Hans Friedrich von der Kettenburg

Hans Friedrich von der Kettenburg (born May 21, 1671 in Groß Wüstenfelde ; † August 1753 in Güstrow ) was a German lawyer, Mecklenburg and Holstein diplomat at the imperial court in Vienna and court president in Güstrow.

Life

Hans Friedrich von der Kettenburg came from the branch of the Lower Saxon noble family von der Kettenburg, which had been based in Mecklenburg since 1623 . He was the youngest son of August Julius von der Kettenburg († October 9, 1676) and Catharina Oelgard von Lehsten . After the early death of his father, his mother married Philipp Cuno von Bassewitz on Dalwitz ; Henning Friedrich and Joachim Otto von Bassewitz were his half-brothers.

From May 1688 he studied law at the University of Rostock . In 1689 he went to the University of Jena . In September 1691 he came to the court of Duke Bernhard I of Saxe-Meiningen without officially entering into his service. He accompanied Duke Bernhard on a trip to Gotha , Altenburg and Wolfenbüttel and the Hereditary Prince Ernst Ludwig, who was almost the same age, to Nuremberg , Heilbronn and Frankfurt am Main . For the Duke he undertook a first private diplomatic mission to the court in Zeitz .

In 1692 he joined Duke Christian Albrecht (Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf) as court squire and in 1693 became a chamberlain . His stepfather obtained permission through Duchess Magdalena Sibylla in Güstrow, Christian Albrecht's sister, that Kettenburg could take a leave of absence and work for Mecklenburg if the circumstances should require it.

After the death of Duke Gustav Adolf in Güstrow , the Mecklenburg unified estates asked Duke Friedrich IV of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, who had meanwhile come to power, to leave Kettenburg and in August 1695 sent him to the imperial court in Vienna as a Mecklenburg envoy. Here he was involved in the negotiations for the Mecklenburg succession. In 1698 he briefly interrupted his activities as the Mecklenburg envoy because of the marriage (and the associated negotiations) of Frederick IV with Princess Hedwig Sophia (1681–1708), a daughter of King Charles XI. of Sweden . From October 1698 he was back in Vienna and negotiated details of the imperial commission for Mecklenburg until 1701.

His further work was determined by the death of Friedrich IV on July 19, 1702 in the battle of Klissow and the rise of Georg Heinrich von Görtz .

Friedrich IV left a minor heir, Prince Karl Friedrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, who was born in 1700 . Establishing a custodial government was extremely complicated. Not only the interests of the next agnate and brother of the late Duke, Christian August von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf as administrator, and two ducal widows, the wives of Christian Albrecht and Frederick IV, especially the latter as co-regent, were there with the interest of the unite underage princes. The situation was made even more complicated by the fact that there were efforts on the part of the Danish side to claim the previous Holstein-Gottorpischen minister Magnus von Wedderkop and his brother-in-law Johann Ludwig von Pincier as Danish subjects in the establishment of the guardianship government, and Sweden also involved was.

On the recommendation of the Dowager Duchess Friederike Amalie, Christian Albrecht's widow and Frederick IV's mother, who lived in Kiel, the Kettenburg was given the task of working out the regulations, as he was not considered a subject or partisan of Denmark. Christian August von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, as administrator, appointed Kettenburg a privy councilor, and with negotiations in Denmark and Sweden he succeeded in working out a plan for the administration of the duchy. Christian August also made him court master to his wife, Albertine Friederike von Baden-Durlach.

In 1704 in Kiel he married Friederika Amalia von Ranzau from the Tralau family , the only daughter of Court Marshal Otto von Ranzau and Ottilia von Harthausen.

With the death of the older dowager duchess in 1704 and the rise of Georg Heinrich von Görtz , Kettenburg's position became more difficult. Görtz and Kettenburg fell out in 1706. Kettenburg said goodbye and tried his hand at Fresenhagen (Stadum) , which ended in bankruptcy. He went back to Mecklenburg and became court master of the widow of Adolf Friedrich II. Von Mecklenburg-Strelitz , Emilie von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, who lived in Mirow .

In 1720, after the fall of Görtz, who was executed in Stockholm in 1719, through the mediation of his half-brother Henning Friedrich von Bassewitz , Kettenburg was reactivated as a Holstein ambassador and again sent to Vienna. Here he managed in 1726 to negotiate imperial subsidies for Holstein-Gottorf.

In 1728 von Bassewitz fell out of favor with Duke Karl Friedrich and was relieved of his offices. The intrigue-based allegations against Bassewitz, which Karl Friedrich had Muhlius' cabinet council spread in Vienna, made it impossible for Kettenburg to remain in the ducal service in the long run. In 1732 he sought his release, which was also granted, and returned to Mecklenburg.

He refused to be sent again as a Holstein ambassador to the Reichstag in Regensburg, as did the election to district administrator by the Mecklenburg estates.

However, when the Mecklenburg regional and court court in Güstrow was restored by the imperial commissioner Duke Christian Ludwig II , he accepted the appeal to its president and worked here until his death.

He left behind a son, Philipp Cajus von der Kettenburg, who became the Württemberg Privy Councilor and chief steward and died in 1759, as well as two daughters, Friderike Elisabeth , who later became the educator of the princesses in Mirow as a young widow, and Catharina Maria, who remained unmarried.

Awards

• 1738 Order of St. Anne

literature

• Johann Georg Peter Möller : Historical and documented news of the life and state activities of the former Holstein secret councilor Hans Friedrich von der Kettenburg, to explain the Holstein history of his time. In: Johann Georg Meusel (Ed.): Der Geschistorforscher Volume 4, 1777, pp. 1–32, digitized

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal