Hannibal Germanus von Schmertzing

Hannibal Germanus von Schmertzing: contemporary engraving

Hannibal Germanus Freiherr von Schmertzing (born August 30, 1660 in Limbach ; † August 17, 1715 in Altenburg ) on Ehrenberg , Ehrenhain and Reusa was a royal Polish and electoral Saxon chamberlain , chief court master and governor of the Ballei Thuringia as well as a knight of the Order of St. John .

Life

The son Hannibal of Schmertzing and his wife Maria Magdalena of Metsch spent his childhood at the court of Zerbst , where he in 1675 as Page entered the service of Prince Anton Gunther, whom he accompanied on numerous trips within Europe. In 1677 they traveled to Holland and England . In 1680 von Schmertzing spent half a year in Geneva to learn the French language . After a year in Paris he traveled with Anton Günther as his court junker in Northern Europe, including Denmark , Sweden and Poland . When the Turks besieged Vienna in 1683 , he left the court in Zerbst to serve in the Saxon army , where he was dismissed as a lieutenant in 1685. In 1686 he traveled to Italy before he entered the service of Duke Christian August of Saxony-Zeitz as a chamber junker and was appointed court master a little later. In 1678 von Schmertzing took over a company in Christian August's infantry regiment in Holland. Ten years later he was appointed governor of the Thuringia office and in the following years took part in campaigns and sieges in France and Holland. On February 3, 1693 he was accepted into the Order of St. John by Margrave Carl von Brandenburg . In 1697 von Schmertzing was appointed by Christian August von Sachsen-Zeitz as his chief steward, in 1697 by August the Strong as his chamberlain. In 1704 Emperor Leopold raised him to the status of imperial baron, which was confirmed with a diploma in 1706. He lived at Ehrenberg Castle from 1690 until his death . Von Schmertzing died on August 17, 1715. Seven unusually large kidney stones were discovered during his autopsy . He was buried on August 20, 1715 in the church in Stünzhain , not far from Altenburg .

family

Von Schmertzing was married twice. The wedding with his first wife, Elisabeth Auguste Freiin von Ripperda , daughter of Gerhard Gottfried Freiherr von Ripperda zu Ellerburg and Anna Lucia von Münch and widow of the Electoral Saxon chief guard Christoph von Heßlers auf Klosterhäseler was in 1690. Elisabeth Auguste brought the son from the first marriage Heinrich Moritz von Heßler (1687–1708) into the marriage, whose stepfather Schmertzing became. She died on March 14, 1700 and left her husband with two sons, including Hannibal August von Schmertzing and Friedrich Hannibal von Schmertzing , and a daughter, Dorothea Lucia von Schmertzing (born 1693).

Another son and daughter had died before their mother, and another daughter was stillborn.

With his second wife, Agnes Catharina von Haaren from the Münster monastery, widow of the canon of Magdeburg Christian Wilhelms von Grapendorff auf Möckern , Lohr and Schockmühlen, he fathered six daughters and three sons, one of whom was a son and a daughter soon after the birth died. One daughter was Dorothea Wilhelmine von Schmertzing (* 1703 † 1786), who married the Prussian general Heinrich Karl Ludwig Herault de Hautcharmoy (1689–1757) in 1735 .

Hannibal Germanus was a grandson of the Erzgebirge hammer master Rudolph von Schmertzing .

literature

• Schmertzing, Hannibal Germanus Freyherr from. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 35, Leipzig 1743, columns 325-327.