Franz Xaver Clavel

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Franz Xaver Clavel (* 1729 in Gammertingen ; † 1793 in Scheer ) was a German civil servant.

Life

Franz Xaver Clavel was born as the son of the landowner, innkeeper and high school graduate Heinrich Clavel (* 1702; † unknown), who ran a sizable farm by marriage; his mother was Anna Maria Behr (* 1702, † 1795). His ancestors came from Savoy and his grandparents, who initially traded in pans and iron sheets in the countryside, had settled in Trochtelfingen . His siblings were:

  • Maria Veronika Clavel (* 1724, † unknown);
  • Franz Joseph Clavel (* 1725, † unknown);
  • Stephan Clavel (* 1727; † unknown).

When he was supposed to go to school, he was sent to his uncle, Senior Councilor Joseph Benedikt Clavell de Hoffen (1700–1771) in Messkirch , who now took on the further education. After a few years he came to the Latin school of the Zwiefalten monastery . He stayed there for six years and then went to the University of Dillingen to study philosophy ; there he was housed in the Konvikt . Because he was late at the Konvikt several evenings, he was expelled from school without further investigation. His father then sent him to study law at the University of Strasbourg .

After completing his studies, he came to the Altdorf Oberamt in Weingarten for practical training and from there to Hechingen . After a few years the Countess von Zollern traveled to Vienna and Franz Xaver Clavel was appointed to accompany her as secretary; he used the opportunity to talk to scholars.

Shortly after his return from Vienna in 1756, he entered the service of Baron von Späth in Untermarchtal as Obervogt ; he stayed there for only two years. In 1758 he was appointed as court counselor and chancellery administrator in the service of Counts and Truchess in Dürmentingen . Count Joseph Wilhelm Eusebius von Waldburg-Friedberg-Scheer had died two years earlier , and the office administrator's predecessor had been transferred, who had let the administration and jurisdiction lapse, so witches were still burned in Dürmentingen until 1747. At that time the rule still prevailed that the hunt was the prerogative of the regent, so that the subjects had to accept it if their crops were eaten up and turned over. Near Dürmentingen, the Counts Truchsess had a spacious zoo with a large number of red and wild boar, but the fence of the wildlife park was damaged, and this led to the meadows and crops being devastated and the farmers not farming the adjacent fields so that there was great need in winter. After the death of Count Joseph Wilhelm Eusebius, the villages of Scheer and Dürmentingen passed to Count Leopold August von Waldburg-Friedberg-Scheer, the last offspring of the Truchseß-Scheer line.

Franz Xaver Clavel now introduced order and punctuality in the office and, because of his impartiality, won the favor of the count and his subjects; his reorganization of the judiciary was subsequently taken as a model in Swabia. In order to reduce the number of game, he used the opportunity to speak to the count, as he was always with him when he visited the game park. In order not to be considered an enemy of the hunt, he often accompanied the count on the hunts and also shot game himself, but always pointed out the consequences of the large game population.

The town of Unlingen in the rule of Bussen also fell into his area of ​​responsibility . The pastor of this place, Dean Franz Karl Christoph Kleber (1710–1785), attached great importance to the immunity of his class. On a Sunday in September 1758 he allowed his parishioners to haul in flax from the field due to the good weather. Franz Xaver Clavel assessed this permission as a violation of the rule of rule not to work on a Sunday and, with the support of the Count, punished not only the pastor but also the servants of the Unlingen nunnery, some of them with arrest. Thereupon the pastor made a written declaration that he did not want to attack the rule, but that he had not reported to the secular authorities because of the haste. Franz Xaver Clavel was summoned several times before the clerical court in Constance , alleging that he was ignoring spiritual immunity. Because he neither obeyed these summons nor paid the fine, he was excommunicated on January 27, 1760. Presumably, this was a unique example that a layman the excommunication was because he had protected the church statutes eagerly. After this decree, the parishioners were no longer allowed to interact with him and no longer had to obey him. Count Leopold August had a letter published against this in which he declared the excommunication null and void and forbade his subjects to abide by it. This excommunication lasted until the end of 1762, until Empress Maria Theresia found out about it and turned to the Bishop of Konstanz, Franz Konrad von Rodt , and declared the excommunication not to be, at the same time it forbade Franz Xaver Clavel to ask the bishop for absolution. After a lengthy correspondence between Count Leopold August and the Bishop of Constance, the dispute was amicably settled.

