Luxburg (noble family)

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Coat of arms illustration of the Luxburg coat of arms in the count's diploma from 1790

Luxburg , until the 18th century Girtanner , then also Girtanner von Luxburg , is from 1776 the name of an aristocratic Palatinate-Zweibrücken and from 1813 Bavarian noble family . The Girtanners were dyers in St. Gallen . Heinrich and Rudolf Girtanner - probably from the hamlet or town of Girtannen (also Giirtanne) in the municipality of Wald in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden - acquired the citizenship of the city of St. Gallen in 1387.

history

The secured family line of the Girtanner begins with the brothers Heinrich and Rudolf, who acquired the citizenship of St. Gallen in 1387. Many members of the family practiced the dyeing profession from the 16th century (possibly also as early as the 15th century) until the early 20th century in direct genealogical order. From the 18th century on, the family also included merchants, doctors ( Christoph Girtanner ), scientists ( Johann Joachim Girtanner ) and technicians. From the 15th century to the first half of the 19th century, the Girtanner held numerous political offices, including a. as mayor of the city ​​of St. Gallen , as in the 18th century as a councilor (Hans Kaspar Girtanner 1741 - 1808).

Johann (es) Girtanner (1705 - 1781) from St. Gallen , who married a Katharina Burckhardt from a patrician family of the city of Basel in the middle of the 18th century , entered service in the Electorate of the Palatinate and in France. As a general agent of the Lorraine salt mines, he made great private fortunes. Finally, he acquired the rule of Luxburg with his castle on Lake Constance and was raised to the imperial nobility status by Emperor Joseph II in 1776 and a little later, in 1779, to the imperial baron status.

His son Johann Friedrich (1748-1820), Hesse-Darmstadt and Palatinate-Zweibrücken privy councilor, received the title of Reich Count during the Electoral Palatinate Vicariate in 1790 . He was an officer in the French regiment of Duke Max Joseph von Zweibrücken , who later became King of Bavaria, and is the progenitor of the Counts of Luxburg in Bavaria. He gave up the St. Gallic citizenship and replaced the old family coat of arms of the Girtanner in 1790 with a new family coat of arms, which represents a new variant of the interpretation of "Luxburg". He also converted to the Catholic faith in order to better fit into the circles of the nobility. As early as 1794, Johann Friedrich, as a petitioner, applied to the city council of St. Gallen for re-citizenship and renewed citizenship of St. Gallen in order to save his wife Carolina Maria, a nee Vogt von Hunolstein , from the scaffold in France . By this time she had already been imprisoned in Metz prison for fourteen months and is waiting to be released. Only by presenting a confirmation of citizenship can it be declared that his wife is a “commoner” and thus saved. Ultimately, Johann Friedrich received the town's letter of citizenship again for himself and his wife and his Carolina Maria was released.

His son Friedrich Christian (1783 - 1856), born in Zweibrücken , moved to Munich with the Palatinate Wittelsbachers , became Bavarian treasurer, state councilor, authorized minister and envoy in Dresden , Berlin , Paris and Vienna and was one of the fathers of the German Customs Union . His brother Karl August Emil (1782 - 1849) was a major in the Bavarian invasion troops, who later rose to become the envoy of the Baden ruling house and from 1821 was director of the Mannheim National Theater . He married on May 23, 1814 Louise Catherine Éléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne . She was the lover of Napoleon I Bonaparte and the mother of his first son Charles Léon Denuelle , who was adopted by Karl August Emil when he married. Later, Charles Léon and his descendants with his wife Françoise Fanny Jonet are referred to in some genealogical works as Comte Léon, but they were officially called Luxburg. His grandson Charles de Luxbourg (1911–1994) was the last male descendant of this line of Bonapartes. With his death on May 23, 1994, the line in the male line was extinguished.

