Friedrich August I (Saxony)
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Friedrich August I. Joseph Maria Anton Johann Nepomuk Aloys Xaver "the just" (* December 23, 1750 in Dresden ; † May 5, 1827 ibid) was since 1763 as Friedrich August III. Elector and from 1806 until his death as Friedrich August I first King of Saxony . He was elected King of Poland in 1791 , but only served as Duke of Warsaw from 1807 to 1815 .
Elector of Saxony and elected King of Poland
origin
Friedrich August comes from the Albertine line . He was the son of Elector Friedrich Christian of Saxony and his wife Maria Antonia of Bavaria . After his father's death in 1763, his mother as the guardian regent and his uncle Prince Franz Xaver as the spa administrator represented him until 1768 because he was a minor .
Renouncement of the Polish royal crown
In 1765, Prince Regent Franz Xaver declared that the underage Duke and Elector would renounce the Polish royal crown in favor of Stanislaus II August Poniatowski . With the adoption of the Polish constitution on May 3, 1791 by the Sejm , Friedrich August was appointed successor to King Stanislaus II and the succession of the Saxon Kurhaus to the Polish throne was determined (Article VII of the Polish constitution). In view of the difficult foreign policy situation, Friedrich August refused to accept the crown because he feared that, as King of Poland, he would become involved in armed conflicts with Austria, Prussia and Russia , which had already forced Poland to cede territories in 1772. In fact, until 1795 and thus before the death of King Stanislaus II, Poland was completely divided among the neighboring powers of Austria, Prussia and Russia.
Foreign policy attitude up to the dissolution of the empire
In 1791 Friedrich August arranged the meeting of Emperor Leopold II. And King Friedrich Wilhelm II. Of Prussia at Pillnitz Castle . a. a declaration of support for the French monarchy was passed. This Pillnitzer Declaration also contained the prospect of military action against the French Revolution and gave France the opportunity to declare war on Austria in April 1792 . Friedrich August did not sign the Pillnitz Declaration.
After the death of Emperor Joseph II on February 20, 1790, Elector Friedrich August III. next to Elector Karl Theodor of Palatinate-Bavaria for the first time imperial vicar . His term of office as imperial administrator ended with Leopold II's coronation in Frankfurt am Main on October 9, 1790. After the death of Emperor Leopold II on March 1, 1792, Friedrich August III. for the second time with Karl Theodor the office of imperial vicar, which lasted until the coronation of his successor Emperor Franz II on July 14, 1792 for the states of Saxon law . His vicariate coins can be recognized by the extended title VICARIVS (1790) and PROVISOR (Reichsverweser) (1792) and on the reverse by the double-headed imperial eagle with the Electoral Saxon breast shield under the electoral hat.
Saxony did not join the defensive alliance against France concluded between Austria and Prussia in July 1792 . The proclamation of the Reich War by the Reichstag in March 1793 obliged Friedrich August to participate in the war. When Prussia suddenly concluded a separate peace with France at the expense of the Reich in April 1795 in order to be able to break the resistance to the partition of Poland without hindrance, this also caused consternation in Saxony. After further imperial estates had entered into separate peace alliances with France and the French had advanced eastward, Saxony left the coalition war in August 1796 . Both at his peace treaty with France and at the Rastatt Congress , which was supposed to approve the cession of the left bank of the Rhine to France since 1797, Friedrich August had faithfulness to the traditional constitutional principles of the empire demonstrated. Neither in Rastatt nor at the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803 did Saxony participate in the general state chatters, the main beneficiaries of which were Bavaria, Prussia, Württemberg and Baden.
Foreign policy attitude up to the peace treaty with Napoleon
Friedrich August also did not participate in the establishment of the Rhine Confederation , which led to the final dissolution of the empire . He was also reserved about the Prussian idea of a northern German empire, within which Saxony was to be elevated to a kingdom. However, when Napoleon advanced as far as Thuringia from September 1806 in response to a Berlin ultimatum that demanded the withdrawal of French troops to the left bank of the Rhine, Friedrich August united with Prussia. In the double battle of Jena and Auerstedt in October 1806, the Prussian-Saxon troops suffered a crushing defeat against Napoleon. Left completely alone and without any news by Prussia, whose state and army leadership had fled headlessly to the east, Friedrich August had to make peace with Napoleon, whose troops soon occupied Saxony. On 11 December 1806 in Poznan on both sides by the plenipotentiaries Peace of Posen signed: Saxony joined the Confederation of the Rhine when, as previously levied Bavaria and Württemberg to the kingdom and was previously Prussian district Cottbus promised what it smaller areas the re had to leave the building kingdom of Westphalia .
