Franz Maria Schweitzer

Family coat of arms "von Schweitzer" (eagle and bear), detail from the epitaph in Frankfurt Cathedral

Franz Maria Schweitzer, also Schweitzer-Allesina (born October 27, 1722 in Verona , Republic of Venice ; † December 16, 1812 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a merchant, Bavarian secret councilor and banker of Italian descent from the Palatinate in Frankfurt am Main.

Life

Portrait of the silk merchant Franz Maria Schweitzer

He was born the son of Bartholomeo Suaicara and his wife Anna Maria, geb. Frizoni, from Verona. When he settled in Frankfurt, he translated his family name into Schweitzer. In 1751 the Catholic applied for citizenship of the city, which he only received in 1766 for a high fee. He later also became a senator (city councilor).

Schweitzer was a businessman and silk merchant, and he also acted as a banker from the Palatinate in Frankfurt.

Epitaph in the Frankfurt Cathedral

He was one of the richest men in town. In 1751 he was inspired by Johann Andreas Liebhardt the representative house city of Antwerp set up in a central location, and from 1787 to 1792 by the Palatine court architect Nicolas de Pigage (1723-1796) that still more glorious Palais Schweitzer on the Zeil , which later Inn / Hotel Russischer Hof was and then became one of the top addresses in Frankfurt. Even Goethe was impressed by the building. The size of the music hall exceeded everything usual for a private house. A ceiling painting in the stairwell depicted, among other things, the old landlord Franz Maria von Schweitzer in a white dressing gown and pointed cap. A Mercury floating down from Olympus pinned the initials “FMS” to the obelisk in the middle. Here the interior was with frescoes of Kurtrierer court painter Januarius Zick decorated; the stucco work came from the Mannheim artist Carlo Luca Pozzi , his brother Joseph Anton Pozzi and his young son Maximilian Joseph Pozzi . 1790 visited Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart trading Lord and he writes about it in a letter of October 3, 1790: "Yesterday I dined with the richest merchant in the whole of Frankfurt, Mr. Schweitzer." Even Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and other great minds wrong in the house on the Zeil.

Franz Maria Schweitzer had the title of a secret councilor from the Electorate of the Palatinate or Bavaria, which equated to a privy councilor and required a high level of courtesy .

He could only enjoy his Palais Schweitzer for about twenty years. He died at the age of 90 and was buried in Frankfurt Cathedral , where a marble epitaph commemorates him.

According to Lothar Gall , Schweitzer "formed the center of the Italian colony and was an important pillar of Catholicism" in Frankfurt.

family

Schweitzer was married to Paula Allesina (1725–1791) from Italo-Frankfurt, whose mother came from the Brentano family. Since the Frankfurt dealer family Allesina had no male descendants, Franz Maria Schweitzer and his descendants appended this name to theirs and they also appear as Schweitzer-Allesina or Allesina called Schweitzer .

Although the hereditary nobility was only bestowed on the three sons of Franz Maria by King Maximilian Joseph I of Bavaria on October 18, 1816 , the title of nobility was sometimes used by the father as well, as is recorded on the epitaph, for example.

His daughter Franziska Klara (* 1755 in Frankfurt am Main; † 1791 in Strasbourg) had been married to the French general Giuseppe Antonio Mainoni since 1877 .

The husband of Maria Franz Schweitzer's granddaughter Franziska Maria Fortunata (1802-1878) was Prince August Ludwig Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg , Nassauischer lieutenant general and in 1849 Prime Minister of the short-lived government of Regent Archduke John of Austria .

Allesinastraße in the Sindlingen district is reminiscent of the Allesinas and their manor. Maria Theresia Schweitzer (1812–1840) was the only family member buried in Sindlingen; her tombstone has been preserved and is now on the Dionysus Church in Sindling.

The Palais Schweitzer and the Russian Court

In the middle the Palais Schweitzer, alias Russischer Hof, Frankfurt, Zeil, 1875

15 years after the death of Franz Maria Schweitzer, on March 15, 1827, his numerous heirs sold Palais Schweitzer to the master butcher Johannes Stier. The heirs included u. a. the guaitas .

Although Bismarck campaigned several times to acquire the house for the Prussian legation, it was eventually converted into the Hotel Russischer Hof . Among other things, the hotel accommodated the future Kaiser Wilhelm I, who once set up his headquarters for the occupation army in Baden in the frescoed hall of the palace in 1849. A frequent guest was the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII , who used to take his afternoon tea at the fountain of the palace. He was here as a regular visitor to the Frankfurt Opera.

From 1888 the building and the neighboring Palais Rotes Haus and Darmstädter Hof were demolished, despite major protests at the time. The construction of Frankfurt Central Station had also changed the traffic situation of these houses. At this point, the new Empire had the now imposing Imperial Main Post Office Frankfurt am Main built for its nationalized postal system. Destroyed by aerial bombs in the Second World War, then rebuilt, the successor building became inoperable due to the dissolution of the Deutsche Bundespost and technical progress and had to give way to a shopping center in the 2000s.

literature

• Ernst Heinrich Kneschke: The coats of arms of the German baronial and noble families. 3rd volume, Leipzig 1856, p. 402. (online)
• Lothar Gall : FFM 1200: Traditions and Perspectives of a City. Thorbecke Verlag, 1994, ISBN 3-7995-1203-9 .

Web links

• Family history page with detailed information on the Schweitzer family and Palais in Frankfurt / Main
• Photo of the sandstone shield of the Schweitzer house City of Antwerp , Neue Kräme 5 (exhibited in the Frankfurt Historical Museum; the only remaining relic of the building)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Genealogical website about the person
2. ^ Karl Heinrich von Lang: Book of the nobility of the Kingdom of Baiern. Supplement band. Ansbach 1820, p. 85. (online)
3. ^ To the house of Antwerp
4. ^ Friedrich August Schmidt: New Nekrolog der Deutschen. Twentieth year, 1842, 1st part, Weimar 1844, pp. 243 and 244. (online)
5. ↑ On Mozart's letter
6. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Complete Works. Jubilee edition in 40 volumes, volume 29, pp. 18 and 341; Complete scan of the book
7. ↑ Lothar Gall: FFM 1200: Traditions and Perspectives of a City. Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 1994, ISBN 3-7995-1203-9 , p. 151.
8. ^ Genealogical website about Paula Allesina
9. ^ Institut für Stadtgeschichte (ISG) Frankfurt am Main , purchase contract for Palais Schweitzer from 1727 ( enter Schweitzer and Stier in the search mask and link with and )
10. ↑ 2009 memories of the Carr family, or of the Palais Schweitzer, Zeil, Frankfurt am Main
11. ^ Website of the Palais Schweitzer