Friedrich Christian von Fürstenberg

Friedrich Christian von Fürstenberg

Friedrich Christian von Fürstenberg (born September 3, 1700 in Herdringen ; † May 14, 1742 ) in Koblenz was canon in various cathedral chapters , provost of St. Patrokli in Soest and of the Meschede monastery . He was also President of the Privy Council of the diocese of Paderborn and kurkölnischer cabinet and Conference Minister. Under his influence, the functionality of the council increased significantly, but as von Fürstenberg soon fell out of favor, the importance of the council declined again. At the Bonn court he belonged to the imperial party.

Life

Early years

Friedrich Christian von Fürstenberg came from the Westphalian noble family Fürstenberg and was the eighth son of the hereditary droster Ferdinand von Fürstenberg zu Herdringen and Waterlappe and his wife Maria Theresia von Westphalen zu Fürstenberg . He got his first name after one of his godparents, the Prince-Bishop of Münster, Friedrich Christian von Plettenberg . He had fifteen siblings: seven sisters and eight brothers, including Christian Franz Dietrich (1689–1755, Erbdroste), Hugo Franz (1692–1755, Canon), Wilhelm Franz (1684–1707, Canon), Ferdinand Anton (1683–1711, Canon) and Friedrich (1685–1706, Canon).

Friedrich Christian was intended as a later son from a family of the nobility for a spiritual career . As a small child, he was eligible for a Paderborn canon position. The death of some of his brothers and the resignation of his brother Christian Franz Dietrich, who succeeded his father, later opened up the prospect of further canon positions for him.

He received his first orders in 1710 . Little is known about the initial training, probably by private tutors. Between 1715 and 1717 he attended the Jesuit high school in Siegen . He then studied in Cologne and Salzburg before going to Rome for the biennium between 1723 and 1725 . There he studied civil and canon law. In addition, he devoted himself to historical, historical-philosophical and theological studies.

Advancement in church and government service

Portal of the royal court in Paderborn

In 1716 he received the right to a canon position in Paderborn . After the death of the father, the brother Christian Franz Dietrich took over the care of Friedrich Christian. Due to the resignation of his brother, Friedrich Christian came to his canon position in Hildesheim in 1720 . However, as a result there were conflicts between the brothers because Friedrich Christian did not want to be patronized. He managed to obtain the canon position in Paderborn to which he was entitled without the support of his brother. The stipend he received in 1720. In 1721 he joined the Third Order of Franciscans . Initially coadjutor , from 1723/24 he was provost of St. Patrokli in Soest and thus Cologne archdeacon of the archdeaconate of Soest.

He tried to emulate the example of some of his ancestors and to acquire the provost office of the Bartholomäusstift in Frankfurt. He even received the approval of the Pope, but failed because of the resistance of the Archbishop of Mainz, Lothar Franz von Schönborn , of the collegiate chapter and, finally, of the Emperor, who protested against the interference of the Pope in imperial rights. Thereupon Friedrich Christian gave up this attempt. On the other hand, he succeeded in obtaining a canon praise in Münster in 1726. While the relationship with a large part of the family was strained, he had a good relationship with his brother Franz Egon von Fürstenberg, whom he later promoted. Clemens August von Bayern , Archbishop of Cologne and Bishop of Paderborn, among others, consecrated him himself on November 1, 1728 in Paderborn as a subdeacon , which secured him all the rights of a cathedral capitular for the future . On April 16, 1729 he was ordained a priest in Hildesheim . Ordination and the priesthood meant a lot to him later when he was politically active. His first Mass he celebrated in Werl .

Clemens August von Bayern became aware of Friedrich Christian early on. In 1724 he appointed him to the secret council of the Hildesheim Monastery . With the overthrow of Minister Ferdinand von Plettenberg in 1733, the chances for Friedrich Christian increased. In Paderborn he was elected provost and confirmed by the Pope.

A year later he became president of the new secret council of the principality of Paderborn, and in 1735 he became governor of the principality for both spiritual and secular affairs. In Paderborn he had the old canon curia Fürstenhof, which was owned by his family, redesigned in a baroque style.

At the request of Clemens August, he became a cathedral scholar in Hildesheim . The cathedral chapter refused to recognize this. A legal dispute ensued in which the Curia in Rome and the Reichshofrat in Vienna were also involved. The latter decided in 1737 in favor of Friedrich Christian. In the dispute over the office of cathedral choirmaster, he had the support of the family also because the candidate of the opposing party came from the von Weichs house , with whom one was competing. The following ascent in Bonn, however, was no longer supported.

Minister in Bonn

At the court of Elector Clemens August von Bayern in Bonn , the secret Extra-Conferential-Rat was set up in 1733 as a government body for internal and external policy. In 1736 Friedrich Christian was appointed state and secret conference minister in the aforementioned body. According to his own statements, he had previously submitted reform proposals to the Elector and proposed to divide the work into departments. The Colonel Chamberlain Count von Hohenzollern and the Court Chamber President Baron von Waldbott zu Bornheim were then responsible for the Electoral Cologne department, including Vest Recklinghausen and the Duchy of Westphalia . Friedrich Christian was assigned the Hildesheim, Münster and Paderborn monasteries. Heidenreich Matthias Droste zu Vischering got Osnabrück. However, the functioning of the system was soon undermined by the subordinate secretaries, who first visited the elector and only then asked the ministers for their signature.

