Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian zu Castell-Rüdenhausen

Count Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian, painting by Conrad Geiger 1777

Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian Count and Lord zu Castell-Rüdenhausen (also Friedrich Ludwig Karl Christian ; * February 17, 1746 in Rüdenhausen ; † February 7, 1803 ibid) was ruler of the Grafschaft Castell and the last ruling count of the old Castell line from 1749 to 1803 -Rüdenhausen. He was also active as a patron of the arts .

The county before Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian

Under Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian's predecessor, Count Johann Friedrich, the focus was on the reconstruction of parts of the country devastated in the Thirty Years War . For this purpose, the count had new villages built on the mountain ranges of the Steigerwald in order to get new citizens for his county. He also pushed the market surveys in some villages. This was intended to rebuild the ailing economy of the Castell domain. Both elements succeeded and the county flourished in the 18th century.

An opposite development was to be set in motion by the revolution of 1789 in distant France, which was also to have an impact on the Frankish county. The abolition of absolutism touched the still absolutely ruling family zu Castell in their foundations. However, when Count Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian took office, these events were still a long way off.

Life

Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian was born on February 17, 1746, the only child of Count Johann Friedrich and his fourth wife Eleonore Christiane, née Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Oehringen, in Rüdenhausen. His mother died while giving birth. The young count was Johann Friedrich's only male child. Only two daughters from the father's third marriage reached adulthood alongside him.

After the father's early death in 1749, the father's fifth wife, his stepmother Magdalena Dorothea, took on the young count. Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian grew up with his grandfather Johann Friedrich zu Hohenlohe-Neuenstein-Oehringen and his uncle Ludwig Friedrich Carl in Öhringen . From 1759 he also received lessons from a private teacher here.

After the end of his home education the count was sent to the universities in Leipzig and Utrecht. He then traveled to Germany and Holland on a so-called cavalier tour . In 1767, Emperor Franz I Stephan declared him of legal age. Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian came to rule over the county of Castell-Rüdenhausen. In 1768 he became a captain in the imperial service, he retired as a major from the army in 1770.

The count in Rüdenhausen excelled as a patron of the arts. In 1776 he called the painter Conrad Geiger to his place of residence, who created several portraits of the count family here and who appreciated the atmosphere of the castle. The count also excelled himself as an artist when he appeared as an actor in a play that was given at Meiningen Elisabethenburg in 1777 . The Count Baron von Helsinghör played in the piece "Der Graf von Waltron or the Subordination" by Heinrich Ferdinand Möller .

In 1778 Count Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian joined the Freemason Lodge " Charlotte zu den Drei Nelken " in Meiningen. With this he underlined his liberal mindset, which was under the sign of the Enlightenment . As early as 1773 he had been the senior of the entire Castell house and as such established a new house law in 1794 that re-regulated the succession. In the last years of his life the count suffered increasingly from depression and died as the last of his line on February 7, 1803 in Rüdenhausen and was buried in the local Peter and Paul Church.

Marriages and offspring

On July 8, 1767, Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian married Friederike Countess von Reuss zu Greiz in Greiz, the marriage remained childless and was divorced in 1769. The count then remarried in 1770. This time the wedding with Karoline Friederike von Voss took place on January 17th in Rüdenhausen. Karoline Friederike gave the count a son who, however, died shortly after the birth and the couple separated in 1777.

• Johann Friedrich (born October 3, 1776 in Rüdenhausen; † November 3, 1776 in Rüdenhausen)

literature

• Max Domarus : The portraits in Rüdenhausen Castle . In: Friends of Mainfränkischer Kunst und Geschichte e. V. (Ed.): Mainfränkische Hefte. Issue 46 . Volkach 1966.
• Wilhelm Engel : House u. Reign of Castell in Franconian history . In: Society for Franconian History (ed.): Castell. Contributions to the culture and history of home and dominion. New Year's Sheets XXIV . Würzburg 1952. pp. 1-19.
• Otto Meyer : The Castell house. State and class rule over the centuries . In: Otto Meyer, Hellmut Kunstmann (ed.): Castell. State rule - castles - status lordship . Castell 1979. pp. 9-53.

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Ludwig Carl Christian zu Castell-Rüdenhausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Engel, Wilhelm: Haus u. Reign of Castell . P. 10.
2. ^ Domarus, Max: The portraits in the castle Rüdenhausen . P. 45.
3. ^ Domarus, Max: The portraits in the castle Rüdenhausen . P. 46.
4. ↑ Angelfire.com: Castell family tree , accessed March 7, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
Johann Friedrich	Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen 1749–1803	( Christian Friedrich )