Gustav Adolf von Gotter

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Gustav Adolf von Gotter with the Order of the Black Eagle, portrait around 1732

Gustav Adolf Reichsgraf von Gotter (born March 26, 1692 in Gotha , † May 28, 1762 in Berlin ) was a German diplomat, art collector and Freemason .

Life

family

Gotter came from a respected bourgeois family in Gotha , where his father Johann Michael von Gotter (1654–1729, ennobled in 1721) was the chamber director in the service of Duke Ernst the Pious . His grandfather Johann Christian Gotter (1607–1677) was a general superintendent , his uncle Ludwig Andreas Gotter a respected hymn poet and lawyer. Through the latter he is also related to the writer and poet Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter .

Career

Gustav Adolf von Gotter received lessons from a private teacher and began studying law at the University of Jena in 1709 . He later moved to Halle, where he met the later Hanoverian minister and privy councilor Gerlach Adolph Freiherr von Münchhausen .

After further stays in Holland, England and France, he moved to Vienna in 1715 with his father , who worked there as a diplomat. Here he quickly found access to the most respected circles and made contact with Eugene of Savoy , among others . He continued to prove his diplomatic skills by ending the dispute between Gotha and Vienna. In 1716 Duke Friedrich II appointed him legation secretary. In 1720 he became ducal councilor and envoy extraordinary in Vienna. In 1723 he was appointed court counselor, in 1724 he was appointed by Emperor Karl VI. raised to the baron status. In 1727 he received the Alexander Nevsky Order from the twelve-year-old Tsar Peter II . In May 1728 von Gotter went to Berlin at the request of Friedrich Wilhelm I and was appointed Privy Councilor of State. In 1729 he was the first to be awarded the Order of the Black Eagle from a middle-class family . After the death of Baron von Hagen , he was also envoy from Regensburg. In 1732 he asked Duke Friedrich III. dismissed from the Gotha service and from then on worked as Prussian minister at the Viennese court.

Withdrawal from civil service

Molsdorf Castle

In 1734 Gotter acquired the Molsdorf manor and the neglected feudal estate "Alte Hof", a manor in Dietendorf . He had the late medieval moated castle converted into a pleasure palace by Gottfried Heinrich Krohne . The generous host celebrated lavish parties in the luxurious rooms of the palace, in which his extensive picture collection, including 35 portraits of famous women alone, was shown to advantage. In addition, he maintained his old connections, including to Freemasonry . In Berlin, for example, he was the chamber master of the lodge “To the Three Worlds” . He expanded the castle extensively and laid out a garden based on the French model.

In Neudietendorf he had houses built along the Apfelstädt river , which at that time still flowed along today's Zinzendorfstrasse, and workers from Bohemia and Moravia entered the country in order to start up a wool factory. The new village founded in this way was initially named "Neu-Gottern", after the first brotherly settlement "Gnadenthal" and later the name Neudietendorf . In 1736, at his own request, von Gotter was appointed envoy and authorized minister to the Upper Saxon district and thus took up a less labor-intensive activity.

Back in civil service

Gustav Adolf von Gotter, around 1752

In 1740, von Gotter was called back to the civil service under the new Prussian King Frederick the Great and appointed Oberhofmarschall and secret council of state and war. In the same year he received from Emperor Charles VI. the imperial count. After his death, von Gotter was sent to Vienna by the Prussian king to lay claim to ownership of the principalities of Jägerndorf , Liegnitz , Brieg and Wohlau . However, the negotiations failed, which resulted in the First Silesian War . In doing so, he gained a special relationship of trust with Frederick the Great , for whom he conducted successful negotiations with the Empress Maria Theresa and her advisors between the Silesian Wars . The lavish lifestyle consumed Gotter's fortune, despite lottery winnings and endowments. As a result of financial difficulties, von Gotter had to sell the Neudietendorf manor in 1742. In 1743 he was appointed canon at the Liebfrauenkirche in Halberstadt and general director of the Berlin Opera. In 1744 he was appointed one of the four curators of the Royal Academy of Sciences . Due to illness, von Gotter was allowed to retire from civil service in 1745 after long requests. Due to his lack of money, he felt compelled to sell Molsdorf Castle in 1748. Now, plagued by illnesses, he often stayed in Berlin , where he continued to have the trust of Friedrich and was showered with favors by him. It was not until a cure in Montpellier in 1752 that his health improved, so that he was able to resume his work as Minister of the General, Upper Finance, War and Domain Directorates. When he died in 1762, the king regretted having lost with him one of the most brilliant men of his time.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Gotter, Gustav Adolf von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gotter, Gustav Adolf Reichsgraf von; Gotter, Gustav Adolf Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1692
PLACE OF BIRTH Altenburg
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1762
Place of death Berlin