Jean-Baptiste Brequin de Demenge

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Jean-Baptiste Brequin de Demenge, painting by Joseph Ducreux (1735–1802)

Jean-Baptiste Brequin de Demenge (born August 10, 1712 in Acreignes, from 1720 Guise-sur-Moselle, today Frolois in the canton of Vézelise , Arrondissement Nancy , † January 9, 1785 in Vienna ) was an Austrian-Lorraine officer. His first name is also given with Johann .

He was one of the advisors who formed the "Lothringer Kreis" around Franz Stephan von Lothringen. A significant part of the cultural and economic heyday in Austria from the middle of the 18th century is assigned to this group of people.

Life

Jean-Baptiste Brequin was born in Lorraine , his parents died early. From 1724 to 1736 he lived in Nancy , from 1736 he was in the service of Louis-Charles-Antoine Marquis de Beauveau (1715–1744), who recognized his talents for military-strategic projects, mathematics and cartography and received training from his predecessor the Paris École militaire made possible. In 1740 Brequin accompanied the Marquis de Beauveau on a trip to Berlin and got to know the conditions in Germany. In the same year the Austrian War of Succession began . Brequin was initially in French service with Louis-Henri de Saulx, Marquis de Tavanes-Mirebel (1705–1747) and was supposed to travel to Vienna to inform France about the defenses of this city. He refused. This refusal was accepted because it would have meant for him to betray his former sovereign Franz Stephan . Francis Stephen had only 1,736 of the transfer of the Duchy of Lorraine to Stanisław I in exchange for the Tuscany agreed, but lived in Vienna, where he in 1736 Maria Theresa had married.

The new rule in Lorraine, where a de facto French administration had been established under Stanislaus Leszczyński, was rejected by large sections of the population. In the treaties on the task of the Duchy of Lorraine, Franz Stephan had managed to be able to take essential works of art, archival materials, instruments, tapestries and other items with him to his new place of residence. A number of Lorraine residents followed his example, and the departure of Franz Stephans resulted in an extensive emigration movement.

During the siege of Prague , Brequin was accused of espionage for the Habsburgs and held prisoner for 33 days. He then moved to Franz Stefan in Vienna. When he applied for membership in the Austrian army in 1743, he was initially thought to be a spy again, but he soon recognized his strategic knowledge in the Rhine area and made use of it. Brequin's military career under the government of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen was that of an officer of genius who had to deal with the mapping and planning of fortifications. Several maps that are in the Austrian War Archives testify to this time.

Brequin found a wide field of activity in the Viennese physical cabinet (the "Cabinet des Machines"). His services and interests were determined by the person of the legitimate rulers (Lorraine and Austria) and shaped by technical developments and the ideas of the Enlightenment .

In 1747 he became a captain as part of the reorganization of the engineering corps and was used for officer training and archive tasks. In 1750 he was "Colonel Sergeant" (Major) and was a mathematics teacher of the future Emperor Joseph II. Brequin archivist was the genius being the genius Directorate , Colonel and bridge captain, administrator of the water building authority and assessor of the upper and Hofbaudirektion . In 1757 he was promoted to "Engineer Lieutenant Colonel".

Jean-Baptiste Brequin was married to Nicole de Cheville, a Lorraine woman, from 1752. The couple had six children, of whom only the two daughters Maria Anna and Maria Theresia reached adulthood. The grave of Maria Anna (married "von Lumagna") is in the Laxenburg cemetery .

In 1765 the imperial order was issued that Brequin should be involved in all water pipeline tours to be undertaken and that his opinion should be given priority.

1765 he lived with his family next to the Nepomuk - Chapel (at the site of the later parish church ) in Meidling , where he set up a direct access from the church in the courtyard of his house and for the sacristy embarrassed left to the other side of the church. On May 4, 1768, he was appointed castle captain of Laxenburg, and on June 15, 1768, he was also deputy court building director. He resigned his Laxenburg function in 1772. In 1773 he became head of the “Imperial and Royal Bank and Hydraulic Engineering Office Administration”, and in 1783 this hydraulic engineering department was subordinated to the Oberhof Building Directorate, which was created as an umbrella organization through the centralization of the building directorates.

Brequin spoke only French throughout his life and wrote his reports in this language. For official activities that required reports in German, an employee was available for translations. That did not change when, in 1772, under the new head of the court building department, Count Kaunitz-Rietberg, German was determined as the official language.

