Johann Bernhard von Gemmingen

Johann Bernhard von Gemmingen (born March 15, 1656 , † July 23, 1723 in Presteneck ) was Baden-Durlach's court advisor and chief steward of the hereditary prince and later margrave Karl Wilhelm , whom he served for over 30 years.

Life

Johann Bernhard came from the Bürg-Presteneck branch of the Barons of Gemmingen and was a son of Achilles Christoph von Gemmingen (1619–1676) from his third marriage to Amalie von Mentzingen in 1655. He was first brought up by his father and then studied in Strasbourg . In 1686, Margrave Friedrich Magnus von Baden-Durlach appointed him court counselor and chamberlain . He also became overseer of the Hereditary Prince Karl Wilhelm, but was required to miss the council meetings as little as possible despite this obligation. In 1690 he was the crown prince's chief steward with him in Lausanne and Geneva .

His half-brother Hans Gottlieb von Gemmingen took possession of the family property in Bürg after the death of two other half-brothers in 1690, against which Johann Bernhard protested from Geneva. In May 1691 soldiers broke into Burg Castle and stabbed Hans Gottlieb von Gemmingen. Johann Bernhard was accused of instigating the murder, so that an imperial commission was set up against him.

In 1692 Johann Bernhard accompanied the Crown Prince to Utrecht, in 1693 to England and 1694 to Italy, where they witnessed the siege of Casal and were almost killed by a collapsing house in an earthquake. In the same year 1694 Johann Bernhard became inspector and administrator of the Rötteln regional office . In 1695 he accompanied the prince on a trip to Rome . In 1697 he accompanied the Duchess Augusta Maria and her children on a trip to the Württemberg court. In 1699 he was appointed privy councilor. In 1704 he signed the marriage contracts between Christian August von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf and the Baden-Durlach princess Albertine Friederike in Kiel . In 1708 he was again in Lausanne to protect the Württemberg Hereditary Prince Friedrich Ludwig , a grandson of the margrave, from the influence of Wilhelmine von Grävenitz . After the death of Margrave Friedrich Magnus in 1709, the House of Baden-Durlach began lavish housekeeping, which Johann Bernhard von Gemmingen met unsuccessfully with advice on thrift. In 1712 he asked for his dismissal, but Margrave Karl did not want to do without his servant, who had been by his side for over two decades, and did not comply with another request for dismissal until 1717.

Johann Bernhard spent his retirement in Presteneck. He is buried with his wife in the church of Burg.

When the inheritance was divided in 1724, his sons Reinhard and Casimir shared the property they had previously managed with their uncle Eberhard (1674–1741) in Bürg and Presteneck, with the brothers Bürg. The only remaining son, Casimir, became the sole owner of Burg after Reinhard's early death in 1726. The family branch continued for a few generations and died out in the male line in 1851, the property passed to other branches of the family.

family

Johann Bernhard von Gemmingen was married to Maria Agatha von Bettendorff (1663–1733). The union produced twelve children, but few of them reached adulthood and only three survived.

Progeny:

• Johanna Friederika (1696–1719) ⚭ 1716 Friedrich von Weiler to Weiler
• Maria ⚭ Christoph von Weiler zu Lichtenberg
• Reinhard (1699–1726), died young as an imperial captain in Belgrade of a heated fever
• Casimir (1697–1769) ⚭ Eberhardine Luise von Wallbronn (1701–1762)

literature

• Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig Stocker : Family Chronicle of the Barons of Gemmingen , Heidelberg 1895, p. 201-203. Digitized

predecessor	Office	successor
Reinhard von Gemmingen (1645–1707)	Governor of Rötteln 1694-1717	Ernst Friedrich Leutrum von Ertingen