Johann Kaspar von Seiller

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Johann Kaspar von Seiller, lithograph by Franz Eybl , 1850

Johann Kaspar von Seiller (born October 20, 1802 in Marburg an der Drau , southern Styria, today Maribor , Slovenia; † February 10, 1888 in Vienna ), judge, lawyer, was President of the City Council of Vienna from 1848 to 1851 and from 1851 to 1861 the first freely elected mayor of Vienna .

When he was awarded the Leopold Order on March 15, 1850 in Vienna, Emperor Franz Joseph I raised him to the Austrian knighthood . Ten years later, as Mayor of Vienna, on January 19, 1860, he was promoted to the status of Austrian baron with a diploma on April 6, 1860 .

Life

Johann Kaspar von Seiller was born as the son of Kaspar Seiller (1764–1856) and Antonie Edler von Peritzhofen and Ehrenheimb (1777–1864). In 1823 he worked as an educator in the house of Carl Leonhard Graf Harrachs . From 1817 he studied for three years in Graz , then in Vienna and in 1823 received his doctorate in law from the University of Vienna . He subsequently worked as a judge from 1826, and from 1831 as court and court counsel and notary in Vienna. In the course of the revolution of 1848 , the conservative liberal Seiller was elected to the Vienna City Council and was its president until 1849. The provisional municipal ordinance passed on March 17, 1849 was confirmed the following year by Emperor Franz Joseph I and took effect on March 9, 1850 in force. On January 26, 1851, Seiller was elected mayor in accordance with these municipal regulations.

During his term of office, Emperor Franz Joseph I married Elisabeth in Bavaria as well as a number of important urban planning measures such as the demolition of the Vienna city wall , planning and start of construction on Vienna's Ringstrasse , planning the first Viennese gas lighting, regulation of the Danube and the Vienna Central Cemetery . In 1860 the railway line Vienna-Salzburg-Munich was opened. In 1865 the Vienna Ringstrasse was partially opened.

Particular care was given to the medical and school systems as well as the expansion of the lighting and the paving of the streets. Through clever and economical financial management, the financing of extensive projects was made possible and despite the reduction in income, the increase in debts was avoided.

If he took up the mayor's office under difficult circumstances, according to the city archives / estate fields, the city's assets amounted to 10 million guilders when he left (but this was offset by the debts of the city of Vienna). His impeccable conduct of office was also recognized by his opponents and the newspapers, because Seiller never tried to capitalize on his office personally and even waived his annual salary of 10,000 guilders.

In the Red Salon of the Vienna City Hall , which is used by the mayor for receptions, hangs a portrait of the mayor Seiller by Friedrich von Amerling . The poet Adalbert Stifter mentioned a portrait of Seiller by the hand of the engraver Joseph Axmann , the quality of which he praised in a letter dated January 29, 1858. Documents from the life of Seiller are preserved in the Wien Museum and the Vienna Library in the City Hall : z. B. Seiller's correspondence with Franz Liszt , Johann Nestroy a . a.

Johann-Kaspar Seiller was married to Maria geb. Weigl (1802–1866; after Czeike –1863) and father of six children:

  • Josef Freiherr von Seiller, * 1833, court and court counsel
  • Aloys von Seiller , 1833–1918, Austro-Hungarian diplomat, secret council , envoy, authorized minister
  • Anton Freiherr von Seiller, * 1835, authorized signatory of the kuk priv. Pottendorfer cotton spinning and twisting mill
  • Maria Walpurga von Schwaiger, * 1836
  • Viktor Freiherr von Seiller, 1838–1866, imperial captain
  • Maximilian Freiherr von Seiller, * 1872, higher regional judge ( date of birth or assignment questionable )

Seiller rejected his re-election in 1861 and lived in seclusion from then on.

He died at the age of 85 and was buried at the Penzing parish cemetery. (The suburb was incorporated into Vienna two years later.)

Honors

  • March 15, 1850 Knight of the Imperial Leopold Order, nobility
  • March 26, 1850 honorary citizen of the city of Marburg (now Slovene Maribor )
  • June 14, 1859 honorary citizen of the city of Agram ( Zagreb )
  • March 6, 1860 honorary citizen of the city of Graz
  • 2nd April 1860 honorary citizen of the city of Ofen ( Budapest )
  • April 6, 1860 Elevation to the baron class
  • Honorary member of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, the Vienna Commercial Academy, the Vienna Artists Society

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Die Presse , Vienna, April 3, 1861, page 4
  2. Public final meeting of the municipal council , in: Die Presse , Vienna, April 5, 1861, page 3

literature

Web links