Otto von Bray-Steinburg

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Otto von Bray-Steinburg

Otto Kamillus Hugo Gabriel Graf von Bray-Steinburg (born May 17, 1807 in Berlin , † January 9, 1899 in Munich ) was a Bavarian politician.

Life

Otto von Bray-Steinburg was the son of the French diplomat and imperial councilor Franz Gabriel Graf von Bray from the noble family of the Brays .

After graduating from high school in 1825, Bray-Steinburg studied law at the (today's) Wilhelmsgymnasium in Göttingen and Munich and then worked as a diplomat in Vienna, Paris and Athens. From 1843 to 1859 he was, with interruptions, the Bavarian envoy in Saint Petersburg . In 1846/47 he was Foreign Minister for the first time, and in 1848/49 for the second time . In 1859/60 he was envoy in Berlin, then in Vienna.

In 1870 King Ludwig II reappointed him Foreign Minister and Chairman of the Council of Ministers . Like his predecessor, Bray-Steinburg had to rule against the Greater German-minded, conservative Bavarian Patriot Party, which had had a majority in parliament since 1869. However, the king only appointed liberal ministers; his sovereignty over MPs was more important to him than intersections with the patriots.

In the Franco-German war of 1870/71, Bray-Steinburg was the only German politician in a leading position to originally speak out against the annexations of French territories (e.g. Alsace and German Lorraine). In the event that a cession of the Alsace-Lorraine area becomes inevitable, he spoke in a letter (September 4, 1870) to the then Austro-Hungarian Chancellor and kuk . Foreign Minister Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust , his personal friend from study days in Göttingen, for the creation of a neutral intermediate state under the House of Habsburg-Lothringen-Tuscany . But just a few days later, Bray-Steinburg - since Prussia insisted on annexation - switched to the Prussian position.

When it came to the approval of the state parliament for the establishment of an empire, the Patriot Party, which had always advocated an independent Bavaria, split on this question. Finally, the state parliament voted for membership with an extremely narrow two-thirds majority of 102 to 48 votes, but not until January 21, 1871, three days after the imperial proclamation. Bray-Steinburg was responsible for negotiating Bavaria's entry into the German Empire , where he was able to secure important special rights for Bavaria (in particular an independent Bavarian army ; exceptions to the responsibilities of the Reich ). Because of his opposition to Bavarian culture warfare policy , he resigned as Foreign Minister in 1871 and was again Bavarian envoy in Vienna until 1897.

In 1849 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Passau .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max Leitschuh: The matriculations of the upper classes of the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich . 4 vol., Munich 1970–1976, vol. 3, p. 267.
  2. Eberhard Kolb : The way out of the war: Bismarck's politics in the war and the initiation of peace 1870/71 . 2nd edition, 1990, p. 180 f

Web links

Commons : Otto von Bray-Steinburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files