Louise von Sturmfeder
Louise von Sturmfeder (full name: Maria Aloisia Freiin Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler, heiress Lerch von und zu Dirmstein ; born October 3, 1789 in Esslingen , † September 10, 1866 in Vienna ) was a lady-in-waiting of the Habsburgs and educator of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria , his brother Emperor Maximilian of Mexico and their siblings.
Origin and descent
Louise von Sturmfeder came from the noble family of Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler Erbsassen Lerch von und zu Dirmstein . She was the daughter of the Electoral Palatinate Privy Councilor Carl Theodor Reichsfreiherrn Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler (* 1748 in Mannheim, † 1799 in Esslingen) and his wife Maria Karoline Freiin von Greiffenclau-Vollraths.
Mother Mary Caroline of Greiffenclau -Vollraths (also Vollrads) was the daughter of Adolph von Greiffenclau-Vollrath's (* 1727 in Mainz, † 1763 in Mainz), Lord of Gundheim in Rheinhessen , since 1745 Electoral main hissers treasurer and 1753 Kurmainzer Court and Government councilor, knight captain and director of the immediate knighthood in the Middle Rhine region in the Wetterau as well as his wife Johanna von Dern († 1793 in Mainz). She grew up at Schloss Vollrads in the Rheingau , the family seat.
Louise's father Carl Theodor Reichsfreiherr Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler came from Dirmstein in the Palatinate . The Sturmfeder family owned a handsome castle there, because an ancestor of the father had once married a daughter of the long-established, local noble family Lerch von Dirmstein and also took over their title, as the family died out as a male. Carl Theodor Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler, Erbsasse Lerch von und zu Dirmstein, grew up in Dirmstein with his brother Franz Friedrich von Sturmfeder , later prelate and vicar of the diocese of Augsburg . There they were taught by the well-known scientist and polymath Johann Jakob Hemmer as private tutor, whom the Dirmstein pastor Johann Stertzner - Hemmer's mentor - had placed. From 1778 Carl Theodor Sturmfeder lived mostly in Mannheim , where he and his brother were born; In the 1780s he directed the construction of the Oppenweiler Castle , which his father had begun , stayed temporarily in Munich and finally lived in Esslingen, where his daughter Louise was born in 1789.
Louise descended directly from the Wittelsbach family through grandfather Franz Georg Ernst von Sturmfeder († 1793) , because his mother Friederike Ernestine von Löwenstein-Wertheim was a direct descendant of the Palatinate Elector Friedrich I.
Family relationships
Louise Sturmfeder was the sixth of ten children of her parents.
Carl Schlund, a student of Johann Michael Sailer , worked from September 5, 1794 as an educator in the Sturmfeder house in Oppenweiler. In a later biography of Schlund, Sailer describes the prevailing family relationships as follows:
“The father, rich in education in science and art, but unfortunately inhibited by embarrassing sickness in his communications; the mother a man in the full sense of the word who understood the whole secret of domestic art, to be a mother to the children, to the man woman, to the house woman and to the subordinates a maternal mistress without showing what she was in silence and speech, in action and suffering, maintained equal dignity, confidence and calm ... daughters with talents of spirit, mind and body not sparingly equipped, two sons on whom the hopes of the house rested, these were the elements of the domestic life entered the throat. "
While Schlund mainly brought up the boys, the girls - including Louise von Sturmfeder - were mainly in the care of an "excellent educator" , the French "Regnier" .
In 1796 the entire aristocratic family fled to Munich with the two tutors from the advancing French army; In 1797 she was able to return to Oppenweiler (Memories of Carl Schlund, page 13).
The Sturmfeders belonged to the close friends of the well-known theologian and later Regensburg Bishop Johann Michael Sailer . Georg Aichinger writes in his Sailer biography (page 256) that it was an “intimate friendship” . When Sailer received the news that Carl Theodor Sturmfeder was about to die, he immediately traveled to Oppenweiler to assist him, but did not arrive until after his death. He gave him the funeral sermon there on February 20, 1799, in which he also mentions the underage children who were left behind, as well as the piety of the deceased who had asked to be buried in an ordinary cemetery and to be carried out by the poor.
According to Georg Aichinger, Johann Michael Sailer stayed in the Sturmfeder house for several months in order to raise the bereaved with “advice and consolation” . On May 10, 1799, he visited the baron's widow and children to pray together. In July 1800, her mother also died and Louise Sturmfeder became an orphan at the age of ten. In the year she died, Sailer dedicated his second volume to the widow, “Christian Speeches to Christians” . Even years later, he published excerpts from his letters to “the ten darlings of the unforgettable woman” in the letter collections , which Georg Aichinger sees as an indication that Sailer's love for his parents Sturmfeder had also passed on to their children (including Louise).
After the death of both parents, the minor orphans initially lived in Mannheim . Louise von Sturmfeder stayed with her married sister Charlotte von Dalberg in Aschaffenburg from 1818 .