Friedrich Christian's second son, named Friedrich Reinhard Karl Ludwig (1829 - 1905), became lord of the castle in Aschach in 1874 . He was born on August 21, 1829 in Laubegast near Dresden and had five siblings. He spent his youth in Berlin and Paris . After visiting the pagerie in Munich (until 1847) he began studying at the university. When in 1848 unrest broke out in Munich and in the Munich student body because of Lola Montez and her influence with King Ludwig I of Bavaria , the patriotic-minded students chose Friedrich Reinhard as their spokesman. Thereupon King Ludwig I received the young Friedrich Reinhard. After studying in Heidelberg , where his uncle Karl August directed the theater's directorate, Friedrich Karl Ludwig studied in Berlin because his father was an envoy there. During this time his personal relationships with the Prussian court developed. After completing his studies in Munich with an excellent state examination, he was appointed as assessor in Bad Reichenhall in 1856 for the purpose of setting up the bath commissioner. In November 1858 he became district judge for Bad Kissingen city and country. The development of the city of Bad Kissingen at that time can be described as unusual. The switch from working life to spa and bathing was noticeable. The population of Bad Kissingen rose to 2969. In 1862 Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary came to a spa stay. A year later she and her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph I, visited Bad Kissingen. At that time, the Kissingen spa was not yet connected to the railway network. The princes used to travel with a large retinue. The bathroom commissioner headed by Friedrich Reinhard was responsible for the safety and satisfaction of these guests. In 1864 Friedrich Reinhard became a councilor in Regensburg and in 1866 police director in Munich. Here differences of opinion arose between him and King Ludwig II , so that in 1867 he had to go to Paris as commissioner for the world exhibition and to Berlin as legation counselor and chargé d'affaires. As an admirer of Prince Otto von Bismarck , he frequented his house and loved it. He was welcome at the imperial court and Queen Augusta of Prussia is said to have preferred him. At a court party he met his future wife, Princess Luise von Schoenaich-Carolath . As a customs representative for Kissingen-Neustadt, the people of the Saalegau elected him to the customs parliament in 1868 in order to work on the German customs unit. At the age of 39 he was appointed district president of Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg . During the Franco-German War (1871) he worked temporarily as a commissioner for the administration of the Lower Rhine department in Strasbourg. After his return to Würzburg, he tirelessly tried to make Lower Franconia a model province in the Kingdom of Bavaria . Fruit, wine and arable farming, livestock and poultry farming should take off in the entire administrative district. He realized that schools, roads and water pipes were essential for a better standard of living.

With the city of Würzburg and Mayor Georg von Zürn he shared common interests and administrative business. But when the city magistrate decided to demolish the late Gothic district court building between the cathedral and Neumünster, District President Friedrich Karl Ludwig refused to give his consent out of historical sense of responsibility. However, this time he had to submit to an order from the Bavarian state government and the building was then torn down. In 1893 he founded the "Franconian Art and Antiquity Association", which lives on in the society of the "Friends of Mainfränkischer Kunst und Geschichte". The art-loving district president, who admired the carver Tilman Riemenschneider and the painter Matthias Grünewald, suggested the construction of the Frankonia Fountain on the Würzburg Residenzplatz. In 1893 he arranged an art exhibition in the cathedral cloister and chapter hall with the participation of the Würzburg cathedral chapter, the Franconian nobility, the cities and foundations.

Prince Otto von Bismarck came to Aschach often and gladly during his spa stays in Bad Kissingen. A Würzburg stone wine that he particularly valued was always ready for him. But when Friedrich Karl Ludwig, as a member of the Reichstag, voted against a bill by the Prince, there was a certain resentment. Friedrich Karl Ludwig hoped that Bismarck would understand that personal friendship had to take a back seat in such votes. He was not mistaken: Prince Bismarck visited Friedrich Karl Ludwig and his family again at Aschach Castle. When, after Bismarck's release, the order came from Berlin that the prince should no longer be heeded, Friedrich Karl Ludwig remained loyal to the prince. As a private citizen, the prince was treated with the same attention as before.