King of Saxony and Duke of Warsaw
Elevation to the Saxon-Polish ruler
On December 20, 1806, Friedrich August was proclaimed King of Saxony. After the Peace of Tilsit , which Friedrich Wilhelm III. by Prussia and Tsar Alexander I of Russia had concluded with Napoleon in July 1807 , Friedrich August was also appointed Duke of Warsaw . Friedrich August, who had rejected the hereditary royal dignity proposed by the Sejm in 1791, could not refuse this time. The constitution for the Duchy of Warsaw, dictated by Napoleon on July 22, 1807 in Dresden, linked in Article 5 - in this connection to the Polish constitution of 1791 - the duchy of Warsaw hereditary with the Saxon royal house. The territory of the Duchy of Warsaw was almost identical to the Polish parts of the country annexed by Prussia in 1792 and 1795 .
After Austria suffered a defeat during the Fifth Coalition War in 1809, to which a failed campaign against the Duchy also contributed, in the Peace of Schönbrunn it had to cede the parts of Poland , which had been annexed in 1795, to the Duchy and part of the profits from 1772 to Russia. Friedrich August, as the prince of the Confederation of the Rhine in the victors' camp, received half of the income from the Wieliczka salt mine , which increased his ducal cask money from 0.167 to 1.5 million thalers a year.
In July 1812, Friedrich August confirmed a proclamation by the Warsaw Reichstag on the occasion of Napoleon's invasion of Russia to restore the Kingdom of Poland, against which Napoleon protested in consideration of the partitioning powers Prussia and Austria allied with him.
Situation and attitude during the war of liberation
When, in December 1812, as a result of Napoleon's defeat in the Russian campaign with the Convention of Tauroggen, Prussia was about to change sides, Friedrich August called on the residents of Warsaw to persevere on January 21, 1813 (see the appeal on the right). The defeated French and Polish troops withdrew from the duchy and Russian troops occupied it. On February 28, Prussia and Russia concluded an offensive and defensive alliance against Napoleon in the Treaty of Kalisch to restore Prussia to its "earlier state" and to divide the Duchy of Warsaw. On March 17, 1813, Prussia declared war on France and called her people to arms. With this, Prussia started the Wars of Liberation . On April 9, a week after the battle near Lüneburg , the allies asked Friedrich August to join them. In order to evade a decision, when the Prussian-Russian troops marched into Saxony, he went via Regensburg to the Austrian city of Prague, where on April 20 he concluded an alliance with Austria, which is now practically neutral. After Friedrich August had immediately announced the Saxon-Austrian treaty to the allies, they saw him as an enemy.
After defeating the Prussian-Russian troops at Großgörschen on May 2nd, Napoleon, who had not lost track of Friedrich August's disengagement, finally asked him to return to Saxony. In view of the alleged defeat of the Prussian-Russian coalition, which agreed the Pläswitz armistice with Napoleon at the beginning of June , and with no prospect of concrete Austrian help, Friedrich August decided to comply with the ultimatum.
Friedrich August's decision, however, hardly brought any relief to the country. Napoleon, annoyed by half of the king's apostasy and at the same time dependent on the full mobilization of all available forces against the coalition troops , was now relentlessly taking up the resources of Saxony. During the armistice, the peace congress in Prague failed . During the hostilities that reopened in mid-August, Saxony suffered from the changing fortunes of war and the associated pulls through and billeting. At the end of August the allies again failed to defeat Napoleon in the Battle of Dresden . Saxony was meanwhile the main theater of war, Dresden the center of the movements of the French army. On September 9, Austria joined the Teplitz alliance of the Prussian-Russian coalition; When Napoleon's troops began to retreat in Saxony before the expanded coalition, the first conversions from the Saxon army to the allies took place in September . Napoleon openly threatened the king that he would regard Saxony as hostile territory and treat it accordingly if Friedrich August changed sides. As a result, Friedrich August's room for maneuver was severely restricted if he did not want to put the country's wellbeing at risk. He remembered very much that Prussia had simply left him in the lurch in 1806, and probably also disappointed in view of the experiences with Austria, he did not want to join the expanded coalition immediately, especially since the country was still exposed to French control.
In the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813, the Saxon and Polish troops therefore marched alongside Napoleon. In view of the looming defeat of the French, larger Saxon troops went over to the coalition during the battle, while the Polish troops were largely wiped out.
Fate until the Congress of Vienna
After the Battle of Nations, the Prussian-Russian allies showed no interest in an alliance with the Saxon king in the further fight against Napoleon , regardless of corresponding offers from Friedrich August. Rather, the king was immediately taken into captivity after the Berlin City Palace, from July 1814 to Friedrichsfelde near Berlin, and Saxony was placed under Russian-Prussian trustees in the form of a general government of the High Allied Powers . Not the government exercised by the Russian Prince Repnin until November 8, 1814, but the subsequent Prussian occupation, which lasted until June 6, 1815, and the gruff demeanor of Freiherr vom Stein caused displeasure in Saxony.
