Günther Friedrich Carl II. (Schwarzburg-Sondershausen)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Günther (1837)

Günther Friedrich Carl II von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (born September 24, 1801 in Sondershausen ; † September 15, 1889 ibid) was a German prince who ruled from August 19, 1835 to July 17, 1880 , Count of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen von Hohnstein , Herr zu Arnstadt , Sondershausen, Leutenberg and Blankenburg .

Life

Prince Günther Friedrich Carl II was the son of Prince Günther Friedrich Carl I von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1760–1837) and his wife Princess Caroline (1774–1854), daughter of Prince Friedrich Karl von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt .

His mother shaped his upbringing significantly. During his youth she undertook several trips abroad with him and raised Günther to be an enlightened and progressive-minded person. He inherited his elderly father on August 19, 1835 in the office of the ruling Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, a small state of around 900 km² from one area each in northern and central Thuringia. His father died in 1837.

Günther began reforming the state a few years after taking office. The principality first joined the German customs union in 1835 . Furthermore, Günther gave him a new constitution on September 24, 1841, on his 40th birthday. As a result of the new constitution, a first state parliament was held in Sondershausen on September 7, 1843. Nevertheless, during the revolution of 1848 there were also uprisings in Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. These took place mainly in the two large cities of the country ( Arnstadt and Sondershausen), but also in the smaller official cities of Gehren and Ebeleben , so that Prussian ( subordinate ) and Saxon-Thuringian ( supremacy ) troops wanted to occupy the country and bring it to rest. As a result of the revolution, a new, liberal-free-thinking constitution came into force on December 12, 1849, which curtailed the prince's rights. This did not last long, however, as it was revised on July 8, 1857 and the old order was essentially restored. With age, the prince's views also became more conservative. In 1866 Schwarzburg-Sondershausen voted in the Bundestag against the mobilization against Prussia called for by Austria and subsequently joined the North German Confederation . Thus the military sovereignty was transferred to Prussia, although they previously de facto ibid lay. In 1850 he had become a knight of the Prussian Order of the Black Eagle . In 1868 he was Prussian major general à la suite of the army and since 1871 chief of infantry regiment No. 71 . In the same year he was promoted to lieutenant general and later, in 1879, to general of the infantry .

When the empire was founded in 1871, the principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen had become a federal state of the German Empire; the prince did not take part in the imperial proclamation in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on January 18, 1871.

The industrialization of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen took place during the term of office of Günther Friedrich Carl II . A first railway line connected Arnstadt with Erfurt in 1867 and in 1869 it also reached the capital Sondershausen, which from then on was connected to Erfurt in the south and Nordhausen in the north. With the railway and industrialization, a general upswing began in Schwarzburg-Sondershausen. The country slowly developed from a poorer agricultural state to an at least partially industrialized society, although it was still one of the more backward states in Thuringia. This is especially true for the northern part of the country, the so-called "subordination". Today it belongs to the Kyffhäuserkreis , which is still the economically weakest district in Thuringia . However, these developments were influenced more from outside than by the prince himself.

During his reign there was brisk construction activity. He had his residential palace in Sondershausen redesigned in the classicism fashion of the time, and he brought Carl Scheppig , an important Schinkel student from Berlin, to the Sondershäuser Hof. Due to financial bottlenecks and the divorce of the princely couple, the plans could only be partially implemented.

On July 17, 1880, Günther handed over the official business to his son Karl Günther due to his old age and an eye problem .

Günther Friedrich Carl finally died on September 15, 1889 and his bones were subsequently transferred in 1891 to the newly built princely burial chapel of the Trinity Church in Sondershausen .

progeny

Günther Friedrich Carl II was married twice. His first wife, Caroline Irene Marie (1809–1833), daughter of Carl von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , he married on March 12, 1827, but she died in 1833 very early. He had four children with her:

  • Günther Friedrich Carl Alexander (1828–1833)
  • Elisabeth Caroline Luise (1829-1893)
  • Karl Günther (1830–1909), Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
⚭ 1869 Princess Marie von Sachsen-Altenburg (1845–1930) , daughter of Prince Eduard von Sachsen-Altenburg

In his second marriage, Günther was with Mathilde (1814-1888), daughter of August von Hohenlohe-Öhringen , married since May 29, 1835, but divorced her on May 5, 1852. He had two children with her:

  • Marie (1837-1921)
  • Hugo (1839-1871)

literature

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt von Priesdorff : Soldatisches Führertum . Volume 7, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt Hamburg, undated [Hamburg], undated [1939], DNB 367632829 , p. 494, no. 2432.
  2. ↑ Dr. Theodor Toeche-Mittler: The imperial proclamation in Versailles on January 18, 1871 with a list of the festival participants , Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son , Berlin 1896.
predecessor Office successor
Günther Friedrich Carl I. Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
1835–1880 		Karl Günther
personal data
SURNAME Günther Friedrich Carl II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Günther Friedrich Carl II. Von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Sondershausen
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1889
Place of death Sondershausen