Maximilian Speck von Sternburg

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Portrait (1826)
Manor house of the Lützschena manor, around 1860
Grave in the castle park

Maximilian Speck , since 1829 Baron Speck von Sternburg (born July 30, 1776 in Gröba , † December 22, 1856 in Leipzig ) was a German businessman , entrepreneur and art collector .

Life

Maximilian Speck came to his parents' inn, Maximilian Leonard Adam Speck and Anna Christine, geb. Waldenburger, and lived under simple circumstances in the first years of life. At the age of 14 he received in Beucha by Pastor Friedrich Gottlob Stephani an education, in Leipzig, he worked from the same year in Leipzig Tuchwaren act as clerk . In 1796 he started working for the Leipzig wool trading company Beyer & Comp. on. He demonstrated diplomatic skills in dealing with trading partners, trips on behalf of his employer took him through several European countries, where he deepened his knowledge of the wool trade. In 1815, Stern acquired the building at Reichsstrasse at the corner of Schuhmachergäßchen, which he expanded and converted over the next few years for his business purposes. The house, which was given its current appearance between 1908 and 1929, is still known today as Specks Hof . In 1817 he set up a wool sorting shop in Vienna , and others followed in other European cities.

In 1818 Beyer & Comp. on, Speck was already a partner at this point. Immediately afterwards, he founded his own trading company, which traded under the name of Wollhandlung, also a consignment warehouse for Dutch cloths and Cashmire . Due to the European contacts and business relationships he had already gained, further branches soon followed in Vienna , Aachen , Antwerp and London . In addition to wool , the company's merchandise also included a large number of hare skins , copper , tallow and pig bristles.

Even before founding his own trading company, Speck achieved successes in agriculture, especially in cattle breeding, focusing on the breeding of horned cattle from Switzerland and on sheep breeding. In 1822, Speck bought the Lützschena manor including the brewery , in order to introduce the breeding of so-called electric sheep , a Saxon breed of merino sheep . With the Lützschenaer manor, the feudal estates Freiroda , Quasnitz , Hänichen , Radefeld and the Kritzschiner Mark were acquired. Lützschena quickly developed into an agricultural model estate . After buying the manor, he had the associated palace gardens redesigned based on the English model over the next few years .

In 1825, Speck accepted an invitation to Russia to set up model farms for sheep breeding and to present efficient ways of farming . Before he traveled the country for this purpose, he received at the first reception at the residence of Tsarskoye Selo the tsar Alexander I by this the Vladimir-Orden , coupled with the appointment as Knight of bacon. In 1829 he stayed in Bavaria at the invitation of King Ludwig I , with whom he had already been in letter contact . By Ludwig I. von Speck was raised to the baron class , at his own request the name Sternburg was added to the title in the same year. In Bavaria, Speck von Sternburg leased the monastery of Sankt Veit and the then state estate Schloss Fürstenried for sheep breeding . The coat of arms of the Speck von Sternburg family was also created during this period. From Sankt Veit he brought the master brewer who had worked there to Lützschena, who converted the manor brewery into a Bavarian brewery. In 1836 the brewery moved into a new and large area outside the castle park, and in the same year Speck von Sternburg began growing its own hops .

In 1846, Speck von Sternburg withdrew from his trading business and spent the last years of his life in seclusion in the manor house in the palace gardens and in his town house in Leipzig. In Lützschena itself, Speck von Sternburg founded an agricultural school and educational institution, and in 1847 founded a custodial institution for small children .

family

In 1811, Speck married Charlotte Hänel von Cronenthal (1787–1836), daughter of the Leipzig silk wholesaler, councilor and mayor Christian Friedrich Hänel. The marriage had five children: Carl Maximilian (1812–1884), Maria (1813–1881), Hermann Maximilian (1814–1851), Anna (1816–1891, later Countess von Bohlen) and Alexander Maximilian (1821–1911) . The eldest daughter Maria married the Austrian freedom fighter, statesman and writer Joseph von Hormayr in 1837 and spent the last decades of her life as Baroness von Hormayr zu Hortenburg in Munich . The youngest son, Alexander Maximilian, founded his own wool trading company in Leeds, England, in 1849, before inheriting from his father in Lützschena in 1856. In 1876 he enlarged and modernized the Lützschenaer brewery.

One of Maximilian's grandsons, Hermann Speck von Sternburg , worked as a German diplomat in various countries, in the USA as the ambassador of the German Empire. He is still mentioned today in connection with the history of the New York borough of Little Germany . Hermann Speck von Sternburg was also an art collector, and he donated part of his Asian collection to the Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig .

The grave of Maximilian Speck von Sternburg and that of his wife Charlotte are in the Lützschena Palace Park , where his descendants also had a family tomb.

Family archive Speck von Sternburg

The Speck von Sternburg family archive was located in Lützschena Castle until 1945. In connection with the expropriation and eviction of the owners, manor and family documents were handed over to the municipality or the Leipzig City Archives and were transferred to the Leipzig State Archives from 1955 onwards. In addition, other parts of the family archive remained with family members or were saved in the Lützschena rectory. Wolf-Dietrich Speck von Sternburg presented these and other documents he had collected to the Saxon State Archives, Leipzig State Archives as a deposit for an unlimited period in 2015 and 2016 . The 22382 Family Archive Speck von Sternburg was first presented to the public in October 2015 and can be researched online.

