 1731) from the Pessin family. He had first attended the Academic Gymnasium in Stettin , where Michael Friedrich Quade (1682–1757) had been one of his teachers. From 1742 he studied at the University of Halle as a student of Ludewig's German constitutional law and history as well as - as a student of Christian Wolff - philosophy . With the dissertation De unionibus et comitiis electoralibus indulti illustris ictorum ordinis he acquired the academic title of Dr. jur. He wanted to gain a foothold in the diplomatic service and had dedicated his dissertation to the first cabinet minister, Count Heinrich von Podewils , and also asked a relative for a recommendation to him and the king. He then went to Berlin to pursue a career in the Prussian civil service.

First, Hertzberg worked as an unskilled worker in the Prussian Secret Cabinet Archives, which he took over in 1750. In 1752 he was appointed Privy Legation Councilor. From 1754 he took part as expediting secretary in the drafting of all important dispatches in the Cabinet Ministry. In 1758 he wrote the Mémoire raisonné legitimizing the Prussian invasion of Saxony .

In 1763 he led the negotiations for the Peace of Hubertusburg as the Prussian authorized representative . On February 15, 1763 he signed the peace treaties with Austria and Saxony to end the Seven Years' War . In the same year, he became the second state and cabinet minister under Friedrich II, alongside Karl Wilhelm Graf von Finckenstein .

Hertzberg's influence on Prussian foreign policy under Frederick the Great was limited because the king directed it personally. Nevertheless, Hertzberg's anti-Austrian course had an influence on the policy that led to the first division of the dual state of Poland-Lithuania in 1772 , the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778/1779) and the establishment of the German Princes' Union in 1785. He played a key role in the preliminary negotiations with Warsaw Treaty of 1773 was involved, in which the transfer of ownership of Pomerania to Prussia and Poland's final renunciation of the Draheim area were established.

Friedrich's nephew and successor, Friedrich Wilhelm II , was initially well-disposed towards Hertzberg. One of his first official acts was to award Hertzberg the Order of the Black Eagle . At the homage in Königsberg , he raised Hertzberg to the Prussian count on February 14, 1786. At a request from Hertzberg, whose marriage had remained childless, he also granted Hertzberg's brother Franz Rudolf and cousins ​​Colonel Karl von Hertzberg and Major Friedrich Wilhelm von Herzberg, who were intended to be his heirs, the same promotion. Following Hertzberg's request, Friedrich Wilhelm II appointed him curator of the Prussian Academy of Sciences a fortnight after the change of government .

Hertzberg was able to help shape foreign policy with lofty plans for several years, but with moderate success. As head of foreign policy under Friedrich Wilhelm II. Hertzberg tried since 1786 to oppose the Austro-French alliance with a coalition of Prussia with the naval powers Russia and Scandinavia and to refer Austria to the Balkans by exchanging territories . This plan was doomed to failure when a rapprochement between Prussia and Austria came about in 1790, which was reflected in the Reichenbach Convention . In 1791 Hertzberg resigned as cabinet minister and remained until his death in the office of curator of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, which he assumed in 1786.

Hertzberg is considered a representative of the Enlightenment . In his famous speeches held on the commemorative days of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1780 and 1793, he characterized the Prussian monarchy as a 'rational state', in which civil liberty was best secured under the rule of law.

Hertzberg lived in Berlin at Schloss Britz and introduced silk cultivation in Berlin. He is buried in the Britz village church. He had been married to Hyma Maria von Innhausen and Knyphausen ( 1724–1796), the daughter of Minister Friedrich Ernst zu Innhausen and Knyphausen (1678–1731), since 1752 . The couple had no children. In 1790 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In the same year he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Works (selection)

  • Treatise in which one seeks to develop the causes of the superiority of the Germans over the Romans , Berlin 1780, 28 pages ( full text ). (See also G. Knoll in: Geist und Macht , Berlin 2005, p. 83. )
  • Land book of the Electorate and the Mark Brandenburg . Berlin / Leipzig 1781 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  • Treatise on Best Form of Government , 1784.
  • On the true wealth of states, the balance of trade and power , 1786. 24 pages ( full text ).
  • Mémoire historique sur la dernière année de la vie de Frédéric II, roi de Prusse . Neuchatel 1787, 102 pages ( full text , English translation ).
  • Treatise on the true ideal of a good story and on the second year of the reign of Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia . Frankfurt 1789, 55 pages ( full text ).
  • Ewald Friedrich Count von Herzberg . Chemnitz 1796, 73 pages ( full text ).
  • New dictionary of politics , 1796. ( full text )

literature

  • Paul Bailleu :  Hertzberg, Ewald Graf von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 241-249.
  • Stephan Skalweit :  Hertzberg, Ewald Graf von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , pp. 715-717 ( digitized version ).
  • Rolf Straubel : Biographical manual of the Prussian administrative and judicial officials 1740–1806 / 15 . In: Historical Commission to Berlin (Ed.): Individual publications . 85. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-23229-9 , pp. 415 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • German Biographical Encyclopedia. 2nd edition (Rudolf Vierhaus, ed.). Volume 4, Saur, Munich 2006, p. 766.
  • Friends and Patrons of Schloss Britz eV (Ed.): 300 years of Schloss Britz. Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg and the Berlin Enlightenment. Berlin 2006. ISBN 978-3-00-018846-6 .
  • Kulturstiftung Schloss Britz (ed.): Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg. September 2, 1725 - May 27, 1795. Berlin 1995.
  • Paul Haake: Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg (1725–1795). In: Pomeranian Life Pictures . (Historical Commission for Pomerania, ed.) Volume 3: Pomerania of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. (Adolf Dorfmeister and Wilhelm Braun, eds.), Sauniers, Stettin 1939, pp. 90–113.
  • Friedrich Richard Krauel : Count Hertzberg as Minister Friedrich Wilhelm II. Ernst Siegfried Mittler and son, Berlin 1899.
  • Ernst Ludwig Posselt : Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertzberg - With excerpts from his correspondence, concerning the latest world trade. Tübingen 1798 ( full text ).
  • Franz Alexander von Kleist : Attempt to portray the character of the Royal Prussian State Minister Ewald Friedrich Graf von Hertrzberg. 74 pages, in: Franz von Kleist's mixed writings . Berlin 1797 ( full text ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.reclam.de/detail/978-3-15-018824-8/Was_ist_Aufklaerung p. 34
  2. ↑ Brockhaus 1809
  3. ^ Ewald Friedrich Graf von Herzberg. Chemnitz 1796
  4. ↑ Martin Wehrmann : History of Pomerania . Volume 2, 1st edition, Perthes, Gotha 1906, p. 238.
  5. ^ Johann Christian von Hellbach : Adelslexikon . Ilmenau 1825, p. 647 .
  6. ^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : New general German nobility lexicon . Volume 4, Leipzig 1863, pp. 339-340 .
  7. ^ Hans-Martin Sieg: State service, state thinking and service ethos in Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th century (1713-1806) . de Gruyter, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-11-017719-6 , p. 73 ( limited preview ).
  8. ↑ See for example Ludwig Häusser: Deutsche Geschichte. 2nd edition, Volume 1, Berlin 1859, pp. 251 ff.
  9. ↑ See for example Hans-Christof Kraus: English Constitution and Political Thought in the Ancien Régime - 1689 to 1789 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-486-57908-6 , pp. 515-524 ( limited preview ).
  10. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 19, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hertzberg, Ewald Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hertzberg, Ewald Friedrich Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Minister of War under Frederick the Great
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1725
PLACE OF BIRTH Lottin near Ratzebuhr , Western Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1795
Place of death Berlin