Johann Merz of Quirnheim
Baron Johann Philippus Wilhelm Merz von Quirnheim , also Johann Mertz von Quirnheim (born March 25, 1652 in Mainz , † 1718 or 1728 in Mainz; buried Grablege Quirnheim-Boßweiler ) was a German nobleman, lawyer and diplomat in the service of the Elector of Mainz and from Emperor Leopold I.
At a young age he was the Elector's Privy Councilor and, towards the end of his life, from 1697 to 1718, he was a high judge in Mainz as city school councilor and electoral court and auditor. In Vienna he was appointed by the emperor to judge the Reichshofrat . After being appointed Imperial Councilor and Count Palatine , he was ambassador to London .
Life
origin
Johann Wilhelm Merz was from Mainz and comes from the noble councilor and aldermen family of Merz , whose origin is not completely clear; the hereditary status of the estate is only proven for 1442 and knighthood is assumed. Johann Wilhelm was born as the son of Quirinus von Merz and Maria Köhl called Spes , he was baptized on March 26, 1652 in the church of St. Quintin (Mainz) . After completing his law studies in 1671, he worked for a short time in Speyer at the Imperial Court of Justice in order to start serving the Archbishop of Mainz as a Privy Councilor at the age of 21 . In 1674 he was appointed to the Reichshofrat by the German Emperor , at which time a scientific work began in Vienna, which ended with his habilitation in 1680.
Imperial knighthood
The merits of the father and Johann Merz himself led to the joint elevation to the imperial knighthood with the hereditary title Merz von Quirnheim on June 1, 1675 by Emperor Leopold I. The awarded medal with the portrait of the emperor is on the portrait of Johann Wilhelm, kept in the parish in Quirnheim , clearly recognizable. The copper engraving by Johann Sadler, court engraver from a well-known Flemish family of artists, has the handwritten note: “The builder of the church in Boßweiler in 1707”.
Career
Like his father, he turned north after the death of Elector Lothar Friedrich von Metternich from Mainz . From December 1, 1675 to September 29, 1677, he was Vice-Chamber Secretary at the Chamber Court in Hanover and then worked as agent and correspondent for Hanover in Vienna. Even during his time in Mainz he was in close contact with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , who worked at the Higher Audit Court from 1670. But like father and son Merz, Leibniz also had to quit his service in 1675 and also went into Hanoverian service. There must have been a very close relationship between Johann Wilhelm and Leibniz. On March 13, 1679, he informed Leibniz that his work "Speculum successionis universae" was finished and would now be among the books of the autumn fair. The work is a comparison of the right of inheritance according to civil, canonical and feudal law. In the letter to Leibniz he asked him for introductory verses in which his services at the imperial court, with Kurmainz and other princes, but also his travels in Germany and abroad and his language skills are commended. The epigram that Leibnitz wrote is also printed in his work “Complete Writings and Works” Volume I / 2, page 349. This work was published in Nuremberg in 1692. Leibniz signed the original in 1680 with "GGLL" The Latin epigram (original left) reads in its translation (right):
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz around 1679:
“Oh Merz, you pupil of the majestic goddess of law,
from the imperial court, the judgment is given for all of the world.
Do you discuss succession in a learned book.
You yourself deserve the praise of the crowd,
by whom this noble material has long been treated.
Must have read a lot, seen a lot,
who dares to write like that. You are missing nothing of both.
You combined high schools, travel with rhetoric
, languages and court service. Speyer prepares you
for the first time to exercise in the law and was the first to give you an office,
from which the young man draws courage for higher hope.
Mainz was ready to fulfill them appropriately
and gave your advice some space.
Hanover in grace did not hold on to long,
the gladly received, but soon departing guest.
