Friedrich Levin by Holmer

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Friedrich Levin von Holmer , from 1777 Count von Holmer (born September 13, 1741 in Kiel , † May 10, 1806 in Oldenburg ) was at the end of the grand ducal era Holstein-Gottorfischer official and later Oberlanddrost and minister of the Duchy of Oldenburg . For his services he was raised to the rank of imperial count .

Life

Early years

Holmer was the son of Baron Magnus Friedrich von Holmer (1704–1775) and his wife Caroline Friederike, b. von der Wich (1719–1780), a daughter of the British Minister-Resident at the Hanseatic cities and granddaughter of Magnus von Wedderkop . He came from an aristocratic Holstein family who rose to high offices in the Gottorf administration and was connected to the leading families of the country through marriage. His father was a member of the Secret Government Council in Kiel, the supreme government authority of the Gottorf portion of the Duchy of Holstein , which was directly subordinate to Duke Karl Peter Ulrich , who was appointed heir to the Russian throne and, after his death, to the Russian Empress Catherine II . Holmer studied law at Kiel in April 1757 and then, through his father's mediation, also entered the Holstein-Gottorfian administrative service, in which he quickly made a career. In 1761 he was appointed chamberlain and in 1763 joined the law firm in Kiel. In 1764 he became a secret trainee lawyer and secretary of the secret government council , in 1766 a member of the General State and Economic Improvement Directorate , 1769 district administrator and chairman of the pension chamber, in 1770 a member of the forest and building department and in 1773 also an official of the office near Kiel Kronshagen .

At the age of thirty he had already risen to the rank of conference council, which, in addition to his aristocratic origins and family ties, was also made possible by his drive, organizational talent, administrative talent and zeal for work. It was through these characteristics that Holmer drew the attention of Caspar von Saldern, Minister of State of Holstein and Gottorp . As a trusted advisor to Catherine II, Saldern played a key role in the Russian-Danish negotiations that led to the conclusion of the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo in 1773 . The older line of the Holstein-Gottorp family , which had come to the throne in Russia , ceded their holdings in Holstein to Denmark and received the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst in exchange , which they passed on to the younger Holstein-Gottorp line , which was less well supplied with possessions in December 1773. Gottorf passed on. This brought the areas of friction between Russia and Denmark to an amicable end.

Entry into Oldenburg services

Saldern offered the new Oldenburg sovereign and prince-bishop of the Lübeck bishopric, Friedrich August, the now proven Holmer for the position of first minister, because Friedrich August's previous minister Henning Benedikt von Rumohr did not feel up to the extended tasks. Holmer was offered the position, but initially hesitated because this role apparently seemed too small for his ambitions and he hoped, with the help of Saldern, to find a more significant job in Russia. In the end, however, he accepted, since his expectations were not fulfilled and otherwise he would only have been able to transfer to the Danish civil service. This was out of the question for him because he - like his father - was one of the opponents of a reconciliation with the Kingdom of Denmark. The Danish government therefore preferred to see him in Eutin and Oldenburg rather than in Kiel.

Work for the Duchy of Oldenburg

On May 6, 1774, Holmer was appointed Privy Councilor and Governing Minister of the newly created Duchy of Oldenburg, five days later he was appointed Oberlanddrost of the counties of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst. This dual position was intended to ensure a uniform administration as well as the merging of the two spatially separated state areas, the Principality of Lübeck and the counties. However, it did not prove itself in the long run. On the contrary, as the minister constantly switched between Eutin, where Duke Friedrich August still resided, and Oldenburg, the decision-making processes always stalled when Holmer left the respective administrative center. Out of consideration for him, however, this accumulation of offices remained in place throughout his life, and it was only after his death that the cabinet and the regional colleges were separated within the duchy.

Within a very short time, Holmer secured a dominant position in the small, manageable state. As Prime Minister he had a quasi-hegemonic position and at the height of his influence he was the real decision-making center of the duchy.

Ludwig Starklof later summarized the general judgment:

"Under Duke Friedrich August he was the actual regent, even more than the Prince [...] He made and decided everything, the Duke only had to sign."

However, Holmer's outstanding position was only a consequence of a coincidental personal-dynastic constellation and did not last. It resulted rather from the fact that Duke Friedrich August was more interested in his personal hobbies than in the administration of his country and therefore relieved him to make all the decisions.

Holmer's first task was to negotiate the modalities of the elevation of the new state to a duchy with the imperial authorities in Vienna , which ended with the solemn investiture of Friedrich August in March 1777. In order to secure the existence of the duchy, he also took care of the succession issue. The Duke's mentally ill son was declared incapable of governing by a medical college in February 1777 and his cousin - Peter Friedrich Ludwig von Holstein-Gottorp - was appointed administrator and ultimately successor. For his services as a negotiator, Holmer was raised to the rank of imperial count by Emperor Joseph II in July 1777 .

