Heinrich von Bünau (historian)

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Heinrich von Bünau (1745)

Heinrich von Bünau , from 1742 Count von Bünau , (born June 2, 1697 in Weißenfels , † April 7, 1762 in Oßmannstedt ) was a German statesman and historian during the Enlightenment .

Life

He was the son of the Electorate Chancellor Heinrich von Bünau (1665–1745) . Both were elevated to the rank of imperial count on March 24, 1742. After studying at the University of Leipzig , he entered the state service in 1716 and became an assessor at the Leipzig Higher Court . He later became Chief Consistorial President and Real Privy Councilor. He was promoted by the Electoral Saxon cabinet minister, Count von Hoym , the uncle of his second wife. His father had the Seusslitz baroque palace built in 1723 . After Hoym was overthrown by Count Brühl , Heinrich von Bünau became supervisor of the Mansfeld County in Eisleben in 1734 . In 1741 he entered the service of Emperor Charles VII , who appointed him Reichshofrat and installed him as a diplomatic envoy in the Upper and Lower Saxon Empire . After the emperor's death, he returned to Electoral Saxony in 1745 to his estate at Schloss Nöthnitz near Dresden to study science. In 1751 he became governor of the Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach and in 1756 Prime Minister in Weimar . In 1751 he was elected honorary member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . He retired in 1759 and spent the evening of his life on his estate in Oßmannstedt near Weimar.

Heinrich Graf von Bünau was lord of Dahlen , Domsen (from 1723/25), Nöthnitz , Göllnitz , Oßmannstedt and Groß-Tauschwitz . He also owned the Neusorge manor .

Nöthnitz Castle (around 1850)

Bünau's private library contained around 42,000 volumes. It was located first in Dresden, then in his Gut Nöthnitz estate and was open to the public. The Bünauische Bibliothek was known far beyond Nöthnitz at the time, it was one of the most extensive book collections in Saxony.

The archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann from Stendal worked there as a librarian from 1748 to 1754. He supported Bünau with his unfinished epochal history work on the German imperial and imperial history, the last volume of which ended with the death of Konrad I in 918, but as a manuscript went as far as the Ottonians .

His eldest son was also named Heinrich; In 1769 he sold his father's private library for 40,000 thalers to Elector Friedrich August III. The holdings were moved to Dresden and later formed the basis of today's Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library (SLUB). From 1991 to 2009 there was a museum at Nöthnitz Castle with a study site dedicated to the memory of Winckelmann and Bünau.

family

He was married several times. His first wife was Auguste Helene von Döring on June 5, 1721 (* November 15, 1706; † November 5, 1728). After her death, he married Countess Erdmuthe Frederike von Hoym on November 23, 1729 (* April 24, 1712 - December 30, 1742), the marriage was divorced in 1736. Then he married on June 24, 1839 Christine Elisabeth von Arnim (* February 18, 1699, † August 29, 1783), mistress of Röthnitz and Rosentitz. He had two sons from his first marriage:

  • Heinrich (June 20, 1722; † August 29, 1782), Real Privy Councilor, Envoy to the Reichstag ⚭ 1753 Countess Frederike Sophie von Degenfeld-Schonburg (* April 5, 1823; † December 7, 1789)
  • Günther (born January 10, 1726 - † March 11, 1804), Herr auf Dahlen, French colonel of the cavalry
⚭ 1766 Johanna Erdmuthe von Schönfeld († February 12, 1779)
⚭ 1781 Erdmuthe Magdalena von der Sahla (* August 31, 1750; † September 7, 1836)

Confusion of the name bearers

Due to a family law of the Bünau family, which was already in force in the 12th century, only the first names Günther, Heinrich or Rudolph were allowed to be used for male descendants. There are therefore numerous people with the name Heinrich von Bünau within the widely ramified clan . In the history of science to date, this has not infrequently led to incorrect assignments of persons. In the Saxon regional historiography, Heinrich Graf von Bünau was confused several times with his father of the same name, the Chancellor at the Dresden court.

Works (selection)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 52.
  2. ↑ Torsten Sander: Ex Bibliotheca Bunaviana. Studies on the institutional conditions of a noble private library in the Age of Enlightenment . Thelem Universitätsverlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 9783939888994 .
  3. ↑ cf. z. B. Gottlieb Schumann: Annual Genealogical Handbook . Leipzig 1749, footnote on p. 153 .

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Bünau, Heinrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bünau, Heinrich Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German statesman and historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1697
PLACE OF BIRTH Weissenfels
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1762
Place of death Oßmannstedt