Friedrich August von Lichtenberg

Baron Friedrich August von Lichtenberg (born December 8, 1755 in Seeheim , † October 10, 1819 in Mainz ) was the first head of government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse .

origin

His father was Gottlieb Christoph Lichtenberg (1724–1756), bailiff in Seeheim, his mother Sophie Dorothea, née Wißmann (1722–1792), widow of Georg Alexander Campen, who was bailiff in Seeheim until his death in 1752. The family was Protestant .

Career

Friedrich August von Lichtenberg was born under the real name Friedrich August Lichtenberg, attended grammar school in Darmstadt and then studied law in Göttingen from 1773 to 1776 . From 1778 he worked in the financial administration of the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt as an “ accessist ”, curator , librarian and archivist in Darmstadt, the latter in succession to his uncle Friedrich August Wißmann. In 1790 he became a secret secretary in the secret chancellery and councilor. Together with Christian Hartmann Samuel von Gatzert, he represented the Landgraviate at the Rastatt Congress (1797–1799), which was supposed to implement the resolutions of the Peace of Campo Formio , which ultimately and shortly afterwards at the beginning of the 19th century resulted in considerable territorial gains for the Landgraviate were.

1798-1804 he worked as a Privy Counselor Minister of Hesse-Darmstadt on royal Prussian court in Berlin . He then moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Landgraviate with the title of "Secret Referendair " . When in 1805 Carl Ludwig Freiherr von Barckhaus, called Wiesenhütten , fell out of favor and was dismissed as head of government, but the position was not filled immediately, Friedrich August von Lichtenberg actually took his position and was thus head of the government himself. At an unknown point in time, he was also officially entrusted with the office, making him the first head of government of the country that had been elevated to the status of a Grand Duchy in 1806 , an office he held until 1819. On May 16, 1809 he received the Hessian nobility and baron class , and in 1813 the title "Real Privy Council".

He became seriously ill with gout . When Karl Ludwig Wilhelm von Grolmann was appointed Real Secret Council and a member of the State Ministry on July 31, 1819 , Friedrich August von Lichtenberg was effectively disempowered. He died that same year.

family

Friedrich August von Lichtenberg was married to Johannette Rosine Küster (born September 25, 1757 Darmstadt; † September 16, 1839, ibid). Her parents were Franz Heinrich Küster, Ober-Kammerfourier and Fourage inspector in Darmstadt, and the civil servant daughter Katharina Barbara Meurer.

Honors

• Baron class
• Fief in Groß-Hausen

literature

• Jürgen Rainer Wolf: Just Ministre étranger aux affaires or a hint of character assassination? The nephew of Minister of State Friedrich August Freiherr von Lichtenberg (1755–1819) in letters and reports . In: Otto Weber (ed.): Lichtenberg. Traces of a Family = book accompanying the exhibition from June 27 to August 16, 1992 in the Ober-Ramstadt town hall. Association for local history Ober-Ramstadt in cooperation with the city of Ober-Ramstadt, Ober-Ramstadt 1992, pp. 203-258. (Without ISBN)
• Andreas Schulz : Rule through administration. The reforms of the Confederation of the Rhine in Hessen-Darmstadt under Napoleon (1803–1815) . Steiner, Stuttgart 1991. ISBN 978-3-515-05925-1 , p. 227, note 49.
• Uta Germann: The compensation negotiations Hessen-Darmstadt in the years 1798–1815. Diplomacy under the sign of revolutionary upheaval . Hessian Historical Commission Darmstadt and Historical Commission for Hesse , Darmstadt 1998. ISBN 978-3-88443-068-2 , pp. 46-48.

Web links

• Lichtenberg, Friedrich August Freiherr von . In: LAGIS : Hessian Biography ; As of December 8, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ LAGIS (see: Weblinks).
2. ↑ LAGIS (see: Weblinks).
3. ↑ LAGIS (see: Weblinks).
4. ↑ LAGIS (see: Weblinks).
5. ↑ LAGIS (see: Weblinks).
6. ↑ LAGIS (see: Weblinks).
7. ↑ LAGIS (see: Weblinks).