The Leipzig State Archives showed the exhibition Maximilian Speck von Sternburg and his Heirs from November 2017 to May 2018 . Family relationships over six generations as well as the achievements of individual family members in the economic and cultural sectors were made visible.

Art collector

On his travels through Europe, Speck von Sternburg assembled an extensive art collection between 1807 and 1832. He acquired paintings by German, Dutch, Italian, French and Spanish masters from famous collections in Vienna, Rome and Brussels. Since 1822 he has presented the collection on his Lützschena estate near Leipzig in a much-visited gallery. The collection, which was significantly expanded by the son Alexander Maximilian, was located there until 1945 and is now the property of the Maximilian Speck von Sternburg Foundation in the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig . In addition to the art collection, the approximately 500 of the almost 1000 original titles in the historical family library are also part of the foundation. Maximilian Speck was also one of the co-founders of the Leipziger Kunstverein .

Works

  • List of von Speck's painting collection: with related stone impressions, published and with historical-biographical notes accompanied by the owner of the same. [Leipzig] 1827.
  • Walk to Lützschena and its surroundings: a guide for friends of nature, art and agriculture . Teubner, Leipzig 1830.
  • Second directory of the painting collection as well as the most excellent hand drawings, copperplate engravings, copperplate engravings and plastic objects by Freiherr v. Speck-Sternburg, hereditary fief and court lord on Lützschena in Saxony, Freyroda in Prussia, St. Veit in Bavaria etc. etc., published and accompanied by historical-biographical remarks and explanations by the owner of the same. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1837. ( digitized version )
  • Hop growing, as it has been practiced with the happiest successes on the Lützschena manor near Leipzig since 1836: along with images of several tools that are necessary for hop growing. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1839.
  • Representation of the hop growing as it is operated on the order of Baron Max. Von Speck-Sternburg [...] on his estate in St. Veit near Landshut in Upper Bavaria . Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1840.
  • Directory of the painting collection of Baron v. Speck-Sternburg , ed. u. with historical-biographer. Remarks and Explanations accompanied by the owner of the same. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1840.
  • Agricultural description of the Lützschena manor near Leipzig, with its branches of industry . Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1842. ( digitized version )
  • Views and remarks on painting and plastic works of art . Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1846.
  • Karsten Hommel (Ed.): "There is only one Paris in the world": Edition of the travel diaries of the knight Maximilian von Speck, Baron von Sternburg (1776-1856), on the occasion of the 150th year of his death and the 10th anniversary of the eponymous Foundation . Leipzig 2006. ISBN 3-938543-25-6

literature

  • Directory of the library of Baron Max v. Speck-Sternburg on Lützschena, which, along with several other libraries as well as an important collection of incunabula and old printed works, a collection of music […] is to be auctioned on November 16, 1857 in the […] Weigelsche Auctions-Lokal in Leipzig […] . Leipzig [1857], 275 pp.
  • EM Reichel: Maximilian von Speck-Sternburg after his life and work . Teubner, Leipzig 1857.
  • William Löbe:  Speck von Sternburg, Max Freiherr . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 35, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, p. 78.
  • Herwig Guratzsch (ed.): Maximilian Speck von Sternburg: a European of the Goethe era as an art collector . Seemann, Leipzig 1998. ISBN 3-363-00691-8
  • Karsten Hommel: Carl Lampe and Maximilian Speck von Sternburg. Two 19th century art patrons from Leipzig . In: Leipzig calendar. Volume 1999 , Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-933240-67-0 , pp. 157-178.
  • Karsten Hommel: Historic manor and manor house libraries. The library of Baron Maximilian Speck von Sternburg on Lützschena . In: AKMB-News 5 (1999), No. 1, pp. 28-30.
  • Wolf-Dietrich Speck von Sternburg, Peter Guth: The Speck von Sternburgsche Schlosspark Lützschena , edited by Bernd Sikora. Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 1999. ISBN 3-932900-28-6 .
  • Karsten Hommel: Maximilian Baron Speck von Sternburg. A Leipzig merchant travels through Europe . In: Leipziger Blätter (2007), No. 50, pp. 13–15.
  • Susan Hastings: The Wool Merchant. The life of Maximilian Speck, Freiherr von Sternburg . (Roman) Plöttner, Leipzig 2008. ISBN 978-3-938442-53-1
  • Jan Nicolaisen:  Speck, Maximilian Freiherr von Sternburg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 637 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wolf-Dietrich Speck von Sternburg: History of the Knights v. Bacon Barons v. Sternburg . Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2015.

Web links

Wikisource: Maximilian Speck von Sternburg  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Speck von Sternburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ Family archive Speck von Sternburg. Saxon State Archives, accessed on May 24, 2018 .
  2. ^ Sternburg Foundation. Maximilian Speck von Sternburg Foundation in the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig, accessed on May 24, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Speck from Sternburg, Maximilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH Groeba
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1856
Place of death Leipzig