The present place,
where the emperor himself shows himself inclined to
commemorate efficiency, promises far higher wages . Good luck to such a great gentleman! Vienna completes
the circle that Speyer
has trodden with promise , with each one having the emperor in the middle. ”
GGLL
It is not known when Johann became a Knight of the Order of Malta (Johanniter) . It is known that he became chancellor of the German department in 1682, only to hand over the office to Count Franz Xaver von Heissenstein on December 23, 1685 ; in the meantime he was also noted as a consultant for the Kantheim, Bischofsheim and Amorbach senior offices.
An imperial approval document dated February 14, 1685 states that he was awarded the imperial council title and the Palatinate . Then he was in the diplomatic service, including between 1685 and 1692 in London. From 1697 until his death in 1718 he was again in the service of Mainz, he was the city schoolteacher (also court and auditor) of the secular court.
Family and property
Johann Wilhelm married Eleonore von Freins in 1680, "... daughter of Johann Daniel von Freins-Nordstrand , aristocratic privy councilor and chief chef of Holstein-Gottorp ..."; her younger sister Hedwig Eleonore married into the later ennobled Pelser family . The early death of his in-laws in 1682 expanded his property through his wife's inheritance.
The article "An old Schleswig house and the Mecklenburg and Freins families" in the magazine "Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holstein" from 1909 shows that the Freins family owned goods on Nordstrand and in Holstein . This fact is confirmed by a handwritten note in the Landesarchiv Speyer, in which it is stated that his father Quirin often stayed on the properties in Schleswig-Holstein. Other possessions are known in Bruchsal , Bodenheim and Hechtsheim ; In 1698 he complained about the loss of 20,000 florins especially on the estates in Quirnheim and Bruchsal, which could have been war damage from 1686 to 1697. According to this, around 1697 Johann Wilhelm owned goods in Electoral Palatinate , Kurmainz , Electoral Hanover and in the Duchy of Gottorf ( Kingdom of Denmark ).
Johann Wilhelm's wife died in 1698 and left behind 6 minors, the youngest of whom was only 13 days old. In the same year he married his stepmother's niece, Dorothea Wilhelmina von Pfeil from Minden. His father Quirin and Johann rarely stayed in Quirnheim, his main residence was in Mainz. Quirnheim only became the headquarters after the great losses caused by the War of the Palatinate Succession .
In the church registers of Boßweiler, however, the "Villa Wilhelmina" is always listed after the first name of his second wife. Salar writes, "The old manorial castle is said to have had one storey and, in addition to the living rooms, had a hall and four bay windows". The manor is still there. The barn of the property bears the coat of arms of the Merz family on the gable side.
Baron class
A promotion to the baron status can no longer be proven for Johann Wilhelm as a nobility diploma; According to family tradition, many documents are said to be by the French The raid in 1792 was lost, the original requested from Vienna is said to have been submitted to the Imperial Court of Justice in 1805 , which was dissolved in 1806.
As early as 1699 he was referred to as "Freyherr Merz" by the Heidelberg governor Philipp Ludwig (Leiningen-Rixingen) in a church book entry. A hundred years later, members of the family are irrevocably referred to as " Freyherrn von Merz " in at least 3 trials before the Reich Chamber of Commerce and in royal Bavarian files the Quirnheim and Bosweiler rule is listed as a former / lost barony after the French Revolution.
Donated church buildings
In his book Die Kunstdenkmäler der Pfalz, Lill lists some of the objects of the foundation. Including the church in Boßweiler, built between 1700 and 1706. The church was founded by Johann Wilhelm. The coat of arms of the von Merz family is attached to the portal. It bears the inscription:
- JOAN: WILH.MERZ: QUIRNHEIM.DUS.IN BOSWEILER ET SRWQEM.El.MOG.S.CON.ANNO 1707 (see picture)
The building of the church involved the extended renovation of the former pilgrimage church of St. Oswald. This is mentioned for the first time in 1496 as "capelle St. Oswald". Parts of the earlier pilgrimage chapel can still be seen in the current structure. The eastern side chapel is the east-facing choir of the old Oswaldskirche; the new church building faces north-south.
