Maximilian von Lerchenfeld-Köfering

Maximilian von Lerchenfeld-Köfering (born August 13, 1799 in Munich , † November 3, 1859 in Vienna ) was a Bavarian diplomat .

Life

family

Maximilian von Lerchenfeld-Köfering was the son of Count Maximilian Emanuel von Lerchenfeld (born January 17, 1772 in Munich, † October 19, 1809 in Kassel ), Bavarian envoy to the royal Westphalian court and his wife, Countess Maria Anna Philippine Walburga von Lerchenfeld - Köfering , née Groschlag (* July 21, 1775 in Dieburg; † June 17, 1854 in Vienna ), daughter of Friedrich Carl Willibald von Groschlag zu Dieburg and last descendant of the Groschlag noble family , lady of the palace of the Queen of Bavaria, Karoline von Baden , born. His mother owned the Klein -zimmer castle .

He had a biological sister:

• Ernestina Johanna Baptista von Lerchenfeld-Köfering (* December 14, 1798, † December 28, 1863 in Vienna).

A liaison between his father and Therese zu Mecklenburg , married to Karl Alexander von Thurn und Taxis , resulted in several children who were taken into the family by the last Groschlag daughter; they lived in their Munich Palais Lerchenfeld or in the moated castle Köfering :

• Georg von Stockau (1806–1865), married to Franziska Countess von und zu Fünfkirchen (* July 23, 1801 in Vienna; † May 14, 1870 in Napajedla);
• Maximilian von Straka (born June 10, 1807 in Frankfurt am Main , † December 12, 1845 in Surakarta on Java ), first lieutenant in the Dutch-Indian military service;
• Elise Therese von Straka (born June 10, 1807 in Frankfurt am Main, † February 19, 1875 ibid);
• Amalie von Lerchenfeld (1808–1888);
• Luise Therese von Straka (born September 28, 1809; † July 10, 1872 in Freiburg im Breisgau ).

During his stay in Bavaria in 1834 he met Isabella Philippine (born October 30, 1817 in Buxheim (Swabia) , † September 28, 1889 in Vagen near Feldkirchen-Westerham ), daughter of Friedrich Waldbott von Bassenheim , who died in 1830 ; he became engaged to her on December 20, 1834, and married her on May 14, 1835. Immediately after the wedding, he returned to St. Petersburg with his wife. They had five children together:

• Maria Anna Nikolaia (born May 29, 1836 in Saint Petersburg ; † unknown), married to Heinrich Johann Clemens Graf von Boos zu Waldeck (born February 3, 1828; † 1865), Prussian lieutenant in the 9th Landwehr hussar regiment;
• Ludwig , royal Bavarian chamberlain and successor to his father in the rule of majority and the hereditary imperial council dignity. He was married to Klara Elisabeth Maria Sophia (born August 13, 1848 in Kokenhusen (Latvia), † June 2, 1945 in Köfering), a daughter of Otto von Bray-Steinburg , former chairman of the Council of Ministers; her son Hugo Graf von und zu Lerchenfeld auf Köfering and Schönberg later became Bavarian Prime Minister , Foreign Minister and Minister of Justice .
• Sophie Karolina (born December 7, 1838 in Köfering, † January 22, 1842);
• Hugo (1843–1925), Bavarian State Councilor and envoy to the Prussian court;
• Maximilian Josef Emmanuel (born February 4, 1846 in Munich, † December 30, 1913 in Arco (Trentino) ).

He was buried in the family crypt in Köfering, which is located in the parish church's own chapel.

Career

Maximilian Joseph von Lerchenfeld-Köfering received his school education in his parents' house by the private tutor Augustin Archibald MacIver, a Catholic clergyman from the Schottenkloster Kloster St. Peter in Regensburg , who was later the tutor of the then Crown Prince Maximilian II , and later he became cathedral chapter as well Provost in Regensburg. As early as 1815 he passed the grammar school graduation exam in Regensburg and then studied in 1816 and 1817 at the Lyzeum in Munich, where he heard lectures from the professors Rector Cajetan Weiller in philosophy, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Breyer in history, Mockery in mathematics, Thaddäus Siber in physics and Friedrich Thiersch in philology.

On November 4, 1817, he began studying law at the University of Würzburg , where he studied for two years; there he heard lectures from Gallus Aloys Kaspar Kleinschrod , Johann Adam von Seuffert , Sebald Brendel (1780–1844), Wilhelm Joseph Behr and Johann Nepomuk von Wenning-Ingenheim (1790–1831), among others . From 1819 to 1820 he completed his studies at the University of Landshut and returned to Würzburg for the summer semester of 1820. He graduated on August 29, 1820. In that year, on October 12th, the appointed guardian gave him his goods, so that he became the independent master and owner of his goods.

On November 1, 1820, he began an internship at the Stadtamhof district court in Regensburg because he wanted to enter the civil service. King Maximilian I appointed him chamberlain on October 21, 1821.

Due to his good grade in the state examination, he was able to choose the branch of civil service and opted for diplomacy. That is why in the years 1822 and 1823 he took the chancellery access (in the case of courts of justice and colleges this is the permission to participate in their negotiations without actually being a member) with the government in Munich; six months later he was still practicing in the Ministry of the Royal House and Foreign Affairs and in December 1824 came to Paris as an attaché to the royal embassy . His superior there was the royal ambassador at the Tuileries Court, Count Franz Gabriel von Bray , who let him take an active part in the respective business. During the time he was in the legation in Paris, from December 1824 to April 1826, he took part in the coronation celebrations of Charles X in Reims . During this time he also used an approved vacation to travel to England .

In November 1826 he was appointed legation secretary in Saint Petersburg, but was only able to take up service there in May 1827 because private business initially held him back and later he had to be present in person at the Feast of the Order of St. George to receive the accolade. He stayed in Russia , with interruptions, until December 1839; in the first year still as legation secretary to the royal ambassador Freiherr Friedrich August von Gise , who later became foreign minister. From late 1831 to 1832 he represented the absent ambassador as charge d'affaires . From April 1, 1832, he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary . After one year, during his stay, he was an independent board of embassy and led as such the stores during the time events, such as the Turkish campaigns in the years 1828 and 1829, during the negotiations for the accession of King Otto of Greece was, this he was awarded the Royal Greek Order of Redeemer during the July Revolution of 1830 and the November 1830 Polish Uprising.

In 1829 he received from his King Ludwig I commissioned by Sweden to travel, and remained on this occasion six weeks at the court in Stockholm and lived on 21 December 1829, the coronation of the Queen of Sweden Désirée Clary , whose daughter Josephine of Leuchtenberg , a Granddaughter of the Bavarian king. During his stay, the Swedish king first awarded him the Knight's Cross and later the Grand Commander's Cross of the North Star Order .

His services in the negotiations on the Greek question led to the award of the royal Greek Order of Savior by King Otto .

In 1838 the Empress of Russia Charlotte of Prussia visited him with her youngest daughter, Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolajewna Romanowa in Köfering, when he stayed there for almost a year. In April 1839 he received the Grand Duke and heir to the throne Alexander II in Braunau am Inn on the Bavarian border.

In the spring of 1839 he returned to St. Petersburg to serve as royal envoy to the wedding of Duke Maximilian de Beauharnais and Grand Duchess Marija Nikolajewna Romanowa , a daughter of Russian Tsar Nicholas I and Princess Charlotte of Prussia , on July 2nd . to participate.

In autumn 1839 he was appointed Bavarian ambassador in Berlin at his own request . He left St. Petersburg on December 4, 1839 and began his new service in March 1840, handing it over to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. his accreditation , which died shortly afterwards on June 7th, 1840, so that Maximilian von Lerchenfeld-Köfering took part in the following changes of throne and government. During his stay in Berlin an intense friendship developed with the Russian envoy, Freiherr Peter von Meyendorff , who was married to the sister of Count Karl Ferdinand von Buol-Schauenstein .

In 1842 he sought the hand of Princess Marie of Prussia as a courtship for the Crown Prince of Bavaria, Maximilian II Joseph , and signed the marriage contract with the Prussian ministers and statesmen Wilhelm zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein , Heinrich von Bülow and Anton zu Stolberg -Wernigerode .

In 1845, the pertinence of two of his estates, Köfering and Gebelkofen with the Gebelkofen moated castle , was established, so that they were recognized as Fideikommiss and led to the title of hereditary imperial council dignity, so that in 1845 he was introduced to the Chamber of Deputies.

At his diplomatic post in Berlin, he concluded treaties he had prepared with several foreign states, for example a free movement agreement between the Crown of Bavaria and the United States of America, so that more people willing to emigrate could afford the crossing, a trade agreement between the Crowns of Bavaria and Portugal , a trade and shipping agreement between the Zollverein and the Kingdom of Sardinia and a free movement agreement between Bavaria and Sweden.

In 1848 he was an eyewitness to the events of the March Revolution in Berlin in 1848 . In the same month he witnessed the abdication of his King Ludwig I, whose heir to the throne Maximilian II. Joseph continued to accredit him as an envoy in Berlin. In 1849 he experienced that Prussia was promoting the military conflict of the Schleswig-Holstein uprising against Denmark and from this he drew the conclusion, "..." Prussia pursued a policy which was at least viewed as dubious, as it was believed to be due to its striving for increasing power the Revolution . ”In 1848 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael .

In February 1849 he was sent by his king to Frankfurt to agree the German constitutional question with the committee of the National Assembly, but all efforts to agree a federal constitution failed because the parliament wanted to form a unitary state and so he returned after the imperial election on March 28, 1849, returned to Berlin. In May 1849 he took part in further conferences chaired by General Joseph von Radowitz, which was supposed to implement the failed constitutional draft in a modified form, with a unified state under Prussian leadership. Bavaria withdrew from the negotiations together with Austria, and in October 1849 he was recalled from Berlin; he was then ambassador to the imperial court in Vienna .

As a Bavarian agent, he negotiated various contracts in Vienna, such as the expansion of the railway and telegraph connections. Shortly before his death, he negotiated verbally with Felix zu Schwarzenberg about shipping on the lower Danube and some border adjustments between the two countries. These appointments were then contractually agreed with the successor Karl Ferdinand von Buol-Schauenstein . Together with the royal ministerial advisor Friedrich von Hermann , he also took part in the Vienna Customs Conference, which opened in the winter of 1852.

He was involved in the negotiations of the marriage contract of Emperor Franz Joseph and the royal princess Elisabeth from the ducal line and signed them. On the occasion of the marriage of the two on April 24, 1854, he received the Grand Cross of the Austrian-Imperial Leopold Order from the Emperor .

On November 7, 1857, he signed the Danube Shipping Act for Danube Shipping.

At his death he was Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown and the Order of Merit of St. Michael .

Fraternity

He was a member of the academic association Bavaria and the General German Burschenschaft founded in Würzburg in 1818 . He was involved in various duels, and in one duel he received a significant wound on the face from a sharp saber, the scar of which he bore his life. In another pistol duel, in which he acted as a second, Count Georg Max Joseph Casimir von Hegnenberg-Dux (1801-1819) was fatally injured on February 14, 1819. This led to the duelist being punished with six months and Maximilian von Lerchenfeld-Köfering with 4.5 months imprisonment in the Marienberg fortress in Würzburg.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 3: I-L. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0865-0 , pp. 276-277.
• Maximilian von Lerchenfeld-Köfering in Allgemeine Zeitung , supplement to No. 22 v. January 22, 1860 and supplement to no. January 23, 1860. Augsburg 1860.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heraldic-genealogical journal: Organ d. Heraldic-Genealogical Association "Adler" in Vienna . Braumüller, 1871 ( google.de [accessed October 15, 2018]).
2. ^ Palatinate (administrative region), administrative region of the Palatinate: Royal Bavarian official and intelligence gazette for the Palatinate: 1848 . 1848 ( google.de [accessed October 15, 2018]).

predecessor	Office	successor
Friedrich August von Gise	royal Bavarian envoy in Saint Petersburg 1832–1839	Franz Oliver from Jenison-Walworth
Friedrich of Luxburg	royal Bavarian envoy in Berlin 1839–1849	Konrad Adolf von Malsen
Friedrich of Luxburg	royal Bavarian envoy in Vienna 1849-1859	Otto von Bray-Steinburg