Thank God Amand von Dalberg

Gottlob Amand Leopold Augustin Benedikt Freiherr von Dalberg (* October 15, 1739 ; † December 20, 1794 in Amorbach ) fell out of the context of his family, the Barons Dalberg , with his inappropriate, self-centered lifestyle, multiple mesalliances and criminal behavior , which contemporaries rated as bad conduite .

origin

Gottlob Amand was the son of Hugo Philipp Eckenbert von Dalberg-Wallhausen (* March 31, 1702; † February 29, 1754), Würzburg and Fulda Privy Councilor, Oberamtmann von Hammelburg , and his wife Maria Anna Josepha Sophia Zobel von Giebelstadt (* 20 August 1713 - June 8, 1774). They were married on October 4, 1729.

family

The von Dalberg family has only married within the Rhenish and Franconian nobility for centuries . That was also stipulated in the family contract of 1723, which every male family member had to swear upon reaching the age of majority. Gottlob Amand succeeded several times, from corporative each totally inappropriate to take view below its level connections. He was thus perjured .

The various representations of his "mesalliances" differ in details. Children emerged from the connections mentioned below, but because they were not in line with their status, they were not entitled to inheritance due to the traditional, aristocratic family inheritance law of the Dalbergers. In addition to the relationships mentioned below, Gottlob Amand has also entered into other relationships: B. Theresia Engst against him for not keeping her marriage vows, one of "numerous smaller affairs". Until the end of his life he was considered a womanizer.

First connection

The first connection, from which offspring also grew, he entered into with Eleonore Johanna (*?, † before April 23, 1775), a daughter of the late councilor Wagner from Meiningen and Anna Cordula Wermuth. In Arnstadt they were married as a Roman Catholic . This is said to have happened on April 12, 1763. From this connection emerged:

1. Friedrich Amand (born April 14, 1764 in Chavannes-près-Renens , † July 1764 in Assans )
2. Franz Amand (born March 16, 1765 in Ligerz , baptized in Le Landeron )
3. Heribert Ludwig (born February 10, 1766 in La Neuveville , baptized in Le Landeron)
4. Franz Karl (* 1767, after January 8 in Bern ; occupied 1774–1783, † after 1783)

In the summer of 1766 Gottlieb Amand von Dalberg had to return to Germany because his family threatened to cut him off from his income from family estates due to rumors about his improper marriage. He transferred almost 5,600 guilders from a loan of 6,000 guilders that he had taken out to Switzerland to his wife from Mainz . During this time he was probably in Wallhausen . In any case, he kept an eye on Susanna Becker, daughter of the local office cellar.

Second connection

He persuaded Susanna Becker to go to France with him against her parents' wishes. They left Wallhausen on separate routes in mid-January 1767 , met in Saarbrücken and traveled on to Metz . The relationship lasted until at least 1772.

Third connection

The third connection is the relationship between Gottlob Amand and Erphina Juliana Zumstein from Essingen . She was the maid of the official cellar in Essingen. According to her account, he broke into her room at night with a second key and raped her . The result was a child who was born in July 1771. So the deed was committed at the end of 1770. When she confronted him with her pregnancy, he threw her out.

Fourth connection

The fourth connection he made with Sophie Freifrau von Reuss, called Hallerkorn (* 1755; † August 17, 1795 in Hanau ). The bride was not eligible for a donation . She was the daughter of a newly aristocrat who had been dismissed from the court because of a bribery scandal .

According to a source, the wedding took place on July 17, 1774 in the parish church of Essingen, but was not recognized by the episcopal vicariate in Speyer and challenged before a church court. When Eleonore von Dalberg, nee Wagner, died in 1775, the marriage between Gottlieb Amand von Dalberg and Sophie von Reuß was re-married on April 23, 1775, which happened in the same church. According to another account, the marriage did not take place on July 17, 1774 because the marriage of Gottlieb Amand von Dalberg and Eleonore, née Wagner, was well known and the Bishop of Speyer intervened against the renewed marriage because of bigamy . It was not until Eleanor died in 1775 that Gottlob Amand von Dalberg and Sophie von Reuss were married on April 23, 1775 in the parish church of Essingen.

