Siegmund Theodor von Berckheim

Sigismund Graf von Berckheim , actually Siegmund Theodor Friedrich, was a Baden diplomat, lord of the Weinheimer Schloss , owner of the exotic forest and builder until he was ascended to the rank of count in 1900 Baron von Berckheim (born March 23, 1851 in Mannheim ; † July 8, 1927 in Weinheim ) of the family's own mausoleum in Weinheim's castle park.

Family mausoleum in the Weinheim Castle Park, below the exotic forest

Sigismund's eldest son Egenolf (photo taken before 1910)

Parents and siblings

His father was Baron Christian Friedrich Gustav von Berckheim . Like his son later, he was a diplomat of the Grand Duchy of Baden , a. a. Minister-resident of Baden in Munich , also lord of the castle in Weinheim and founder of the 60-hectare so-called exotic forest behind the castle park. He had traveled widely and had u. a. Visited America . Since 1844 he was married to Countess Ida Waldner von Freundstein (1824–1907). The couple had two children, in addition to the firstborn Sigismund, his five years younger brother Rudolf Theodor August von Berckheim (born May 12, 1856 in Munich, † 1885 in Weinheim), who died early. The latter was a Prussian Premier Lieutenant in the 1st Guard Uhlan Regiment and was buried in the mausoleum in Weinheim.

Wife and children

On June 18, 1880, Sigismund Freiherr von Berckheim married Adolphine Maria Huberta Gabriele Freiin Wambolt von Umstadt (born January 28, 1859 Darmstadt, † June 30, 1919 Egern, today Rottach-Egern / Tegernsee / Upper Bavaria). While her husband was working in Berlin, Adolphine was considered one of the most beautiful women in the city. The couple had two children:

• Egenolf von Berckheim (1881-1915) was a German submarine commander in the First World War.
• Philipp Christian Paul von Berckheim (1883–1945) became the owner of the exotic forest and was the last owner of the Weinheim Castle from the Berckheim family until it was sold to the city of Weinheim in 1938. The associated palace park was only opened to the public in 1939 after it was sold. As a relative of the Stumm family, Philipp was a member of the Dillinger Hütte supervisory board .

Life and possessions

Cipher telegram from Count Berckheim to his government during the mobilization crisis with the notification of the imminent danger of war on the evening of July 31, 1914

After his military career, which he ended as a royal Prussian captain in the general staff, Siegmund Theodor Friedrich von Berckheim became a diplomat of the Grand Duchy of Baden. He was u. a. From 1903 to 1914 he was Minister-Resident (envoy) of Baden in Saxony and Prussia . After the death of his father in 1889 he became master of the Weinheim Castle. In 1900 he was made a count. In 1910 he had the architect Ludwig Becker build a mausoleum for his family in the southeast corner of the palace park .

In 1900 he bought the ruins of Windeck Castle from the Baden state. Count Berckheim had the masonry secured and partially restored. However, he did not allow the castle ruins to be expanded into a meeting place and memorial for the Weinheim Old Men’s Association (WAHV), which then built the Wachenburg in the vicinity of the ruins from 1907 . Windeck Castle has been owned by the city of Weinheim since 1978, which has since carried out extensive security measures.

Between 1901 and 1908 Berckheim bought Hemsbach Castle , the former manor house of Baron Carl Mayer von Rothschild . In 1908 he bought the Rothaus domain in Oberrimsingen , a district of the city of Breisach near Freiburg . Four years after his death, the Rothaus domain was sold to the Baden state in 1931. In 1938 it fell to the city of Weinheim, as did the Weinheim Castle and Castle Park after almost 100 years of family ownership.

literature

• Edmund von der Becke-Klüchtzner: Stamm-Tafeln of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Baden: a newly edited nobility book. A. v. Hagen'sche Hof-Buchdruckerei, Baden-Baden 1886, pp. 51–53 (family tree).