Pourtalès

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Coat of arms of the Counts of Pourtalès

Pourtalès is a Huguenot family who fled from France to the Prussian Neuchâtel in Switzerland and was ennobled there .

origin

Pourtalès (spr. Purtaläs), from southern France, since the revocation of the Edict of Nantes of Neuchâtel, a Protestant family whose founder Jeremias Pourtalès was elevated to the Prussian nobility on February 14, 1750 by Frederick the Great .

His son Jakob Ludwig von Pourtalès (born August 9, 1722 in Neuchâtel) opened a trading house in Neuchâtel in 1753 and within a short time made it one of the most respected in the trading world. He founded all kinds of industrial establishments in his home country and elsewhere and left behind a fortune of 40 million francs on his death (March 20, 1814). His three sons were born on December 9, 1815 by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. raised to the Prussian count status.

Laasow manor around 1860 ( Duncker collection )

The eldest son, Ludwig, Count von Pourtalès (born May 14, 1773), founder of the Pourtalès-Sandoz line (he was married to Elisabeth von Sandoz-Rottin), was President and Councilor of State in the Principality of Neuchâtel and Chief Inspector of the Swiss Artillery and died on May 8, 1848. In 1842 he had acquired the Laasow estate in Brandenburg (where Jacques Alfred Graf von Pourtales had a new manor house built in the Swiss villa style in 1856). His eldest son, Ludwig August, Count von Pourtalès (born March 17, 1796) was a Prussian extraordinary councilor and lieutenant colonel in the artillery in the Principality of Neuchâtel. On September 3, 1856, he raided the castle in Neuchâtel to restore the royal government. When the company failed, he escaped across the lake, but was arrested in Freiburg territory and only released after Prussia had renounced its sovereign rights in Neuchâtel. He died on June 7, 1870 in Neuchâtel. His brother, Karl Friedrich, Count of Pourtalès-Steiger (born June 10, 1799), retired royal Prussian colonel. D., Chief Inspector of the Militias in the Principality of Neuchâtel, led troops of royalists to Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds on September 3, 1856 , was forced to retreat to Neuchâtel and was wounded in captivity, but was later also amnestied and died on September 5. June 1882 in the Villa Mettlen near Muri, Canton Bern.

Gorgier Castle , Canton Neuchâtel

The second son of Jakob Ludwig, James Alexander de Pourtalès-Gorgier , founded the Pourtalès-Gorgier line. He was a Prussian diplomat and a well-known collector of antiquities. In 1813 he bought the Seigneurerie in Gorgier in the canton of Neuchâtel, adding to his name. In 1834 he bought the Gotha manor in northern Saxony, which he left to his eldest son Heinrich six years later; he sold Gotha in 1857 and Gorgier Castle in 1879. The son Edmond (1828–1895) inherited the father's villa in Paris; in 1857 he married Mélanie Renouard de Bussière (1836–1914), an adored beauty at the court of Emperor Napoleon III. With her he ran a literary salon in Paris. In 1887 Mélanie inherited the Strasbourg estate Robertsau from her father, which was named Château de Pourtalès . In the time of the Fin de Siècle she ran a salon there in Alsace, in which crowned heads and the top of European society frequented.

The third son of Jakob Ludwig, Friedrich, Count of Pourtalès (* February 23, 1779, † January 30, 1861) was a Prussian Real Privy Councilor and chief master of ceremonies. His eldest son, Count Albert von Pourtalès (born September 10, 1812) was a member of the Prussian mansion and real secret council as well as 1850/51 ambassador to Constantinople and 1859 Prussian envoy to Paris, as the immediate predecessor of Otto von Bismarck ; He died on December 18, 1861 without a male heir. Head of this third line of the Pourtalès was his brother, Count Wilhelm (born June 7, 1815).

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the Counts of Pourtalès

The Counts of Pourtalès wield a squared shield with a heart shield . In the first and fourth fields in blue on green ground there is a silver pelican with three silver boys whom he nourishes with his heart's blood, 2 and 3 in red two silver rafters; Heart shield: an open silver gate (portal) in red. The main shield is covered with a nine-pearl crown; on it are three crowned helmets. On the right is a white eagle's wing; on the crown of the middle one stands a black eagle, wearing a jewel around its neck, but on the third a red pointed cap, covered with the two rafters and adorned with three silver ostrich feathers. - A blue banner is drawn under the main sign with the motto : "Quid non dilectis" ("What [one does not] [everything] for loved ones") in gold letters . Shield holders are two golden lions.

people

See also

literature

  • Leopold von Zedlitz-Neukirch , New Prussian Adels-Lexicon or genealogical and diplomatic news of the princely, countless, baronial and noble houses residing in the Prussian monarchy or related to it, with the indication of their descent, their property, their coat of arms and the military figures, heroes, scholars and artists who emerged from them. Fourth volume P – Z, Leipzig 1837, p. 50 , additions p.462ff
  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the count's houses for the year 1872, p.624f

Web links

Commons : Pourtalès family  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sunday view of June 21, 2020, p. 19