Heinrich von Podewils (politician)

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Heinrich von Podewils

Heinrich Graf von Podewils ( the prudent ; * October 3, 1696 in Krangen ; † July 29, 1760 in Magdeburg ) was a Prussian Real Secret Minister of State, War and Cabinet.

Live and act

Heinrich Graf von Podewils came from the well-known noble family of Podewils , who lived in Pomerania . His parents were the Brandenburg colonel Ernst Bogislaw von Podewils (1651–1718) and Barbara Katharina von Dewitz (1667–1742), the daughter of General Joachim Balthasar von Dewitz .

Podewils grew up on his father's estate in Krangen in Western Pomerania . He studied law in Halle with Thomasius , Ludwig and Böhmer and in Leiden with Noodt and Gravesende. He was considered linguistically very gifted and as a precise formulator in word and writing. In this capacity he later helped the Prussian king with the drafting of various writings and treaties.

In 1720 Podewils was appointed to the Prussian General War Commissariat as a secret war council . Although Podewils was described by contemporaries as a procrastinator or tremor by nature , his prudence earned him the trust of Friedrich Wilhelm I. In 1722, he appointed him secret finance councilor in the general directorate and gave him various diplomatic missions such as the embassy in Copenhagen in 1728 and the in Stockholm .

Under Friedrich II. Podewils became "Real Secret Minister of War, Budget and Cabinet" and was thus responsible for all of Prussia's foreign policy. In this position, Podewils tried to warn the king again and again about military campaigns or advocated reasonable compromises in hopeless situations. However, foreign policy was dominated by Frederick II, which means that Podewils retired to the position of assistant. Nevertheless, for a long time he remained a close confidante of Frederick II and a prudent advisor in imperial politics. As minister, he led the peace negotiations with Austria and Saxony, which led to the peace treaties of Breslau and Berlin (1742) and the Peace of Dresden (1745).

With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War , which Podewils could not prevent, his influence in politics waned. Karl Wilhelm Finck Graf von Finckenstein became the new war minister and confidante of the king. Podewils died soon after in Magdeburg, where the court had withdrawn from Berlin.

Frederick II lamented his death as that of a minister,

“Whose devotion and zeal for my interests will always be recommended to my memory; the loss that strikes me in the person of such a worthy and loyal servant will always be a sad memory. "

Family property

Podewils, heir on Krangen in Western Pomerania, owned a palace in Berlin's Klosterstrasse since 1732 . In 1749 he acquired the Fredersdorf estate near Berlin from the owner at the time, Hans Ludwig von Görtzke, descendant of the famous General Joachim Ernst von Görzke . By 1775, additional areas around the estate were purchased, so that the Podewils family were registered as the sole owners in the land register until 1811. He was still the heir to Suckow , Hasenfier , Jannowitz , Groß u. Klein Quesdow and Bollensdorf .

In Fredersdorf, on the grounds of the Protestant church there, Karl Ernst Georg Graf von Podewils had a mausoleum built over his father's grave in 1780 for the entire family.

family

Heinrich Graf von Podewils married on February 1, 1721 in his first marriage Charlotte von Grumbkow († 1724) the daughter of Wilhelm von Grumbkow (1678-1739) and Sophia Charlotte de la Chevalier (1681-1749). The couple had the following children:

  • Sophia Friederika Albertina (1722–1781)
⚭ June 12, 1743 Carl Joseph von Dewitz (1718–1753)
⚭ February 23, 1756 Carl Joseph Maximilian von Fürst und Kupferberg (1717–1790)
  • Friedrich Wilhelm (1723–1746)

After the death of his first wife, he married Sophia Henrietta von der Schulenburg (1714–1750), the daughter of Hans Georg von der Schulenburg (1645–1715) and Renate Sophie von der Schulenburg (1674–1743) on March 9, 1730 . The couple had the following children:

  • Sophie Christine Dorothea (1734–1802)
⚭ October 4, 1751 (divorced) Friedrich Wilhelm von Marschall († 1805), son of Samuel von Marschall
⚭ July 17, 1758 Johann August von Häseler (1724–1763), son of August von Haeseler
⚭ May 18, 1767 Emanuel Friedrich von Bredow (1732–1780)
⚭ February 5, 1781 Johann Ludwig von Hordt (1719–1798)
  • Friedrich Heinrich (1737–1757)
  • Karl Ernst Georg (1738–1789)
  • Wilhelm Adam Otto (1739–1768)
  • Friedrich Werner (1742–1804)

Honors

In 1741 Heinrich von Podewils was awarded the Order of the Black Eagle and on the occasion of the tribute to Frederick the Great by the Silesian estates in Breslau , together with his brothers Adam Joachim von Podewils (1697–1764), heir to Varzin and later Prussian major general , Otto Friedrich Christoph von Podewils (1702–1760), heir to Wussow , and his cousin Otto Christoph von Podewils (1719–1781), heir to Gusow and Prussian envoy, raised to the hereditary Prussian count status.

In Berlin-Mitte at Klosterstrasse 68 / corner Parochialstrasse there is a memorial plaque on the Palais Podewils named after him . This Parochialstraße was called Podewils Gasse or Podewilsgasse until 1800.

literature

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Graf von Podewils  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Podewils noble family in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon 1905 on zeno.org
  2. ↑ "Prussia Chronicle" at rbb
  3. ↑ Podewilssches Palais in Berlin-Mitte in the district lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  4. ↑ Duncker Collection: The von Podewils family at the Coseeger Manor ( Memento of the original from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 293 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zlb.de
  5. ↑ Maximilian Gritzner : Chronological register of the Brandenburg-Prussian class increases and acts of grace from 1600-1873. Berlin 1874, p. 24.
  6. ↑ Podewilsgasse . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
personal data
SURNAME Podewils, Heinrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Podewils, Heinrich Graf von; Podewils, Henry de; Podewils, Heinrich Otto Christoph von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian Real Secret State, War and Cabinet Minister
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1696
PLACE OF BIRTH Krąg
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 1760
Place of death Magdeburg