Franz von Waldersee

This article deals with the official and writer Franz von Waldersee. For the general of the cavalry see Franz Heinrich von Waldersee .

Franz Anton Johann Georg Graf von Waldersee (born September 5, 1763 in Dessau , † May 30, 1823 ) was a German civil servant and writer.

Life

Waldersee was the eldest, illegitimate son of Prince Leopold III. Friedrich Franz von Anhalt-Dessau and the Johanne Eleonore Hoffmeier, daughter of the First Preacher at the Reformed Church in Zerbst , sister of the Archdeacon at the Dessau Great Church. It was named Waldersee after a Dessau suburb. His father's intentions to renounce his throne and live with his lover as a private citizen in England were prevented by Frederick II of Prussia . His mother married the head stable master Adolf Heinrich von Neutschütz (1730–1772) in 1765, his father married his cousin Luise von Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1767 at the insistence of Frederick II . Nevertheless, Franz Johann Georg was brought up appropriately at the Dessau court. Ernst Wolfgang Behrisch , later August Rode , was appointed to his court master and tutor .

In 1784 he entered Prussian service and became an assessor in Breslau, soon afterwards a war and domain councilor. In 1786 he was raised to the rank of count. In 1790 he resigned from Prussian service with the title of a secret finance councilor and was recalled by his father to Dessau, where he held numerous offices. Among other things, he was from 1793 superintendent of the Medical Commission and from 1796 to 1806 President of the Chalcographic Society . Prince Franz gave him the Palais Waldersee as a residence in 1795 . During the Napoleonic Wars in 1813/14 he served his father several times in diplomatic missions as a liaison with the Allies. After the death of his father he became the chief steward whose successor Duke Leopold IV. King Friedrich Wilhelm III. awarded him the Order of St. John .

As a writer, he wrote a didactic poem about the hunt, the libretto of an opera and the translations of several of Racine's tragedies .

family

On May 20, 1787, after a four-year engagement in Dessau, Waldersee married Luise Karoline Kasimire Sophie von Anhalt (1767–1842), daughter of Major General Albrecht von Anhalt and his wife Sophie Luise Henriette, née von Wedel . The following children were born from the marriage:

• Luise (1788–1880), nun
• Franz Heinrich (1791–1873), Prussian cavalry general and governor of Berlin ⚭ Bertha von Hünerbein (1799–1859)
• Eduard (1793–1867), Prussian officer ⚭ June 22, 1821 Laurette von Alvensleben (1803–1875)
• Friedrich Gustav (1795–1864), Prussian lieutenant general and military writer ⚭ July 2, 1823 Ottilie von Wedel (1803–1882)
• Amélie (1799–1826) ⚭ Karl Friedrich David von Lindheim (1791–1862), general of the infantry
• Marie (1803–1862) ⚭ March 29, 1826 Leopold von Gayl (1791–1876), Prussian general of the infantry

Fonts

• Diary of the trip to Switzerland in 1783. Original French version in: Anna-Franziska von Schweinitz: Prince and Federalist. Diaries of a trip to Switzerland in 1783 and the Confederation as a model in the Old Kingdom. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2004, ISBN 3-88462-196-3 , pp. 225-276.
• The hunter. A didactic poem in three songs. Hall 1805, new edition Berlin 1865.

literature

• Erhard Hirsch: The Dessau-Wörlitz Reform Movement in the Age of Enlightenment. People - structures - effects. Hallesche's contributions to the European Enlightenment, 18. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-484-81018-1 (revised version of the Phil.Diss. Halle 1969) p. 597.
• Anna-Franziska von Schweinitz: Prince and federalist. Diaries of a trip to Switzerland in 1783 and the Confederation as a model in the Old Kingdom. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2004, ISBN 3-88462-196-3 .
• Anna-Franziska von Schweinitz: Waldersee and father Franz. On the misfortune of illegitimate birth. Verlag Janos Stekovics, Wettin-Löbejün 2017, ISBN 978-3-89923-381-0 .
• Wilhelm Hosäus :  Waldersee, Franz Graf von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 696-698.