Karl Egon II of Fürstenberg

Prince Karl Egon II. Zu Fürstenberg in regalia (Golden Fleece)

Prince Karl Egon II zu Fürstenberg around 1831

Karl Egon II of Fürstenberg
(Heiligenberger Fürstenbrunnen)

Karl Egon II. Prince zu Fürstenberg (born October 28, 1796 in Prague ; † October 22, 1854 in Ischl ) was the first vice-president of the First Chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly and held this office for around 33 years from 1819 to 1852. From 1804 to 1806 he was the last sovereign Prince of Fürstenberg , although he was under guardianship because of his minority.

Life

Karl Egon was the only son of the Austrian general Prince Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg and his wife Princess Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis .

Soon after the death of his father (March 25, 1799), his cousin Karl Gabriel, the lineage holder of the Bohemian line in Pürglitz , died in the same year (December 13, 1799) at the young age of 14. His uncle Karl Joachim , the last male descendant of the Swabian imperial line, died in 1804, with which Karl Egon inherited and united almost all of the Fürstenbergs' possessions . Only the Moravian line of the Fürstenberg family continued to develop separately.

In 1804, his mother and a distant uncle from the Moravian line, Landgrave Joachim Egon von Fürstenberg, took over the guardianship of Karl Egon, who was just seven years old. The princely chief forester Joseph von Laßberg , who was out of wedlock with the princess widow, is regarded as the de facto regent .

In 1806, the Principality of Fürstenberg was dissolved with the Rhine Confederation Act and when Karl Egon came of age in 1817, he was not the prince of an imperial immediate territory, but the landlord of large estates with extensive forests and some industrial enterprises, as well as the landlord of the Grand Duchy of Baden , the Kingdom of Württemberg and the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , those states to which his principality was divided. Princess Elisabeth and Laßberg tried in vain to reverse the mediatization of the Principality of Fürstenberg at the Congress of Vienna .

On January 18, 1851, Karl Egon zu Fürstenberg became Knight of the Black Eagle Order , the highest Prussian award, and in 1836 Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece Austrian Branch. From 1849 to 1852 Carl Egon II was master of the chair of the Masonic Lodge "Leopold zur Treue" No. 151 (founded in 1785) in Karlsruhe.

The politician

Albrecht Adam : Cavalcade in front of Heiligenberg Castle (1831) - Karl Egon II zu Fürstenberg and his wife Amalie von Baden with entourage.

As a registrar he was automatically a member of the First Chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly and was its first vice-president. He held this office for around 33 years from 1819 to 1852 during the presidency of Prince Wilhelm von Baden . Because of his possessions, he was also a member of the First Chamber of the Württemberg estates from 1819 and of the Prussian manor house from 1850 . Karl Egon zu Fürstenberg also held the vice-presidency several times in the Württemberg First Chamber. In 1850 he was a member of the State House of the Erfurt Union Parliament . The historical literature describes him as - for his time - progressive thinking and looking for balance. Especially during the sessions of the Landtag of 1831, which was observed throughout the German Confederation , Karl Egon played an important role in the approval of the First Chamber to the liberal press law submitted by the government in response to pressure from the Second Chamber. This press law lifted censorship, at least for Baden affairs.

The patron

In addition to managing his property and politics, Karl Egon also devoted himself to the arts. As a patron of music and theater performances, as well as a collector of paintings, copperplate engravings, coins and manuscripts, he acquired a reputation for himself and his “residence” in rural Donaueschingen . He entrusted Franz Simon von Pfaffenhofen with expanding his collections .

1818–1822 he brought Conradin Kreutzer to Donaueschingen as court conductor. From 1822 to 1866 this task was performed by the Bohemian conductor Jan Václav Kalivoda .

Karl Egon expanded the holdings of the Donaueschingen court library , in particular by purchasing the collection of Joseph von Laßberg in 1853, and made it accessible to the public.

Marriage and offspring

Princess Amalie zu Fürstenberg,
b. Princess of Baden, 1819

On April 19, 1818, Prince Karl Egon married Princess Amalie von Baden (born January 26, 1795 - September 14, 1869) in Karlsruhe , a daughter of Grand Duke Karl Friedrich from his morganatic marriage .

• Marie Elisabeth (March 15, 1819 - April 9, 1897)
• Karl Egon III. (March 4, 1820 - March 15, 1892)
• Maria Amalia (* February 12, 1821; † January 17, 1899) ⚭ April 19, 1845 Viktor I. zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst
• Maximilian Egon I (March 29, 1822 - July 27, 1873) ⚭ May 23, 1860 Countess Leontine von Khevenhüller -Metsch
• Marie Henriette (July 16, 1823 - September 19, 1834)
• Emil Egon (* September 12, 1825; † May 15, 1899) ⚭ May 31, 1875 Countess Leontine von Khevenhüller-Metsch
• Pauline Wilhelmine (born June 11, 1829 - † August 3, 1900) ⚭ April 15, 1847 Hugo Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Oehringen

literature

• Karl Siegfried Bader : Princess Elisabeth zu Fürstenberg in the struggle for the preservation of the rights of her mediatized house , in: Writings of the Association for History and Natural History of the Baar and the adjacent parts of the country in Donaueschingen, XXIV. Issue 1956, Donaueschingen 1956; Pp. 119-153. online (PDF; 43.9 MB)
• Uwe Harten : Fürstenberg, Karl Egon Prince of. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7001-3043-0 .
• Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 229 f .
• Friedrich von Weech : Karl Egon Fürst zu Fürstenberg , in: Friedrich von Weech (editor): Badische Biographien , first part, Heidelberg 1875, pp. 272–274. ( Digitized version )
• Friedrich von Weech:  Fürstenberg, Karl Egon Fürst to . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 227 f.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Fürstenberg, Karl Egon Fürst (statesman) . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 5th part. Typogr.-literar.-artist publishing house. Establishment (L. C. Zamarski & C. Dittmarsch.), Vienna 1859, p. 22. ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Karl Egon II. Zu Fürstenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ s. Karl Stiefel : Baden 1648–1952 , Volume 1, p. 258
2. ↑ Volker Schupp : Joseph von Laßberg, the Fürstlich-Fürstenbergische handwriting collection and Johann Leonhard Hug, professor at the University of Freiburg , in: Freiburger Universitätsblätter 131 (1996), p. 97.
3. ↑ Hermann Hengst: The Knights of the Black Eagle Order. Verlag Alexander Duncker, Berlin 1901, p. 123.
4. ↑ see also List of Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece
5. ↑ (Source: List of Members of the Lodge and Festschrift 200 Years of Freemasons in Karlsruhe 1985)
6. ↑ z. B. Karl Stiefel: Baden 1648–1952 , Volume 1, p. 258.
7. ↑ ".... Help prince v. Fürstenberg gloriously fight for it through his witty, masculine and powerful speech." s. Karl von Rotteck: History of the Baden Landtag from 1831, Hildburgshausen 1833; P. 277.
8. ↑ Grand Duke Karl raised Amalie, his father's half-sister, to the rank of prince. Only in this way, having become Princess of Baden, did Karl Egon's mother, Amalie, accept her status as a connection. See: Karoline von Freystedt: Memories from the court life, Heidelberg 1902, p. 146/147.

predecessor	Office	successor
Karl Joachim	Prince zu Fürstenberg from 1806 mediatized 1804–1854	Karl Egon III.