From the marriage emerged:

1. Franziska (born November 25, 1776)
2. Karoline (born January 20, 1779)
3. Emmerich Karl (born March 10, 1781, † September 1, 1842 in Darmstadt ) became Chamberlain of Baden . He was temporarily matriculated at the University of Heidelberg and finally completed a forestry training. In the final phase of Napoleonic rule, he joined the Baden Landwehr in 1814 . Deprived of traditional class provision and rejected by his family, he radicalized himself politically, called himself a "liberal", planned a volunteer corps to support the Greeks' struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire , and published a newspaper in Würzburg , "The Sniper" . In the July Revolution of 1830 , he proclaimed himself there as "People's Minister", which King Ludwig I felt as "boldness". The situation calmed down in 1834 when the family granted him a lifelong pension in exchange for a waiver of inheritance.
4. Philipp Karl (born May 10, 1782, † September 2, 1848) became a colonel in the Prussian , Baden and French services, was a member of the Legion of Honor and Chamberlain of Baden. On February 18, 1806, he married the evangelical Johanna Margaretha Seffert in Amberg . From this marriage Christine Auguste Adelheide (born January 7, 1807, baptized Protestant) emerged. This daughter married against the will of her father, Karl von Berg , a court attorney from the Grand Ducal Baden . Philipp Karl entered into a second marriage on March 16, 1835 with Maria Feodora (* November 1, 1815 - January 28, 1890), daughter of Karl von Mülmann and Anna Sophie von Bismarck . The marriage failed after a few years. From this Auguste Frederike (born February 15, 1836, † May 5, 1905 in Munich ) emerged, who in turn was married twice. First since June 27, 1855 with Wilhelm von Breidbach-Bürresheim , called von Riedt (born February 13, 1818 in Biebrich , † April 8, 1866 in Karlsruhe), ducal-Nassau chamberlain, privy councilor and envoy at the court of Baden. Elsewhere there is a reference that he was Nassau's envoy to the Bundestag . Her second marriage was on November 28, 1874 in Munich with Franz von Gmainer († April 20, 1895 in Munich), Bavarian chamberlain and colonel.

For Emmerich Karl and Philipp Karl, Prince-Primate Karl Theodor von Dalberg issued an "order" in 1807, according to which the two were recognized as a separate line of the Dalberg family. However, this remained without practical consequences, since Emmerich Karl remained unmarried and only daughters resulted from the marriages of Philipp Karl, so this branch of the family ended again.

Fifth connection

In addition to his marriage to Sophie, Gottlob Amand entered into another relationship, this time with his housekeeper Philippina Caemmerer, a relationship that also resulted in two children. Whether this connection is identical to one that is attested with its owner cannot be proven from the sources. Their name could have been "Ehrenberg", at least that was the name of a son with a surname. At least two children were conceived in the relationship:

1. Although the parents were Roman Catholic , Ernestine was baptized Lutheran for reasons unknown and raised by Lutherans.
2. Adolph Ehrenberg, who later served in the French military.

Life

Gottlob Amand held the Dalberg lordship of St. Martin . He was briefly in the Palatinate military, at one point he is referred to as a colonel . On February 10, 1771, he became the Privy Councilor of the Bishop of Speyer , a title that he held for the rest of his life. He was also Chamberlain of Baden .

He lived in Switzerland at the time of his first marriage . There he ended up in prison for "juvenile excesses", presumably because of a considerable debt that he did not pay. In other respects, too, he maintained an inappropriate lifestyle, self-centered, eccentric, sometimes criminal and therefore scandalous. The repertoire includes the presumed rape of Erphina Zumstein, a brawl in a pub in Edesheim with the young clergyman GJ Neckermann, in which Gottlieb Amand lost his wig and got the short straw, but also a horse ride where he is accompanied by a servant dressed as an Amazon let. Also an attempted incitement to murder his cousin, Friedrich Franz Karl Eckbrecht Benedikt, tangible acts of violence against his own staff who tried to oppose his illegal activities, or against officials who tried to collect debts from him, and an attempt to incite perjury are attested.

In 1763 - he was 24 years old and of legal age at the time - there was a legal dispute between him and the knightly canton of Upper Rhine before the Reichshofrat whether he could manage his inheritance independently.

In the early 1770s he had an annual income of around 28,000 guilders. He tried to take over his siblings' shares in Essingen , but got into financial difficulties and his assets were placed under compulsory administration ("Kuratel") by the knight canton of Upper Rhine . He just ignored it. As a result, an administrative commission appeared on October 11, 1771, to requisition the property. He didn’t let them into the lock and refused to communicate: The administration committee had to leave without having done anything. He also kept a supply of powder and bullets in order to be able to defend himself if the knighthood should try to arrest him by force. Since 1765 he had also stopped the bookkeeping on his property in order to make a seizure as difficult as possible. That was quite right for the subjects, who in turn could withhold payments to the rulers.