At the Congress of Vienna , Friedrich August, who - unlike the representatives of France, for example - was forbidden to attend, was to be punished on behalf of Napoleon's allies. Even more than the difficult geopolitical situation, the changing fortunes of war, the lack of support from Austria and, last but not least, the hesitant attitude of the Saxon king, Friedrich August, like the country, was undoed by the fact that Prussia helped with its war efforts and the Polish territories surrendered to Russia the annexation of Saxony should be compensated. Prussia's reach for the rich, culturally and economically more highly developed Saxony did not result from any need to overcome Napoleonic foreign rule, but only corresponded to the old dream of incorporation that Friedrich II had developed in his political testament of 1752 and tried to realize during the Seven Years War .
The fact that Saxony did not completely dissolve was due to Austria and France's fear of an excessive strengthening of Prussia. After the congress threatened to break up on the Saxon question, the negotiating parties accepted the Austrian proposal to divide Saxony.
Approval of the Viennese post-war order
Friedrich August, who was only released from Prussian captivity in February 1815, hesitated for a long time to consent to the division of the country. Since the king had no choice, he finally gave in and on May 18 consented to the peace treaty with Prussia and Russia that had been presented to him. With the signing of the treaty on May 21, 1815, a good 57 percent of the Saxon territory and a good 42 percent of the Saxon population fell to its northern neighbor.
Places and areas that had been associated with Saxon sovereignty for hundreds of years were incorporated into completely foreign, partly artificially formed administrative regions: Wittenberg, for example, the old capital of the Saxon electoral state and seat of the state university that was world-famous through Luther and Melanchthon (which was founded in 1817 by “amalgamation” with the Prussian University of Halle ), or Torgau , birthplace and residence city of Elector Frederick the Wise , were added to a hybrid created by Prussia called “ Province of Saxony ”. The Lower Lausitz , like the Oberlausitz had preserved their constitutional autonomy under Saxon rule, the Prussian was province Brandenburg incorporated and ceased to exist as a country. Upper Lusatia was arbitrarily divided: the areas ceded to Prussia, including Görlitz , next to the capital Bautzen (which remained with Saxony) for centuries the center of the country, were separated and added to the neighboring province of Silesia ; Unlike the part of the country remaining under Saxon rule, these areas also lost their constitutional independence.
On May 22, 1815, Friedrich August also renounced the Duchy of Warsaw, the territory of which was mainly annexed by Russia, but also by Prussia and Austria. A Kingdom of Poland was established on the territory allocated to Russia , which was linked to the Tsar in a hereditary personal union. Compared to the duchy established in 1807 and even more so compared to the old Polish kingdom, this “kingdom” agreed in Vienna was a rump formation. Only the old royal city of Poland was officially recognized as the Republic of Krakow . The internal autonomy that the kingdom initially enjoyed was eliminated by Russia after the Polish uprising of 1830/31 was suppressed .
King of Saxony
Respect among the people when they return home
When Friedrich August returned to Saxony in June 1815, he was enthusiastically welcomed across the country. Numerous declarations of loyalty also reached the king from the ceded areas, where the population behaved coolly towards the new rulers; the term “Must-Prussian” soon made the rounds here. In Liège, where most of the regiments of the Saxon army were located at the beginning of 1815 , a revolt broke out at the end of April when, at the behest of the Prussian king , Blücher was supposed to outsource the soldiers from the areas to be annexed from the Saxon army without them Friedrich August's teams had received their farewell. The Saxon soldiers got into an uproar over this; Blücher had to flee the city and could only suppress the revolt by additionally called in Prussian troops.
When the king returned, the sympathy of public opinion was clearly on Friedrich August's side. In Saxony, Prussian policy against the country and against the king appeared all too ruthless. The pathos with which Berlin's particular interests were passed off as a legacy of the war of liberation and which Hardenberg continued to strive to legitimize Prussia's “compensation” with the Rhineland for Saxony, which was only half won, was also all too disconcerting , after which it was mainly from him and Stein The Kalischer annexation plan agreed with Russia at the Congress of Vienna could not be implemented "one to one".
Only later generations in Saxony learned to view Friedrich August's attitude in the war of liberation with rejection - above all under the influence of the Pro-Prussian historiography of Heinrich von Treitschke , whose images and evaluations for a long time the academic discourse, political journalism and school history lessons determined, especially in the GDR at the time of the division of Germany .
