Johann Reinhard III. (Hanau)
Johann Reinhard III. von Hanau (born July 31, 1665 in Bischofsheim am Hohen Steg ; † March 28, 1736 in Philippsruhe Castle ) ruled from 1680 to 1736 in the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg and from 1712 to 1736 also in the county of Hanau-Münzenberg .
Childhood and youth
Johann Reinhard III. was born on July 31, 1665 in Bischofsheim am high Steg (today: Rheinbischofsheim) as a child of Johann Reinhard II. von Hanau-Lichtenberg and the Countess Palatine Anna Magdalena von Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and baptized on August 1, 1665.
| Pedigree of Count Johann Reinhard III. from Hanau | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great grandparents |
Johann Reinhard I. von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1569; † 1625) |
Ludwig Eberhard von Öttingen-Öttingen (* 1577; † 1634) |
Karl I von Pfalz-Birkenfeld (* 1560; † 1600) |
Johann II of Pfalz-Zweibrücken (* 1584; † 1635) |
||
| Grandparents |
Philipp Wolfgang von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1595; † 1641) |
Christian I. von Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (* 1598; † 1654) |
||||
| parents |
Johann Reinhard II von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1628; † 1666) |
|||||
|
Johann Reinhard III. |
||||||
For the family cf. Main article: Hanau (noble family)
The training took place together with the older brother Philipp Reinhard initially in Strasbourg . In 1678 they came to Babenhausen , where their mother lived at that time. From 1679 they were sent on a cavalier tour through the Palatinate , Alsace , Switzerland and Geneva . In 1680 they went to Savoy and Turin for a year , in 1681 to Paris , in 1683 to the Netherlands and England . This was followed by a tour of the French province. Earlier this year, in 1684 they were in Milan and then for the Carnival in Venice . A trip to Rome followed (with audiences with Pope Innocent XII and Queen Christine of Sweden ), Naples , Florence , Modena , Parma and Mantua . In 1686 they presented themselves together at the imperial court in Vienna , on the way back they traveled through Bohemia and to Dresden to the Saxon court.
government
politics
Johann Reinhard III. came to power in the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg on May 24 / June 3, 1680 at the age of 15 , after the family had ousted his uncle and predecessor in the government, Count Friedrich Casimir , after financially ruinous escapades. Since Johann Reinhard III. was underage when he took office , his guardians acted. These were his mother and his uncle, Duke Christian II of Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (1654-1717). The county of Hanau-Münzenberg took over, also in 1680, by his older brother, Philipp Reinhard . With this division, the Babenhausen office was finally added to the Hanau-Munzenberg region by a contract in 1691. 1685 Johann Reinhard III. adopted by his uncle Friedrich Casimir. 1688 Johann Reinhard III. of legal age and took over the government independently. The final settlement with Duke Christian II of Pfalz-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld about the guardianship took place in 1691.
The situation in the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg on the Upper Rhine was poor economically due to the Palatinate War of Succession (1688–1697) and the War of Spanish Succession (1702–1713) and the associated military occupations. Count Johann Reinhard III. tried to counteract this with tax relief for his subjects.
The Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg was also in a weak political position: his predecessor had already had to recognize the French sovereignty over the areas of the county in Alsace . He only exercised his rule there due to " Lettres patentes " (1701 and 1707) of the French King Louis XIV .
After the death of Philipp Reinhard in 1712, Johann Reinhard III. also the government in the county of Hanau-Munzenberg. Under his government the two sub-counties were united in one hand for the last time. From now on he resided alternating between the two parts of the country. When he took office in Hanau-Munzenberg, he also succeeded his brother as director of the Wetterau Empire Counts College .
His efforts to be raised to the rank of imperial prince were in vain. After it was determined that he would not have a male heir, efforts were stopped again.
Culture
With Johann Reinhard III. the county of Hanau came to a cultural boom: Bischofsheim am Hohe Steg, today: Rheinbischofsheim , received a large castle from 1700 (which, however, remained unfinished) and the Hanau-Lichtenberg residential city of Buchsweiler , today: Bouxwiller, received a new park and also the one there Castle was expanded. The Hanauer Hof was completely rebuilt in Strasbourg and has been the city palace of the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg since 1573. This building now serves as the town hall of Strasbourg.
After taking over the government in Hanau-Münzenberg in 1712, he completed the construction of the Philippsruhe Palace at the gates of Hanau and the Philippsruher Allee , including the Hellerbrücke , had the Kastanienallee and the pheasantry laid out (at what later became Wilhelmsbad ) and provided the stables of the city palace in Hanau (later: Stadthalle Hanau, today: Congress Park Hanau), which its predecessor had started in 1712, finished. Behind the city palace, the wall was broken through in order to have a direct passage to the "Turkish style gardens" laid out between 1717–1719 behind it and a small "Turkish style pleasure house". In the Bulau he had the Wolfgang hunting lodge built near the Wolfgang monastery ruins in 1715 (today Wolfgang Forestry Office).
The Johanneskirche , at that time the burial place of the Counts of Hanau, he had extended in 1727 and Lutheran churches built in Windecken , Steinau an der Straße , Nauheim (today: Bad Nauheim ), Kesselstadt and Rodheim (" Reinhardskirchen ") as well as Lutheran schools in many places the county of Hanau-Munzenberg. The background was that during the Reformation , Hanau-Münzenberg had oriented itself towards its reformed variant, but had been ruled by the Lutheran Hanau-Lichtenberg line since 1643. In the meantime, the contrast between the two main directions of the Reformation in the county of Hanau-Munzenberg had softened to such an extent that such a church and school policy against the interests of the reformed majority of the county was possible.
