Friedrich von Lüdinghausen Wolff

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"Father Wolff accepts the commission of Elector Friedrich von Brandenburg to maintain the emperor's dignity as a king with pleasure." Illustration by Daniel Chodowiecki , 1793

Baron Friedrich von Lüdinghausen Wolff (October 16, jul. / 26. October  1643 greg. In Daugavpils ; † 15. April 1708 in Breslau ) was a Jesuit , advisor and negotiator Emperor Leopold I , intellectual founder of the University of Leopoldina in Wroclaw and her first chancellor . He is considered one of the most influential personalities on the European stage at the end of the 17th century.

Life

origin

The Lüdinghausen family called Wolff belonged to the Westphalian nobility . It had its origin in the town of Lüdinghausen named after it. The branch of the family with the nickname Wolff lived there at Wolfsberg Castle .

Friedrich's father Georg von Lüdinghausen Wolff was Stadtstarost of Dünaburg and Generalstarost of Livonia . His mother Katharina was born in von Mengden . The father died in 1647.

Career

Frederick came to the court of King John Kasimir of Poland as a page , where he received an excellent education and basic knowledge of diplomacy , which he later benefited from. At the Jesuit colleges in Braunsberg (from 1652), Neisse (from 1655) and Olmütz (from 1657) he completed his school education. With the consent of the king, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Brno in 1659 and studied philosophy and theology at the University of Prague from 1661 to 1671 ; During this time he was already teaching. In 1671 he was ordained a priest . Since then he has called himself Father Wolff . In the following decade and a half he taught philosophy and theology in Prague and Olomouc and received his doctorate in theology in Prague in 1675.

Diplomatic activity

In 1681 Wolff received a diplomatic mission from Emperor Leopold I for the first time. From then until the Emperor's death in 1705, he stayed frequently at the court in Vienna . He also became a pastor and advisor to the emperor in financial matters and took part in political delegations on his behalf. One of the main tasks was to bring about a coalition against the approaching Turks and to balance the interests of the allies. An important part of the successful defense against the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 is attributed to him, as well as the award of the electoral dignity to Ernst August von Hannover in 1692, the conversion of Friedrich August I of Saxony as a candidate for the Polish royal crown to Catholicism in 1697 and the Elevation of Frederick III. of Brandenburg to "King in Prussia" in 1701. He also worked successfully for the unity of the Jesuit order and the removal of irritations between the order and the Holy See.

Establishment of the University of Wroclaw

In 1687 Wolff became rector of the Jesuit College in Breslau, which until then had been marginalized in the predominantly Protestant city, and carried out its academic and architectural expansion according to plan. a. by building the Jesuit Church in Breslau , a masterpiece of the “Jesuit Baroque” in Silesia ; there he was also buried after his death in 1708.

Plans for a University in Wroclaw had been in existence since the late 15th century, but they were not implemented due to the chaos of the war and the resistance of the University of Krakow . From 1695 Wolff sought to elevate the Jesuit college to a university. Against this, there were violent protests from the city council and the citizens, who rejected a university under Jesuit leadership. Through his diplomatic skills and his connections to the imperial court, which he also used to the advantage of Protestant Breslauers, Wolff was able to remove these obstacles. Emperor Leopold signed the deed of foundation on October 21, 1702. The university was opened on November 15, the emperor's name day, with initially two faculties. Friedrich von Lüdinghausen Wolff became their first Chancellor and General Studies Prefect of all Jesuit schools in Silesia.

Other work

Wolff hardly had time for his own scientific publications. The literary historian Gottschalk Eduard Guhrauer put forward the hypothesis that he could be the author of the forged Lehnin prophecy .

In addition to his diplomatic and academic duties, Wolff also accompanied the dying and those sentenced to death and preached at public executions. He turned down the emperor's offer to become Archbishop of Prague .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norbert Conrads : The tolerated university: 300 years University of Breslau 1702 to 2002 , Stuttgart 2004, p. 24
  2. ^ GE Guhrauer: The prophecy of Lehnin . Breslau 1850, p. 127ff.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lüdinghausen Wolff, Friedrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lüdinghausen Wolff, Friedrich Baron von; Father Wolff; Friedrich von Ludwigshausen called Wolff (common misspelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit, imperial capellan, advisor to Emperor Leopold
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1643
PLACE OF BIRTH Dünaburg
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1708
Place of death Wroclaw