Franz Daniel von Schwachheim

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Franz Daniel Schwachheim (baptized April 26, 1708 in Herzberg am Harz in the Electorate of Hanover ; † 1794 at the earliest under unknown circumstances), Baron von Schwachheim since 1770 , was a pharmacist in Lausanne , owner of Bad Schinznach and host of the Helvetic Society .

Life

Origin from Lower Saxony

His father Georg (1661–1710) leased the upper mill in Herzberg am Harz. Schwachheim's mother Katharina Elisabeth was born Becker. There were several Lutheran ministers in the family . Schwachheim's eldest brother Johann Georg (1697–1771) became superintendent in Hedemünden and the author of agricultural writings. One of the father's cousins, Pastor Jakob Schwachheim (1644–1726) in Hattorf am Harz , had corresponded with Leibniz . A son of another cousin of the father who converted to the Catholic faith, Joseph Peter Schwachheim (1707–1775), made it to the imperial-royal ambassador to Turkey and the imperial count , his brother Dr. med. Gabriel Franz Schwachheim († 1771) as imperial baron .

Marriage into the Bernese patriciate

Schwachheim learned the trade of a pharmacist, which at that time did not require a university degree. From 1728/29 he worked in Bern . There he impregnated his employer's daughter, Marianne Wyttenbach (1709–1760). Since Marianne's godfather belonged to the Small Council of the City and Republic of Bern , her father regarded the connection as a Mésalliance . He did not consent to their legalization until 1730, when Marianne had come down and the Choir Court (moral court) dealt with the matter.

Pharmacist in Lausanne

Lausanne (1773-1775).

1734–1762 Schwachheim ran its own pharmacy in Lausanne. In 1736 he acquired citizenship there. He worked - with an appropriate doctorate - also as a doctor. This is how he treated the blind governor of Lausanne, Samuel Mutach , in 1752 . He became the owner of vineyards in Gilly in the La Côte wine region and in Lutry in Lavaux .

Personal physician to Bavarian dukes

Schwachheim entered the service of the House of Bavaria in an unexplained manner . He called himself personal physician to Cardinal Johann Theodor von Bayern (1703–1763), Prince-Bishop of Regensburg , Freising and Liège , and from Clemens Franz Herzog in Bavaria (1722–1770), who had presided over the Bavarian Court War Council . No later than 1755, he was Councilor of the Cardinal.

Owner of Bad Schinznach

Bad Schinznach was mostly called the Habsburg bath in the 18th century (1744).

Through his mother-in-law - a daughter of the painter Johannes Dünz (1645–1736) from Brugg - Schwachheim had connections with the Bernese Aargau . As a result, he was able to buy Bad Schinznach from Abraham Morell (1720–1794) in 1759, the possession of which was associated with criminal justice. The fashion bath located in the parish of Birr (Hofmeisterei Königsfelden ) was then mostly named after the nearby ancestral castle of the House of Austria Habsburg bath . Schwachheim ran it through tenants. He also worked there as a spa doctor . He carried out analyzes of the thermal water and wrote (lost) chemical and medical works.

Host of the Helvetic Society

From 1762 the newly founded Helvetic Society met in the bathroom in the week before Pentecost . French diplomacy is said to have seen it as "a constant conspiracy against the interference of French power in Switzerland". In addition to the location at the foot of the Habsburgs, the founders of the company are likely to have attracted the good management of the baths by Johann Ulrich Kleindorf (1722–1795) from Nuremberg , to whom Schwachheim leased it from 1762–1765. Schwachheim himself, on the other hand, was described by Johann Georg Zimermann in a letter to Albrecht von Haller in 1765 as the most insolent and ignorant charlatan he knew.

Elevation to the baron class

Schwachheim's son Franz Rudolf (1731–1804) was in Halle for Dr. med. obtained his doctorate and followed in his father's footsteps as a personal physician. He had a protégé of Elector Maximilian III. Married Joseph of Bavaria. In 1767 he became a real councilor, and in 1770 he became a Bavarian resident in Switzerland with his seat in Schaffhausen . The elector then elevated Schwachheim and his brother Johann Georg and all of his descendants to the status of Bavarian barons . From 1772–1774 Franz Rudolf was Bavarian Minister in Berlin .

Relationship with the Renner family

Schwachheim's daughter Henriette (1746–1802) married Johann Anton Renner (1743–1800) from Nidau in 1770 . His half-brother Sigmund von Renner (1727–1800) belonged as adjutant to Field Marshal Lacy to the environment of Emperor Joseph II. In 1773, Schwachheim ceded the Habsburg bath to his son-in-law, who from then on managed it himself. This did not prevent Schwachheim from continuing to perform miracle cures there. In 1777 he was accepted into the Helvetic Society .

Emigration of the sons to Bavaria

Franz Rudolf had returned to the post in Schaffhausen in 1775. In 1778, however, the new elector Karl Theodor decided to cancel the embassy in Switzerland and to retire Franz Rudolf. When unable legally resident for the son Weak home bought out in the county Baden dominion Baldingen and Böbikon which he held until the 1786th Before Franz Rudolf's departure from Schaffhausen, it became public that he had raped an 11- or 12-year-old domestic helper. Although the city council issued him a clean bill of health - probably in the interests of the lucrative salt trade with Bavaria - the affair could have contributed to the fact that the Helvetic Society moved its meetings to Olten in 1779 . It was not until 1781 that Franz Rudolf was accepted back into active civil service as a higher regional government councilor. Maximilian IV Joseph retired him in 1799.

