Heinrich Anton von Zeschau

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Heinrich Anton von Zeschau,
Royal Saxon State Minister of Finance

Heinrich Anton von Zeschau (born February 4, 1789 in Jessen near Sorau , today in Jasień , Poland, † March 17, 1870 in Dresden ) was a Saxon statesman. From 1831 to 1848 he was Saxony's finance minister, and from 1835 also Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Life

origin

The son of the Saxon-Polish court counselor Balthasar Heinrich Erdmann von Zeschau († 1810) was born in Jessen near Sorau in Lower Lusatia , then part of the Electoral Saxony region. Heinrich Anton's mother Friederike Johanna Christiane, b. Meyer zu Knonow from Schnellförtel near Halbau in Upper Lusatia came from an originally Swiss family. A cousin of Heinrich Anton von Zeschau was the Saxon lieutenant general Aemil Heinrich Ernst von Zeschau .

Career

From Easter 1805 von Zeschau studied law at the University of Leipzig and in 1806 moved to the University of Wittenberg . Upon successful graduation he got a job at Wittenberg Hofgericht as an auditor and was there the following year court Judicial Council . After he had already gained experience in the district office and his position at the court didn't offer much work, he got access to the district main team of the Wittenberg district (formerly the spa district). Leaning towards the administration, he was appointed civil servant candidate in 1811 and was occupied with tax issues until the war year 1813 . In June of that year he was appointed as a stage commissioner to Herzberg (Elster) . After he had proven himself in the administration during the fighting, he was appointed General Government Commissioner for the entire Wittenberg district by the Russian government and transferred the direction of the district deputation.

As a result of the Congress of Vienna , Saxony , which was elevated to a kingdom by the electorate in 1806, had to cede around 57% of its land to Prussia . Both the Lower Lusatia and the Wittenberger Kreis were now in Prussia. In June 1815 he was appointed governor, from 1816 he was district administrator of the Schweinitzer district . In 1819 he became a councilor in Potsdam at his own request .

Married to Henriette von Watzdorf from the House of Wiesenburg since 1817 , in 1822 he switched to the royal Saxon civil service as a secret finance councilor and a friendship with Prince Johann developed . After the death of his wife, von Zeschau married again in 1830.

Briefly serving as Minister of the Bundestag in 1829 , he was brought back to Dresden in 1830 by Cabinet Minister Bernhard von Lindenau . As a real privy councilor and senior consistorial president entrusted with the reorganization of the internal affairs of Saxony, he received the support of the prince co-regent Friedrich August . Together with Eduard von Wietersheim and Major General Karl von Watzdorf , he was the Saxon negotiator in Berlin for Saxony's accession to the Zollverein . In the meantime, he was appointed President of the Secret Finance College in March 1831, and became the first finance minister through the adoption of the Saxon constitution in December of the same year . For his services to the merger of the three previously existing customs associations while safeguarding Saxon interests, which he sealed by signing a contract on March 30, 1833, he received the Grand Cross of the Saxon Order of Civil Merit and, as the only participating minister, the Grand Cross of the Bavarian Order of Civil Merit and the Order of the Red Eagle . After Saxony joined the German Customs Union on January 1, 1834, he was also appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1835, succeeding Johannes von Minkwitz .

Under him the necessary new and reorganization of the Saxon financial system and the improvement of the monetary system took place. Together with Bernhard von Lindenau, he conducted negotiations on the abolition of the still separate conditions in Upper Lusatia and the Schoenburg dominions . Overall, von Zeschau did not enjoy any popularity. In the course of the forced resignation of Lindenau's successor Julius Traugott von Könneritz during the March Revolution , von Zeschau also resigned from the civil service, although he advised concessions before the outbreak to keep the upper hand. He was asked twice to take over the Prussian Ministry of Finance, but declined despite personal support from King Friedrich Wilhelm IV .

In November 1851, in addition to his position as Chancellor of the Order since 1849, he was entrusted with the ministry of the royal house as well as the supervision of the royal private fortune, and since 1853 also the management of the collections belonging to the royal household entrustment.

Works

  • The work of the state government and estates of the Kingdom of Saxony, evidenced by the results of the first constitutional state parliament after the constitutional charter of September 4, 1831. Leipzig 1834

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bärbel Holtz (edit.): The protocols of the Prussian State Ministry 1817–1934 / 38. Vol. 4 / II. In: Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): Acta Borussica . New episode. Olms-Weidmann, Hildesheim 2003, ISBN 3-487-11827-0 , p. 669f ( Online ; PDF 1.9 MB).
  2. ^ Caesar Dietrich von Witzleben: Heinrich Anton von Zeschau . Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1874, p. 16.
  3. ^ Caesar Dietrich von Witzleben: Heinrich Anton von Zeschau . Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1874, p. 147 ( online) .
personal data
SURNAME Zeschau, Heinrich Anton von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saxon statesman
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Jessen near Sorau , today in Jasień , Poland
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1870
Place of death Dresden