Friedrich Moritz von Brabeck

Count Friedrich Moritz v. Brabeck

Johann Friedrich Moritz (Mauritz) Freiherr von Brabeck , from 1803 Count von Brabeck (born January 27, 1742 at Gut Letmathe near Iserlohn , Westphalia , † January 8, 1814 at Söder Castle near Holle , district of Hildesheim ), until his release from the Clergy canon of Hildesheim , was a German art connoisseur and art collector. In 1795 he founded the Chalkographische Gesellschaft zu Dessau .

Life

Brabeck was a son of Jobst Edmunds (III.) Von Brabeck from the old Westphalian noble family von Brabeck with the headquarters of the same name near Bottrop-Kirchhellen , mentioned there as early as 1256. His mother was Maria Felizitas geb. Baroness von Kerckerinck . He was u. a. Landlord of Lüderode , Nienhagen and Söder in the prince-bishopric of Hildesheim and Gut Letmathe near Iserlohn and owner of several mines and huts.

Since Brabeck was supposed to go to the priesthood, obeying family tradition, he studied at the Theresianum in Vienna , in Rome and Paris . On June 24, 1769 he was ordained a subdeacon . Later he was canon in Hildesheim. In the spring of 1786, Friedrich Wilhelm von Westphalen , Prince-Bishop of Paderborn and Hildesheim , was so weakened in health that a coadjutor with the right of succession should be placed at his side. In the election by the Hildesheim Cathedral Chapter on March 7, 1786, Moritz von Brabeck was a candidate supported by several canons. However, Franz Egon von Fürstenberg was elected , a disappointment that, according to Brabeck's self-testimony, helped determine his future path.

Since his brother Hermann Werner (1739–1785, Canon in Münster) had died on July 12, 1785 , whereby the stately family inheritance with all possessions fell to him, he asked for a dispensation and was dismissed from the clergy by the Pope. In any case, he had long been a member of the Enlightenment opposition in the Hildesheim cathedral chapter and had no longer felt comfortable in the clergy. As early as 1779 he was accepted as a Freemason in the Hildesheim lodge "Ferdinand to the Crowned Column". He married Anna Franziska Freiin von Weichs zur Wenne ( enlisted on January 27, 1788) and retired to his family estate in Söder.

At Söder Castle, which he redesigned into a prestigious palace complex immediately after his wedding, he devoted himself almost exclusively to the collection of paintings he had founded, which is why Söder Castle was the gathering point of famous and prominent people and the artistic and intellectual center of the Hildesheim region at the beginning of the 19th century has been. In 1795, Brabeck founded the Chalkographische Gesellschaft zu Dessau in order to increase the understanding of art in the entire German-speaking area by reproducing his own and other important works of art, which at the time was split up into individual small domains, and at the same time to form a center of all-German art. Brabeck was a well-educated man with good taste but no understanding of practical things. That is probably why he had to sell his company to Prince Franz von Anhalt-Dessau a year later .

In the Hildesheim city library today there is a collection of documents ( “Brabecksche Affair” ) with 23 documents from the two years 1799 and 1800 about Brabeck's partisanship against the collegiate knighthood , to which he himself belonged, and in favor of the peasants in the Hildesheim peasant trial and about the hostility that he got drawn by it. From 1789 taxable farmers of the Hildesheim Monastery had sued the tax administration of the estates ; these had the support of Prince-Bishop Franz Egon von Fürstenberg. To this end, Brabeck wrote his justification Le Baron de Brabeck au Public in October 1799 , which an anonymous translator published in 1800 in German.

On July 10, 1803 Brabeck was in Hildesheim as part of the homage to the estates of the new Prussian regions for King Friedrich Wilhelm III. raised to the rank of count .

In 1812 Brabeck sold the Letmathe family estate and castle, where he was born exactly 70 years earlier, thus ending the Brabecks' line of ownership.

Brabeck died on January 8, 1814 on his Söder estate. Rumor has it that he was shot dead by poachers.

With that the Brabeck family became extinct in the male line. Söder and the other remaining possessions inherited Moritz 'daughter Philippine (1796–1821), who married Count Andreas zu Stolberg-Stolberg (1786–1863), royal Hanoverian Privy Council , son of Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg , in 1817 . Since their only son Botho Felix died in 1840 at the age of 22, Andreas zu Stolberg sold the Brabeck property in Hildesheim and the collection of paintings in the middle of the 19th century.