Jean-Baptiste Brequin was raised with the title "de Demenge" to the peerage, they used ennobling but rarely. The appreciation that the imperial family showed him was also expressed in the fact that the treatment by the imperial personal physician Anton von Störck was made possible for him.

In the estate treatise after his death on January 9, 1785, a library with 573 mostly French books on technical and scientific subjects, but also on military affairs, economics and politics is mentioned, as well as 25,000 gulden cash and a number of tangible assets.

A 3,130 m high mountain in the Vanoise massif of the Graian Alps bears the name "Mont Bréquin".

Mont Brequin

Works

As part of his career as an officer, he taught the next generation of officers at what was then the military academy . From 1748 to at least 1761 he was the teacher of Archduke Josef and after him Archduke Peter Leopold in mathematics and geometry, from 1750 to 1759 he was a member of the imperial court as an instructor in mathematics "of the young rule". guided. The fact that Crown Prince Josef later became interested in this area, surveying and military architecture, is attributed to Brequin's teaching. Teaching books for this have been preserved in the Vienna archives. In addition, he taught in various aristocratic houses in Vienna.

Brequin dealt with many technical tasks, one focus of his activity was hydraulic engineering and the supervision of state buildings, starting with palaces like Schönbrunn and Laxenburg up to the offices of the customs overseer. He played a key role in the construction and renovation of Vienna's water supply. In 1765/66 he directs the construction of the aqueduct from Schottenfeld to Mariahilf in the Savoy Academy and from there on to the castle . Since this water pipe was not sufficient, Brequin recommended the introduction of some springs from Meidling and Margareten , from which the Siebenbrunn court water pipe was later created. In this building, experiments were carried out for the first time with pipes made of baked clay, but this idea was not pursued any further. In 1779 he was busy building a water reservoir in the Josefstädter barracks , and in 1784 he was busy expanding the Hofwasserleitung from Hernals and Dornbach .

He also presented a number of plans for regulating the Vienna River .

Not all plans were implemented: one of his proposals to dig a parallel river bed to reduce the flood risk of the Danube near Vienna was only implemented with the New Danube over 200 years later. The measure that was originally taken instead of the implementation of this proposal was a left bank dam on the Danube according to the plans of Johann Sigismund Hubert. Brequin's criticism that this would restrict the Danube too much proved to be justified shortly afterwards when this dam broke in 14 places. It was not rebuilt, the floods of the Danube and the associated ice rushes remained a threat to the northern suburbs of the city of Vienna for centuries and were a constant topic of consideration for Viennese Danube regulation .

Jean-Baptiste Brequin was involved in technical work in Vienna and its surroundings and drew several maps. In 1784, during the greatest flood of the 18th century , his measures helped to ward off the ice surge on the Danube. The striking bridge at the Rotenturmtor and other Viennese bridges were reinforced or renewed under his leadership. There are indications that Brequin also worked for Prince Esterházy in Eisenstadt and Fertőd .

Brequin also had expertise in meteorology and architecture : an anemometer was presented to the Académie royale in Brussels , it was also to be published about it, but the functional device was withdrawn for unknown reasons. According to the documents that are still available, it is likely that Brequin was the architect of the Lamberg Palace in Pressburg (Bratislava), which was built between 1759 and 1764 (today Palais Balassa). In Vienna he was responsible for the restoration of the church on Rennweg, which later became the Guard Church , and under his direction the theater on Praterstraße in Leopoldstadt was built in 1781 .

In Laxenburg Castle, he built the Diana Temple , which was intended as the center of a zoo, a fountain and a waterfall. He ensured the water supply through a water pipe from the Anninger area .

A topic that Brequin dealt with for about 17 years was the use of the Theresienfeld . On his initiative, plans were implemented to irrigate this area through an artificially created canal from the Piesting near Wöllersdorf : This resulted in the Tirolerbach . Brequin's investigations in the southern Vienna Basin , where he was also involved in the renewal of two bridges in Neunkirchen , were one of the foundations for the work on the Wiener Neustädter Canal . Further investigations dealt with the better use or relocation of the large fish pond near Guntramsdorf , which threatened to dry out if there was a lack of water. Brequin suggested that the pond should be completely abandoned and that the entire animal population should be moved to the nearby “duck lacquer”, which was enlarged for this purpose and its water supply was reorganized. An island with bushes for breeding grounds for water birds was created in the middle.

