Gerolf Coudenhove-Kalergi

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Gerolf Josef Benedikt Coudenhove-Kalergi (born December 18, 1896 at Ronsperg Castle ( Poběžovice ) near Bischofteinitz ( Horšovský Týn ) in Western Bohemia; † December 30, 1978 in Chelsea (London) ) was a Bohemian-Austrian lawyer and Japanologist .

Life

Gerolf Coudenhove-Kalergi was the son of the kuk " Chargé d'Affaires " in Japan Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi and his Japanese wife Mitsuko Aoyama (1874–1941). Gerolf Graf (until 1919) Coudenhove-Kalergi graduated from the University of Vienna and the Charles University in Prague with a doctorate in law.

After the end of the First World War in 1919, his family lost the Muttersdorf ( Mutěnín ) estate near Bischofteinitz ( Horšovský Týn ) in western Bohemia as a result of a land reform (expropriation of the property above a specified upper limit) by the government of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia . In this context, the naming law changed in 1919; in Czechoslovakia, a successor state of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , the use of nobility denominations was prohibited. His name Count Coudenhove-Kalergi von Ronspergheim, originated after the marriage of his grandfather Franz Karl Count Coudenhove to Maria Kalergi, daughter of the married couple Johann Kalergi († 1863) and Maria Kalergi, née Countess von Nesselrode (* 1822 in Warsaw; † 1874 ibid) , extended in 1918 by the predicate von Ronspergheim , shortened to Coudenhove-Kalergi.

Coudenhove-Kalergi was the private secretary and press chief of the Japanese embassy in Prague until 1941 , became a lecturer in Japanese language and history at the Charles University in Prague and vice-president of the Oriental Institute. In 1944 and 1945 he was a representative of the export industry in Prague.

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Coudenhove-Kalergi family lost - in the collective expropriation of the German-Bohemian population by the so-called Beneš decrees of the government of the Second Republic of Czechoslovakia - the large estate of Ronsperg (Poběžovice) in western Bohemia bought in 1864 without compensation . Gerolf Coudenhove-Kalergi - like millions of other Germans - had to leave the country and landed in Graz in Styria and became secretary of the “Heimat Österreich”, a construction and settlement company in Graz.

origin

He came from the branch of the old noble family Coudenhove in North Brabant, who achieved the status of imperial count in 1790, enrolled in Hungary in 1816 and in 1842 was resident in the gentry class in Bohemia through Inkolat .

family

Gerolf Coudenhove-Kalergi and his wife Sophie Pálffy had four children:

  • Hans Heinrich (* 1926; † 2004)
  • Karl Jakob (* 1928)
  • Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi (* 1932 in Prague), journalist and editor
  • Michael Coudenhove-Kalergi (born April 10, 1937 in Prague; † December 26, 2018 in Chigasaki), academic painter who studied in Graz and Vienna.

From the marriage of his father Heinrich Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi († 1906) to Mitsuko Aoyama, Gerolf Coudenhove-Kalergi had six siblings, including his two Tokyo-born brothers Johannes Evangelist Coudenhove-Kalergi (* 1893; † 1965 in Regensburg) and Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove -Kalergi (* 1894; † 1972), writer, politician and founder of the Paneuropean Union. Gerolf was born in Ronsperg (Poběžovice) Castle in western Bohemia in 1896 after his parents had arrived from Japan in 1895. He was followed by his sisters Elisabeth Maria Anna ( Elsa , * 1898; † 1936), Olga Marietta Henriette Maria ( Olga , * 1900; † 1976) and Elisabeth Friederike Maria Anna (* 1901; † 1971), married Ida Friederike Görres and his brother Karl Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi ( Ery , * 1903, † 1987 in Vienna).

literature

  • Kurt Reichl: Lexicon of personalities in companies. Styria, Leykam Graz 1955
  • Josef Weinmann: Egerländer Biographical Lexicon with selected people from the former government district of Eger in Bohemia. Männedorf ZH, 1985, ISBN 3-922808-12-3 , pp. 100-101, with further references.
  • J. Siebmacher's large book of arms, Volume 30, The arms of the Bohemian nobility. Text on Coudenhove pp. 117–118, Wappentafel 61, 1979 Bauer and Raspe, Neustadt an der Aisch. Reprographic reprint of Siebmacher's Wappenbuch, Nuremberg Volume IV, Section 9, 1886, ISBN 3-87947-030-8 .
  • Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi: Home is everywhere. Memories . Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-552-05601-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ orf.at: painter Michael Coudenhove-Kalergi is dead . Article from January 5, 2019, accessed on January 5, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Coudenhove-Kalergi, Gerolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coudenhove-Kalergi, Gerolf Josef Benedikt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech-Austrian lawyer and Japanologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Ronsperg Castle ( Poběžovice ) near Bischofteinitz ( Horšovsky Tyn ), Western Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1978
Place of death Chelsea (London)