In 1899, Dr. iur. hc Friedrich Reinhard Karl Ludwig Graf von Luxburg, honorary citizen of the cities of Würzburg and Kissingen and the municipality of Aschach, royal treasurer and district president, from the influenza , from which he no longer properly recovered. In 1901 he asked for his retirement, which he received with great honors. He spent his twilight years at Aschach Castle . He died on November 23, 1905 in Würzburg and was buried in the family crypt in Bad Kissingen.

Friedrich Reinhard's son Karl-Ludwig (1872-1956) studied law and married Carola Martinez de Hoz. He was the envoy of Kaiser Wilhelm II in China , in early 1913 in India and during the First World War in Argentina . Karl-Ludwig was involved in the Luxburg affair from February 2, 1917 . On May 9, 1918, Karl-Ludwig was able to leave Argentina. In Germany , he was put into temporary retirement after the collapse of the German Empire in December 1918. He devoted himself to the administration of his estates and in September 1939 he moved to Argentina.

1955 gave Karl-Ludwig the castle Aschach in Bad Kissingen with all the inventory as a gift to the district of Lower Franconia to establish a Castle Museum, which opened the 1957th Despite the many changing owners of Luxburg Castle on Lake Constance before and after the Girtanner, the Counts of Luxburg, Lords of Oberstadt and Niedernstadt are still the only family to bear the name of the castle and the former rule.

Status surveys

  • Imperial nobility on March 18, 1776 in Vienna with the name addition Edler von Luxburg for Johann (es) Girtanner from St. Gallen as general agent of the Lorraine salt works, who in 1761 had acquired the lordship and palace of Luxburg near Egnach on Lake Constance .
  • Imperial Baron on January 29, 1779 in Vienna with the salutation “Well-born” and the improvement of the coat of arms as Baron Girtanner von Luxburg, Lord of Luxburg, Upper and Lower Town for the same Johann Girtanner Edler von Luxburg. Due to the lack of evidence, it is not possible to determine which geographical locations the Oberstadt and Niedernstadt information refers to.
  • Reichsgrafenstand on September 24, 1790 in Munich by Elector Karl Theodor von Pfalzbayern in the function of Reichsvikar , omitting the original family name Girtanner as the Holy Roman. Rich Count of Luxburg, Lord of Luxburg, Upper and Lower Town for Johann Friedrich Freiherr Girtanner von Luxburg , as Count of the Palatinate of Zweibrücken and Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, Privy Councilor and Thigh.
  • Enrollment in the Kingdom of Bavaria with the count's class on January 11, 1813 for the latter's son Friedrich Christian as royal Bavarian treasurer and state councilor, authorized minister and envoy in Dresden , Berlin , Paris and Vienna , as well as for his siblings.

coat of arms

Girtanner

Depicting the coat of arms of the patrician Girtanner from St. Gallen

Description of coat of arms: Divided by gold and red. Above three torn green fir trees, below a silver eagle ready to fly. Deviating from this, there is still a coat of arms of the Girtanner from Tablat in historical records, who were also listed as members of the laudable citizens of St. Gallen. Here the coat of arms in gold on a green shield base shows a black eagle ready to fly, which is accompanied by two green fir trees.

Noble coat of arms

According to historical records and the explanations of the local researcher Rolf Blust, a new coat of arms was only adopted with the award of the baron title, which represents a new variant of the interpretation of "Luxburg". However, in his large and general book of arms for the nobility in Baden with Fürstenberg, 1878, Johann Siebmacher shows a coat of arms from 1776, which corresponds to the baronial and count's coat of arms (1779 and 1790) in the shield image that was later used. However, the colors of the helmet covers of the two guided helmets have changed.

Baron coat of arms

A silver St. Andrew's cross of red and blue diagonally quartered and covered with a green heart shield , inside a sitting natural lynx ; the oblique left-hand bar of the St. Andrew's cross is covered with six gold-studded brown hip horns turned upwards ; the diagonal bar with six brown arrows in a row with steel tips and red feathers. Two helmets ; on the right with blue and silver blankets the seated lynx, on the left with red and silver blankets an eagle's wing divided by red and blue , covered with a silver diagonal bar with an arrow in it like a shield . Shield holder : Two natural lynxes standing against them.