Immediately after taking office, Friedrich Christian initiated a reform of the court chambers . The aim was to increase government revenues. The plan was approved and in 1738 he was given overall supervision of the elector's finances. He introduced controls on income and expenses. His instructions were undermined and the elector had no interest in limiting his expenses. The disappointment over the failure of his financial reform plans was so great that he considered resigning as early as 1739.

With regard to the policy towards the estates , he tried to improve the position of sovereign as early as the Paderborn times. Even after moving to Bonn, he retained the governorship of Paderborn and tried to reform the court chamber at least in the Paderborn monastery. Despite considerable efforts, there were ultimately no successes. One reason was that he encountered resistance from the nobility. It was not in his interest that the sovereign could pull more money out of the country to the detriment of the estates. The relationship between Friedrich Christian and the estates subsequently cooled. However, the question of the court chamber reform was only one point of conflict. There were even disputes with the members of the cathedral chapter, for example over certain monetary payments. The cathedral dean Johann Friedrich von Schaesberg , who would later also become cathedral provost, even accused him of fraud in 1740. In 1737 he tried with great energy to become Abbot of Corvey . He had high-level support in this regard. In addition to the elector, the emperor also spoke out for him. However, he did not succeed in obtaining a majority in the monastery convent . Against the election of Kaspar von Boeselager , he then let his relationships play in vain. The application not only caused high costs, but also weakened his position at court in Bonn. Later he applied equally unsuccessfully for various bishoprics.

Ultimately, however, he failed because he stuck to his positions in financial and foreign policy, even though the elector had already taken a different direction. At the beginning of his ministerial work he made a clear commitment to support the House of Habsburg . He was against the representatives of a pro-Bavarian policy in Bonn. It is possible that Friedrich Christian initiated a discussion in 1736/37 about supporting the emperor in the Turkish wars . The negotiations about the provision of a troop contingent turned out to be difficult, also because the elector was speculating on the Liège bishopric as the price . Ultimately, the negotiator Friedrich Christian also succeeded in obtaining the position of a Cologne and a Münster regiment . On the question of the Austrian succession, Friedrich Christian spoke out in favor of recognizing the Pragmatic Sanction . After the death of Charles VI. The situation became difficult in 1740 when Clemens August's brother, Karl Albert von Bayern , applied for the imperial crown. Friedrich Christian initially signaled his support against Bavaria in Vienna. At the electoral court, however, a strong pro-Bavarian party was formed around Matthias Gerhard von Hoesch . At the urging of Friedrich Christian, Clemens August offered to recognize Maria Theresa's claim if Vienna, Great Britain and the Netherlands recognized the existence of Kurköln. The question of the emperor remained open, but the decision in favor of Bavaria had not yet been made. The distrust of Prussia has long played a role in his foreign policy plans . He even feared that Prussia might question the existence of the Hochstifte in Westphalia.

His plans failed after neither Great Britain nor the Netherlands wanted to issue a guarantee for Kurköln. In 1741, Clemens August concluded an alliance with France and sided with the Bavarian side. With this, Friedrich Christian had initially become meaningless with the Austrian party. After surviving illness, he returned to the sessions of the Secret Conference in a leading position. However, this hardly seems to have played a role since none of its members belonged to the prevailing French-Bavarian party. He did not take part in the election negotiations in favor of Charles VII and was not a member of the electoral delegation. However, he took part in a prominent position in the electoral retinue in the election and coronation itself. On the journey from Frankfurt back to Rome he died in Koblenz. Buried in the Franciscan church there.

In his will from 1742 he donated money for the redesign of the cathedral crypt in Paderborn and for a statue of Our Lady that was to be located opposite the pulpit .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rudolf Lill, Erwin Sandmann: Constitution and Administration of the Electorate and Archdiocese of Cologne in the 18th Century. In: Elector Clemens August. Sovereign and patron of the 18th century. DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1961, p. 50, (exhibition catalog, Augustusburg Palace in Brühl)
2. ^ Wilhelm Janssen: Soest-Kollegiatstift St. Patroklus, in: Westfälisches Klosterbuch. Lexicon of the monasteries and monasteries established before 1815 from their founding to their abolition, Part 2 Münster-Zwillbrock, ed. by Karl Hengst, Münster 1994, pp. 346–353.
3. ↑ Brief description of the Fürstenhof ( Memento from April 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Entry in the historical diary of the city of Attendorn

literature

• Norbert Andernach: Friedrich Christian von Fürstenberg (1700-1742). In: Fürstenbergsche Geschichte, Vol. 4, Münster 1979 pp. 54–74.
• Wilhelm Kohl : The dioceses of the church province Cologne. The Diocese of Münster 4 The Cathedral Monastery of St. Paulus in Münster 2. Berlin / New York, 1982 ( Germania Sacra NF 17.2), p. 733f.