Matthias Gerhard von Hoesch

Matthias Gerhard Hoesch (from 1744 Baron von Hoesch ) (* 1698 in Eschweiler ; † 1784 ) was a statesman and diplomat in the Prussian , Electoral Cologne , imperial and Bavarian services as well as a coal and steel entrepreneur in the Warstein area .

Origin and education

Matthias Gerhard was the son of Heinrich Hoesch (1669–1738) and Helena von Recklinghausen (1666–1736) and comes from the Stolberg line of the Hoesch family . Since the acquisition of the Junker hammer by his great-grandfather Jeremiah II. Hoesch is on the Matthias Gerhard grew, the family was as Reide- and copper master operates. He himself decided to study law .

Civil service

After that he entered the service of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I in 1725. He was a Clevish and Brandenburg court judge. In 1728 he became district director of the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Imperial Circle and resident of the Duke of Jülich .

He entered the state service in electoral Cologne in 1733 and became a councilor in August 1735. While working for Kurköln, he converted to Catholicism. In the course of the reorganization of the state leadership, he received the newly created office of court chancellor under Clemens August von Bayern in 1741 . Besides him, the Secret Government Council played only a subordinate role. He was protected by the French envoy Jean-Baptiste-François-Joseph de Sade . With the political change of course of the Elector from the Bavarian-French to the Habsburg party, he lost his influence as early as 1742 and the position of court chancellor, which was not occupied again later.

In 1743, Hoesch moved to the imperial court of Charles VII. He was appointed imperial secret council and in 1744 raised to the status of imperial baron. From 1744 to 1746 he was, among other things, the authorized imperial minister in the Frankish imperial circle . He later entered the service of the Bavarian region and from 1747 was the Bavarian envoy in Cologne. Until 1778 he worked as a diplomat.

Mining entrepreneur

In the Warstein area he laid the foundation for the economic upswing alongside Johann Theodor Möller . In 1739 he was granted extensive electoral privileges. The concession included iron smelters, iron hammers and generally the iron factories that were dependent on them . In 1740 he had an ironworks built near Suttrop near iron deposits in the Oberhagen area . In 1744 he bought more land and forests. Iron was smelted and cast goods were made. As early as 1740 he had planned the construction of an iron hammer. But the project could not be completed until 1744. Bar and plate iron were produced. A subsidiary Eisenhammer was built in the direction of Belecke .

He was also the owner of Pesch Castle in what is now the Rhine district of Neuss. Through the marriage of his daughter Henriette Helene († 1808/09) with Heinrich Theodor von Hallberg , the property passed into the hands of the von Hallberg families. The Warsteiner mine and steel works emerged from the company near Warstein in the 19th century.

literature

• Justus Hashagen / Fritz Brüggemann : History of the Hoesch Family , 4 volumes, Cologne, 1911–1916

Individual evidence

1. ^ Excerpt from Wilhelm Tacke: The iron hammer
2. ^ Hermann Friedrich Macco : History and genealogy of the Peltzer families . Aachen, 1901 p. 197f.
3. ^ Rotthoff, Guido: Inventory of the Vielhaber Collection in the Krefeld City Archive, Krefeld City Archive, Rheinland-Verlag, 1988, p. 139
4. ^ Rudolf Lill / Erwin Sandmann: Constitution and Administration of the Electorate and Archdiocese of Cologne. In the 18th century . In: Elector Clemens August. Sovereign and patron of the 18th century . Cologne, 1961 p. 51
5. ↑ Angela Kulenkampff: Austria and the old empire. The Reich Policy of State Chancellor Kaunitz under Maria Theresia and Joseph II. Cologne, 2005 p. 22
6. ↑ Alois Schmid: Max III. Joseph and the European Powers. The foreign policy of the Electorate of Bavaria from 1745 to 1765 . Munich, 1987 p. 203
7. ↑ Dietmar Lange: Warsteiner Eisenhütte founded 250 years ago. In 1967 the end came . In: Sauerland 4/1989 p. 127