Karl von Beaulieu-Marconnay

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Karl Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay

Karl Olivier Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay (born September 5, 1811 in Minden ; † April 8, 1889 in Dresden ) was a German diplomat, writer and cultural historian in Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach .

Life

Beaulieu-Marconnay's ancestors were forced to leave their homeland when the Edict of Nantes was repealed in 1685 and settled in Germany. The family provided officials and soldiers in several German principalities, for example Beaulieu-Marconnays father was the Oldenburg Secret Cabinet Councilor Wilhelm Ernst von Beaulieu-Marconnay (1786-1859), who was also a member of the Oldenburg State Ministry . His uncle was the royal Hanoverian lieutenant general and forester Carl von Beaulieu-Marconnay (1777-1855).

Beaulieu-Marconnay was born on September 5, 1811 in Minden. His parents had moved there shortly before, as the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg became part of the French Empire in early 1811 when Napoleon invaded the area . They feared that, despite their French origins, they were in the service of a German princely house of being harassed or persecuted by the new rulers. In addition, Wilhelm Ernst von Beaulieu-Marconnay had previously been entrusted with the cash assets of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, who had fled to Russia , for the administration and payment of pensions . Therefore they moved to Wilhelm Ernst's brother Carl von Beaulieu-Marconnay and his wife Henriette Countess von Egloffstein , who were staying in Minden at the time.

After the French withdrew from the Bouches-du-Weser department (1813), the family moved back to the Duchy of Oldenburg. Beaulieu-Marconnay grew up in Eutin and Oldenburg (Oldb) , where he also attended the Old High School in Oldenburg . In 1826 he accompanied his father on a trip to St. Petersburg , where he met the poet Friedrich Maximilian Klinger .

Studies and early career

Beaulieu-Marconnay studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg from autumn 1829 and was active in the Corps Guestphalia Heidelberg . From Easter 1831 he studied law at the University of Jena . From Jena, Beaulieu-Marconnay went to Weimar several times , where he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who was in correspondence with his father. In 1830 he went on a trip to the Netherlands on foot and witnessed the Belgian Revolution , after which he stayed for a year in France, where he studied camera studies and at the same time came into contact with literary and political circles. In 1832 he finished his studies at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . There he became a member of the Corps Oldenburgia. Then he joined the Oldenburg civil service like his father.

At the same time, inspired by the literary encounters of previous years, he began to work as a writer . During his time as an official auditor in Jever (1835-39), he wrote a four-act tragicomedy in verse, which satirically thematized Bentinck's succession dispute , a sensational episode at the time in which the pretender Wilhelm Gustav Friedrich Bentinck met on October 16, 1836 wanted to take possession of Kniphausen Castle by force of arms - a case with which Beaulieu-Marconnay was concerned both officially and privately, since he lived in the vicinity of the castle and his father was the representative of the Grand Duchy in negotiations on the Kniphausen rule in Berlin in 1825 . The satire was only distributed in copies and never printed. In 1839 he was transferred to the office of Rastede and from 1840 on he was given a longer vacation to travel to Lake Como as a travel companion with Prince Hermann zu Wied . Here Beaulieu got the opportunity to study Italian culture. In 1841, initially as a laborer, he was appointed to the Oldenburg Chamber of Finance and thus came into contact with various personalities in the Oldenburg capital, such as Ferdinand von Gall , Oldenburg Chamberlain and Director of the Court Theater, Theodor von Kobbe and Adolf Stahr .

In Weimar

In 1843 Beaulieu moved to the Grand Ducal Saxon Ministry in Weimar as a secret trainee lawyer for foreign affairs , which he had already got to know as a student. Here, too, he made contact with courtly, social and artistic circles in the royal seat and quickly became an integral part of them. He maintained contact with, among others, Adolf Schöll , Karl Gutzkow , Ludwig and Friedrich Preller , Friedrich Apollonius von Maltitz , who was the Russian chargé d'affaires in Weimar from 1841 to 1865 and died there in 1870, as well as with Franz Liszt . He was in correspondence with Willibald Alexis , Emanuel Geibel , Gustav Gans zu Putlitz , Gisbert von Vincke , Otto Roquette , Fanny Lewald and Hans Christian Andersen , among others .