Attitude and reputation during the last years of government
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The last twelve years of Friedrich August's reign were largely silent. The conservative character of the king, which had manifested itself in Saxony's unconditional loyalty to the empire until 1806, intensified even more after the eventful and loss-making years of Napoleonic hegemony. The king could not be won over for innovations in the constitution or in administration and politics. Until his death in 1827, the constitutional unification of the Saxon state, which the king probably denied himself out of respect for the rights of the Upper Lusatian estates that remained with Saxony, made just as little progress as the expansion of the estates into one, desired by many residents of the state real popular representation. The admiration for the aged sovereign, who determined the fate of Saxony for more than half a century, was admittedly hardly affected. While still alive, Friedrich August was given the nickname “the Just”. Only Friedrich August's brother, who, of course, was also aged when he took office, felt the displeasure of the further development of the state structure, which was delayed in comparison to the economic and social development of the country, was felt by King Anton .
Friedrich August was buried in the Wettiner crypt of the Catholic Court Church in Dresden.
Marriage and offspring
In 1769 Friedrich August married the Countess Palatine Maria Amalie Auguste von Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler , a niece of the Palatine Electress Elisabeth Auguste . The marriage was considered harmonious.
Amalie gave birth to four children, three of them were stillborns, only the daughter Augusta reached adulthood:
- a child (* / † 1771)
- a child (* / † 1775)
- Maria Augusta Nepomucena Antonia Franziska Xaveria Aloysia (born June 21, 1782 in Dresden, † March 14, 1863 in Dresden)
- a child (* / † 1797)
He was succeeded as king in 1827 by Friedrich August's brother Anton von Sachsen .
Honors
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ancestors
literature
- Jens Eschert: “Failed over time.” Friedrich August I of Saxony and the Battle of Nations. In: Sabine Graul / Marian Nebelin (ed.): Loser of history. From ancient to modern. Berlin 2008, pp. 289-308.
- Heinrich Theodor Flathe : Friedrich August I. (King of Saxony) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 786-789.
- Michael Fröhlich: Saxony in the Napoleonic era. In: Josef J. Schmid (Ed.): Waterloo - June 18, 1815. History of a European battle (Studia Academica Historica 1), Bonn 2008, pp. 143-183.
- Agatha Kobuch : The offer of the Polish royal crown to Elector Friedrich August III. of Saxony through the constitution of the Rzeczpospolita of May 3, 1791. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-05-002573-5 (session reports of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig; Philological-Historical Class; vol. 74, no.1 ).
- Rudolf Kötzschke , Hellmut Kretzschmar : Saxon history. Verlag Flechsig, Würzburg 2002, ISBN 3-88189-450-0 (reprint of the Dresden 1935 edition; comprehensive, in many cases still authoritative presentation; which already sets itself apart from the distortions in Treitschke's “History of the 19th Century”), p. 285 -320.
- Hellmut Kretzschmar : Friedrich August I, the just. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 575 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Dorit Petschel : Saxon foreign policy under Friedrich August I. Between Rétablissiment, Rhine Confederation and Restoration (Dresden Historical Studies; Vol. 4). Böhlau, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-412-14299-9 (the latest comprehensive description , inter alia, on Friedrich August's attitude in the war of liberation)
- Rainer Richter: The art under Friedrich August the just and King Anton , in: Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff 1736-1800. Life - Work - Effect , Wörlitz 1987, pp. 107–116, with 20 illustrations in the illustration section (appendix).
- Dagmar Schäfer: The captured Saxon king. A memory of Saxony's first king, Friedrich August I (1750–1827) . Tauchaer Verlag, Taucha 1996, ISBN 3-910074-52-9 .
- Otto Eduard Schmidt : From the time of the wars of freedom and the Congress of Vienna. 87 unprinted letters and documents from the Saxon aristocratic archives . Teubner Verlag, Leipzig 1914. (Collection of sources, with which the one-sidedness of Friedrich August's attitude in the war of liberation, particularly widespread by Treitschke , was refuted).
- Klaus-Dieter Stefan (Ed.): Friedrichsfelde - The place. The lock. The history. , Hendrik Bäßler Verlag, Berlin 2014, pp. 155–171.
Movies
- Saxony at the abyss - Friedrich August I and Napoleon from the series History of Central Germany the MDR -2013.
Web links
- Literature by and about Friedrich August I. in the catalog of the German National Library
- Literature by and about Friedrich August I. in the Saxon Bibliography
- Friedrich August the Just in the Leipzig Lexicon
- Letters concerning the Elector Friedrich August of Saxony
Individual evidence
- ^ Rudolf Kötzschke , Hellmut Kretzschmar : Saxon history . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1977³, p. 304
- ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Friedrich Christian |
Elector of Saxony from 1806, King 1763–1827 |
Anton |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Friedrich August I. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Friedrich August III. of Saxony; Friedrich August the Just; Friedrich August Joseph Maria Anton Johann Nepomuk Aloys Xaver von Wettin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Elector and King of Saxony, Duke of Warsaw |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 23, 1750 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dresden |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 5, 1827 |
| Place of death | Dresden |