Count Leopold August died in Donaueschingen in October 1764, followed by his brother Franz Karl Eusebius von Waldburg-Friedberg and Trauchburg , Prince-Bishop of Chiemsee , who had ruled Trauchburg and Kißlegg for twenty years ; he put no value on hunting, so that Franz Xaver Clavel began to occupy himself with horticulture. He started a herb garden, planted trees and learned grafting under the guidance of gardening books. From the nursery, he began to occupy himself with agriculture and began to study theory. For this he read Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi , Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau , Victor Riquetti , Noël Chomel's Lexicon and other economic books. Now he began to acquire his own fields in addition to his official land, procured crockery and hired a servant and instructed him himself, and, since he could read, he gave him some textbooks to study. In 1768/69 he was the first to grow clover as fodder in the area , and because the seeds were expensive, he made sure that the rent office acquired a supply and sold it at moderate prices. However, initially there were only two farmers who cultivated clover because the prejudice against clover cultivation was still too great, as it had not been cultivated in the past. Thereupon he obliged his farmers in a "pasture order" to grow clover. They then complained to Count Franz Karl Eusebius, but without success. Franz Xaver Clavel then made the side note: Lord, forgive them, they don't know what they are doing. But their stubbornness goes so far that they would rather move to Hungary than build a handful of clovers . The cultivation of clover prevailed and was called Herrgottsbrod by the people as early as 1786 .

In 1772 the prince-bishop of Chiemsee died and the county of Friedberg as well as the lordships of Scheer, Dürmentingen and Bussen came to the Wolfegg and Wurzach line of the Counts of Waldburg.

In 1781 he was transferred to Scheer as senior bailiff. In 1785 the Waldburg family was considering selling the lordship Scheer, Dürmentingen and Bussen to Prince Karl Anselm von Thurn und Taxis , for which Franz Xaver Clavel was sent to Regensburg for negotiations ; During his stay he also succeeded in restoring the long-extinct Trauchenburg voting rights in the Swabian district . In 1786 the prince acquired the lordships mentioned.

Under the new government, he was the first to start growing clover and other forage herbs in Scheer. In 1790 the sovereign communal order appeared, a civil code, in the draft of which he had developed the largest part. Here he worked closely with the president of the princely state government in Regensburg, Baron Karl von Eberstein (1761-1833). He also helped set up a fire insurance company founded in 1791.

Franz Xavel Clavel was also active as a writer and published some of his works under the acronym FXC

During his stay in Untermarchtal he married a née Payrin, with whom he had three sons and two daughters:

  • Anton Joseph Clavel (* unknown; † 1831), senior domain councilor in the Thurn and Taxis family, married in 1st marriage to Euphrosyne Grimm and in 2nd marriage with a born Schindt;
  • Leopold Clavel, Police Commissioner at the Front Austrian Police Commission in Freiburg ;
  • Anna Clavel;
  • Antonie Clavel;
  • a son whose name is unknown was killed as a soldier in the battle of Jemappes .

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Franz Xaver Clavel in Friedrich Schlichtgroll: Necrology for the year 1793 containing news of the life of strange Germans who died in that year , 4th year, 1st volume. Gotha 1794. pp. 32-71.
  • Franz Xaver Clavel in Dr. Max Flad: Agrarian reforms and their initiators in central Upper Swabia in the 18th century . Local history sheets of the Society for Home Care, Biberach. P. 31, 36 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Lazarus von Imhof: The newly opened historical picture room - part: In which the general world history from the year 1761 to 1765, under Emperor Franz I, until his death, described with a lot of diligence, honestly and impartially, and the most distinguished events are presented in graceful coppers: together with a complete register . Seitz, 1766, p. 831 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Clavel, Franz Xaver
ALTERNATIVE NAMES FXC
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil servant
DATE OF BIRTH 1729
PLACE OF BIRTH Gammertingen
DATE OF DEATH 1793
Place of death Scheer