Heinrich Prince of Fürstenberg

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Heinrich zu Fürstenberg in front of the Wildenstein Altar of the Master of Messkirch

Heinrich Fürst zu Fürstenberg (official name: Heinrich Maximilian Egon Karl Prinz zu Fürstenberg; born July 17, 1950 at Heiligenberg Castle ) is a German entrepreneur. He came to in Donaueschingen based Fürstenhaus Furstenberg and is a son of Joachim Egon Prince of Fürstenberg (1923-2002) and Paula Maria Júlia Eusébia Countess of Koenigsegg-Aulendorf (1927-2019).

Name and salutation

According to information from the registry of the Donaueschingen city council, Fürstenberg's name is Heinrich Maximilian Egon Karl Prinz zu Fürstenberg .

Since the death of his father, he has appeared in public under the primogeniture title Fürst zu Fürstenberg , which was revoked in 1919 , and can be described as his Highness .

The full title as head of the house in the historical-genealogical sense is Fürst zu Fürstenberg, Landgraf in der Baar and zu Stühlingen , Count zu Heiligenberg and Werdenberg , Freiherr zu Gundelfingen , Herr zu Hausen im Kinzigtal, Meßkirch , Hohenhöwen , Wildenstein , Waldsberg , Werenwag , Immendingen , Weitra and Pürglitz .

education

Fürstenberg passed the Matura in Vienna and began studying economics . Before he graduated, his father brought him into the family business in 1976. In the same year he married Maximiliane Princess zu Windisch-Graetz .

Entrepreneur

Fürstenberg brewery in Donaueschingen

The company, which Heinrich Prinz zu Fürstenberg has headed since the early 1990s, includes various companies and 20,000 hectares of forest including land in Austria and Canada . This makes the family one of the largest private forest owners in Germany. The royal house's fortune is estimated at 700 million euros. As an inheritance, Fürstenberg built up Lignis GmbH & Co. KG, a wood marketing company for a total of 52,000 hectares of forest, in which other important former royal houses are also involved. Losses in forestry forced the family, believed to have had a lavish lifestyle in the 1990s, to sell. The well-known wine cellar and cultural assets were sold. In 2004, Fürstenberg had to sell a heart of the family company, the Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Brewery . Before this sale, DER SPIEGEL assumed in 1993 that 1,500 employees were generating around 250 million DM annually  for the Princely House.

In an interview published in 2006 , Heinrich Prinz zu Fürstenberg gave information about the motives for his controversial sales. He described the art collections as "non-liquid funds, so to speak, which were meant to be used if things weren't going so well that they could perhaps be liquidated in order to give the economic operations a bit of support". The brewery was no longer viable on its own. He named forest construction as the company's focus, "which should remain the main line of business". They do not want to be impressed by minor downturns.

family

Heinrich Prinz zu Fürstenberg has been married to Maximiliane Princess zu Windisch-Graetz (born November 16, 1952 in Trieste ) since November 11, 1976 . She is socially committed to MS patients, among other things, and is the founder of the IMSED foundation for MS patients, which acts as a registered association, and is the first holder of the AMSEL support group Ursula-Späth- Prize.

In the inheritance, the father Joachim Egon skipped the first-born and transferred the property - officially for tax reasons - to the eldest of Heinrich's two sons, Christian Joachim Maximilian.

public perception

Heinrich Prinz zu Fürstenberg is the patron of the Donaueschinger Musiktage and patronage of the Catholic city church St. Johann in Donaueschingen, for whose renovation he is particularly committed. He is also a knight of the Roman Catholic Order of Malta .

The fact that Fürstenberg continued the sale of large parts of the royal collections he had inherited, which his father Joachim Egon had begun, met with public criticism. In 1994 the incunabula from the Donaueschingen court library were auctioned off at Sotheby’s . From 1999 the prints of the court library, including the library of Joseph von Laßberg , were sold, with the exception of a small remainder that is administered by the princely archive. In 1993 the valuable manuscript collection was sold to the state of Baden-Württemberg, and in 2001 the Donaueschingen Nibelung manuscript C followed . Much of the famous old German masters of the Donaueschingen collections, including works by the Master of Meßkirch , sold Furstenberg 2003 to the entrepreneur Reinhold Würth , the Gray passion of Hans Holbein. Ä. to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart .

Donaueschingen Castle

In 2003, the Fürstenbergs moved back into Donaueschingen Castle . Since then there have been repeated conflicts, in particular over the use of the castle park and access to the source of the Danube . The Stuttgarter Zeitung ruled in April 2006: "Heinrich Fürst zu Fürstenberg has managed to become unpopular in Donaueschingen in record speed after the death of his highly respected, popular and fun-loving father Joachim (" Fürst Joki ") in the city of 21,500 inhabitants. than there was ever a potentate before him. "

The fact that Fürstenberg did not want to continue the financial support of culture contributed to the disgruntlement between the citizens and the family, who used to be known for their patronage . The Fürstenberg family also withdrew from the international horse show they had founded. Until then, the city and Fürstenberg were each half involved in the organizing company. The participation of the Fürstenbergs in the event was reduced to the sponsorship of a name, the award of the honorary award and the organization of an evening reception.

literature

  • Timo John, Siegmund Kopitzki: Lust and burden of tradition. Interviews with [...] SD Heinrich Fürst zu Fürstenberg and SD Christian Fürst zu Fürstenberg [...] . In: Nobility in Transition. Upper Swabia from the early modern era to the present . Volume 2, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7995-0216-0 , pp. 831-849, here pp. 837-842

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Fürst zu Fürstenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Princely family on haus-fuerstenberg.com
  2. ^ Heinrich Fürst zu Fürstenberg celebrates his 70th birthday. In: Black Forest Messenger . July 17, 2020, accessed August 19, 2020 .
  3. ↑ The family. In: WELT ONLINE. March 29, 2006, accessed January 12, 2010 .
  4. ↑ Frank van Bebber: Yesterday's news. In: FOCUS No. 17 April 2, 2006, accessed on January 12, 2010 .
  5. ^ A b Christian von Hiller: Entrepreneurial nobility in difficult times. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 233. October 6, 2004, p. 18 , accessed on January 12, 2010 .
  6. ↑ a b c Jocki's Apostle. In: DER SPIEGEL 3/1993. January 18, 1993, pp. 64-65 , accessed April 3, 2019 .
  7. ^ John / Kopitzki, p. 838.
  8. ^ John / Kopitzki, p. 840.
  9. ↑ Dagmar von Taube: I am a friend, not the princess. In: WELT ONLINE. December 22, 2002, accessed January 12, 2010 .
  10. ^ Princely family: I. D. the princess. Retrieved April 3, 2019 .
  11. ↑ 40 years - a reason to celebrate! AMSEL e. V., October 28, 2014, accessed April 3, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Wolfgang Messner: The Unloved Prince. Prince Heinrich zu Fürstenberg, the former brewery owner. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. October 9, 2004.
  13. ↑ Peter Dittmar: Your Royal Highness has it silvered. In: WELT ONLINE. September 25, 2005, accessed January 12, 2010 .
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Messner: Committed to tradition and love of life. Heinrich Fürst zu Fürstenberg, nobleman on the wrong track. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. April 8, 2006. For Fürstenberg's point of view, see John / Kopitzki.
  15. ↑ Hunting scenes in the princely palace park in Donaueschingen. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung - Stadtausgabe, No. 134. June 14, 2007, p. 10 , accessed on April 8, 2013 ( PDF , 86  KiB ).
  16. ^ A request concert to Fürstenberg. (PDF; 855 kB) In: Südkurier No. 125 / DNE. May 31, 2008, p. 10 , accessed January 12, 2010 .
  17. ↑ International SD Prince Joachim zu Fürstenberg Memorial Tournament Donaueschingen. Retrieved January 12, 2010 .
personal data
SURNAME Fürstenberg, Heinrich Fürst to
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fürstenberg, Heinrich Maximilian Egon Karl Prinz zu (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 17th July 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Heiligenberg Castle