Lady-in-waiting and princess governess
As Louise storm Feder guardian consisting acted Mainz Dating, Austrian ambassador in Munich , Friedrich Lothar von Stadium (1761-1811), older brother of the Austrian foreign minister Johann Philipp Stadion (1763-1824). The von Stadion family later recommended her to Emperor Franz II when his daughter-in-law Archduchess Sophie was pregnant and was looking for a nurse or teacher. In his diploma thesis "Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian's image of Italy" , Martin Clemens Weber also stated in 2008 that Louise von Sturmfeder also lived temporarily as the "Countess Stadium" in Munich and was already familiar with Archduchess Sophie , who came from there .
Baroness von Sturmfeder witnessed the birth of the future Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria on August 18, 1830 in Vienna . For Archduchess Sophie and her husband Archduke Franz Karl it was the first living child after several miscarriages. Louise von Sturmfeder became his nanny and practically a second mother. She also took on the same position with the younger siblings, Prince Maximilian (1832-1867), later Emperor of Mexico , Karl Ludwig (1833-1896) and with Princess Maria Anna Carolina (1835-1840). She only helped educate the late-born Archduke Ludwig Viktor (1842–1919).
The Habsburg children literally adored their teacher and called her by nicknames "Ami" and "Aja" . The historian Dr. Otto Ernst:
“This woman is one of the most interesting figures and the most touching apparitions in Franz Joseph's life. It exerted an indescribably great influence on the development of his character and the development of his being both mentally and physically. "
It is said that Emperor Maximilian sobbed when he said goodbye to Louise Sturmfeder:
"I love you as much as you love Franzi ( his brother Franz-Joseph )!"
In a necrology on Archduke Karl Ludwig it says:
"An excellent influence exerted on the mind of the young Prince Baroness Marie Louise Sturmfeder, daughter of the Electoral Palatinate Privy Councilor Karl Theodor Freiherrn Sturmfeder von und zu Oppenweiler, who as Aja directed the Archduke and the older princes during their childhood years."
At the suggestion of Baroness Sturmfeder, all of her princely protégés had to learn Bohemian from the age of two. Princess Maria Anna Carolina died at the age of five. The little archdukes were separated from their foster mother at the age of six in order to complete the prescribed "state education". Whenever a new child was born to the couple Archduke Franz Karl and Archduchess Sophie , they ordered their own wet nurse, several nannies, kitchen workers and lackeys, i.e. a small court of their own. Louise von Sturmfeder supervised the entire staff of all these princely children and raised them independently, usually without the interference of their parents.
According to Dr. Ernst was Baroness Sturmfeder "a touching good soul, at the same time a decisive character, clever and healthy." In addition, she had a "deeply religious disposition" and "unlimited loyalty" to the House of Habsburg . She always saw her real “masters” in Emperor Franz II and his last wife Karoline Auguste , who also took care of the little grandson Franz Joseph. The old emperor and his wife were very fond of the nanny, so that even at his death Emperor Franz II expressed the wish that Franz Joseph should continue to be educated in the tried and tested spirit of Louise von Sturmfeder in view of his possible later takeover of government .
When the children had outgrown their hands, according to their age, Louise von Sturmfeder entered the service of the Dowager Empress Karoline Auguste as lady-in-waiting . During the revolutionary events of 1848, when Franz Joseph was already ruling, both women stayed in Salzburg. Karoline Auguste wrote about this in a letter dated December 5, 1848 to Emperor Franz Joseph:
“... Ami is just leaving my room to rush to church. Like me, she melts in tears. Her whole soul dissolves in constant prayer for you anyway, she may now double her prayer for you. May the all-good one hear it! "
Baroness Sturmfeder suffered greatly from seeing the children she loved so much divorce at the age of six. The strict protocol forbade the teenage archdukes to officially deal with her.
In her memoirs (diary) published posthumously in 1910, she wrote about it: “They trot around over my head all day, so I am forced to think of them and in the garden I see them and am not allowed to go to them, have to avoid them. It is a nameless torment. Didn't I love her enough? Wouldn't it be luck for me, would I never have loved her? "
The baroness lived in the Hofburg above the Michaelertor until her death , where she also died in 1866. She stayed in contact with her protégés through secret channels as long as they were children. Often they left messages on her window on twine, and Louise von Sturmfeder returned these tokens of love with letters, pictures or sweets, which came up the same way.
Louise von Sturmfeder had helped raise the children of Emperor Franz Joseph and he visited her several times personally when she was finally on her deathbed.
The unmarried woman found her final resting place in the Schmelzer Friedhof in Vienna, which was dissolved at the beginning of the 20th century. That is why Louise Sturmfeder was reburied from there in 1911 to the Vienna Central Cemetery and was given a grave of honor (group 0, row 1, no. 60) that still exists today.
