Gerlach Adolph von Munchausen

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Gerlach Adolph von Munchausen

Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen (born October 5, 1688 in Berlin , † November 26, 1770 in Hanover ) came from the Lower Saxon noble family Münchhausen and was minister (member of the council ) of the Electorate of Hanover under Elector Georg II . In this position he was the founder, first curator and great sponsor of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in 1734 . From 1753 he was President of the Chamber in charge of the finance department. Under George III. he became Prime Minister in 1765 .

Family origin

Straussfurt Castle (built in 1735) around 1860

Gerlach Adolph was born in 1688 in Berlin as the son of Gerlach Heino von Munchhausen (1652-1710), Chamberlain of the Great Elector , later Master of the Horse Frederick I. His father owned the castle Wendlinghausen in the county of Lippe , which his grandfather Hilmar the Younger Munchausen by Built in 1615. The mother was Katharina Sophie von Selmnitz from the Steinburg family , heiress of the estate in Straussfurt (Thuringia). His father bought the Steinburg estate from his brother-in-law Selmnitz in 1686. The mother Katharina Sophie founded an orphanage foundation in Straussfurt in 1725 - which existed until 1945. Gerlach Adolph was an uncle ( second cousin of the father) of Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, famous as the " baron of lies " .

He was the fourth of eleven siblings. His older brother Ernst Friedemann (1686–1776) became court marshal of Saxony-Weimar, sold Wendlinghausen in 1730 and acquired Herrengosserstedt near Weimar; his son Ernst Friedemann later became Prussian minister to Friedrich II. Gerlach Adolph's younger brother Philipp Adolph (1694–1762) inherited Steinburg in 1710 and in 1740, also in British-Hanoverian service, became minister George II and head of his German chancellery in London; In 1753 he acquired the Tauhardt estate and in 1765 the Bettensen estate near Hanover. Gerlach Adolph himself inherited Straussfurt in 1710; In 1735 he (or his wife) converted the castle there into a baroque palace with a large park while retaining the outer walls. In 1760 he inherited - together with his brothers - the "Althaus" in Leitzkau and Hobeck. In 1715 he married Wilhelmine Sophie von Wangenheim (* 1701) from Tüngeda ; her two sons died in infancy. After the death of his wife in 1750 he married Christiane Lucie von der Schulenburg (1718–1787), a daughter of his sister, in 1755 ; the marriage remained childless. Straussfurt and Althaus Leitzkau fell to his nephew, Philipp Adolph's third son Georg (1754–1800).

Career

From 1707 he studied in Jena, among others with Struve , in 1710 in Halle, among others with Thomasius and Ludewig , and in 1711 in Utrecht. His Jena dissertation in public law was entitled De Vicariatu Italico . Gundling and Boehmer promoted his concern with constitutional law. In 1714 he was Appellationsrat in Dresden and in 1716 Oberappellationsrat in Celle . Through a process he came into contact with David Georg Strube , who remained his friend, close confidante and colleague for life. From 1726 to 1728 he was the electoral Hanoverian envoy to the Perpetual Reichstag in Regensburg and then - after the accession of George II. - became a real secret councilor in the council (state government) in Hanover, and from 1732 Grand Bailiff of Celle. In 1735 he set up the Celle State Stud .

For the imperial elections and coronations of Charles VII (1742) and Franz I (1745), the government sent him as the first election ambassador; in the election of Emperor Franz he - advised by Johann Jacob Moser - had a decisive influence on the preliminary negotiations and the ballot. His position was imperial patriotic, he expected less danger to the empire from Austrian politics than from Prussia. From 1753 he was President of the Chamber in charge of the finance department. In 1757 he tried in vain to save Hanover from entering the Seven Years' War on the side of Frederick II against France and Austria, which George II did, however, in the hope of annexing the principalities of Hildesheim , Osnabrück or Paderborn . During the French occupation that followed the battle of Hastenbeck , he was the only minister who had not fled Hanover and sought to alleviate the financial exploitation through negotiations. In 1765 Münchhausen was under Georg III. royal British and electoral Hanoverian Prime Minister of Kurhannover .

Foundation of the University of Göttingen

Elevator from Göttingen students for Münchhausen on the occasion of the inauguration in front of the commandant's house
Statue of Münchhausen at the University of Göttingen

From 1731 Münchhausen worked towards the establishment of a state university and persuaded the king and the six estates to finance it; The Georg-August-Universität Göttingen was founded in 1734 and he remained its curator for almost 40 years until 1770. He continuously tried to finance, equip and appoint professors with a reputation, such as the philologist Gesner , the physician Haller or the theologian Mosheim . The Friedrichs-Universität in Halle was considered a model for Münchhausen, although he tried to avoid the pietistic orientation there and - also contrary to the wishes of the Lutheran orthodoxy that opposed Pietism - appointed professors with acceptable and moderate views. He also provided for the foundation of free meals , i.e. scholarships for poor students. He did not completely abolish censorship, but used it cautiously.

The Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie characterizes his care as follows: “He makes scholarly communications, sends interesting acts, statutes, procures rare books, encourages lectures that are missing in the curriculum, in short it is not just tireless, but also prudent, after all Directions towards careful activity. He tries to make everything usable for his Georgia Augusta, and it is not a bad joke when (note: after Münchhausen's death) Lichtenberg regretted during a thunderstorm that so little could be observed, the lightning bolts were so unsystematic when the blessed one M. had still lived, they would certainly have been more instructive ... "

Münchhausen and his second wife were buried in the Neustädter Hofkirche in Hanover, right next to his official residence, the Osnabrücker Hof .

literature

Web links

Commons : Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Münchhausen, Albrecht Friedrich von: Gender history of those von Münchhausen from 1740 to the most recent time. A continuation of the family history of the house published by Gottlieb Samuel Treuer in 1740. Hannover 1872, p. 87 ( Google resource ).
personal data
SURNAME Münchhausen, Gerlach Adolph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Münchhausen, Gerlach Adolf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hanoverian Minister
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1688
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1770
Place of death Hanover