Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff

Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff

Kaspar Heinrich Freiherr von Sierstorpff (born May 19, 1750 in Hildesheim ; † March 29, 1842 in Braunschweig ; raised to the rank of count on October 15, 1840) was a statesman from Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel who worked primarily as chief hunter and forester . He founded the spa in Bad Driburg .

family

Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff came from the noble family von Siersdorf with origins in Siersdorf in the Rhineland .

His father Peter Joseph Albert Francken von Sierstorpff (1716-1770) was Chancellor of the Prince-Bishop of Hildesheim, as was his father, Kaspar Francken von Sierstorpff , who was raised to the baron status on November 22, 1738 .

education

After studying in Erfurt and Leipzig , which he completed with a doctorate in Leipzig in 1772, he spent some time in Regensburg at the court of the Elector of Mainz and at the Munich court. In 1773/1774 he toured Italy on the “Grand Tour” . The visit to the southern German cities of Nuremberg , Munich and Augsburg as well as the classical sites of Italy awakened his sense of art. After his wedding to Maria Sophia von Brabeck on July 26, 1776, the ten-month honeymoon went to England ( London , Birmingham , Bath , Oxford ) and - after a stay as chamberlain with the Elector of Trier - to Brussels and Paris .

Acquisitions in Driburg

In September 1779 Caspar Heinrich von Sierstopff visited the sources in Driburg: "J'arrivais le lendemain entre 11 et midi in the divine Driborg, vous n'avez point l'idee, cher ami, comme il m'encharme." Signed in early 1782 Prince-Bishop Wilhelm Anton signed the hereditary interest contract on the rights and duties of Baron von Sierstorpff at the sources, which are located within "an hour of Driburg and can subsequently still be found and discovered." In September von Sierstorpff acquired the between city and Bad Drostenhof from the family von der Lippe zu Vinsebeck as an apartment and bath hotel. - Difficulties for the development resulted from the bad road conditions and the dispute with the Driburg citizens, who saw their free right to create restricted. The new facilities of the avenues based on the English model, a coffee house , and later the new bath houses, got the summer season going. A library and a casino were set up to entertain the guests, and traveling actors and bands were hired. From 1783 the bathroom owner shared his whereabouts: he spent the summer months in Driburg and the winter in Braunschweig.

In the service of the Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel

In 1783, Sierstorpff entered the service of the ducal Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel as Jägermeister. In 1788 he was promoted to chief hunter and in 1789 entrusted with the general supervision of forestry and hunting in the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and in the Principality of Blankenburg . In 1794 he published an early work on forest entomology with the title About some insect species that are particularly harmful to the spruce forests, and about the worm drying in the spruce forests of the Harz . In it he dealt in detail with the causes and consequences of a bark beetle - calamity - the "great worm dryness" - in the Harz Mountains. He has also written books on silviculture , with an emphasis on oak and spruce . Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff was the first to use the term “ forest science ”. Under Napoleonic rule , he was appointed Conservateur des Eaux et Forêts in the Oker department in 1808. In 1812 he was transferred to Celle and Hanover . From 1808 to 1813 he was a member of the imperial estates of the Kingdom of Westphalia .

After the restoration of the now Duchy of Braunschweig, he became a member of the Chamber College, the then state government, with his previous title of Oberjägermeister . Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff issued an operating regulation in 1815 on the basis of the so-called area framework , according to which all state districts were established. The depots put into effect by the Ducal Chamber formed the basis for regular forest operations.

When he was invited to the British Viceroy Adolph Friedrich in Hanover in 1828 and when he asked what it was like in Braunschweig, he answered openly: "Your Highness, a chief steward is needed", Duke Karl II of Braunschweig heard about it and appointed him himself Chief steward, halving his salary to 1000 thalers. Sierstorpff refused and asked for his departure. Thereupon the duke withdrew all titles, offices and dignities from him "because of violated deference" and expelled him from the country. The Duke conceded a verdict from the ducal district court in Sierstorpff's favor, and Sierstorpff had to really leave the country at the age of 78.

The development of the Bad Driburg

In the meantime, the first bath house with 40 rooms was built in Driburg in 1784, followed in 1785/86 by the social and dance hall with a gallery as a connection to the bath house, and then in 1789 by the “poor lodging house”. Driburg was known for the “ Monumenta Paderbornensia ” of Prince-Bishop Ferdinand II . In order to advertise the bathroom, Caspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff contacted doctors, including the famous Professor Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland . The picture gallery, for which von Sierstorpff had collected 170 pictures by important artists and written an art-historical guide, was also important. Among others, Cranach, Rembrandt van Rijn , Peter Paul Rubens , Anthonis van Dyck , Jacob Izaaksoon van Ruisdael and Caravaggio were represented . Except for a few pieces, the paintings were auctioned in Berlin in 1887.

