Franz Paul by Herbert

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Franz Paul Freiherr von Herbert (born May 25, 1759 in Klagenfurt ; † March 13, 1811 in Trieste ) was a patron of the arts and a representative of the Enlightenment in the Habsburg monarchy .

life and work

Franz Paul von Herbert was born as the son of Johann Michael von Herbert , the founder of the Klagenfurt lead white factory . After studying in Klagenfurt and Vienna , he joined the Freemasons and became acquainted with Kant's philosophy .

On April 24, 1781, his father handed over the white lead factory to Franz Paul. Work has been ongoing to improve the quality of the mini. The manufacturer also brought this to the attention of the state authorities, explaining the differences in quality with foreign products. Wießner in his history of the Carinthian mining industry:

“In 1800 he reported to the court chamber that after 14 years of costly attempts he had succeeded in producing a domestic product that was almost identical to the foreign one. The newly invented calcining machine repaired him to produce as much red lead as the wear and tear, especially since the Bohemian factory had already stopped working. The Dutch and the English delivered falsified red lead to domestic merchants. English red lead contains only 70 pounds of good red lead and 30 pounds of red chalk, the Dutch only 10 pounds of real white lead and 90 pounds of white stone, hence the cheap price. Without customs protection, he would have to stop production. Herbert's factories could produce 1,000 quintals a year. "

The coalition wars and the three-time occupation of Klagenfurt impaired the activities of the white lead manufacturer. Wießner:

“In 1802 Herbert asked for the rebate of his ararian lead debts in the amount of 2387 florins , but was rejected, also with a renewed request for an increase in the import tariff on red lead per hundredweight of 5 florins. The arial debt was paid to  him with consideration that he was currently the French invasion (1797) removed the furnace in Klagenfurt. "

Franz Paul von Herbert was a beautiful spirit and a typical representative of the Carinthian patronage. In 1789 he traveled to Weimar to see Christoph Martin Wieland , who referred him to his son-in-law Carl Leonhard Reinhold , who taught philosophy in Jena and propagated Kant's work in the German Merkur through letters on Kantian philosophy . On his second visit to Jena, the Enlightenment got to know Reinhold Friedrich Schiller , Novalis , Johann Benjamin Erhard , Friedrich Karl Forberg and Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer - all of them supporters of Kantian philosophy. Herbert gave financial support to his classmate Friedrich Schiller during his infirmity and advertised the “Horen” in Carinthia, which appeared in 1794/95. The multiple mention of Carinthia in "Wallenstein" could have been a kind of thanks. Erhard visited Herbert twice in Klagenfurt, Forberg and Niethammer once, as did Reinhold's friend, the Danish illuminator Jens Immanuel Baggesen . With Erhard, Baggesen and Carl Ludwig Fernow , Herbert undertook a trip through Northern Italy in 1794, which led in particular to Venice and Bologna. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi got to know Herbert better in Switzerland in 1797 and remained connected to him. Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis), who had met him in Reinhold's seminar, planned shortly before his death in 1800 to go to Herbert in Klagenfurt. On October 16, 1800 he wrote: "If I don't hey, I want to go to Reichenhall and Klagenfurt".

Herbert's endeavors were aimed at the renewal of religion and morality beyond dogmatism. As an industrialist he supported the Jena friends financially. The fact that Herbert heard lectures on Kantian philosophy in Jena in 1790 and that he was a Freemason aroused the suspicion of the police state. He was spied on until his death. In the wake of the Austrian Jacobin conspiracy , Herbert's house in Klagenfurt was searched by the state police; a letter from Schiller was also confiscated. The activities of the Klagenfurt Herbert Circle were observed by the police, including the aforementioned trip to Italy in 1794. In 1797 Herbert welcomed the French invasion of Klagenfurt under Napoleon and subsequently emigrated to Switzerland . After the establishment of the " Illyrian State " he moved to Trieste .

After his sister Maria von Herbert , who also corresponded with Immanuel Kant on love issues , had died in 1803 by suicide , Herbert did the same by shooting himself on March 13, 1811 in Trieste. Erich Nussbaumer in his work "Geistiges Kärnten": "In the Carinthian intellectual history, his life and death symbolizes the first attempt to break out of provincial narrowness, the tragic failure of a longing flight into the highest areas of human thought."

The writer Karl August Varnhagen von Ense collected some of Herbert's correspondence, did research in Carinthia and wrote a biography of Johann Benjamin Erhard in 1830 , which he also saved Herbert from being forgotten. In 1839 the Klagenfurt author Franz Ernst Pipitz reported on him in his "Fragments from Austria". In 1989 Herbert's work was honored in Klagenfurt with the exhibition “The Herbert Circle and the Spiritual Life of Carinthia in the Age of the French Revolution”. After that, those from the Prussia became. Autographs from the Varnhagen estate (formerly Berlin) that were relocated to Silesia during the Second World War and are now illegally stored in the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Herbert, Franz Paul von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herbert, Franz Paul Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian patron of the arts
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1759
PLACE OF BIRTH Klagenfurt
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1811
Place of death Trieste