Friedrich (Hohenzollern-Hechingen)
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Friedrich Hermann Otto (born July 22, 1776 in Namur ; † September 13, 1838 at Lindich Castle near Hechingen ) was the penultimate Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen . As an officer of Napoleon, he sustained serious injuries during the Russian campaign . He promoted the Swabian poet circle and shaped his principality through fundamental reforms .
Origin and education
Friedrich's father was Hermann Maria Friedrich Otto Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen (1751-1810). His mother was Maximilienne Albertine Jeanne Princesse de Gâvre (1753–1778). The Hereditary Prince was baptized in Namur Cathedral in what is now Belgium .
In 1790 he was sent to the prestigious High Charles School in Stuttgart for training , which was notorious for its military drills. Friedrich Schiller had also spent his school days there some time before Friedrich. After studying at several German universities, Friedrich sat in on the Reichshofrat in Vienna .
Diplomatic career and marriage
Hereditary Prince Friedrich conducted numerous difficult diplomatic negotiations for the Principality from an early age. In 1800 he reached with the Roman-German emperor in Vienna that the dignity of the imperial prince should already belong to the respective hereditary prince and his descendants. And despite the close ties to the Habsburg dynasty , in negotiations with France he succeeded in exempting the principality from high contributions .
On April 26, 1800, Friedrich married the wealthy Luise Pauline Maria Biron Princess of Silesia-Sagan (1782–1845) in Prague . The marriage resulted in a child: Friedrich Wilhelm Konstantin (1801–1869). He then lived with his wife for about a year in the Palais Kurland in Berlin , Unter den Linden .
Napoleon's officer
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In 1801 his father sent him to Paris to negotiate replacements for the lost possessions in the Netherlands. His relatives by marriage, Princess Amalie von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , introduced him to the then consul Napoléon Bonaparte , his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais and the French Foreign Minister Talleyrand . At the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803, the principality actually received the monasteries of Stetten , St. Luzen and Rangendingen as well as the rule of Hirschlatt as a replacement for the possessions lost in the Revolutionary Wars .
In 1805 his wife Pauline separated from him, but without a divorce. She had given birth to an illegitimate daughter, Marie Wilson; the girl's father was Louis Victor Mériadec de Rohan (1766–1846), the husband of her sister Wilhelmine von Sagan . Their son, Hereditary Prince Konstantin, was taken away from Pauline and looked after by a nanny.
After the principality joined the Rhine Confederation in 1806, Friedrich fought as an officer for Napoleon. At first he was adjutant to Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte . In 1806 he conquered the Glogau fortress , later also the hometown of his wife Żagań . His father, Prince Hermann, ordered thanksgiving ceremonies "for the progress of Napoleonic weapons" . In 1809 Friedrich became the adjutant of the King of Naples Joachim Murat , who was married to Napoleon's sister Caroline Bonaparte . During the Russian campaign he suffered severe war injuries from which he never fully recovered.
The war-disabled prince
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After the death of his father, Friedrich became Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen in 1810. Just in time he was able to break away from the Rhine Confederation after the Battle of Leipzig and switch to the side of the Allies . At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the principality was on the winning side and received reparation payments from France , which the prince used to build the New Palace in Hechingen. Hohenzollern-Hechingen joined the German Confederation and was administered prudently by Prince Friedrich despite the high debts, whereby his son Konstantin had to grow into government business during his father's poor health due to the poor health of his father.
On July 16, 1819, Prince Friedrich met with the later Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV at the Hohenzollern castle ruins . In a letter dated March 17, 1820, he asked Friedrich Wilhelm IV to go with his father, the reigning King Friedrich Wilhelm III. to talk about rebuilding the castle. Initially, however, only a romantic ruin was prepared. Friedrich Wilhelm IV realized the idea of a complete reconstruction himself only two decades later.
The prince suffered from his war injuries and from his unhappy marriage to Pauline, which only existed on paper. In a letter from 1825 to Prince Karl von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , he complained: “Yes, my friend, I suffer a lot, a lot, both from the body that is sinking more and more than from a completely torn mind - but as I said, still, still from it . “ Occasionally he went to Baden near Vienna for a cure.
Patrons and reformers
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On May 22, 1826, his son Constantine married the warm-hearted and religious Eugénie de Beauharnais . In the summer months, the old prince resided in Lindich Castle , located in front of the city , where he invited the well-known members of the Swabian poetry circle such as Ludwig Uhland and Justinus Kerner . Since the New Castle could not be completed due to lack of money, he spent the winter months in the old chancellery building opposite, which is also known as the Old Castle . Hereditary Prince Constantine and daughter-in-law Eugénie moved into the Villa Eugenia .
In 1833, Prince Friedrich issued general school regulations . In 1835 the new city ordinance granted the municipalities of the principality the right to self-government. City officials and city clerks were appointed by the prince, for this purpose mayors and city councilors were elected and the city calculators, tax collectors and city builders were chosen from among them . A little later, a new electoral law regulated the state deputation , the first popular representation in the principality.
Friedrich was considered "extremely simple in his whole way of life, of excellent humanity and high scientific education" . The prince's health got worse and worse in the last years of his life. Eugénie lovingly cared for her father-in-law until his death on September 13th, 1838. At the age of 62 he died at Lindich Castle.
Honors
- 1818 Grand Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown
- January 24, 1832 Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle
Remarks
- ↑ Such a newspaper article from 1837
- ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Handbook 1828, p. 30.
- ↑ Hermann Hengst: The Knights of the Black Eagle Order . Verlag Alexander Duncker, Berlin 1901, p. 161.
literature
- Anton-Heinrich Buckenmaier, Michael Hakenmüller: Friedrich-Wilhelm Constantin. The last prince . Glückler, Hechingen 2005.
- Friedrich August Schmidt (Ed.): New Nekrolog der Deutschen , Seventeenth Year, 1839, Volume 17, Part 1, Bernhard Friedrich Voigt , Weimar 1841, pp. 39–43.
See also
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Hermann |
Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen 1810–1838 |
Constantine |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Friedrich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Friedrich Hermann Otto Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 22, 1776 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Namur |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 13, 1838 |
| Place of death | Hechingen |