Gabriel Leonhard von Berckholtz

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Gabriel Leonhard von Berckholtz with wife Barbara and son Jacob (1835)

Gabriel Leonhard von Berckholtz (born September 5, 1781 in Riga , baptized in St. Petri Church in Riga ; † October 1, 1863 at Ortenberg Castle in Baden ) was a Baltic nobleman and rich merchant in Riga.

Life

He was a member of the aristocratic line of the Riga merchant families von Berckholtz and grew up there, where he later achieved considerable prosperity. The von Berckholtz family were among the most influential families in Livonia . She had made her fortune by trading in the east and also traded in amber .

Berckholtz was in Riga a member of the Blue Horse ends citizens Companie 1800, elder of Blackheads Guild ( "Brotherhood of the Black Heads") from 1802 to 1807 and Russian hereditary freeman 1834th

Marriage and children

Wife Barbara, painted around 1850 by their daughter Alexandra
Mrs. von Berckholtz with the daughters Elisabeth, Olga, Sophie and Alexandra (1835)

Berckholtz married the bourgeois daughter Barbara Schröder on July 21, 1807 (born March 20, 1785 in Riga; † February 23, 1859 Ortenberg). She was the daughter of the city inspector Johann Schröder and Anna Catharina von Wels. Several daughters and sons emerged from this marriage:

Builder of Ortenberg Castle

For health reasons, von Berckholtz and his family moved to the royal seat of Karlsruhe in the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1828 . In 1833, he auctioned for 7,700 guilders a 4.5 from Baden civil hectares large Rebgut including the ruins of castle Ortenberg in Baden . He had this rebuilt from 1838 to 1843 by the well-known Karlsruhe master builder Friedrich Eisenlohr . After the reconstruction, which cost him another 1.5 million guilders, he lived with his family at the castle until 1863.

Berckholtz not only invested in the reconstruction of the castle, he also supported the Protestant parish by investing considerable sums in the construction of the Protestant town church. He was also very popular with the population as a helper for the poor. Gabriel von Berckholtz died there in October 1863 and was buried in the family crypt in the Bühlweg cemetery in Käfersberg . A total of 13 Berckholtz family members are buried there. The city of Ortenberg made him its first honorary citizen .

Berckholtz's youngest daughter, the painter Alexandra , remained connected to Ortenberg for a lifetime. The painter recorded many impressions of the castle and the community in her pictures and sketches. Her former studio, the painter's tower on the castle, now serves as a wedding room.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Berckholtz, Gabriel Leonhard von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baltic merchant
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1781
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga , Livonia
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1863
Place of death Ortenberg Castle in Baden