Johann Christian von Hofenfels

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Johann Christian von Hofenfels. Portrait of Anton Graff . Painted in 1783/84 on the occasion of the von Hofenfels visit to Dresden

Johann Christian Freiherr von Hofenfels (* December 25, 1744 in Kusel as Johann Christian Simon; † July 24, 1787 in Zweibrücken ) was a minister , statesman and diplomat in the service of Duke Karl II. August von Pfalz-Zweibrücken . He prevented the annexation of some parts of Bavaria to Austria and played a key role in the founding of the German Prince League.

Life

Johann Christian Simon was born on December 25, 1744 as the eldest son of the Lutheran pastor Johann Jakob Simon and his wife Charlotte Magdalene Wishan in the rectory of Kusel. Three years later the family moved to Dielkirchen in the North Palatinate. It is uncertain which schools Simon attended. In 1765 he matriculated to study law at the University of Jena . After completing his studies, he entered the service of Duke Christian IV of Pfalz-Zweibrücken and quickly made a career. After Christian IV's death in 1775, his nephew and successor, Duke Charles II August, took him over into his service.

Simon now applied for elevation to the nobility. On April 15, 1776, Simon was raised to the hereditary nobility by Emperor Joseph II and from then on carried the name Johann Christian Freiherr von Hofenfels. The name (the courtyard a rock) is derived from the Bible passage, according to which Simon was the rock on which Jesus founded his church. Hofenfels chose “In Treue fest” as his coat of arms.

Hofenfels completed a civil service career at the ducal court and became a minister. His business area was adapted to the respective requirements, but focused on the areas of finance and external affairs. As a diplomat he traveled to France , Bavaria , Saxony , Prussia , Bohemia and Moravia , as well as several smaller duchies and principalities. He described himself as a voyageur politique .

On October 26, 1779, Duke Karl II gave him the two free aristocratic estate Kirchheimer Hof and Kahlenberger Hof near Breitfurt for his services in settling the Bavarian inheritance .

On April 10, 1781 Hofenfels married the 17-year-old Friederike Luise von Closen auf Haydenburg , daughter of the deceased General von Closen, who had fought in French service in the American War of Independence, and niece of the First Minister at the court in Zweibrücken, Ludwig von Esebeck . The first son of the Hofenfels couple was born on April 24, 1782, but died after just one day. Another son was born in May 1784 and was christened Karl August Friedrich Ludwig Ewald. Duke Charles II August took over the sponsorship.

Hofenfels suffered from stomach problems for a long time. It is possible that the innumerable, mostly days-long carriage rides that he had to undertake as a traveler in political affairs all over Central Europe were very bad for his health. He returned from his last trip to France in 1786 as a seriously ill man. Hofenfels died on July 24, 1787 at the age of 42 in Zweibrücken of " emaciation ". He did not live to see the birth of his daughter Amalie Karoline Luise Friederike in September 1787.

Act

In September 1776 Hofen rock was as Councilor appointed to the Ministry of the Duchy of Pfalz-Zweibrücken. He was given the task of rehabilitating the mountain system , which had been shattered by fraud and disorder . He gained his first experience in diplomacy with the settlement of the inheritance claims of Marianne Camasse , widow of Christian IV., Against the duchy and with the conclusion of the Schwetzingen family contracts between Elector Karl Theodor von der Pfalz and Duke Karl II August von Pfalz -Zweibrücken were closed.

In January 1778 Hofenfels went to Munich on behalf of the Duke. Karl Theodor had after the death of Elector Maximilian III. Joseph inherited the Bavarian throne and compared himself to Emperor Joseph II because of his inheritance claims, which also originated from ancient times. Bavaria should be divided. On January 3, 1778, a contract was concluded between the emperor and the elector to take possession of Bavarian soil, which was to become legally valid as soon as it was signed by the heir to the throne to the Bavarian electoral dignity, Duke Karl II August. A few days before Hofenfels arrived, Austrian troops had marched into the electorate. The legality of the invasion was justified by the Habsburg Emperor Joseph II with a document from King Sigismund from 1426. Hofenfels, who recognized the disadvantages for the Wittelsbachers , resisted and convinced Charles II August not to sign the contract. Instead, the matter was brought before the Reichstag in Regensburg , while Hofenfels turned to the Prussian King Frederick the Great for help . No agreement was reached in Regensburg, but Prussia declared itself to be the protector of the interests of Pfalz-Zweibrücken. In July 1778 Prussian troops marched into Bohemia and the Bavarian Succession War broke out . It was primarily logistical problems that meant that there was no significant fighting. The war was ended on May 13, 1779 by the Peace of Teschen , in whose negotiations Hofenfels played a key role. The contract of January 3, 1778 was declared invalid and Bavaria was largely retained by the Wittelsbach family. The Innviertel had to be ceded to Austria.

