Heinrich von Schenk

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Johann Heinrich Schenk , from 1808 Knight von Schenk , (born April 17, 1748 in Düsseldorf , † May 1, 1813 in Munich ) was a Bavarian statesman .

Life

Schenk was the son of an Electoral Palatinate NCO . After attending school, he joined the army and, like his father, became a non-commissioned officer. Despite good performance, higher military ranks were closed to him due to his origin. The philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi hired him as a private secretary. This was fortunate for his further career. Jacobi, to whom Schenk increasingly became a friend, made it possible for Schenk to learn Latin and French as well as to acquire basic legal and economic knowledge. Schenk accompanied Jacobi's sons to the University of Duisburg , where he himself obtained the degree of Lic. Iur. acquired. In the same year he became a lawyeremployed by the knighthood in the Grand Duchy of Berg . He also gave his son Friedrich private lessons with other children.

During the war in 1793, Schenk was appointed military economist by the Bavarian Finance Minister Franz Karl Joseph Anton von Hompesch zu Bolheim . Hompesch had already met Schenk in Munich in 1779 and appointed him to his staff when he was on the run from the Napoleonic troops. In 1795 he was sent to Paris for negotiations . When Maximilian Joseph became Elector of Bavaria and the Palatinate, Schenk received the position of secret financial trainee on February 27, 1799 at the suggestion of Hompesch. In 1806 he was given the department of trade and transport, factories etc. in the Bavarian Ministry of Finance . With the establishment of the Privy Council , he became a Real Privy Councilor in 1808 and, in 1809, under Finance Minister Maximilian von Montgelas, General Director of Finance. He was effectively head of the Treasury.

Schenk has received several awards for his services. In 1807 he received honorary membership of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , in 1808 the Knight's Cross and in 1810 the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown . With the award of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit, the personal ennoblement took place .

Schenk was in contact with Goethe , Wieland , Hamann and Lessing , among others .

The salt works director Friedrich and the statesman Eduard von Schenk were his sons, the botanist August Schenk his grandson.

literature

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See list of members of the Academy, last accessed on October 9, 2019.
  2. ↑ Court and State Manual of the Kingdom of Bavaria 1812, p. 44.
personal data
SURNAME Schenk, Heinrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schenk, Johann Heinrich Ritter von (full name); Schenk, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian statesman
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1748
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1813
Place of death Munich