In the 1770s he expressed sympathy for Lutheranism and for the formation of a Catholic, German national church. This was also followed by violent disputes between the Roman Catholic Gottlob Amand on the one hand and the Roman Catholic local pastor of Essingen and the Diocese of Speyer on the other. Essingen belonged to that part of the Dalberg lordship that Gottlob Amand had, was denominationally mixed and at times the main residence of Gottlob Amand. On the other hand, he had a good relationship with the Lutheran pastor of the village. The court master of his sons was also a Lutheran. Within the family, the conflict was fueled by the fact that Gottlob Amand and his cousin Friedrich Franz Karl Eckbrecht Benedikt von Dalberg (* 1751; † 1811) fought over rights in Essingen. Friedrich Franz allied himself with the Roman Catholics on site. Since Friedrich Franz was also director ("knight captain") of the knightly canton of Upper Rhine , Gottlob Amand tried to dispute its responsibility for Essingen. But the Reichshofrat in Vienna did not admit that. Rather, the knightly canton of Upper Rhine and its director, his cousin Friedrich Franz, viewed him as a threat to his authority, that of the knightly canton and the stability in Essingen.

His ruinous finances and incitement to murder were formally the reason for his imprisonment. The corresponding imperial rescript was issued on December 23, 1788 and he was arrested on January 31, 1789 in his house in Rhodt unter Rietburg by representatives of the Upper Rhine Imperial Knighthood.

Friedrich Franz kept Gottlob Amand imprisoned in different places in the following years, initially at Königstein Castle . Here he managed to escape, but was picked up again immediately. For a comparison with his "accomplices" he was moved to the St. James' Monastery of the Benedictines in Mainz . He is also said to have been temporarily imprisoned there in the Carmelite monastery . Another source says that he should also have sat at the Dilsberg mountain fortress . When the French revolutionary army advanced, he was transferred to the hinterland and first held in a private house in Giessen , then in the Amorbach monastery , where he died.

Worth knowing

Gottlob Amand was a Freemason , was in contact in his youth with the Berlin Great Lodge of Prussia called Royal York for Friendship and later founded a lodge in Essingen under their leadership .

Numerous stories about him were in circulation, among other things he is said to have led a band of robbers for a time. The judgment of his contemporaries, his peers and subjects as well as the historiography about him is unanimously negative.

Gottlieb Amand's older brother, Adolph Franz von Dalberg , also died after a long imprisonment after instigating a murder.

literature

Works

• Letters on the historical research of the ancient Kropsberg Castle to the Baroness von Wimpffen bored von Stengel . Gegel, Frankenthal | Year of publication 1778.
• The obligation of a manorial jaw before, in and after autumn . Mannheim 1789.

swell

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

• Johannes Bollinger: 100 families of the chamberlain from Worms and the lords of Dalberg . Bollinger, Worms-Herrnsheim 1989. Without ISBN.
• William Godsey: Nobles and nation in Central Europe. Free imperial knights in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1850 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004.
• William D. Godsey: Imperial Knight between the Old Empire and the New State Order. The Dalberg between 1750 and 1850 . In: Kurt Andermann (Hrsg.): Ritteradel in the Old Kingdom. Die Kämmerer von Worms called von Dalberg = work of the Hessian Historical Commission NF Bd. 31. Hessische Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2009. ISBN 978-3-88443-054-5 , pp. 247-288.
• Karl Murk: "So that the Splendor will be preserved". Relationship networks and supply strategies of the Dalberg in the 17th and 18th centuries . In: Kurt Andermann (Hrsg.): Ritteradel in the Old Kingdom. Die Kämmerer von Worms called von Dalberg = work of the Hessian Historical Commission NF Bd. 31. Hessische Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2009. ISBN 978-3-88443-054-5 , pp. 185-201.
• Wilfried Schweikart: Essingen - annual rings of a village . Essingen parish, Essingen 2006.
• Detlev Schwennicke: European family tables. Family tables on the history of the European states . New series, vol. 9: Families from the Middle and Upper Rhine and from Burgundy . Marburg 1986. Without ISBN, plate 58.