Schwachheim's younger son Friedrich (1752-1828) became a Bavarian ensign in 1769. From 1791 he headed the military academy in Munich, from 1801 in the rank of colonel. In 1818 he married Josepha Reichsfreifrau von Dürsch, nee Reichsfreifin von Valentin (1768-1851).

Sale of the bath

In 1783 Renner's sister Marianne (1747–1823) married the richest Aarau, Johann Rudolf Meyer (1739–1813). In 1792 he was the first subject to preside over the Helvetic Society . The 84-year-old Schwachheim is said to have looked like a 50-year-old at the time. In 1794 he was the godfather of a great-grandson. But he probably died before Renner sold the Habsburg bath in 1796.

progeny

The Schwachheim-Wyttenbach couple had about sixteen children, but only five of them reached adulthood. In addition to the aforementioned Franz Rudolf, Henriette and Friedrich, Lisette, who was by marriage to the family of the poet Eduard Mörike (1804–1875), had descendants, Mörike (1742–1808), but Scheurer (* 1733) was not married to the pastor's wife Marianne.

literature

  • Carl Friedrich Morell: Chemical investigation of some of the well-known and visited health fountains and baths in Switzerland, especially in the canton of Bern. Bern 1788, pp. 191, 197, 203, 205 ("Sch ..." or "S ..." = Schwachheim).
  • Hans Jakob Holzhalb : Supplement to the general Helvetian-Federal or Swiss Lexicon. 5. Theil, Zurich 1791, pp. 376, 452 (Schwachheim and his son Franz Rudolf one person!).
  • Karl August Eckhardt / Erich Wentscher: The Schwachheim. In: Archives for Family Research (Görlitz), 6/1929, pp. 133-136, 213-216, 241-244.
  • Erich Wentscher: The rent master Johann Gabriel Schwachheim. Ibid, 11/1934, pp. 14-18, 56-59.
  • Eugène Olivier: Médecine et santé dans le Pays de Vaud au XVIIIe siècle. Lausanne 1939, 1st volume, p. 229 f., 2nd volume, p. 1051, Fig. 71.
  • Paul Glarner / Lili Zschokke-Glarner: From Bad Schinznach's past. Aarau (1944), pp. 78 f., 86 f., 91, 93, 97, 137, 145.
  • Ulrich Im Hof / François de Capitani: The Helvetic Society, Late Enlightenment and Pre-Revolution in Switzerland. Frauenfeld / Stuttgart 1983, Volume 1, p. 80 (Renner), Volume 2, pp. 306-308 (Schwachheim and his son Franz Rudolf one person!).
  • Peter Genner: The hosts of the Helvetic Society. The Schwachheim-Renner family as the owners of Bad Schinznach and their emigration to Bavaria. In: Argovia, 124/2012, pp. 126-179 ( digitized version http: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.e-periodica.ch%2Fcntmng%3Fpid%3Darg-001%3A2012%3A124%3A%3A137~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D).

References and comments

  1. ↑ In 1757 Morell became a land clerk in Wangen an der Aare , Aarwangen and Bipp .
  2. ^ Johann Georg Zimmermann: About loneliness. 3. Theil, Leipzig 1785, p. 474 f.
  3. ↑ Kleindorf then acquired the Hotel Les Trois Rois in Basel . Before him, the tenant was a Leuenberger in 1760, a Roman in 1761, and after him 1766–1772 Johann Georg Kirchberger.
  4. ^ Rudolf Ischer (Ed.): JG Zimmermanns Briefe an Haller, 1764–1767. In: Neues Berner Taschenbuch, 16/1910, pp. 37-103, quote: p. 52 (“le charlatan le plus hardi et le plus ignorant que je connois”).
  5. ↑ Another possible reason - in view of the impending cession of Bavaria to Austria - was the close ties between the Schwachheim-Renner family and the courts of Vienna and Munich.
  6. ↑ Compare by name Anton JJ Freiherr von Schönhueb: The history of the royal Bavarian Cadetten-Corps. Munich 1856, 1st part, pp. 70-100, 2nd part, pp. 21, 25.
  7. ^ Anne Freemantle (Ed.): The Wynne Diaries. Volume 1, London 1935, p. 148.
  8. ↑ On the other hand, the following information in the directory of students at the Bern Academy speaks for a date of death around 1798: “This noble man reached the age of 90” (Burgerbibliothek Bern, Mss.hh XXII 140, p. 494.)
  9. ↑ Three children were baptized in Bern, eight in Lausanne and one in Gilly. Another four could have been stillborn or were given an unregistered emergency baptism .
personal data
SURNAME Schwachheim, Franz Daniel von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwachheim, Franz Daniel; Schwachheim, Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Pharmacist in Lausanne, owner of Bad Schinznach and host of the "Helvetic Society"
DATE OF BIRTH before April 26, 1708
PLACE OF BIRTH Herzberg am Harz , Electorate of Hanover
DATE OF DEATH after 1794