Like his father, Johann Wilhelm apparently felt particularly attached to the Capuchin Order. In 1699 he donated a building site to the order in Grünstadt. The foundation stone for the new building was laid in the same year for the Feast of Corpus Christi in the presence of the founder, Baron Johann Wilhelm von Merz, Lord in Boßweiler and Quirnheim, as well as the Austro-Hungarian field marshal and governor of Heidelberg, Count Ludwig Philipp von Leiningen-Westerburg , the count's son Ludwig-Eberhard.
Furthermore, the Capuchin orders in Worms and Mainz were also considered. Johann Wilhelm von Merz - Electoral Privy Councilor, Councilor, Chancellor of the Order of Malta, City School and Electoral Council, this is the list in an entry in the church book of St. Emmeran in Mainz .
literature
- The village of Quirnheim and the Mertz family in: Die Heimat-Pfälzer Sonntagsblatt No. 24 , 1866 p. 244 ff.
- The names of the settlements of the Palatinate: The names of the cities and villages of the Palatinate , 1952, Publishing House of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science, Ernst Christmann
- A folk research in the Palatinate , 1930, Giehrl Verlag, Ernst Christmann
- History of the City of Mainz, Volume 1 , 1841 Schaab, Karl Anton
Web links
- Reichshofratstelle 1674 for Merz, Johann Wilhelm , Austrian State Archives
- Coat of arms of Johann Wilhelm Merz von Quirnheim , around 1685, found at the German National Library
- Literature by and about Johann Merz von Quirnheim in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reich Chamber Court Trial Number 85; Plaintiff: Karl Josef Merz von Quirnheim; Defendant: leiningen Westerburgische Chancellery ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 1777–1796, Landesarchiv Speyer , Speyer
- ^ Doctoral thesis by Johann Wilhelm Merz 1671 - Google Books
- ^ Real Reichshofratstelle 1674 for Merz, Johann Wilhelm Austrian State Archives
- ^ Habilitation thesis by Johann Wilhelm Merz 1680 - Google Books
- ↑ Historical-Politico-Geographical and Genealogical Description of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Jakob Mevius, page 33-36 - Google Books
- ↑ Imperial nobility files ( authorization document ) ( Memento of the original dated December 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated February 14, 1685, Johann Wilhelm Mertz von Quirnheim, signed by Emperor Leopold I. Austrian State Archives
- ^ Repertory of the diplomatic representatives of all countries since the Peace of Westphalia (1648) , 1936, Fretz & Wasmuth, International Committee of Historical Sciences, Austria. Austrian Federal Government, German Research Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Walther Latzke - Google Books
- ^ History of the City of Mainz, Volume 1 , 1841, Commission Kupferberg, Karl Anton Schaab, Page 544 - Google Books
- ^ Journal of the Society for Schleswig-Holstein History, Volumes 36-38, Society for Schleswig-Holstein History - Google Books
- ↑ Heymanns: Deutscher Herold: magazine for coat of arms, seal u. Familienkunde, Volume 4, Verein Herold 1873, p. 57 - Google Books
- ^ A b Franz Xaver Remling: Documentary history of the former abbeys and monasteries in Rhine Bavaria, 1st part, Neustadt ad Haardt 1836, p. 278 - Google Books
- ↑ The Imperial and Imperial Cammer Court Calendar: To the year 1798 ... Darinnen, Speyer 1799 - Google Books
- ↑ Freyherr von Merz zu Quirnheim mentioned by clients at the Imperial Court of Justice of Wetzlar 1805, printed by Frankfurt - Google Books (snippet view)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merz von Quirnheim, Johann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Merz von Quirnheim, Johann Philippus Wilhelm (full name); Mertz von Quirnheim, Johann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German nobleman, lawyer and diplomat in the service of the Elector of Mainz and Emperor Leopold I. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 25, 1652 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mainz |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1718 or 1728 |
| Place of death | Mainz |