Remarks

1. ↑ Bollinger, p. 68: * March 21, 1702.
2. ^ According to Schweikart: Essingen , p. 269: † May 7, 1774.
3. ^ In second marriage married to Franz von Münster .
4. ↑ With regard to the order of marriages, the presentation here follows the most recent publication in Murk, p. 191 and Schweikart: Essingen . Bollinger, p. 73, on the other hand, gives the following sequence: Reuss, called Hallerkorn / Wagner / Zumstein / unknown.
5. ↑ Allegedly he got married by having a servant act as a priest and thus deceiving the woman (Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260). The source for this information is the testimony of a Dalberg family member who, for dynastic reasons, was very interested in the fact that there was no marriage.
6. ↑ Bollinger, p. 73: "after 1767".
7. ↑ Bollinger, p. 73: † 1774 or 1783.
8. ↑ The information in Bollinger, p. 72, who claims that the marriage with Sophie Freifrau von Reuss called Hallerkorn was the first and remained childless, and that it lasted from 1661–1662 [!], Contradicts all other information in the literature.
9. ↑ Battenberg: Repertories 14/3, Plate IX: † 1843.
10. ↑ Towards the end of his life, Philipp Karl claimed the invalidity of his marriage in a Lutheran church, which may also have been motivated by the falling out with his daughter from this connection (Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 282).
11. ↑ Battenberg: Repertories 14/3, Plate IX: † October 4, 1895.
12. ↑ The rule of Essingen had meanwhile taken over an administrative commission, which apparently behaved in such a way that the residents actively offered resistance. Thereupon there were arrests and the arrested were brought to Mainz in the wooden tower , later transferred to the fish gate (Schweikart: Essingen , p. 301).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 258, note 35. On the basis of source studies, Godsey explicitly refutes the indication “1800”, which is widespread in conventional literature.
2. ↑ Bollinger, p. 73, Schwennicke, plate 58.
3. ↑ Murk, p. 191.
4. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 261.
5. ↑ Murk, p. 191, different: Bollinger, p. 73, who gives even more incorrect information here.
6. ↑ Murk, p. 191.
7. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260, note 42.
8. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260.
9. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260, note 42.
10. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 269, states that she was 2½ years old when her father died, but without mentioning the year she was born.
11. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 279.
12. ↑ Bollinger, p. 73.
13. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 270.
14. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 270.
15. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 270.
16. ↑ Bollinger, p. 73.
17. ↑ Battenberg: Repertories 14/3, Plate IX.
18. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 270.
19. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 272.
20. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 273.
21. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 273.
22. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 274.
23. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 274; Battenberg: Repertories 14/3, Plate IX: * approx. September 20, 1771.
24. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 274.
25. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260, also note 44.
26. ↑ Schwennicke, plate 58; Murk, p. 191.
27. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260, note 44.
28. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260, note 44.
29. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 279.
30. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 278f.
31. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 273, and there also note 117.
32. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 285.
33. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 286.
34. ↑ Battenberg: Repertories 14/2 , No. 3266.
35. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 287.
36. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 273.
37. ↑ Only in: Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 263.
38. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 263, and there also note 63.
39. ↑ Battenberg: Repertories 14/3, Plate IX.
40. ↑ Schwennicke, plate 58 and Bollinger, p. 73.
41. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 283.
42. ↑ Bollinger, p. 80.
43. ↑ Battenberg: Repertories 14/3, Plate IX.
44. ↑ Bollinger, p. 80.
45. ↑ Johann Samuelansch and Johann Gottfried Gruber : General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts 21 (Caberea – Cryptostoma) . Johann Friedrich Gieditsch, Leipzig 1830, p. 72. ( digitized version ).
46. ↑ Schwennicke, plate 58.
47. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260, and there also note 45.
48. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 262, and there also note 53.
49. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 262, and there also note 53.
50. ↑ Bollinger, p. 72.
51. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 259.
52. ↑ Schwennicke, plate 58.
53. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen
54. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 259.
55. ↑ Schwennicke, plate 58.
56. ^ Godsey: Nobles and nation , p. 24.
57. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 260.
58. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 281.
59. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 259.
60. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 279.
61. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 280.
62. ^ Johann Jakob Moser : From the German judicial constitution, part 1. Frankfurt and Leipzig 1774, p. 1140 ( digitized version ).
63. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 274.
64. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 275ff.
65. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 277.
66. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 278.
67. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 262; Schweikart: Essingen , p. 288f.
68. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , pp. 262f.
69. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 263.
70. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 264.
71. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 265; Schweikart: Essingen , p. 298.
72. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 298.
73. ^ Godsey: Nobles and nation , p. 24; Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 264; Schweikart: Essingen , p. 298.
74. ↑ See also: Imprisonment of Gottlob Amand von Dalberg at Königstein Fortress because of bad conduits and dangerous behavior . In: Baden-Württemberg State Archive, Department General State Archive Karlsruhe, 72 No. 3239 (term: 1772–1789).
75. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , pp. 301f.
76. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , p. 301.
77. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 265.
78. ↑ Bollinger, p. 73.
79. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 265.
80. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 266.
81. ↑ Godsey: Reichsritter , p. 266.
82. ↑ Schwennicke, plate 58, Bollinger, p. 73; Schweikart: Essingen , pp. 281–283, describes this more as if it were about recruiting soldiers for the Spanish army, even if he tried to keep the rumor going. There is no evidence that Gottlieb Amand organized a band of robbers to reduce his debts.
83. ↑ Schweikart: Essingen , pp. 269, 277.
84. ^ Georg Wilhelm Zapf: Johann von Dalberg, Bishop of Worms . 2nd, expanded edition from 1796. 1799, preliminary remarks, Gottlob Amand von Dalberg expressly names as a “writer”.
85. ↑ Meant is: Cooper (s).