Fechenbach (noble family)

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Coat of arms of those of Fechenbach

The family of the Barons von Fechenbach resided in Laudenbach ( Miltenberg district ) from 1315 until the extinction in the male line in 1907 with the death of Karl Konstantin von Fechenbach . A second seat was Wasserschloss Sommerau in Sommerau (Eschau) . The Catholic family belonged to the imperial knighthood of the Franconian knight canton of Odenwald .

history

Coin front and back with portrait and coat of arms of the Bamberg bishop and Würzburg prince-bishop (20 Kreuzer 1795)
Würzburg bishop's coat of arms from Georg Karl von Fechenbach
Handwritten family history, auctioned in 2005
Engraved bookplate of the Würzburg bishop

The first documentary mention of the family comes from the year 1214 (mentioned by name, an Offo from Vechimbach) and concerned goods south of the Mainviereck. It is obvious that it comes from Fechenbach (today Collenberg ), but it cannot be proven. In 1315 she bought the village of Laudenbach, which was first fiefdom from the Counts of Rieneck , after their extinction (1559) from Kurmainz and finally from the Kingdom of Bavaria .

From 1632 to 1848 there was a main line and a Sommerau line, which was located in the moated castle Sommerau . In 1365, the Sommerau Castle was divided between the by-related Kottwitz and Fechenbach. Previously, the owners, one von Fechenbach and one von Aulenbach (Kottwitz) appeared as brothers confirmed in a document. The Kottwitz and the Lords of Fechenbach, also with the same coat of arms, were joint owners of the castle until 1550, after which they were solely owned by the Fechenbachers.

Johann Reichard von Fechenbach (1657–1717) was Imperial and Würzburg General Field Marshal Lieutenant in the Turkish Wars under Prince Eugene at the beginning of the 18th century . Johann Philipp (1660–1730) was also a military man: Electorate General Feldzeugmeister and commander of the Mainz fortress .

Albrecht Ernst von Fechenbach (around 1735) was a Würzburg secret councilor and, as colonel of the cavalry, head of the regiment of the renowned Franconian district cuirassier regiment (1727–1734).

The Würzburg Reichstag envoy and cathedral capitular Johann Philipp von Fechenbach, titular bishop of Taenarum (1708–1779) collected over 100 volumes of “Reichsakten”, which are now in the family archive in the Würzburg State Archives.

The most famous bearer of the name was the last Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Georg Karl von Fechenbach (1749–1808), and from 1805 also Bishop of Bamberg .

His brother Lothar Franz (d. 1837) was also a clergyman: choir bishop of St. Mauritius in Tholey , president of the revenue and court war council in Bamberg.

The last two owners of Laudenbach from the Fechenbach family descend from their brother Joseph Franz (1761–1830): Friedrich Karl Joseph von Fechenbach (born August 27, 1790 in Mainz; † October 24, 1850 in Vienna), court lord of Laudenbach, Sommerau and Roßhof (near Großheubach ), Königigl. bayer. Kämmerer, the first honorary citizen of Aschaffenburg, and Karl Konstantin von Fechenbach (1836–1907), who made a name for himself as a socio-political journalist. He brought the part that he had received when he was divided with his brother Hugo in 1860 into a Fideikommiss in 1875 , but later revoked it and left everything to his widow Bertha, née von Thüngen , who was the lady of the law Mechthild von Pappus (later married to Hugo von Aufseß ) became the universal heiress. She prevailed in a bitter legal battle against the Fechenbach zu Dieburg .

Until 1848 the family exercised patrimonial jurisdiction in the former knight towns of Laudenbach and Sommerau .

In 1842 Friedrich von Fechenbach not only acquired the own property of Lady Leveson, born Freiin von Dalberg in the Hessian province of Starkenburg , but also a town palace in Dieburg, today's Fechenbach Castle , which was sold in 1939 by Karoline Freiin von Fechenbach to the city of Dieburg and today it Museum Schloss Fechenbach opened in 2007 .

