Joseph Rudolf Valentin Meyer

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Joseph Rudolf Valentin Meyer in 1785

Joseph Rudolf Valentin Meyer (* July 25, 1725 in Lucerne ; † December 5, 1808 in Rheinau ) came from the Lucerne patrician family of the same name , whose name affix "Meyer von Schauensee" was protected by the government council in 1895, as it did with other Lucerne patrician families. Valentin Meyer himself did not add this, but later called himself "Meyer von Oberstaad" after the place of his exile.

family

(Joseph Rudolf) Valentin Meyer was a son of the Small Council Joseph Leodegar Valentin Meyer (1696-1765) and Barbara Benigna born Keller, whose father of the Diet envoy Anton Leodegar cellar was. Valentin Meyer married Maria Emerentia Thuringia (1732–1795) in 1754. One daughter, Liberata, married the Aargau government councilor Franz Vorster in 1793 . Valentin Meyer's brother was Prince Abbot Gerold II ; another brother was Franz Xaver Benignus (1735–1805), from 1789 Abbot Bernhard III. in the Rheinau monastery . Meyer owned the Meggenhorn estate from 1767 to 1770 .

politics

Valentin Meyer attended the Jesuit college in Lucerne and was captain in the Lucerne cellar regiment in Sardinia-Piedmont from 1742–1749 (Colonel Hans Martin Keller was his uncle). After his return he was elected to the Grand Council in 1750 . In 1763 he became a member of the Small Council , 1765–1767 he was governor in Entlebuch and 1767–1769 salt director. In 1767 he was envoy to the Ordinary Diet in Frauenfeld, in 1768 to the extraordinary Diet of the Catholic Estates in Lucerne and to that of all federal locations in Baden.

Meyer belonged to the enlightened Progressive Party and presided over the Helvetic Society in 1765 and 1785 . His rhetoric, his vigorous political action and a certain arrogant demeanor led to him being given the nickname "the divine". This went back to Johann Caspar Lavater , who admired him and who in his 1762 anonymously written complaint Der unjust Landvogt or complaints of a patriot praised the "patriotic heroism" that Meyer had shown in the trial against Seckelmeister Jost Niklaus Joachim Schumacher .

In 1769 Meyer anonymously wrote the church-critical work "Refutation of the reflections of a Swiss". A previously published, also anonymous work "Reflections of a Swiss" was attributed to Meyer, but could later be assigned to the Zurich bookseller and publisher Johann Heinrich Heidegger (1738–1824) (monastery trade from 1769).

Party struggle and family feud

In addition to implementing his reform plans to preserve the patrician state, Valentin Meyer also waged a personal battle against the Schumacher family he hated (see Schumacher-Meyer-Handel ). This dominated the state administration and stuck to the conservative direction. In a static epoch of persistence, as was the case in the 18th century, Meyer used the advantages of the dynamic attacker. He based his fight on the accusation of unfaithful administration and obtained the banishment of Jost Niklaus Joachim Schumacher and Franz Plazid Schumacher as well as the conviction of Lorenz Plazid Schumacher, who was accused of high treason .

Exile and return

With the successful fight against the Schumacher family, Meyer had passed his zenith. The focus now was on his own political activity as well as on his criticism of the Church and Josephine . Both angered the clergy and the country folk. Meyer's economic reform in particular was a burden for the latter.

Convinced that popular anger and a divided government could mean the downfall of the aristocratic constitution, but also to enable a reconciliation of the parties, Meyer was suggested to leave the country for 15 years. He agreed to this on condition that his honor and rights, including his council position, were retained. After spending two years with his brother in Bischofszell , he bought Oberstaad Castle on Lake Constance near Öhningen in 1773 and called himself from then on "Meyer von Oberstaad".

After his return in 1785 he resumed his political activities in the Small Council and held various honorary positions. But it no longer had the weight it once had.

He was again envoy to the common federal diets in 1792 in Frauenfeld and Aarau and in 1795 and 1797 in Frauenfeld. In 1787 he switched to internal problems in the monastery of St. Urban was Pfalzrat the Abbey of St. Gall and was bailiff in Ruswil (1793-1795) and Rothenburg (1797-1798).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christine Weber-Hug: The monastery trade of Lucerne 1769/70. A contribution to the intellectual history of Lucerne. Verlag Peter Lang, Bern 1971, ISBN 978-3-261-00426-0 , p. 40 ff.
  2. ^ Felix Balthasar: The nine and sixties trade in Lucerne. A history of religion and state in the years 1769 and 70. Special print from: Joseph Anton Balthasar (Ed.): Helvetia. Memories for the XXII Free States of the Swiss Confederation. Zurich 1823; P. 26.
  3. ↑ Hans Wicki: State, Church, Religionsität. Lucerne Historical Publications, Rex-Verlag Luzern / Stuttgart, 1990; ISBN 978-3-7965-1619-1 ; Volume 26, p. 113 f.
  4. ↑ Gotthard End: The Höri castles and their owners. Schaffhausen, 1940; Pp. 9-42.
  5. ^ Gotthard End: Oberstad. in: Herbert Berner (ed.): Village and monastery Öhningen. Mayor's Office Singen (Hohentwiel), 1966; Pp. 167-178.
  6. ^ List of offices and their holders (typescript in the Lucerne State Archives, 1993); Lucerne state calendar for the years 1786, 1792 and 1794.
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Joseph Rudolf Valentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss council member and governor
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1725
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1808
Place of death Rheinau