Famous guests

In the summer of 1796, on the run from the French occupation, Susette Gontard , the wife of the Frankfurt merchant and banker Jakob Gontard , stayed with her children in Bad Driburg. They were accompanied by the steward (educator of the boys) Friedrich Hölderlin . The poet Wilhelm Heinse traveled with them from Kassel . At the same time, the former royal officer de Villers was present in Driburg as a French emigrant. In the Lettres de Westphalie (Berlin 1797) he described the bathing season at that time. The bath owes enthusiastic and romantic descriptions of the landscape to the poets.

Consolidation of the bathroom

Coat of arms Count of Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff

During his stay in Paris during 1802, von Sierstorpff had an audience with the then First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte . Known through his forestry activities and his forestry literature, von Sierstorpff was appointed in 1805 as an "external member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts and Mechanical Sciences". After the death of his first wife and only child, on October 25, 1810, he married Charlotte von Vincke (1780–1833), the sister of Ludwig von Vincke , who later became President of the Prussian Province of Westphalia . They had the son Ernst Graf von Sierstorpff (1813–1855). In Prussian times, von Sierstorpff became one of the largest landowners in the region (2500 hectares) through the purchase of Driburg forests, the Rothehaus estate south of Bad Driburg and the Gehrden monastery domain (1826). In 1828 the Prussian government renewed the hereditary interest contract for the sources formerly used by the prince-bishop. CH v. Sierstorpff took on public access to the main fountain, the employment of a licensed bathing surgeon, the establishment of a pharmacy and other requirements. Since 1829 the possessions were Fideikommiss with the provision that the owner carried the name of Siertorpff. The inheritance contract expired by law in 1850, so that the sources passed into free ownership. Since ownership came to Wilhelm Graf von Oeynhausen in the line of succession , the family has been named "Graf von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff" (1909) with imperial approval.

The late years

In the uprising of the citizens of Brunswick against Duke Karl II. And after his expulsion, the brother and successor Duke Wilhelm reinstated Baron von Sierstorpff in his previous position as chief hunter in September 1830 and entrusted him with the management of the ducal Brunswick forest administration. Since the forest had been devastated by disasters, exploitation and excessive permissions, von Sierstorpff now had to master the reconstruction. For this purpose, he reorganized the state forests into four forestry departments, ten chief foresters and 76 forest districts. In addition, he arranged for a forest taxation commission to set up all state forests to be formed under Chamber Councilor Friedrich Ludwig Ernst von den Brinken and his son Julius von den Brinken . In 1834 he retired.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Driburg baths in 1832, the 82-year-old founder of the baths received high honors - among others, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. the Red Eagle Order . By royal diploma from October 15, 1840 he was raised to the Prussian count status.

After his death on March 29, 1842, Sierstorpff was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Braunschweig. In Bad Driburg the obelisk in front of the count's mausoleum on the Rosenberg reminds of him, which he converted from wood into an extended park area and reforested with the forestry famous “rose mountain larches”.

Fonts

Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff published:

• Some remarks on the trees frozen in the winter of 1788/89 , 1790
• About some insect species, which are particularly harmful to the spruce forests, and about the worm-dryness of the spruce forests of the Harz , with 3 illuminated copper plates , 1794
• About the forest education, conservation and use of the most excellent domestic types of wood etc. , 2 parts, 1796 and 1813, also with enclosed illuminated copper plates
• Remarks on a trip through the Netherlands to Paris , mostly in relation to paintings and objets d'art , 180

literature

• Anna Bálint: Castles, palaces and historical aristocratic residences in the Höxter district. Ed .: District of Höxter. Höxter 2002, ISBN 3-00-009356-7 , pp. 34-37.
• Georg Bruns (Hrsg.): The case of the injured deference to His Highness the Duke Carl of Braunschweig-Lüneburg accused Baron von Sierstorpff, Duke of Brunswick Chief Hunter ... Braunschweig 1830 ( ULB Münster )
• Richard Heß:  Sierstorpff, Kaspar Heinrich Freiherr v. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, p. 215 f.
• Ramona Countess of Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff (Hrsg.): The Countess Spa Driburg. Ostfildern-Ruit 1998
• Fred Kaspar: Count's Park Bad Driburg. (= Workbook of the LWL Office for Monument Preservation in Westphalia.) Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 2007.
• Jochen Lengemann : Biographical Handbook of the Imperial Estates of the Kingdom of Westphalia and the Estates Assembly of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-458-16185-6 , page 182.
• Zoltán Rozsnyay, Frank Kropp: KH v. Sierstorpff. In this: Lower Saxony Forest Biography. A source volume. From the forest (1998): Messages from the Lower Saxony State Forest Administration (Issue 51). Lower Saxony Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forests (MELF), Wolfenbüttel 1998, pp. 426–427.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Elisabeth von Falkenhausen (editor): "Caspar Heinrich Freiherr von Sierstorpff describes his life", Hendrik Bäßler Verlag, Berlin 2016.