Joseph Friedrich von Racknitz

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Joseph Friedrich Freiherr von Racknitz, around 1790

Baron Joseph Friedrich von Racknitz (born November 3, 1744 in Dresden ; † April 10, 1818 ibid) was an Electoral Saxon chamberlain , court marshal and freemason .

Life

Joseph Friedrich von Racknitz came from the noble family Racknitz and was a son of the court marshal Gallus Maximilian von Racknitz auf Lockwitz and his wife Franziska Henriette Friedrica nee von Flemming. Joseph Friedrich was trained artistically and musically from an early age. Instead of the administrative service he entered the Saxon military service and took an active part in the Seven Years' War as an officer . In 1769 he took his leave. In 1774 he was appointed chamberlain from the Electorate of Saxony and in 1790 court marshal. In 1815 he retired and died three years later in Dresden.

In 1765 he was accepted into the Dresden Masonic Lodge Aux trois Grenades , which already merged with the Lodge To the Three Swords the following year . In 1772 Joseph Friedrich Freiherr von Racknitz was a co-founder of the Freemasons Institute in Dresden. In 1780 he was appointed Master of the Sword Chair , and in 1788 Racknitz became an honorary member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin .

In his essay About Kempelen's chess machine he unmasked the so-called 1789 Chess Turk . Racknitz owned an important collection of minerals and insects with over 5,000 exhibits, which, after being purchased in 1805, is still part of the Treasury Museum in the Dresden Zwinger .

In 1811 he published in the renowned Waltherschen, formerly Heckelschen Hofbuchhandlung, a highly regarded and historically significant art history of the then Kingdom of Saxony as an old work .

Works

  • Letters about Karlovy Vary and the natural products of the area there. Published by Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf , Dresden and Leipzig in 1788
  • About the chess player of Herr von Kempelen and his replica. Published by Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf, Dresden and Leipzig 1789 ( google.de ).
  • Write to a friend about the basalt. First edition: Printed by CC Meinhold , Dresden 1789; Second edition: In the Breitkopfische Buchhandlung, Dresden 1790 ( google.de ).
  • Letters about art to a friend. Published by Carl Christian Meinhold , Dresden 1792
  • Presentation and history of the tastes of the most exquisite peoples. In relation to the interior decoration of the rooms and the architecture. Published by Georg Joachim Göschen , Leipzig 1796
  • Sketch of a history of the arts, especially painting in Saxony. In the Waltherschen Hofbuchhandlung with Georg Friedrich Walther, Dresden 1811 ( slub-dresden.de ; google.de ).

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. Georg Friedrich Walther (d. 1813) took over the Walthersche Hofbuchhandlung together with the book printing company founded in 1764 after the death of his father Georg Conrad Walther and his brother Conrad Salomo Walther (d. 1805); his father took over the Heckelsche Hofbuchhandlung in 1741 and continued under his name
  2. Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung from 1789. First volume. January February March. Johann Gottfried Müllerische Buchhandlung in the electoral Saxon newspaper expedition, Leipzig 1789 and Bey Joseph Stahel, bookseller, Vienna 1789, column 659f
  3. by Joseph Friedrich Freyherrn zu Racknitz, Sr. Churfürstl. Pass. To Saxony house marshal, of the Order of St. John Maltese Knight, the Royal. Prussia. Academy of Arts and Mechan. Sciences, the natural research society in Berlin, and the economic society in Leipzig members. Leipzig, by Georg Joachim Göschen 1796