Ludwig Count Cobenzl
Ludwig Graf Cobenzl (also: Johann Ludwig Carl Graf Cobenzl ) (* February 9, 1744 in Laibach or November 21, 1743 ; † March 31, 1792 in Eichstätt ) was provost in Eichstätt and a member of the Illuminati Order during the Enlightenment .
Life
He was the second of five children of the Imperial and Royal Chamberlain Count Cobenzl (* 1716) and his wife Maria Anna Benigna, Countess of Montrichier, who was married to him in 1739 . He grew up there in his father's castle Lueg (today Predjama Castle ) in the 16th century and attended the University of Salzburg . On August 31, 1760 he received in Seckau the Minores, the minor orders . On July 27, 1761 he was domiciled in Eichstätt, and on August 26, 1765 in Liège . There he was ordained as a sub-deacon on August 24, 1769 . On April 2, 1773 Cobenzl became cathedral chapter in Eichstätt; in December of the same year he resigned himself to his Liège canonical.
Like his older brother Johann Philipp Graf Cobenzl , he belonged to the Illuminati Order , an Enlightenment secret society founded on the principles of Freemasonry , where he represented the Franconian Order Province in the highest governing body, the Areopagus. It is said that the Eichstatt Illuminati, above all civil servants, teachers and clergymen, who came together from 1778 onwards, led a pronounced social and educational life. They controlled the Eichstätt Freemason lodge "Pallas to the 3 lights from the staircase" and used them to recruit members and for camouflage. About 20 Eichstatt Illuminati, including Cobenzl as "Arrian", can be identified by name. In 1785 the Eichstätt Illuminati stopped their activities - two years before the episcopal ban on all secret societies, which was imposed by the Bavarian authorities. There was no Illuminati persecution in Eichstätt, and no member of the order lost his or her administrative post with the ban.
On March 27, 1781, the Illuminat Cobenzl failed in the Eichstätter prince-bishop election as the opposing candidate of Johann Anton III. von Zehmen - despite the support of the imperial court in Vienna, of which he was a supporter. On December 12, 1781 he became provost of the cathedral in Eichstätt. At the end of the 1780s, the Augustinian canons of Rebdorf, with the support of Cobenzl, tried to have their monastery abolished and to be exempted from religious vows, but failed due to resistance from the Austrian imperial family. In 1790, Cobenzl was sent by the cathedral chapter to the prince-bishop's commission to establish a widow's and orphan's fund.
Provost Cobenzl died in Eichstätt at the age of 48. Even in his will he proved himself to be an illuminate and enlightener : striving to improve the population in terms of social and educational policy, he considered the institute for the poor and the normal school in Eichstätt. In the mortuary of the Eichstätter cathedral there is a small stone with his coat of arms, which belonged to the lost Cobenzl epitaph .
Cobenzl Castle
→ Main article: Cobenzlschlösschen
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"L. COBENZL Dedicated
to the founder of this complex as a
permanent memorial by his freind
W. HOMPESCH
1789 “
In Eichstätt, Domkapitular Cobenzl owned, in addition to his city apartment, from 1776 on the outskirts of the city a baroque palace that is still named after him today , which consisted of an oval central building with two small wings and a garden with a brick garden pavilion above the palace. This complex was built between 1730 and 1740 by Gabriel de Gabrieli as a pleasure palace for the Episcopal Oberstjägermeister Franz Ludwig Freiherr von Katzenelnbogen . Beginning in 1784, Cobenzl expanded the terraced garden behind the castle on the sloping hillside of the Altmühltal into a park that extended further to the east, had another wooden (now defunct) pavilion built and made the complex accessible to the public. A memorial stone attached to the stairway to Frauenberg in 1792 commemorates Cobenzl. In the palace and garden he arranged balls and picnics, to which he also invited non-noble officials, in order to reduce class differences in the interests of the Illuminati. He also made his library, well stocked with scientific and philosophical works, available to anyone interested. After secularization , the castle was converted into a beer business from 1810 and a long wing was added. From 1864 the gasworks of the city of Eichstätt operated by an Augsburg stock corporation stood on the former Cobenzl site for a century . Since 1988 the department for the preservation of art and cultural property of the city and the district office has been housed in the castle.
literature
- Franz Karl Wißgrill : The scene of the rural Lower Austrian nobility from the lords 'and knights' ranks from the 11th century up to the present day. 2nd volume, Vienna 1795
- Felix Mader (editor): The art monuments of Middle Franconia. I. City of Eichstätt. Munich 1924; Reprint Munich, Vienna 1981: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, ISBN 3-486-50504-1 , pp. 734-739
- Hugo A. Braun: The cathedral chapter of Eichstätt from the Reformation period to secularization (1535-1806). Contributions to its constitution and personnel history. Eichstätt 1983 (dissertation theol.)
- Bruno Lengenfelder: The Diocese of Eichstätt between Enlightenment and Restoration. Church and State 1773-1821. (Eichstätter Studies, NF Volume 18, also Eichstätt, Catholic University, dissertation). Regensburg 1990: Verlag Friedrich Pustet. ISBN 3-7917-1216-0
- Carla Neis, Li Portenlänger and Siegfried Schieweck-Mauk: from his friend. The hidden garden. Eichstätt: Lithography workshop, 2011 (with Cobenzl biography, pp. 79-104)
- Freemasonry in the diocese of Eichstätt. In: Pastoral sheet of the Diocese of Eichstätt 12 (1865), No. 41–52
- Episcopal Eichstätt decree against the Illuminati. In: Journal von und für Deutschland Vol. 2/1787, pp. 435f.
- Bruno Lengenfelder: Illuminati in Eichstätt. An enlightening secret society in the episcopal city. In: Collective sheet of the Historisches Verein Ingolstadt 97 (1988), pp. 135–170
- Hermann Hüffer : Cobenzl, Ludwig Graf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, pp. 355-363.
- Peter Zürcher: The bishopric elections in the prince-bishopric of Eichstätt from 1636 to 1790. Election events in the mirror domkapitelscher, dynastic and imperial state and imperial church politics (dissertation Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, 2004/2005). Munich: Verlag CH Beck, 2008 (series of publications on Bavarian national history; 155). ISBN 978-3-406-10770-2
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cobenzl, Ludwig Graf |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cobenzl, Johann Ludwig Carl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Provost |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 9, 1744 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Laibach |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 31, 1792 |
| Place of death | Eichstatt |