Entry in Zedler's Universal Lexicon

Fechenbach, a noble family on the Rhine, from which Götz lived around 1315; whose Enckel Eberhard died. 1393. as Vitzdom zu Aschaffenburg, and left behind a few sons, one of whom Conrad held the position of Chur-Mayntzian court master. One of his descendants was Johann Ludwig, initially Dom-Herr zu Mayntz, but resigned in 1622 and entered into marriage. His uncle were 1) Johann Reichard, General-Major of Würtzburg, Colonel on foot and Commendant of Würtzburg, who fathered a son, Carl Ludwig; 2) Hartmann Friedrich, Chur-Mayntzischer and Bambergischer Rath, as well as the President of the Upper Taking; 3) Albrecht Ernst, Rittmeister from Würtzburg, who increases his family with a son, Philippo Adolpho.

coat of arms

The family coat of arms shows in the silver field a black ibex horn pointing upwards , which ends at the bottom in the form of an upright clover. Crest : two such ibex horns, divided crosswise by silver and black with changing colors. Helmet covers: black and silver.

The shield image of the black ibex horn in silver occurs in two other families in Franconia , namely Kottwitz von Aulenbach and von Adelsheim .

archive

In 1969, the Free State of Bavaria acquired the 75 linear meters of the family's archives for the Würzburg State Archives , which had been preserved at Laudenbach Castle, which had passed to Baroness Mechthild von Aufseß, born von Pappus . In 1988, the first part of an archive inventory appeared that contains documents from the Dieburg , Laudenbach and Sommerau administrations as well as family matters. The second part, which is supposed to contain the estate of the Reichstag envoy Johann Philipp von Fechenbach, the estate of Prince-Bishop Georg Karl and other family members, is still outstanding.

The aristocratic archives were organized by the Fechenbach court master Gerhard Dahl in 1795/97.

Library

Parts of the family's library , including many books from Karl Georg's possession with a handwritten library catalog and family history, were auctioned at Hartung & Hartung (auction 112) in November 2005. The Würzburg University Library did not succeed in buying the central source of library history, the handwritten library catalog.

Art collection

Karl Konstantin von Fechenbach brought the house's art treasures onto the market at several auctions. Catalog of the extensive and selected Baron von Fechenbach'schen armory and art collection at the castle in Laudenbach am Main ... Auction in Cologne on 23 and 24 May 1889 by JM Heberle (H. Lempertz 'sons), is the title of an auction catalog (copy e.g. University of Chicago library). A few days later, paintings from Laudenbach were auctioned at the same company (May 27/28 and May 29, 1889).

See also

literature

Family tree from 1845
  • Hans-Joachim Schoeps:  Fechenbach. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 36 ( digitized version ).
  • Hatto Kallfelz: Archive of the barons of Fechenbach zu Laudenbach, part 1: The family archive. Munich 1988
  • Karl Diel: The barons of Fechenbach, their work in church and state. Aschaffenburg 1951 (not viewed)
  • Hatto Kallfelz: The imperial barons of Fechenbach zu Laudenbach: 600 years of togetherness of the village of Laudenbach and family v. Fechenbach. In: Chronicle of Laudenbach am Main. Laudenbach. 1 (2000), pp. 11–84 (not accessed)
  • Hatto Kallfelz: The last Fechenbacher: the family of the Würzburg prince-bishop Georg Karl von Fechenbach zu Laudenbach since the death of the prince (1808). In: Würzburger Diözesangeschichtsblätter ISSN  0342-3093 62/63 (2001), pp. 1089–1119 (not viewed)
  • Alfred F. Wolfert: Groups of coats of arms of the nobility in the Odenwald-Spessart area. In: Winfried Wackerfuß (Ed.): Contributions to the exploration of the Odenwald and its peripheral landscapes II. Festschrift for Hans H. Weber. Breuberg-Bund , Breuberg-Neustadt 1977, pp. 325-406, here pp. 359f.

Web links

Commons : Fechenbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ZGO 16, 1864, p. 310f.
  2. Fechenbach, an aristocratic family. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 9, Leipzig 1735, column 395.
    Humbracht vom Rhein. Noble. Tab. 181.182
  3. As of January 2006