In 1756 he traveled to the northern Adriatic , the " Austrian littoral ". There he examined the sea beaches and port facilities and worked out proposals for the expansion of the port of Trieste , which he found to be more suitable compared to port facilities further east on flat beaches (e.g. at Aquileia ). Brequin looked at the coastal region together with Carniola and (Lower) Styria and proposed to create uniform concepts for the economy and the expansion of the traffic routes in this area, which was to become known in the 20th century as part of the " Alps-Adriatic Region " .

In 1757 he researched and documented flood damage in the Wipptal and Pustertal as well as on the Etsch and Eisack on behalf of the emperor and reported on it in Vienna.

Another object Brequins 1766 was a study for the navigability of the Drava . To do this, he traveled the banks of the Drau from Esseg (Osijek) to Marburg (Maribor) and suggested that instead of expanding the Drau, a canal should be built to accompany it on the right. He also reported on the difficulties that would oppose shipping on the Drau above Marburg, such as rapids and bridge piers that were too close to one another. In this context, consideration was given to creating water connections between the Danube, Drava, Adriatic and Lake Balaton.

In 1772 Brequin was involved in the work of the Vltava regulation, which had the aim of making this river more navigable. The regulation of the March was of particular interest to the imperial family , because Franz Stephan owned the dominions of Holitsch and Sassau in the fertile floodplain of this river, and on the other hand, Hof Palace on the other side of the March had been in imperial possession since 1755. The annual March flood not only threatened the bridge built between these properties, but the Marchtal as a whole. In 1772 a regulatory project was drawn up, but it could not be implemented for financial reasons.

The directory of the maps, drawings and construction plans of Brequins in the Austrian war archive and other archives and collections comprises several printed pages: From water wheels , animal-powered water art systems for Schönbrunn Palace and other aristocratic residences to large-scale river regulations, these documents document the current state of hydraulic engineering to the middle of the 18th century. His best-known cartographic work is the Carte des environs de Schönbrun et ceux de Laxemburg from 1755, which shows the area between the castles of Schönbrunn and Laxenburg on several sheets on a scale of approximately 1: 10.800. These maps are seen as the forerunners of the later Austrian regional recordings. The Josephinische Landesaufnahme was started during Brequin's lifetime.

literature

Web links

Commons : Jean-Baptiste Brequin de Demenge  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wurzbach: Biographical Lexicon. P. 134.
  2. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 101-102.
  3. ↑ a b Opll: Maps. P. 112.
  4. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. S. 9. Information about a place of birth in the Austrian Netherlands, which is published in older literature, does not apply (but also the exhibition catalog "Maria Theresa and her time. On the 200th anniversary of the anniversary of her death." October 1980 Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace, Residenz Verlag Salzburg-Wien, p. 523); Upper Lobster: Card. S. 158 and in Wurzbach: Lexicon . P. 134.
  5. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 12.
  6. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 15.
  7. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 101.
  8. ↑ Oberhummer: Map . P. 158.
  9. ↑ a b Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 18.
  10. ↑ a b Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 19-20.
  11. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 22-23.
  12. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 23.
  13. ↑ Irene Kubiska-Scharl, Michael Pölzl: The careers of the Viennese court staff 1711–1765. A representation based on the court calendar and court party minutes. In: Susanne Claudine Pils: Research and contributions to the history of the city of Vienna. Volume 58. ZDB ID 716753-2 . Ed. Association for the History of the City of Vienna . Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2013. ISBN 978-3-7065-5324-7 . P. 547.
  14. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 24-26.
  15. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 95-100.
  16. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 21.
  17. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 22.
  18. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 92-94.
  19. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 81.
  20. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 73-82.
  21. ↑ a b Wurzbach: Biographical Lexicon. P. 135.
  22. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 39.
  23. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 40-42.
  24. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 42-44.
  25. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 36.
  26. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 83-86.
  27. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 100.
  28. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 71.
  29. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 86.
  30. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 45-48 and 65-67.
  31. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 68.
  32. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 69-71.
  33. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 86-91.
  34. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. Pp. 103-110.
  35. ↑ Schönburg-Hartenstein, Zedinger: Brequin. P. 35, with reference to: Ferdinand Opll: Vienna in the picture of historical maps. The development of the city until the middle of the 19th century. Plate 20, 49.Böhlau Verlag Vienna 2004. ISBN 978-3-205-77240-8 .
personal data
SURNAME Brequin de Demenge, Jean-Baptiste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brequin, Jean Baptiste; Brequin, Jean-Baptiste; Brequin, Johann; Brequin de Demenge, Jean Baptiste
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian officer and scientist
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1712
PLACE OF BIRTH Acreignes , Duchy of Lorraine
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1785
Place of death Vienna