Johann Melchior Birkenstock

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Johann Melchior Edler von Birkenstock , (born May 11, 1738 in Heiligenstadt im Eichsfeld , † October 30, 1809 in Vienna ) was an Austrian politician , imperial councilor and school reformer.

Johann Melchior Edler von Birkenstock, painting by Friedrich Heinrich Füger , 1809/10, inscribed on the reverse: "Painted after death, given to the daughter by the artist"

life and work

His family had lived in the Rheingau for many generations. His parents were probably working for Kurmainz in the Eichsfeld exclave when he was born. The son of the imperial general tax office, Johann Konrad Birkenstock († 1780) studied in Göttingen and Erfurt and entered Austrian government services in 1763. In 1766 he came to the legation in Paris, was appointed to Vienna two years later and employed in the State Chancellery. Empress Maria Theresia commissioned him to work out a plan to improve the education and school system in Austria. After completing his work, he went on a trip through Germany to visit the most famous teaching and educational institutions and to recruit suitable employees. In Vienna, Birkenstock was appointed a councilor and then a councilor. From the 1780s onwards, Birkenstock was responsible for censoring political writings for 25 years. Both Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph II placed their full trust in him. After Emperor Leopold II had dissolved the study court commission under Gottfried van Swieten , he was appointed director of the Schools and Education Department on January 1, 1792, as van Swieten's successor, which he headed until he retired in 1803. During his time as director, he dealt extensively with the question of how to combat the emerging revolutionary zeitgeist that was fueled by the French Revolution . Birkenstock relied on a literary canon for different population groups, caricatures and brochures as well as popular speakers who were supposed to suppress or disperse revolutionary efforts.

Since 1792 he was a foreign member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . Birkenstock was in contact with Ludwig van Beethoven , among others . He died in 1809 and was buried in the Sankt Marxer Friedhof in Vienna.

family

In 1778 he married Countess Josefa von Hay (1755–1788) in Vienna. The couple had four children:

  • Hugo Konrad Gottfried Edler von Birkenstock (* 1778 in Vienna).
  • Antonia Johanna Josepha Edle von Birkenstock , called Toni, (* 1780 in Vienna), from 1798 married to the wealthy Franz Dominicus Brentano di Tremezzo from Frankfurt am Main.
  • Konstantin Viktor Edler von Birkenstock (* 1782 in Frankfurt am Main).
  • Johann Eduard Valentin Edler von Birkenstock (* 1784 in Frankfurt am Main).

Afterlife

Through his marriage he became brother-in-law of Joseph von Sonnenfels . Both wives were sisters of the famous reform bishop of Königgrätz / Hradec Králové Jan Leopold Ritter von Hay (1735–1794). Birkenstock built a palace-like villa with 40 rooms in the suburb of Landstrasse, Erdberggasse 98 (today Erdbergstrasse 19), which no longer exists today, and which had an extensive and valuable library and a rich art collection.

In his honor the Untere Wintergasse in Vienna- Simmering was renamed after him in Birkenstockgasse in 1894 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Street names of Vienna since 1860 as “Political Places of Remembrance” (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 319f, final research project report, Vienna, July 2013.
  2. ^ Members of the previous academies. Johann Melchior Edler von Birkenstock. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on February 23, 2015 .
  3. ^ Theodor von Frimmel: Beethoven manual. Georg Olms Verlag, 2003, pp. 49-50.