Karl Joseph von Urach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl von Urach in the costume of the Peruvian Cashibo Indians on one of his trips in 1886 (Main State Archive Stuttgart).
Karl von Urach, 1904

Karl Joseph Wilhelm Florestan Gero Crescentius Prince of Urach , Count of Württemberg (born February 15, 1865 in Ulm , † December 5, 1925 in Stuttgart ) was a German nobleman from a branch of the House of Württemberg and an officer in the Württemberg army.

Life

Karl Joseph was born as the younger son of Wilhelm (I) Duke of Urach and the Florestine Duchess of Urach. Princess of Monaco born. He first attended the elementary school and grammar school of the Jesuits in Monaco with his older brother Wilhelm Karl von Urach . In 1877 he moved to the Jesuit educational institution of Our Lady Stella Matutina in Feldkirch and in 1881 to the Karls-Gymnasium Stuttgart . There he passed the Abitur in 1883. Prince Karl then studied two semesters at the University of Munich from 1883 to 1884. He visited u. a. Lectures in metaphysics and history of Greek philosophy with the philosophy professor and later Bavarian Prime Minister and German Chancellor Georg Graf von Hertling as well as lectures in political science with the journalist and writer Professor Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl .

Military career

In 1883 he was appointed second lieutenant à la suite of the 19th Uhlan Regiment . In April 1886, Prince Karl entered the active service of this regiment, but had to end it again in March 1887 due to an illness. In the following years, the prince was given the usual promotions for a member of the House of Württemberg under position à la suite of the regiment: in 1887 he was appointed Premier Lieutenant, 1891 Rittmeister , 1899 Cavalry Major and 1906 Lieutenant Colonel . In 1911 he became a colonel .

to travel

In the years from 1884 onwards, Karl Joseph undertook numerous long trips. From 1884 to 1886 he traveled to South America, where he mainly visited the Cordilleras and studied the Indian tribes on the upper reaches of the Amazon . The ethnological collection that he built up on the trip was later given to the Linden Museum in Stuttgart. In the period after 1887, too, he often stayed in Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Egypt , where he owned real estate in Heliopolis near Cairo, and in the Ottoman Empire . In 1891 he took part in an expedition to Spitzbergen , in 1893 he traveled to the USA. A preferred travel destination for the prince was the Orient , which held him very fascinating. So he learned Turkish, Arabic and Persian. Last but not least, from 1893 to 1925 Karl Joseph had rooms built in Arabic style in his palace on Neckarstrasse in Stuttgart, which he decorated with furniture, carvings, tiles, plaster stucco work, carpets and antiques from the Orient. The rooms, which could even be visited at times and were considered an attraction, were destroyed in a bomb attack in 1944. During the First World War, Prince Karl was finally able to bring his language skills and the knowledge about this region acquired on his many trips to the Orient to his work as a German liaison officer in the Ottoman Empire from 1916 to 1917 .

Honorary positions and awards

Prince Karl took on a number of honorary positions. He was president of the Württemberg regional group of the German Colonial Society and a member of the Württemberg regional association of the German Fleet Association . He supported the Society for the Promotion of German Settlements in Palestine . He also promoted the work of the airship designer Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin with the subscription of shares in the Society for the Promotion of the Luftschifffahrt AG. Karl Joseph von Urach was awarded numerous medals in the course of his life: in 1883 the prince received the Monegasque Order of Saint Charles, in 1889 the Grand Cross of the Persian Order of the Sun and Lions , in 1897 the Osmanje Order First Class, and in 1899 the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Medal . In 1910 he was awarded the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle . In 1916 he received the Wilhelm Cross with Swords and Crown, a year later the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen and the Iron Cross 2nd class.

Karl Fürst von Urach died on December 5, 1925 in Stuttgart. He was buried in the Catholic section of the crypt of the Ludwigsburg Palace Church.

literature

swell

personal data
SURNAME Urach, Karl Joseph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Urach, Karl Joseph Wilhelm Florestan Gero Crescentius Prince of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prince of Urach, Count of Württemberg
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1925
Place of death Stuttgart