Sigismund von Reitzenstein

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Sigismund von Reitzenstein

Sigismund Karl Johann Freiherr von Reitzenstein (born February 3, 1766 in Nemmersdorf , † March 5, 1847 in Karlsruhe ) was a Baden diplomat and politician.

Live and act

Reitzenstein came from the originally Franconian noble family von Reitzenstein of the same name . He was the third child of five of Baron Sigmund von Reitzenstein and his wife Auguste. The father was in the service of the Margrave of Bayreuth . After the father's death in 1770, the children were under the tutelage of relatives and were brought up by private tutors.

Reitzenstein began studying law in Erlangen when he was fifteen . In 1783 he moved to the University of Göttingen, which was considered particularly progressive in the 18th century . After graduating, he began a civil service career. Initially he worked as a secretary for the Minister Friedrich Karl von Seckendorff . This represented the Margrave Karl Alexander von Brandenburg-Ansbach in his Bayreuth possessions. He then entered the Baden state service in 1788. Karl Friedrich von Baden appointed him Hofrat in the Hofratskollegium and in 1790 chamberlain. Afterwards Reitzenstein was bailiff of the Rötteln Oberamt , based in Lörrach . In 1793 he married.

In 1796 Reitzenstein negotiated a separate peace between Baden and the French Republic in Paris . In August 1798 he was appointed Baden ambassador to France, and until June 1803 he held the office in Paris. In the following years, when it was initially only a matter of keeping Baden as a state, Reitzenstein pleaded for a firm bond with France. He refused the attempt to navigate between France and Austria. Thanks to the connections made in the process, he was able to achieve the multiplication of the territory of Baden in the Reich Deputation in 1803 and the transfer of the electoral dignity of the Palatinate to Baden. The main task of the coming years he clearly described in 1803, in the weeks of his farewell as Baden ambassador in Paris: "To give a country that has doubled, but is composed of a multitude of heterogeneous components, a completely new shape." Reitzenstein in the same matter by letter in June 1803 to Ludwig von Baden : “The plan and the will is still the same to fill in the missing gaps in the entire context of the country. The speculations being made on a Hanoverian division on the one hand, and the possibility of [...] a continental war on the other, offer manifold combinations for the realization of that plan ”. Already at this time he tried to open up to the principles of the French Revolution .

In 1803 the consequences of typhoid fever forced him to withdraw from politics temporarily. After his return from France, Reitzenstein was initially overshadowed by the rather conservative Johann Nicolaus Friedrich Brauer , but at the request of Elector Karl Friedrich von Baden he was cabinet minister in the Baden government from autumn 1805 to autumn 1806. During this time he returned to Paris again in 1806 to negotiate the planned marriage of Napoleon's adopted daughter Stéphanie de Beauharnais to Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Baden . In the following years, starting in autumn 1806, Reitzenstein was mainly concerned with the reorganization and reform of the University of Heidelberg. There, and later at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau , he resisted direct state interventions that seriously questioned the self-government of the universities. The model for the reform was the University of Göttingen, which Reitzenstein knew from his earlier studies. Reitzenstein set up a philological seminar and an associated educational seminar in Heidelberg.

From 1809 to 1810 Reitzenstein was again Minister of State and Cabinet. In this office he made a significant contribution to the standardization and restructuring of the country, based on the French model, which was thrown together from different, previously independent rulers. In particular, he aimed to combat the old class influences of a "bigoted, ignorant, domineering and self-serving" clergy and an "uncultivated nobility that replaced the lack of enlightenment with pride" and urban aristocracy. He was convinced that change would only be possible through, if necessary, tough action by the state. This went so far that the press was monopolized and opposition newspapers were banned. Reitzenstein became the actual founder of the modern Baden state. Despite his basically positive attitude towards France, the French ambassador intrigued against Reitzenstein. This led to the end of his government in 1810.

In 1813 Reitzenstein helped bring Baden into the alliance against Napoleon. In 1817 he was again head of government under Grand Duke Karl and played a key role in adopting a relatively liberal and modern constitution. This came into force on August 22, 1818.

From 1832 to 1842 Reitzenstein was again Minister of State. In this office he fought the liberal, democratic and national aspirations of the time. After his death he was honored with a state funeral, but later largely fell into oblivion. His tombstone is in the crypt hall of the old cemetery in Karlsruhe.

Grave slab in the Gruftenhalle in Karlsruhe

Honors

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Merkle, The 'Plus-Requester'. The Baden statesman Sigismund von Reitzenstein and his time . Karlsruhe / Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2006, p. 82, p. 114.
  2. ↑ cit. after Nolte, p. 118
  3. ^ Political correspondence of Karl Friedrich von Baden . 1783 - 1806. Sixth volume. Heidelberg 1915. p. 193 (Letter No. 228). in the Internet Archive
  4. ↑ Merkle, 'Plus-Forder', p. 132, p. 165f.
  5. ↑ Merkle, p. 124, p. 166, p. 172, p. 259f.
  6. ↑ Merkle, p. 20.
  7. ↑ cit. after Nolte, p. 119
  8. ↑ Court and State Handbook of the Grand Duchy of Baden 1834, page 33 digitized version of the Baden State Library
  9. ↑ Court and State Handbook of the Grand Duchy of Baden 1834, page 51 digitized version of the Baden State Library
predecessor Office successor
Ludwig Karl von Berckheim Governor of Rötteln
1792–1797 		August of Kalm
personal data
SURNAME Reitzenstein, Sigismund von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reitzenstein, Sigismund Karl Johann Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baden diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1766
PLACE OF BIRTH Nemmersdorf
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1847
Place of death Karlsruhe