At that time the Wiener Zeitung reported on this:
“This morning the reburial of the remains of the immortalized Aja of His Majesty the Emperor, Luise Freiin von Sturmfeder, as well as the unveiling of the restored grave monument in the Vienna Central Cemetery took place. His Majesty the Emperor had sent the wing adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Count Manzano, to the ceremony. Chamberlain Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Sturmfeder-Horneck had come to Vienna from Bavaria from the family of the deceased. Mayor Dr. Neumayer gave a speech in which he first expressed his most humble thanks to his Majesty for sending a representative to this pious act. On the occasion of the publication of the diary of Freiin von Sturmfeder, he suggested to the city council that the remains of the Schmelzer cemetery, which was intended to be abandoned, should be exhumed and reburied in an honorary grave dedicated by the community to the list of historically memorable personalities. This application was followed by the city council and the memory of Baron von Sturmfeder, who witnessed the childhood of our monarch, was secured for ever. He then thanked the Chamberlain von Sturmfeder for honoring the memory of his great-aunt by taking over the exhumation and restoration of the monument. "
In addition to the memoirs, the governess of two emperors also published a collection of letters in print: The Childhood of Our Emperor - Letters from Baroness Louise von Sturmfeder, Aja His Majesty, from the years 1830–1840. Gerlach & Wiedling Verlag, Vienna around 1900.
The well-known Austrian writer Hilde Knobloch started her biographical novel about Emperor Franz Joseph, “The Last Monarch” , with the tragic scene in 1949 when the six-year-old prince had to say goodbye to his beloved “Aja” Louise Sturmfeder and then continued the plot in one Dialogue between the teacher and the birth mother, Archduchess Sophie , continued.
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Sturmfeder from and to Oppenweiler, Maria Luise Countess . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 40th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1880, p. 233 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Anton Bettelheim: Biographical Yearbook and German Nekrolog. Volume 2, 1898, page 445.
- Otto Ernst: Franz Joseph I in his letters. Rikola Verlag, Vienna 1924, mainly pages 44–47.
- Hilde Knobloch : The last monarch. Chapter 1, Pustet Verlag, Graz 1949.
- Ferdinand Anders, Klaus Eggert: Maximilian of Mexico. Lower Austrian publishing house St. Pölten, 1982.
- Michael Martin (ed.): Dirmstein - nobility, farmers and citizens. Chronicle of the Dirmstein community. Self-published by the Foundation for the Promotion of Palatinate Historical Research , Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 2005, ISBN 3-9808304-6-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ On the descent of Louise Sturmfeder's mother, b. von Greiffenclau-Vollraths ( Memento from November 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ About the education of Carl Theodor Sturmfeder by Johann Jakob Hemmer in Dirmstein, page 4 of the treatise (PDF; 4.6 MB)
- ↑ Text Scan from Sailer's biography of Carl throat to the family backgrounds Louise storm Feder
- ^ Georg Aichinger: Johann Michael Sailer. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 1865, page 256; to Sailer's friendship with the Sturmfeder family
- ^ Funeral sermon for Karl Theodor von Sturmfeder, given by Johann Michael Sailer in front of the family, on February 20, 1799
- ^ Georg Aichinger: Johann Michael Sailer. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 1865, page 257; about Sailer's stay with the Sturmfeder family and the death of Louise's mother
- ↑ Hubert Schiel: Michael Sailer, life and letters. Pustet Verlag, Regensburg 1952, page 211; about the death of the widow Sturmfeder and the stay of her children in Mannheim.
- ↑ Gerd Holler: Sophie, the secret empress: mother Franz Joseph I. Amalthea Verlag, Vienna 1993, page 42
- ↑ Dr. Otto Ernst: Franz Joseph I in his letters. Rikola Verlag, Vienna 1924, page 45
- ↑ Martin Clemens Weber: Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian's image of Italy. 2008
- ^ Franz Herre: Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, his life, his time. 1992, page 27
- ^ Jean Bourgoing: Letters from Emperor Franz Joseph to Frau Katharina Schratt. 1964, page 6
- ↑ Dr. Otto Ernst: Franz Joseph I in his letters. Rikola Verlag, Vienna 1924, page 45
- ↑ Dr. Otto Ernst: Franz Joseph I in his letters. Rikola Verlag, Vienna 1924, page 46
- ↑ Website on the honorary grave of Louise von Sturmfeder, with a photo of the gravestone
- ↑ Little Chronicle - Luise Freiin von Sturmfeder. In: Wiener Zeitung , November 15, 1911, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ On the source work Franz Joseph I in his letters from Dr. Otto Ernst .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sturmfeder, Louise von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Maria Aloisia Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler, heiress Lerch von und zu Dirmstein (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Educator of Emperors Franz Joseph I and Maximilian of Mexico, lady-in-waiting of the Habsburgs |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 3, 1789 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Esslingen , Württemberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 10, 1866 |
| Place of death | Vienna |