Karl Ernst von Gravenreuth

Karl Ernst Freiherr von Gravenreuth (born May 28, 1771 in Stenay , Lorraine , † September 29, 1826 in Augsburg ) was a German politician and diplomat .

Life

Commemorative plaque for Gravenreuth due to his services to the state of Vorarlberg under Bavarian rule, erected after 1807 in the little temple at the Bregenzer Klause ( Vorarlberg Museum , Bregenz)

Gravenreuth studied law in Göttingen . He then entered the service of Duke Max Joseph of Pfalz-Zweibrücken . With his successor as Bavarian Elector in 1799, he became a Privy Councilor in the Bavarian Foreign Ministry. A year later he was appointed ambassador to Vienna . Therefore he knew the Austrian politics of the time. In the autumn / winter of 1805, Elector Max IV. Joseph and his advisor Count von Montgelas decided on an alliance with Napoleon and thus against Habsburg . This had to be hidden from Austria for as long as possible. While the Habsburg army was ready for action in the country, Karl Ernst von Gravenreuth secretly gathered the Bavarian army in Franconia . When French troops arrived, Bavaria announced the change of alliance.

As a diplomat, Karl Ernst von Gravenreuth played a key role in the Brno Treaty of 1805. In this, Elector Max Joseph of Bavaria was given the title of king by Napoleon and assured considerable territorial gains. Bavaria was upgraded to a kingdom on January 1, 1806 by the French Emperor and Max Joseph, Maximilian I Joseph, was made the first King of Bavaria.

Affing Castle

Then Karl Ernst von Gravenreuth was the Bavarian special envoy to Napoleon's headquarters. From 1807 to 1817 he held the function of a Bavarian general commissioner with various tasks. From 1816 he was President of the Upper Danube District , based in Augsburg, and from there administered Swabia, which had recently come to Bavaria, as Commissioner General. After the new demarcation near Ulm in 1811, he became the city founder of Neu-Ulm . In 1816 he bought the nearby Hofmark Affing with the castle . In 1820 he became the first honorary citizen of Augsburg . In 1825 King Max I raised Joseph Karl Ernst von Gravenreuth to the rank of count for his services to Bavaria and appointed him as hereditary Imperial Councilor to the Chamber of Imperial Councils , the first chamber of the Bavarian Estates Assembly.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Honorary Citizen of Augsburg ( Memento of the original from April 26, 2013 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. 

literature

• Michael Henker (Ed.): Bavaria is born. Montgelas and his Ansbacher Mémoire from 1796. Pustet, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7917-1535-6 .
• Hans-Michael Körner (Ed.): Large Bavarian biographical encyclopedia . Vol. 1. Saur, Munich 2005. ISBN 3-598-11730-2
• Frank Raberg : Biographical Lexicon for Ulm and Neu-Ulm 1802-2009 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7995-8040-3 , p. 127 .

Web links

• Karl Ernst von Gravenreuth in the parliamentary database at the House of Bavarian History
• Biography at the House of Bavarian History
• Gravenreuth wears down Napoleon - ( Aichacher Nachrichten of May 11, 2012)