Publications (selection)

• from Moritz von Brabeck:
• Materia tentaminis publici quod ex anni hujus scholastici .......... Vienna, Trattner 1759
  • Pro Memoria des quod von Brabeck to his fellow knights from 1793 . In: Karl Friedrich Häberlin, s. u., Appendix K, pp. LXIII-LXXIII
  • Vues sur l'état des arts en Allemagne et sur l'institut de gravure établi à Dessau. 1796 ( digitized version )
  • A few remarks submitted to the entire corps of the Hildesheim knighthood in their meeting on April 20, 1799 for examination and heed by Moritz von Brabeck. In: Karl Friedrich Häberlin, s. u., Appendix L, pp. LXXIV-XCIII
  • Le Baron de Brabeck au Public . Hildesheim, October 1799 ( digitized version ); - German translation: Moritz von Brabeck to the audience. 1800 ( digitized version ).
• contemporary echo:
  • Moritz von Brabeck or the persecuted noble. According to suppressed pieces of files dd Hildesheim April 1799. Submitted to the entire nobility of Germany for their heed by Karl Baron von S .. Berlin 1799 ( digitized version )
  • Karl Friedrich Häberlin : About the crime of the offended Majesty, accused of Baron Moriz von Brabeck. Braunschweig 1800 ( digitized version )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In many sources, including the ADB , August 4, 1728 at Brabeck Castle near Bottrop-Kirchhellen is given as his date of birth, but this is another Moritz von Brabeck (1728–1808).
2. ↑ Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung , Volume 1/1814 (January – April), Halle u. Leipzig 1814, column 407 ( [1] digitized version)
3. ↑ According to several contemporary sources, especially according to Karl Friedrich Häberlin , who was commissioned by himself , he also had a canonical in Paderborn , but his name is missing in the files of the Paderborn cathedral chapter.
4. ↑ lwl.org
5. ^ The art monuments of the Province of Hanover , Volume 7, p. 170
6. ↑ Le Baron de Brabeck au Public , pp. 20-21; Moritz von Brabeck to the audience  ( 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. Pp. 30-32  
7. ↑ lwl.org
8. ↑ Friedrich Bury, Martin Dönike: Letters from Italy to Goethe and Anna Amalia. Wallstein Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0141-2 , p. 194. (digitized version)
9. ^ NLA Hanover
10. ^ Severin Corsten, Paul Raabe, Alwin Müller-Jerina, Eberhard Dünninger, Bernhard Fabian, Karen Kloth: Handbook of historical book stocks in Germany. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1998, ISBN 3-487-09576-9 , p. 110 ( digitized version )
11. ↑ Moritz von Brabeck to the audience  ( 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.  
12. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon. Volume II, Volume 58 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1974, p. 48.
13. ^ New Prussian Nobility Lexicon 1843
14. ^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : New general German nobility lexicon . 1860, p. 1 ( digitized version )

literature

• Karl Friedrich Häberlin: About the crime of the offended majesty, accused of the Baron Moriz von Brabeck ... Verlag Vieweg, 1800.
• Wilhelm Hosäus:  Brabeck, Friedrich Moritz Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 231.
• Rudolf W. Keck : Late Enlightenment and Philanthropism in Lower Saxony. Results of a symposium. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1993, ISBN 3-487-09731-1 , pp. 139-140.
• August Kracht : A great art lover from the Westphalian family: Count Moritz von Brabeck and his picture gallery in Söder. In: The Märker. Volume 27, 1978.
• Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 84.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Basilius von Ramdohr : Description of the painting gallery of Freiherr von Brabek zu Hildesheim, with critical remarks and a treatise. 1792 (Reprint: Kessinger Pub., Whitefish (Montana) USA, 2009, ISBN 978-1-104-07614-6 )
• O. West: The chalcographical society in Dessau (1796 to 1806) , in: Archives for the drawing arts with special reference to the art of engraving and woodcutting and their history. 10th year 1864, pp. 75–112, especially p. 76 ff. ( Digitized version )
• Olaf Wittstock: Philanthropist and art entrepreneur: The Hildesheim canon Johann Friedrich Moritz von Brabeck (1742-1814). (= Sources and studies on history and art in the Diocese of Hildesheim; 2). Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7954-2043-7 .

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Moritz von Brabeck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library
• Brabeck, Moritz Friedrich Johannes Carl Maria Graf von. Hessian biography. (As of January 27, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).