Johann Friedrich from and to the stone
Johann Friedrich von und zum Stein (* 1749 ; † July 29, 1799 in Triesdorf ) was a Prussian colonel , diplomat and Commander of the Teutonic Order in Weddingen .
Live and act
His parents were the Electorate Mainz councilor Karl Philipp von und zum Stein (1708–1788) and his wife Henriette Karoline Langwerth von Simmern (1721–1783), widowed Löw von und zu Steinfurth . The Prussian minister Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein was his brother (1757-1831), another brother, Friedrich Ludwig, was an imperial lieutenant colonel . One sister, Marianne vom Stein , was an abbess at Wallenstein Abbey in Homberg .
Stein attended the pedagogy in Halle and then went on extensive trips. In 1766 he went into Dutch service and came into the infantry regiment "Prince of Nassau-Usingen". In 1769 he became company commander there . He had a lavish lifestyle. This went so far that Stein was excluded from inheriting his father's property by a family resolution of February 2, 1774. As Commander of the Teutonic Order, however, he already had larger funds of his own. Like his brother, he was an admirer of the Prussian King Friedrich II. When the War of the Bavarian Succession came in March 1778 , he offered the king to recruit two free battalions. According to a letter dated April 4, 1778, Stein was appointed commander of the regiment and colonel in the Prussian army . The regiment was collected in Halberstadt . With the end of the war in 1779, the regiment in Magdeburg was dissolved again. It is not known whether it took part in combat operations. Stein remained a Prussian colonel with an annual salary of 682 thalers.
In July 1779 he tried to open a Prussian artillery school with the Saxon artillery captain Johann Gottlieb Tielke . That was no more successful than his offer in August to act as a spy in the Netherlands. He then devoted himself to the improvement of the royal forests, apparently with some success, because he was appointed master of ceremonies for it in 1780. At the end of 1780 he received a shipment to the Viennese court, which he did to the satisfaction of the king.
On January 27, 1781 Stein received a new assignment. He was supposed to explore the mood of the cathedral chapters in Mainz , Würzburg and Bamberg and influence it in the Prussian sense. He was also supposed to ensure that the Mainz governor in Erfurt, Karl Theodor von Dalberg , who was intended by the Prussians as coadjutor of Mainz, could be won over for Prussia. All of this was supposed to be done in secret, so he officially visited his sister, Countess Werthern , in Erfurt at the beginning of 1781 in order to observe the bishops' elections. It was successful, but it did not appear to have been used in diplomatic services later.
Stein became a partner in Friedrich II and got along well with Bischoffwerder , but less with Count Herzberg . He also had a good relationship with the representative of the Prince League, Karl August von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach .
Even after Friedrich's death, he retained his position of trust. His successor Friedrich Wilhelm II appointed him on November 10, 1786, shortly after the accession to the throne, as court and country hunter of the Mark . The position earned him a salary of 3,000 thalers. In January 1787 the king sent him to the court of the Elector of Mainz Karl von Erthal in order to win him over to the Princes' League. At the prince's court he met Wilhelm Heinse , the historian Johannes von Müller and Mrs. Sophie von Coudenhoven , who had a great influence on the elector. In 1789 he spent some time at his friend Müller's sickbed. The attempt to get him a job in Prussia failed, however.
The elector wanted Stein to be the official representative of Prussia at his court. In the summer of 1787, Stein was still in charge of the administration of the royal forests in Berlin and Potsdam and then visited his friend Karl August von Weimar. The latter warned him about the lure of the court. On November 30, 1787 he was appointed Minister and Minister Plenipotentiary in Mainz . He remained in this post for the next five years. During this time he had a lot of correspondence with the king, Bischoffwerder and the minister Lucchesini . He had settled in nicely and when Goethe visited him in 1792 , he could not escape the cozy impression of Stein's country estate.
Stein's influence declined when Chancellor Albini came to power. When the waves of the French Revolution reached the German Empire in 1792 , Stein urged everything to be made ready for defense. But when General Custine stood at the gates, nothing happened and when the city surrendered on October 21, 1792, Stein had to flee to Koblenz via Nassau . When he arrived in Koblenz on October 23, the revolution broke out there too and so he evacuated the hospital and some of the stores to Wesel . There he met with his brother and General Wallmoden in order to organize joint action by Prussian and Hanoverian troops. On November 10, 1792, he and his brother joined the king's army. He died of a nervous attack on July 29, 1799 in Triesdorf .
literature
- Hermann von Petersdorff : Stein, Johann Friedrich from and to . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 35, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, pp. 642-645.
- Anton Balthasar König : Joh. Fried. Freih. from and to the stone. In: Biographical lexicon of all heroes and military people. Volume IV. Arnold Wever, Berlin 1791, p. 428.
Remarks
- ↑ Stein zu Nassau, Carl Philipp Freiherr vom. Hessian biography. (As of March 25, 2010). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). '
- ^ Georg Forster : Georg Forster's all writings. Volume 8-9, p. 9. Digitized
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stein, Johann Friedrich from and to |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Prussian colonel and diplomat as well as Commander of the Teutonic Order in Weddingen |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1749 |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 29, 1799 |
| Place of death | Triesdorf |