Schack Carl von Rantzau

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Schack Carl Rantzau

Schack Carl von Rantzau (born March 11, 1717 at Gut Ascheberg in Ascheberg ; † January 21, 1789 in Ménerbes , southern France ) was a Holstein landowner and Danish officer and imperial count who was involved in the Struensee affair .

Life

Schack Rantzau's father was Hans zu Rantzau , who, as the owner of Gut Ascheberg, was the first landowner in the Duchy of Holstein to abolish serfdom . In 1728 he was raised to the rank of count. His mother was Margarethe Hedwig (1702–1741), daughter of Schack Brockdorff. His parents lived separately from 1733.

In 1734 Rantzau began his officer career, during which he made war experience in various parts of Europe. In 1742 he took part in the conquest of Frederikshamn in Finland as captain of the royal Danish grenadier regiment on the Russian side under Ulrich von Löwendal . He then followed Löwendal and fought on the French side in Flanders .

In 1746 the new Danish king Friedrich V. appointed Rantzau adjudant general. The following year he married his cousin Catharina (1729–1791), the daughter of Detlev Rantzau (1694–1781) and Adelheid Henriette von Ahlefeldt (1708–1730). He made a quick career for himself, but his attempts to push through reforms made him unpopular with his superiors, while his lifestyle led to alienation from his wife as well as financial ruin. In 1756 he had to quit his post as major general. In order to escape from his creditors, he left Denmark. He traveled through Europe for several years without finding a lucrative position and left believers everywhere.

In 1760 Rantzau returned to his wife in Ascheberg. In 1762 he went on an unofficial mission to Saint Petersburg to meet with Tsar Peter III. to negotiate, although it is not entirely clear who commissioned this diplomatic trip. In any case, he disrupted the plans of Caspar von Saldern and Johann Hartwig von Bernstorff for a peaceful unification of Denmark with Russia around the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorf . The Tsar's wife, Catherine II , saw him as an ally of her husband and thus an enemy. After the fall of Peter III. he therefore had to flee Russia. He hated Russia ever since. His anti-Russian attitude meant that he fell out of favor at the Danish court as well.

Rantzau withdrew to Altona . There he befriended both the doctor Johann Friedrich Struensee and the field marshal and army reformer Claude-Louis de Saint-Germain and his successor Peter Elias von Gähler.

When Christian VII came to the throne in 1766 , Rantzau was appointed lieutenant general and chief of the body regiment of Queen Caroline Mathilde and was awarded the Dannebrogden . The following year, at the suggestion of Saint-Germain, he became commanding general in Norway. But as early as 1768 he lost his position to the far less respectable post as commandant of Glückstadt . However, he kept in touch with the court, especially through Conrad Holck , the king's favorite. When he found out about the king's planned trip to Europe, he referred his friend Struensee as a travel doctor. Struensee's first important decrees, which included Bernstorff's dismissal in September 1770, were planned during a summer stay of the royal couple at Gut Ascheberg. Rantzau therefore always considered himself to be primarily responsible for its reforms. But contrary to his hopes for a lucrative position at court, which would have enabled him to participate in the reforms, he was fobbed off with the post of 3rd deputy of the war college. Struensee's decree, according to which nobles could also be prosecuted for debts, finally made him his enemy. Even if his role in Struensee's fall on January 17, 1772 was rather minor - he only brought the arrest warrant to Queen Caroline Mathilde - he was celebrated as the savior of the state. For a short time he became general of the infantry, member of the State Council and bearer of the Elephant Order , but he remained of no political importance and was released on July 9, 1772 under Russian pressure and expelled to Holstein. He settled in France and lived there until the end of his life on the pension that the Danish government paid him.

literature

Web links

Commons : Schack Carl von Rantzau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cedergreen Bech: Rantzau, Schack Carl, Reichsgraf zu , 241
personal data
SURNAME Rantzau, Schack Carl von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Holstein landowner and Danish officer as well as German imperial count
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1717
PLACE OF BIRTH Gut Ascheberg , Ascheberg
DATE OF DEATH January 21, 1789
Place of death Ménerbes , France