Johann Gottlieb von Wolff

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Coat of arms of those von Wolff
Portrait of Johann Gottlieb von Wolff ( Lat. Barons Johans Gotlībs fon Volfs, 1756–1817)

Johann Gottlieb II Freiherr von Wolff ( Lat. Barons Johans Gotlībs fon Volfs , born March 19, 1756 in Wittenhof ( Lat .: Vite) near Lemburg ( Lat .: Mālpils) in Livonia ; † July 7, 1817 in Neu-Laitzen ( Lat . : Jaunlaicene) in Livonia) was an electoral Saxon lieutenant , electoral Saxon chamberlain , district administrator and landowner in Livonia.

Life

Coming from a noble family originally from Lower Silesia and living in Livonia from the 17th century , Johann Gottlieb Freiherr von Wolff was brought up as a hunting page at Elisabethenburg Castle , the residence of the Dukes of Saxony-Meiningen ( Meiningen , Thuringia ). In 1778 he joined as a lieutenant in the Electoral Saxon Guards Regiment of Grenadiers in Dresden and was Elector of Saxony squire . From 1783 to 1789 Johann Gottlieb von Wolff was Walkscher district marshal and was elected Livonian district administrator on April 29, 1798. As such, he was also the head of the Wendens circle.

Possessions

Johann Gottlieb von Wolff owned extensive property in Livonia along with several manor houses and castles. He was the master of Neu-Laitzen, Reppekaln, Luxenhof, Friedrichshof, Semershof, Marienstein, Alt-Schwanenburg, Blumenhof, Walmeshof, Fianden am Marienburger See, Lettin, Stomersee and Wenden . Of these, the following are particularly worth mentioning:

  • Alt-Schwanenburg Castle ( Lat .: Vecgulbene muižas pils ): The "Alt-Schwanenburg Castle", also called "White Castle", built in 1763 by Burkhard Christoph von Münnich , came into the possession of Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff in 1789 and was owned by Johann in 1802 Gottlieb von Wolff acquired. In the 1840s by his grandson Rudolf Gottlieb Magnus von Wolff (1809–1847) in the neo-Renaissance style , the palace was expanded around 1880 by Rudolf's son Johann Heinrich Gottlieb von Wolff (1843–1897). Partially burned down during the riots in 1905, artillery fire destroyed another part of the property during World War II . To the east of Alt-Schwanenburg Castle is the “Red Castle”. Johann Heinrich Gottlieb von Wolff (1843-1897) had it built for them after his marriage in 1875 to Marissa von Öttingen (1857-1883). He also dedicated the new parks with artificial ponds, lakes, grottos, pavilions, bridges, etc. to her. While the "Red Castle" is used as a primary school today, the Alt-Schwanenburg Castle and its landscape park are still waiting for full restoration. The farm buildings of Gut Alt-Schwanenburg, however, have been preserved: a cheese dairy, ring, orangery, servants' house, stables and cattle kitchen.
  • Neu-Laitzen Castle ( lett . : Jaunlaicene muižas pils ): Acquired in 1789 by Prince Woronzow , a friend of the von Wolff family , the castle and the associated facilities were expanded generously by Johann Gottlieb von Wolff, but without any external splendor. In addition to the castle, 33 other buildings made of fieldstone or locally made bricks were built between the end of the 18th century and the middle of the 19th century. Of these, 16 are still preserved, albeit in different states of preservation. In 1870 the property was expanded to include a family chapel with a crypt . In the house of the former estate manager there is now a museum of the Jaunlaicene estate, which is dedicated to the cultural and historical heritage of the estate and the parish of Opekalns. The castle also has a 9-  hectare park with ponds, an island and old trees.
  • Semershof Palace ( Lat .: Ziemera muižas pils ): built in 1786 in the classicism style. The stairs, the parquet, the fireplace and the cornice still date from this time. In 1804 Johann Gottlieb von Wolff acquired the castle from Otto Reinhold von Brandten and in 1807 had an empire-style store room and a stable added.
  • Stomersee Castle ( Lat .: Stāmerienas muižas pils ): Built by Johann Gottlieb von Wolff and rebuilt in the neo-renaissance style in 1835 , the castle is located in a 25-hectare park between Stāmerienas Lake and the Pogas Lake. The park was laid out as a landscape garden in the English style according to the so-called fan shape. In 1904 Boris von Wolff a. d. H. Stomersee (1850-1917) for his mother, Sophia, b. Princess Potjomkin, erecting the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nevsky a few hundred meters from the palace complex . The castle was burned down in 1905 and rebuilt in 1908 by the aforementioned Boris von Wolff as it was before the destruction, supplemented with stylistic elements of Palladianism and Art Nouveau . Stomersee Castle was one of the few mansions in Latvia that was not expropriated after the land reform in 1920, so that the von Wolff-Stomersee family could stay there until 1939 - the year when Latvia was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union and the remaining private property was expropriated. During these years the Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa , author of the novel “ The Cheetah ”, came to visit there several times. On August 24, 1932, he married Alice Alexandra von Wolff (1892–1984), the owner of Stomersee Castle, in Riga . After the Second World War, an agricultural college was initially located in the castle, and in later years an office of a Soviet state farm ( sovkhoz ). After the independence of Latvia and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the property was vacant between 1992 and 1998. Today the castle is a cultural center.