Back in Zweibrücken Hofenfels devoted himself to the broken finances of the duchy. Charles II August had taken over large debts from his uncle and predecessor Christian IV, some of which still came from the Thirty Years' War. To Hofenfels' chagrin, the duke emulated the French kings in his lust for pomp and extravagance. The financial reform that Hofenfels had worked out and his admonitions to be thrifty were received with displeasure at court, as Karl II August had meanwhile commissioned the painter and architect Johann Christian von Mannlich to build a new residential palace near Homburg . In the years that followed, Carlsberg Castle developed into one of the most imposing structures of the 18th century in Europe, before it was looted by French revolutionary troops in 1793 and burned down to the ground. Intrigues and slander against the Zweibrück court society, which was led by the duke's court master and mistress Karoline von Esebeck, wore down Hofenfels. In October 1782 he withdrew from the financial sector and moved to the Foreign Office.

After a three-month stay at the French court, Hofenfels undertook a trip through the German lands from July to December 1783 with his wife Friederike, which took him to Berlin . Frederick the Great granted him two audiences and presented him with a royal tobacco box for his services. During this time the plan arose to found a German princes' union as a counterweight to the emperor. Joseph II had offered Elector Karl Theodor to swap Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium and Luxembourg). Hofenfels worked flat out to thwart this plan and tried to win as many German princes as possible for the league. On the way back from Berlin to Zweibrucken he met at the court of Duke Karl August of Weimar with Goethe together.

In July 1785 Prussia , Hanover and Saxony joined forces to form the Three Elector League. Three months later, along with other princes of the empire, Duke Karl II. August and his brother Maximilian, who later became King Maximilian I of Bavaria , joined the newly founded princes' union on the occasion of Maximilian's wedding with Princess Auguste Wilhelmine Maria von Hessen-Darmstadt . Hofenfels had thus achieved his most important foreign policy goal.

Hofenfels' last trip took him again to France for seven months. From Paris he made use of his various foreign policy contacts and mediated between Prussia, Austria and France in the conflict over the opening of the Scheldt in the Netherlands. In December 1786 he returned to Zweibrücken and took the Freiherr von Montgelas , who as a member of the Illuminati order had to flee from the hunters of Karl Theodor from Munich, into his care. Hofenfels introduced Montgelas to the court in Zweibrücken and to Prince Maximilian. Shortly before his death on July 24, 1787, Hofenfels bequeathed the notes he had gathered over the years to the later Bavarian minister.

meaning

Hofenfels' "No" to the contract of January 3, 1778 between Emperor Joseph II and Elector Karl Theodor, which induced Duke Karl II August to reject the contract as heir to the throne of Bavaria, led to the War of the Bavarian Succession. Hofenfels was not even intimidated by the emperor's threat to confiscate all of Bavaria as a completed imperial fief. His political foresight and his loyalty to the House of Wittelsbach saved Bavaria from being attacked by the Habsburgs . Hofenfels was the driving force behind the founding of the German Prince League and the thwarting of the Bavarian-Belgian exchange project. It can be assumed that his comparative analyzes of the Prussian and French administrative systems and his thoughts on a modern state were reflected in the constitution of the Bavarian Kingdom, drawn up by Count von Montgelas, twenty years after his death.

Johann Christian von Hofenfels Medal

Appreciation

In 1934, Herta Mittelberger submitted her inaugural dissertation for obtaining a doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich with the title Johann Christian Freiherr von Hofenfels . In 2008, the writer Ralf Kurz paid tribute to the life and achievements of the minister and statesman in his novel The Diplomat .

The Association of Palatinate Friends has been awarding the Johann Christian von Hofenfels Medal since 1965 to personalities who have particularly supported the association's goals.

In Zweibrücken a street and a grammar school were named after Hofenfels.

progeny

Johann Christian von Hofenfels married Friederike Luise von Closen-Heidenburg (1764–1820), daughter of General Hans Christoph Ludwig von Closen , on April 10, 1781 . The couple had three children. The widow married the Austrian legation councilor Carl Wilhelm von Ludolf in 1789 . She died in Vienna in 1820.

  • Son (April 24, 1782 - April 25, 1782)
  • Karl August Friedrich Ludwig Ewald (* May 6, 1784; † June 18, 1839) Land Commissioner ⚭ Luise Elisabeth Bruch (* February 23, 1785; † January 5, 1855)
  • Amalie Karoline Luise Friederike (September 9, 1787 - May 16, 1863) ⚭ August 4, 1816 Karl Eduard Hruby-Geleny (Austrian envoy to Württemberg) (May 15, 1778 - November 2, 1838)

Amalie died without offspring. Her brother Karl had several children, including Friedrich August (* September 18, 1814 - March 3, 1850) married to Caroline Amalie von Mannlich (* December 30, 1819 - October 5, 1847, daughter of Carl von Mannlich ) and Julius Philipp (August 10, 1818 - July 8, 1839).

literature

Radio feature

Web links

supporting documents

  1. Treatises and materials on the latest German constitutional law and imperial history , Vol. 6, Berlin and Leipzig 1780. Reprint of the deed of donation in the appendix, p. 4ff.