In his residence city of Hanau, the Frankfurter Tor was demolished at the same time and rebuilt in a baroque style, as was the Neustadt town hall and street lighting was introduced for the first time .
family
Johann Reinhard III. married on 20./30. August 1699 Margravine Dorothea Frederike von Brandenburg-Ansbach (1676–1731), whose sister Caroline was later to marry the British King George II . From the marriage of Johann Reinhard III. and Dorothea Frederike had a daughter: Charlotte Christine Magdalene Johanna (1700–1726), married to Hereditary Prince Ludwig (VIII.) of Hesse-Darmstadt (1691–1768).
Count Johann Reinhard III lived personally. probably rather modest, which enabled him to finance his building projects.
The Heritage
After it became foreseeable that no male heir was to be expected in Hanau, the dispute over the inheritance began very early on. In principle there were two beneficiaries:
- Ludwig (IX.) Of Hessen-Darmstadt, son of the (pre-deceased) daughter Charlotte of Count Johann Reinhard III., And of the Hereditary Prince Ludwig (VIII.) Of Hessen-Darmstadt;
- for the Hanau-Munzenberg part of the country there was a contract of inheritance from 1643 between Hanau and the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel .
In this situation, Count Johann Reinhard III sought. to give as much as possible to his daughter and his Hesse-Darmstadt grandson. It was relatively easy with regard to the Hanau-Lichtenberg parts of the country, which were not covered by the inheritance contract of 1643. In 1717, however, it was only with considerable financial outlay that the Hanau-Lichtenberger passive fiefs of the diocese of Strasbourg and the archbishopric of Mainz could be transferred to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , which was problematic as fiefs were normally only inheritable in the male line. Count Johann Reinhard III. took out a loan of 100,000 guilders from the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel and pledged the Hanau Office of Brandenstein to him .
Also in the run-up to the inheritance, Hessen-Kassel replaced the claims of Saxony on the imperial fiefs held by Hanau-Münzenberg with a payment of 600,000 thalers . Electoral Saxony had acquired entitlement to it from the Kaiser during the Thirty Years' War . Hessen-Kassel pledged its offices in Frauensee and Landeck as well as its share in the Treffurt estate to Kursachsen . Frauensee and Landeck were released again from Hessen-Kassel in 1743.
The most problematic, however, was whether the Babenhausen office belonged to the Munzenberg or the Lichtenberg inheritance. Count Johann Reinhard III. tried to strengthen the position of his daughter and his Hesse-Darmstadt grandson. In 1729 he bequeathed it to his grandson Ludwig (IX) of Hessen-Darmstadt. Hessen-Kassel initially seemed willing to cooperate on this issue. Various agreements were made about this in 1714, 1718 and 1720. However, when Landgrave Friedrich I took office in 1730, there was a change in politics. First, Landgrave Friedrich I secured his Hanau inheritance through the Hessian military ( Buchsweiler punctuation of April 17, 1730), which he transferred to Hanau, which, however, was transferred during the lifetime of Count Johann Reinhard III. was sworn in on this.
death
Johann Reinhard III. died on March 28, 1736 in Philippsruhe Castle near Hanau . His deathbed was surrounded by the diplomatic and notarial representatives of the heirs. He was buried in the family funeral of the Lutheran Counts of Hanau , in the crypt of the Johanneskirche in Hanau. This was destroyed in the bombing of the Second World War.
The question of whether the office of Babenhausen belonged to Hanau-Münzenberg or Hanau-Lichtenberg remained controversial for decades after his death. The dispute was only settled at the end of the 18th century through a real division ( see main article: Amt Babenhausen ).
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe reports in Poetry and Truth (Chapter 10) about a visit to Buchsweiler at the end of the 18th century:
- “ Above all else, here, as in the whole of the little country, was the name of the last Count Reinhard von Hanau in blessing, whose great understanding and efficiency emerged in everything he did and from whose existence there are still many beautiful monuments left. Such men have the privilege of being double benefactors, once for the present, which they make happy, and then for the future, whose feeling and courage they nourish and sustain. "
- Furthermore, the student song Der alten Hanauer is said to be traced back to the death circumstances of the count, who was dying surrounded by the lurking representatives of the heirs.
literature
- Rudolf Bernges: From the court life of the last Count of Hanau Johann Reinhard . In: Hanauisches Magazin 11. Hanau 1923.
- Reinhard Dietrich : The state constitution in the Hanauischen = Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 34. Hanau 1996. ISBN 3-9801933-6-5
- Samuel Endemann: Travels of the two counts Philipp Reinhard and Johann Reinhard von Hanau . In: Hanauisches Magazin 3 (1780), 36th, 37th, 41st, 45th – 47th. Piece.
- JG Lehmann: Documented history of the county Hanau-Lichtenberg in the lower Alsace . 2 vol., O. O. 1862. ND Pirmasens 1970, p. 512ff.
- Günter Rauch: Hanau and Kassel. To the extinction of the Hanau Count House . In: Neues Magazin für Hanauische Geschichte 9 (1987), pp. 57–70.
- Reinhard Suchier : Genealogy of the Hanauer count house . In: Festschrift of the Hanau History Association for its 50th anniversary celebration on August 27, 1894. Hanau 1894.
- Richard Wille: The last counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg = messages of the Hanau district association for Hessian history and regional studies 12. Hanau 1886, pp. 56–68.
- Ernst Julius Zimmermann: Hanau city and country . 3rd edition, Hanau 1919. ND 1978.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Philipp Reinhard |
Count of Hanau- Munzenberg 1712–1736 |
William VIII |
| Friedrich Casimir |
Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg 1680–1736 |
Louis (IX.) |
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Johann Reinhard III. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Count of Hanau-Munzenberg and Hanau-Lichtenberg |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 31, 1665 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bischofsheim on the high bridge |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 28, 1736 |
| Place of death | Philippsruhe Castle |