Hermann von Greiffenegg
Hermann Joseph Edmund Nepomuk Tröndlin von Greiffenegg (born February 18, 1737 in Altdorf, today a district of Weingarten ; † December 25, 1807 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was the last district president of the House of Habsburg in Freiburg, in the western part of Austria .
Life
Origin and family
The Tröndlins come from Waldshut on the Upper Rhine, where they were active as salt contractors (traders) and officials for generations. In 1707 Hermann Joseph Edmund Nepomuk Tröndlin's grandfather Johann Adam Tröndlin von Greiffenegg (1653–1718) was raised to the nobility for his services in the sale of Hall-Inntal salt . From then on, the family bears the Greiffenegg title .
When the salt trade in the region became less profitable due to increased competition from Lorraine , Hermann's father Joseph Xaver Conrad Tröndlin von Greiffenegg (1705–1765) accepted the post of Austrian councilor in the Landvogtei Swabia after studying law in Freiburg . In the main town of Altdorf, Joseph Xaver's third and last child was baptized on February 18, 1737 with the name Hermann Joseph Edmund Nepomuk.
Marriage to Anna Maria von Safran († 1776) on August 7, 1766 in Grafendorf. Children: Henrica Teresa Anna Tröndlin von Greiffenegg * May 7, 1767 to 1792, Maria Juliana Constantia * February 17, 1770 and Hermann Xaver Gottlob von Greiffenegg Wolffurt * April 17, 1775 in Freiburg, † January 19, 1847 Freiburg.
Reforms at the University of Freiburg
In the tradition of his father, Hermann von Greiffenegg studied law at the Albertina - he later omitted the real name Tröndlin - and entered Austrian service in 1759. Emperor Josef II appointed the only 30-year-old commissar to the sovereign and entrusted him with the delicate task of finally carrying out the reforms at the University of Freiburg that Maria Theresa had decided in 1752 . In 1768 von Greiffenegg pushed through this with all severity against the bitter resistance of the Freiburg professors, in order, as he said, to bring the Albertina into a bigger pile . He instructed the obstinate professors: It's a different time, one now has different, my customs . The rector and the university senate, who were accused of measured defiance, had to pay a fine of 400 ducats before Greiffenegg suspended them. Then he appointed a new senate that pleased him. In order to ensure the sustainability of the reforms, the Vienna Court appointed state directors to the faculties . Until 1790, von Greiffenegg worked as director of various faculties and finally also exercised university judicial functions as president of the judging panel of the law faculty. With these and other tasks, which the Austrian government assigned him and which he carried out in his own imperious and despotic manner, he made no friends in Freiburg.
Resistance to the French occupation
That changed when the Revolutionary Army took Freiburg in 1796 in the First Coalition War against the French and von Greiffenegg vigorously opposed the threatened annexation of the Breisgau to France. He was arrested and taken to the fortress of Phalsbourg in Lorraine ; his belongings were looted. After his release in 1797, in gratitude for his sacrifice, Freiburg granted him and his children Freiburg citizenship , and a year later he was even made an honorary citizen of the city.
District President under Ferdinand von Österreich-Este
As a result of his victories against Austria in Northern Italy, Napoleon created the Cisalpine Republic in a first attempt to reorganize Europe . As a result, Duke Ercole III. von Modena lost its Italian possessions and was appointed ruler of the Breisgau . But the duke was dissatisfied with the exchange of territory. Only when he was also awarded the Ortenau after the renewed defeat of Austria in the Second Coalition War in the Peace of Lunéville 1802 , Ercole III. his son-in-law Ferdinand von Österreich-Este as administrator of the new territory ( Duchy of Modena-Breisgau ), and this appointed von Greiffenegg as his district president. In 1803 he received power of attorney for the actual ownership, takeover and the first management of the business in accordance with the Lunéville Peace Treaty . So the now 65-year-old had to follow the politics of his new and from 1803 his old rule - after the death of Ercoles III. the Breisgau falls back to the House of Habsburg - prevail. This time it was a matter of resisting the liberal currents triggered by the French Revolution in the population. The well-known Freiburg liberal jurist Karl von Rotteck said about von Greiffenegg:
“ Everything always has to go according to Greiffenegg's will. He is the sole ruler and most of the officials are and are only called scratchy feet when you are abroad "
.
Grand Duchy of Baden
The renewed defeat of Austria in 1805 in the Third Coalition War sealed the final fate of the region. Von Greiffenegg had to experience how the Emperor of the French Napoleon I defeated the Habsburg Franz II in the battle of Austerlitz on December 2nd . The result of this third Austrian defeat in a row against France was not long in coming. Franz II had to do without Breisgau and Ortenau for the entire Habsburg house. As early as December 20, 1805, Napoleon decreed the transfer of the Breisgau to the Grand Duchy of Baden in Vienna . For strategic reasons he married his adopted daughter Stéphanie de Beauharnais to the Hereditary Prince Karl Ludwig von Baden and Stephanie received the Breisgau as a dowry. After all, Hermann von Greiffenegg was spared personally handing over the region to Baden, which was elevated to the status of a Grand Duchy, the following year. This was done by the commander of the French troops in Freiburg, General Jean Nicolas de Monard.
Resignation and death
When von Greiffenegg offered to enter Baden services, he categorically refused. Instead, after 45 years of loyal service for the House of Austria and now 68 years old, he retired to his retirement home. In this Schlössle , built in 1805 on the ruins of the Vauban fortress on a protrusion of the Freiburg Castle Hill , which he calls " Quieti Sacrum ", Greiffenegg finally sought seclusion. But, as his son Hermann Gottlob von Greiffenegg noted, the attack in the region in Baden was a “nail in his coffin” for Hermann von Greiffenegg. This closed on Christmas Day 1807 over the last Austrian regional president of the Breisgau.
Individual evidence
- ^ Heiko Haumann , Hans Schadek: History of the city of Freiburg . Vol. 3, p. 24
literature
- Joseph Bader: History of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau . Herdersche Verlagbuchhandlung, Freiburg 1882/83.
- Hermann Kopf: Greiffenegg, the rise and end of a family . Verlag Karl Schillinger, Freiburg 1974.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Greiffenegg, Hermann von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Greiffenegg, Hermann Joseph Edmund Nepomuk Tröndlin from |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | last government president of the House of Habsburg in Freiburg, in the west of Austria |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 18, 1737 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vineyard |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 25, 1807 |
| Place of death | Freiburg in Breisgau |