In 1848 he was briefly appointed Minister of Justice , but resigned from this post in 1849 to take up the position of court marshal due to the political unrest triggered by the imperial constitution campaign . In 1853, through his good contacts with the Grand Duchess widow Maria Pawlowna, he became chief steward of the education-loving Grand Duchess Sophie , Princess of the Netherlands and wife of Grand Duke Karl Alexander . He was also appointed director of the court theater twice (1850–52 and 1854–57). At that time Franz Liszt was Kapellmeister . In 1857 Beaulieu handed over the management of the court theater to Franz von Dingelstedt and devoted himself to more cultural non-profit institutions and associations, for example he supported the women's associations of the Grand Duchy with their educational and auxiliary institutes, as well as art and science.

Beaulieu-Marconnay was also culturally active by supporting the erection of monuments in Weimar. From the Herder monument created by Ludwig Schaller in 1850 , he took suggestions for a Goethe- Schiller , a Wieland and a Karl August statue. The Goethe-Schiller monument was created by Ernst Rietschel and Hanns Gasser the Wieland monument - both were cast in bronze by Ferdinand von Miller and unveiled on September 4, 1857. The equestrian statue of Grand Duke Karl August created by the Weimar Adolf von Donndorf , which was unveiled to Kaiser Wilhelm I on September 3, 1875 , was also based on Beaulieu's initiative.

In 1847, Beaulieu co-founded the Weimar Wednesday Association for lectures that anyone with a scientific education could attend, and gave a series of lectures himself that reflected his personal experiences. For example, lectures on Belgian Revolution of 1830, the Paulskirchenverfassung (1848) and the political parties, the draining of the Haarlemmermeer sea , the constitutional conditions Kniphausens and Bentinck'schen process, Hans Sachs , his life and his work on the dike and Sielrecht . From December 7, 1863, Beaulieu was also chairman of the short-lived Association for Art and Science .

Late career

After Beaulieu had relinquished the management of the court theater in 1857, he carried out diplomatic missions on behalf of the Weimar court, for example to Saint Petersburg, The Hague and in 1861 for the coronation of Wilhelm I in Königsberg . In 1864 he was appointed envoy of the Ernestine Duchies to the Bundestag (German Confederation) in Frankfurt am Main. He experienced the dissolution of the Bundestag in the summer of 1866 and, long since recalled by the other ministries, accompanied the Rumpf Bundestag to the last sessions at the Drei Mohren inn in Augsburg as the representative of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen .

Beaulieu then voluntarily retired in autumn 1866 and moved to Dresden . For the time being, however, he remained in the Weimar court position and was appointed to the Real Privy Council. In 1885 he was elected to the board of the Goethe Society, founded under Grand Duke Karl Alexander at the suggestion of Grand Duchess Sophie . He was also an honorary member since 1864 and since 1879 master of the Free German Hochstift in Goethe's birthplace in Frankfurt - an award for his achievements in the field of political science and historical research . He died after a serious illness on April 8, 1889 in Dresden.

family

He married on June 10, 1847 Leopoldine Christa Ottilie von Staff called von Reitzenstein (* 10 January 1825, † 16 August 1857), a daughter of Lieutenant General Hermann von Staff called von Reitzenstein . The couple had several children:

  • Karl Wilhelm Hermann Leo (born June 1, 1848)
  • Flavine Johanna Constanze Luise (born June 16, 1851)
  • Alfred August (born January 8, 1854)

After the death of his first wife, on November 9, 1859, he married Anna Freiin von Fritsch, a granddaughter of the statesman Jakob Friedrich von Fritsch . The couple had several children:

  • Edmund Karl Isidor (born October 2, 1861)
  • Karl August Alexander Oliver (born September 3, 1863)
  • Marie Amelie Dorothee Virginie (* October 17, 1864) ⚭ 1889 Konrad Lebrecht von Blücher (* August 11, 1855 - October 21, 1895)

Works

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl von Beaulieu-Marconnay  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Carl Freiherr von Beaulieu-Marconnay  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 112 , 293
  2. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 81 , 18
  3. ↑ Contemporary biography of Grand Duchess Sophie
  4. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility, Freiherrliche Häuser, Volume XVI, p. 89
  5. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of noble houses, 1904, fifth year, p.99
personal data
SURNAME Beaulieu-Marconnay, Karl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beaulieu-Marconnay, Carl Heinrich Friedrich Oliver von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Diplomat, writer and cultural historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1811
PLACE OF BIRTH Minden
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1889
Place of death Dresden