  • Alt-Schwanenburg Castle, also known as the "White Castle" ( Lat .: Vecgulbene muižas pils )

  • Riding stables and arena at Alt-Schwanenburg Castle

  • "Red Castle" east of the Alt-Schwanenburg Castle

  • Photo of the Neu-Laitzen Castle ( lett . : Jaunlaicene muižas pils ) from 1911

  • Coat of arms of the von Wolff family on the family chapel in Neu-Laitzen

  • The back of Semershof Palace ( lett . : Ziemera muižas pils ) in 2000

  • Front of Semershof Palace

  • Stomersee Castle in Stomersee ( lett . : Stāmerienas muižas pils )

  • Rear of Stomersee Castle

  • Alt Schwanenburg - White Castle

  • Alt Schwanenburg - White Castle

family

Johann Gottlieb von Wolff came from a council family from Sagan ( Lower Silesia ), who emigrated to the Baltic States in the 17th century and received the indigenous Livonian in 1726 and the Estonian knighthood in 1729. 1747 followed the elevation to the imperial baron status . He was the son of Baron Siegmund Adam III. von Wolff (1702–1766) and Katharina Christine von Richter (1718–1772). On 7. July 1778 he married in Dresden from Brussels -born Marie Clementine de Fallois de Feoville (*  26. February 1759 ; †  27. May 1821 in New Laitzen). They had seven sons and three daughters. Which includes:

  • Johann Sigismund Adam on Semershof (1779-1824);
  • Johann Otto Gottlieb von Wolff at Ronneburg-Neuhof (1781–1859);
  • Maria Clementine von Wolff (1782–1828)
  • Ernst Christoph Alexander von Wolff auf Fianden (1783–1832);
  • Joseph Otto Albert von Wolff auf Neu-Laitzen (1789–1870);
  • Otto Heinrich Theodor von Wolff auf Lettin (1790–1838);
  • Heinrich Johann Friedrich von Wolff on Stomersee (1794–1832);

Johann Gottlieb von Wolff's male descendants all carried on the goods of the von Wolff family in Livonia or acquired additional properties. The various branches of the von Wolff family owned a total of around 270,000 hectares of land in Livonia and Estonia at the end of the 19th century  . During the Russian Revolution in 1905/1907, 184 manors and castles in the Baltic States were occupied, looted and set on fire by the insurgents. Including the goods of those von Wolff. Although some properties were rebuilt afterwards , Latvia , which had become independent after the First World War , decided in April 1920 to undertake a land reform that finally broke the political and economic supremacy of the mostly German-Baltic landowners. These were only allowed to keep 50 hectares of land per family  . The rest was expropriated without compensation and divided into tens of thousands of new farm areas for smallholders. As a result of the resettlement of the Baltic Germans to Germany in 1939 and the occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union the following year, the remaining property of the former large landowners was also lost. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, some of the earlier Wolff mansions were rebuilt and have served public facilities ever since.

Marrying the offspring

Alice von Wolff a. d. H. Stomersee, née Barbi (1862–1948), painted by Philip Alexius de László

literature

  • Nicolas Freiherr von Wolff: The imperial barons von Wolff in Livonia 1670–1920, 1st edition, K. Mattiesens Buchdruckerei Ant.-Ges., Tartu 1936.
  • Rosgartenmuseum Konstanz (ed.): The Zeppelins - Life stories of a noble family, Print + Medien Konstanz GmbH, Konstanz 2013, ISBN 978-3-929768-32-9 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Volume A XIII, pp. 534-535 ( Ahnenzeile v. Platen), CA Starke Verlag , Limburg, 1975.
  2. ^ Rosgartenmuseum Konstanz (ed.): The Zeppelins - Life stories of a noble family, Print + Medien Konstanz GmbH, Konstanz 2013, p. 99, ISBN 978-3-929768-32-9 .
  3. ↑ The abbreviation "ad H." stands for "from the house".
  4. ↑ Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà del Mediterranea: Tomasi, Principi di Lampedusa.
personal data
SURNAME Wolff, Johann Gottlieb von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolff, Johann Gottlieb Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saxon lieutenant, district administrator and landowner in Livonia
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH Wittenhof, Livonia
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 1817
Place of death Neu-Laitzen, Livonia