Count's coat of arms

Coat of arms of the Counts of Luxburg, Lords of Upper and Lower Town

The count's coat of arms corresponds to the coat of arms that has been used since the elevation to the imperial baron status in 1779.

Different coat of arms representations and descriptions

What is striking about the Luxburg coat of arms is that the representation and colors vary in different works and that there is no uniform declaration of the coat of arms. The color of the arrow feathers differs from that of the horns, even in the individual works of Siebmacher's heraldic books. The volume for the nobility in Baden (m. Fürstenberg) with the volume for the nobility in Bavaria can be compared here from the series of J. Siebmacher's large and general heraldic books.

On a colored drawing published by the royal university printing house H. Stürtz, Würzburg, which the district president Dr. iur. hc Friedrich Reinhard Karl Ludwig Graf von Luxburg shows, an upright lynx (possibly in silver - not clearly visible) can be seen in the center shield.

Luxburg Castle

Luxburg Palace ( 47 ° 32 ′ 53.12 ″  N , 9 ° 22 ′ 59.38 ″  E ) in Egnach , Switzerland, was originally one of Emperor Friedrich III. landscaped in the late 14th century altgotischer and later greatly modernized judicial seat of the Bishopric of Constance , that this also with a carte blanche knew. Then it was the property of the patricians of Lindau .

In the 17th century, the castle belonged to the Hallwylers before Johann Girtanner acquired the castle in 1776. When he was raised to the rank of Imperial Knight, he was named Johann Girtanner Edler von Luxburg after his possession . The castle is located in a park with an area of ​​9000 m² near the confluence of the Wiilerbach in Lake Constance. Since 1980 it has been one of four castles owned by the Foundation for Art, Culture and History of the Winterthur property owner Bruno Stefanini .

Aschach Castle

Aschach Castle

In the spring of 1873, Friedrich Reinhard Graf von Luxburg (1829–1905) acquired Aschach Castle near Bad Kissingen and expanded it into a family seat, as the family no longer had an ancestral home after the Luxburg Castle was sold. Friedrich Reinhard von Luxburg loved all kinds of art objects and furnished Aschach Castle accordingly. In 1955 his son Karl-Ludwig von Luxburg bequeathed the entire property to the district of Lower Franconia . Today Aschach Castle and all its outbuildings can be visited as a museum.

Name bearer (chronological)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Marcel Mayer: Girtanner. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ^ Rolf Blust: To the Luxburg - Egnacher Heimatbuch Volume I. , ISBN 3-9520633-3-9
  3. ^ Rolf Blust: To the Luxburg - Egnacher Heimatbuch Volume I. , ISBN 3-9520633-3-9
  4. ↑ Schultheis Herbert: Bad Bocklet - history of the districts of Aschach and Großenbrach , ISBN 978-3-9800482-9-3
  5. ^ Aschach Castle Museums
  6. ^ Rolf Blust: Um die Luxburg - Egnacher Heimatbuch Volume I. , Page 79, ISBN 3-9520633-3-9
  7. ↑ J. Siebmacher's large and general book of arms, Der Adel Baden m. Fürstenberg, page 34, heraldic panel 21 , Bauer & Raspe, Nuremberg 1878
  8. ↑ J. Siebmacher's large and general book of arms, Der Adel Baden m. Fürstenberg, page 34, heraldic panel 21 , Bauer & Raspe, Nuremberg 1878
  9. ^ Peter A. Süß: District President Friedrich Graf von Luxburg - from the series Mainfränkische Hefte, Issue 107, page 43, Friends of Mainfränkischer Kunst und Geschichte eV, Würzburg, 2008, ISBN 3-9800538-6-5
  10. ↑ The Legacy of Luxburg. St. Galler Tagblatt of October 13, 2012, accessed on October 16, 2012.