Friedrich Count of Rhena

Friedrich Maximilian Alexander Graf von Rhena (born January 29, 1877 in Karlsruhe , † November 20, 1908 in Bern ) was a German diplomat and member of the Baden grand ducal family.

Life

He was the only child of General Karl Prince von Baden and Rosalie Freiin von Beust († October 19, 1907 in Karlsruhe). Since his mother was not a proper wife, Friedrich's parents had married morganatically . Rosalie, as she came from the lower nobility, was raised to hereditary nobility by Grand Duke Friedrich I as Countess of Rhena , which was passed on to her son. There were rumors about the child that he was not Prince Karl's son, but an illegitimate “ Jewish son”.

Rhena attended a grammar school in Karlsruhe, which he graduated from high school in 1895 . This was followed by a trip to Italy. On October 9, 1896, he joined the 1st Badische Leib Grenadier Regiment No. 109 of the Prussian Army as a second lieutenant and was transferred to the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot in Berlin on September 18, 1897 . In the autumn, Rhena began studying law in Heidelberg and Leipzig , taking up the position à la suite of the regiment, which he completed in 1903 with the appointment of Dr. iur. completed. In the same year he was released to reserve on September 11, 1903 .

He later bequeathed a donation to the Baden Leib-Grenadier-Regiment, a memorial plaque attached to the grenadier barracks in 1910 commemorates this.

At the end of her studies, Count Rhena decided to pursue a diplomatic career and was drafted into the Foreign Service in November 1903 . From 1904 he worked as an attaché for the Foreign Office , first in the German embassy in London . In early 1907 he completed the diplomatic examination and was appointed legation secretary. In the same year he was transferred to the embassy in Bern . The following year he was posted to Lisbon , but died at the end of the year in Bern by falling out of a window; it may have been suicide . He was buried in the Grand Ducal burial chapel .

Rhena bequeathed (as the main heir to his previously deceased father) a considerable fortune, which he wished to be used for charitable purposes. Two foundations were created from his estate, the “Prince Karl Foundation” and the “Gräflich Rhenasche Foundation”, each with 150,000 marks (today's value 904,000 €), which, under municipal administration, were first to provide for the deceased's employees and later for those in need. The place Bauschlott , his mother's place of residence, received a fortune of 50,000 marks, which was to be used to build a hospital for women who had recently given birth , but this failed due to war and inflation.

A street in the south-west of Karlsruhe, Graf-Rhena-Strasse, was named after him in 1911 . The Black Forest Association , which was generously sponsored by Rhena, named a hiking trail from Ettlingen via Marxzell to Bad Herrenalb after him .

Works

• The position of the reserve officer in the army according to Prussian military law. Inaugural dissertation, 1904.

literature

• Freiherr von Bock: Base list of the officer corps of the 2nd Guards Regiment on foot 19.6.1813–15.5.1913. Publisher R. Eisenschmidt. Berlin 1913. p. 252.
• Karl Obser : Friedrich Graf von Rhena. In: A. Krieger, K. Obser (Ed.): Badische Biographien . VI. Part: 1901-1910. On behalf of the Baden Historical Commission. Heidelberg 1935, p. 783f. ( Digitized version )
• Rhena, Friedrich Graf von. In: Anton Bettelheim (Hrsg.): Biographisches Jahrbuch and German Nekrolog. Vol. 13 (1908). Reimer, Berlin 1910; List of dead p. 76. ( digitized version )
• Lothar Machtan : Prince Max von Baden: The last chancellor of the emperor. Suhrkamp Verlag. Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-518-42407-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lothar Machtan: Prince Max of Baden. The last chancellor of the emperor. Suhrkamp Verlag. Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-518-42407-0 . P. 195.
2. ↑ Die Grenzbote : Volume 71, Issue 3, p. 38.
3. ^ Image of the memorial plaque in the Stadtwiki Karlsruhe
4. ^ Biographical handbook of the German Foreign Service: LR, p. 642.
5. ↑ Walther Peter Fuchs: Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden and Imperial Policy 1871–1907. P. 335.
6. ^ The city of Karlsruhe: its history and its administration, 1915, pp. 140/141
7. ↑ Personalities of the Kraichgau: Countess Rosalie von Rhena  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.