On April 16, 1786 he received the episcopal prebend in the Lübeck cathedral chapter , which he renounced in the same year in favor of a son.

Activity as minister

In the internal administration, Holmer was open to the ideas of the time and was close to those of the Enlightenment movement in a moderate northwest German form. Thus he set the first carefully considered reform projects in motion. By surveying the country, he initiated the necessary planning bases for economic and transport policy. The softening of Oldenburg and the conversion of the ramparts into promenades created the basis for the later growth of the city.

Under Holmer's leadership, the Oldenburg administration also took up the problem of the poor, which was one of the dominant issues of the time. With the establishment of a widow's and orphan's fund (1779) and above all with the new poor regime of 1786, which included the entire state territory, he made an independent contribution to “solving” the problem. Hamburg influences and the enlightened Danish reform model initiated by Georg Christian Oeder were an important orientation .

The pragmatic program for the development and modernization of the small state was a joint effort of a small top group of the Oldenburg bureaucracy, which in addition to Holmer u. a. the Landvogt Oeder , the chamber director Friedrich Wilhelm von Hendorff , the judicial advisor Gerhard Anton von Halem and the judicial advisor and cabinet secretary Ludwig Benedict Trede belonged.

Holmer held the central position in this bureaucratic apparatus, which came with some privileges. During his stays in Oldenburg, for example, he resided in the new wing of the palace named after him , which Georg Greggenhofer had built in 1774/78 in order to meet the increased demands on state self-image. In the Lambertikirche the place of the minister was next to the ducal chair and he was included in the intercessory prayer of the community after the sovereign . Holmer's self-assessment, brilliant representation, however, ruined his family fortune.

After Peter Friedrich Ludwig took office in 1785, Holmer lost his leadership position and his previous position of power was severely limited. The young duke wanted to rule himself and insisted that his ministers be subordinate to their offices. However, after initial tensions, Holmer resigned himself to his loss of power, especially since the duke did not interfere with his powers. In this way, Peter Friedrich Ludwig was able to continue to use Holmer's experience and practical wisdom and worked with him on a trusting basis for over twenty years. Holmer died completely unexpectedly on May 10, 1806, which was also assessed as a heavy loss for Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig. According to the folk tale , according to Karl Eduard Vehse , he died by suicide .

Holmer's burial motto on the memorial grave donated by Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig in the Gertrudenfriedhof in Oldenburg summarizes his areas of activity:

“He was honest, just, and unites beautiful things with truth;
Everything that concerned people felt his human heart. "

Holmer was also interested in literature, so he was close friends with Count Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg and Friedrich Wilhelm Sturz . Gerhard Anton von Halem dedicated the poem Elegie bei Holmer's Grabe to him after his death, which aptly characterizes his relationship with the two very different personalities of the first Oldenburg dukes under whom he served.

Rating

Holmer was undoubtedly one of the more important small-state ministers of his time. Highly educated and interested in many different things, he was in contact with the best minds in Northern Germany and, as a representative of an effective civil service in an alliance with the absolute princely state , initiated those reforms from above that made Oldenburg the "small-state rural model of the Enlightenment" within the Lower Saxony Enlightenment landscape prepared the enforcement of civil society .

family

Holmer married Sophie Henriette Elisabeth, born in Mecklenburg, on February 7, 1779. Freiin von der Lühe (1759–1839). The couple had a son, Magnus Friedrich von Holmer (1781–1857), who was the editor of the Hippological papers and a specialist in horse breeding. With him the family died out in the male line.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Eduard Vehse : History of the German courts since the Reformation. Volume 37, Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe 1856, p. 11
  2. ^ Wolfgang Prange : Directory of the Canon. In: Ders .: Bishop and Cathedral Chapter of Lübeck: Hochstift, Principality and Region 1160–1937. Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild 2014 ISBN 978-3-7950-5215-7 , p. 419 No. 412
  3. ^ Karl Eduard Vehse : History of the German courts since the Reformation. Volume 37, Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe 1856, p. 11
  4. ↑ quoted from ADB 12, p. 773
  5. ^ Gerhard Anton von Halem: Poems. Latest edition. Bauer Publishing House. Vienna. 1818. page 246. ( online )
  6. ^ Ernst Hinrichs: Enlightenment in Lower Saxony: Centers, Institutions, Characteristics. Goettingen. 1990. ISBN 3-525-82836-5 . Page 18.
personal data
SURNAME Holmer, Friedrich Levin from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holmer, Friedrich Levin Graf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Oldenburg Oberlanddrost and Minister
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1806
Place of death Oldenburg