Friedrich Karl von Reventlow
Friedrich ("Fritz") Karl Graf von Reventlow (born January 31, 1755 in Altenhof ; † September 26, 1828 in Emkendorf ) was a diplomat in the Danish service and landowner.
Life
Friedrich Karl Graf von Reventlow came from the respected noble family Reventlow in Schleswig-Holstein and was the son of the real privy councilor and Lord Chamberlain Detlev Graf von Reventlow . Together with his brother Cay Friedrich von Reventlow he studied from 1769 to 1773 at the University of Göttingen , where they made the acquaintance of the members of the Göttinger Hain . Friedrich von Reventlow then worked for the Danish government, first in the government chancellery in Glückstadt , then from 1778 with the Admiralty in Copenhagen. In 1780 he was ambassador to Stockholm and later to London .
His first marriage was in 1779 with Julia von Schimmelmann , the daughter of the Danish treasurer Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann . His wife's inheritance allowed Reventlow to resign from the diplomatic service in 1788 and to settle at Gut Emkendorf , which his father had bequeathed to him. In 1783 and from 1795 to 1797 the couple made trips to Italy, from which they brought many art treasures with which they decorated the manor house. On their estate they collected the so-called Emkendorfer Circle , a circle of thinkers and artists such as Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock , Matthias Claudius , Johann Caspar Lavater , Johann Heinrich Voß and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi , who became one of the centers of the early Protestant revival movement in Germany.
Reventlow was curator of the University of Kiel from 1800 to 1808 . He made it his business to fight rationalism . To this end, he appointed Johann Friedrich Kleuker as professor of the theological faculty and Hermann Daniel Hermes , who together with Johann Christoph von Wöllner had issued the so-called Wöllner Religious Edict in Prussia in 1788 , as the successor to Heinrich Müller , who was dismissed in 1804, as head of the school teachers' college founded by Johann Andreas Cramer in 1781 . The following personnel disputes resulted in the closing of the seminar.
As spokesman for the Schleswig-Holstein knighthood , Reventlow and his brother Cay Friedrich, who had succeeded his father-in-law Andreas Peter von Bernstorff's head of the German chancellery in Copenhagen in 1797, tried to enforce the tax privileges of the knighthood against the Danish king.
After the death of his first wife in 1816, Reventlow left the Emkendorf estate and went to Berlin as the Danish envoy. In his second marriage from 1822 he was married to Charlotte Countess von Schlippenbach . He died after a two-month sick bed in Emkendorf and was buried like his first wife in the Catharinenkirche in Westensee.
He had no children of his own from either marriage. Together with his first wife, he adopted the two sons of their niece Caroline Friederike Schimmelmann (1778-1858), daughter of Julia's brother Friedrich with Ernestine von Ahlefeldt , from their marriage to Francois Valentine, Marquis le Merchier de Criminil (1753-1813). who came to Emkendorf as a refugee before the French Revolution. Joseph Graf von Reventlow-Criminil (1797-1850) became his heir.
Awards
- 1790 knight
- 1826 Grand Cross
literature
- Carsten Erich Carstens : Reventlow, Friedrich Karl Graf von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 28, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 336-338.
Web links
- Entry in Den Store Danske Encyklopædi (online version)
Individual evidence
- ↑ After entry in the church book
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Reventlow, Friedrich Karl von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Count Reventlow, Friedrich Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Curator of the University of Kiel |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 31, 1755 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Altenhof |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 26, 1828 |
| Place of death | Emkendorf |