Ludwig von Zinzendorf

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Ludwig Friedrich Julius Graf von Zinzendorf (born September 23, 1721 in Nuremberg , † October 4, 1780 in Vienna ) was an Austrian statesman .

Life

Ludwig von Zinzendorf was the eldest son of the Electorate Chamberlain Friedrich Christian von Zinzendorf and Pottendorf. It came from his first marriage to Dorothea Juliane Amalie, b. Freiin von Polheim and grew up in a strict Protestant family.

In 1739 he left home, joined the Electoral Saxon cadet and converted to Catholicism on November 22nd. In 1740 the second lieutenant of the life guards traveled to Austria to his great-uncle Franz Ludwig von Zinzendorf , who as Lieutenant General Field Marshal was in command of the Spielberg Fortress . After the death of his great-uncle, he left the service of the Electorate of Saxony and took over the management of the property of the extinct sidelines. Upon reaching the age of majority, Zinzendorf became Austrian chamberlain in 1744 and took over the rule of Enzersfeld the following year . In 1745 he traveled to the imperial coronation of Francis I and received the knighthood through this. From 1746 he studied law and legal history at the University of Leipzig and after completing it received a job as an assessor at the Austrian land law in Vienna.

Through an acquaintance with Wenzel Anton Kaunitz , after his appointment as ambassador in Paris from 1750, he became his attaché. After Kaunitz's appointment as house, court and state chancellor, Zinzendorf received a position as court counselor in the central office for the internal administration of the German and Bohemian hereditary lands and in the commercial directorate. Its president Rudolph Chotek von Chotkow was not well-disposed towards the favorite Kaunitz since his appointment in Paris. In 1755 Zinzendorf was sent to Russia on a diplomatic mission because of the exchange of Holstein and the election of the Polish king , where he temporarily represented the ambassador Esterházy . Until 1761 Zinzendorf was pushed out of office by Chotek and his attempt to change his opponent's mind by marrying Chotek's daughter failed because of his refused consent.

After the death of his father, the Fideikommisse Karlstetten , Wasserburg and Toppel, belonging to the older Karlsbach line, fell to him . In 1761, Zinzendorf was appointed president of the corporate credit deputation and the country's highest financial controller. In 1762 Zinzendorf became president of the court accounting chamber. In 1764 he married Maria Anna von Schwarzenberg, the eldest daughter of Joseph Adam Prince von Schwarzenberg . The only daughter Marie Therese (1765–1785), who was married to Joseph Carl Ferdinand von Dietrichstein , came from the marriage .

In 1764 Zinzendorf was named commander of the Order of St. Stephen and in the same year he was awarded the Hungarian indigenous power . After the death of Franz I, Zinzendorf worked on reforming the state finances by setting up a stock exchange and a state bank and making better use of the money from the repayment fund. His ideas were contrary to those of the President of the General Treasury and the Court Chamber Carl Friedrich Hatzfeldt . A power struggle developed between Zinzendorf and Hatzfeldt. In 1767 Zinzendorf founded a country bank on a trial basis and became its president. This decentralized institution was abolished again after interventions by Hatzfeldt and Choutek and in 1769 Hatzfeldt's ideas of the peace and war system were implemented by Maria Theresa . In 1771 Zinzendorf was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece .

After the abolition of the court arithmetic chamber and the creation of an arithmetic chamber subordinate to the court chamber, Zinzendorf was appointed Minister of State and Conference of Internal Affairs in 1773 and later retired.

Zinzendorf left a autobiography. He was the brother of Maximilian Erasmus von Zinzendorf and a half-brother of Karl von Zinzendorf and Friedrich August von Zinzendorf and nephew of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Zinzendorf, Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zinzendorf, Ludwig Friedrich Julius Graf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian statesman
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1721
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH October 4, 1780
Place of death Vienna