Thurn and Taxis

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Thurn und Taxis is the name of the aristocracy ascended Lombard noble family, which the European postal service established and operated for many centuries.

Name- giving badger and post horn (added later)
Family coat of arms increased by the imperial eagle (16th century)
Increased coat of arms with tower and badger (from 1650)

The family of the Tasso (badgers) has been traceable in Lombardy since the 12th century and established a courier service for the Republic of Venice since the 14th century , and for the popes since the 15th century . The brothers Janetto and Francesco dei Tasso founded in 1490 by order of the Roman-German king and later Emperor Maximilian I , the Europe-wide postal system . The descendants operated the Imperial Postal Service as hereditary general postmasters from Brussels , from 1701 from Frankfurt am Main and from 1748 from Regensburg . After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, some of the successor states took over the facilities of the Taxis' Reichspost against compensation under state management, while others commissioned the family to continue as a private company, the Thurn-und-Taxis-Post , which was run from Frankfurt again until 1867 has been. After the victory in the Austro-Prussian War , Prussia forced the cession of the company to the Prussian state in return for a severance payment.

The emperors of the Holy Roman Empire also entrusted the family with political tasks from 1741 onwards, as the prince family appointed the principal commissioner (representative of the emperor) to the Perpetual Diet of Regensburg, of which they had been a member of the Imperial Council of the Imperial Prince since 1704, until the empire was dissolved in 1806 belonged to. Since 1748 the family is therefore still in Regensburg located where they acquired the 1810 secularized St. Emmeram's Abbey for Schloss St. Emmeram converted.

From the income from their entrepreneurial activities as well as from compensation for the loss of postal rights, the family acquired extensive land, in the 19th century also industrial companies and breweries, and is still considered the largest private landowner in Germany. In 1723 the imperial rule of Eglingen was acquired, in 1786 the Upper Swabian county Friedberg-Scheer was added, in 1803 the imperial principality of Buchau . After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the territories immediately adjacent to the empire were mediatized and the family was granted the status of landlord in 1815 .

Origin and name explanation

Taxis

Cornello dei Tasso near Camerata Cornello , Lombardy

The Lombard family first appears in a document with Reinerius de Tasso in 1117. Odonus de Taxo is mentioned in 1146 in Val Brembana, north of Bergamo ; there the name appears in Almenno around 1200 . During the fighting between the Guelphs and Ghibellines , fought in Bergamo between the Colleoni and Suardi families , the family avoided the Camerata Cornello, a few kilometers higher in the valley . There begins with Homodeus de Tazzis (Italian: Omodeo de Tassis del Cornello ) in 1251 the line of trunks . The district of Cornello dei Tasso reminds of the family to this day.

Tasso is the Italian word for badger , the heraldic animal of the family, Germanized Dax , Daxen , from which the name Taxis developed. In the French-language postal contract of 1505 between Philip the Fair and Franz von Taxis , the de Tassis family was named, as is customary in French to this day.

Thurn

When the taxis, which had meanwhile moved to Brussels, were raised to the status of hereditary counts in 1624, they needed an illustrious ancestry to legitimize their intended further rise to the nobility . Alexandrine von Taxis commissioned genealogists to "clarify" the origin of the taxis, which were previously only considered a small knight dynasty that had changed to the merchant class. These now claimed, albeit without documentary evidence, that the taxis descended from the Italian noble family of Torriani , or della Torre , who had ruled Milan and Lombardy until 1311. The taxis then applied to the Kaiser to change their name. During the Germanization, the tower (Torre) zu Thurn (cf. mhd. Turn ) and the crenellated tower of the Torriani were added to the badger as a coat of arms .

Thurn and Taxis

From 1650, with the permission of Emperor Ferdinand III , the Brussels taxis were allowed to travel . Name von Thurn, Valsassina and Taxis , from which Thurn and Taxis became, in French de la Tour et Tassis , in Italian della Torre e Tasso . The Innsbruck and Augsburg branches of the family were also renamed.

Historical summary

The Compagnia dei Corrieri

Tasso coat of arms

Homodeus de Tazzis (Omodeo de Tasso) from Cornello organized around 1290, after the conquest of Bergamo by the Milanese Visconti , with the help of 32 of his relatives, a courier system, the Compagnia dei Corrieri , which connected Milan with Venice and Rome. This company was so efficient that it soon guaranteed a fast connection between all major Italian cities, so that the Republic of Venice put it in its service; throughout Italy their mail riders were known as bergamaschi . In the 15th century they also delivered papal correspondence as official couriers, including to the Habsburgs . For these, Ruggiero de Tasso set up the Bergamo-Vienna courier lines in 1450, Innsbruck-Italy around 1460 and Vienna-Brussels in 1480. The company was initially based in the family's home village, Camerata Cornello . (In 1991 a small museum on family and postal history was opened there in Palazzo Tasso .)

Entry into the service of Maximilian I.

Franz von Taxis (Francesco de Tasso) , 1459–1517, founder of the European postal system

After the German king and later Emperor Maximilian I took over Tyrol from his uncle Siegmund in 1490 , he made Innsbruck his main residence. Since Maximilian's son Philipp was raised in the Burgundian Netherlands and his daughter Margarethe at the French royal court, Maximilian needed a functioning cross-border communication system. In 1489, Maximilian first engaged Janetto de Tasso to set up a relay line , who in the same year caught up with his brother Francesco (Franz von Taxis) and his nephew Johann Baptista , from whom the Regensburg dynasty descended. In contrast to the conventional messenger services , the taxis set up a first permanent line in the form of a relay in 1490, with mail riders and horse changes, whereby only the sealed Felleisen (a leather messenger bag with the letters) was passed on like a relay . Janetto commissioned the operators of hostels and ferries to keep horses ready for the royal couriers at certain intervals (on average 37.5 km), in unfortified villages because cities closed their gates at night; but since the post also rode at night, the travel time was shortened considerably.

Archduke Philip , the son of Emperor Maximilian, appointed Francesco as Burgundian postmaster in 1501; When Philip became King of Castile in 1504, Taxis had to set up numerous new routes, namely between Brussels and Spain via France, with an alternative route by sea via Genoa. The king took over the payment for the relay lines, the postmaster received an annual flat rate. In the postal contract of 1505, precise delivery times for summer and winter were specified for the first time, which were checked by means of hourly passes. In times of war, Franz von Taxis was supposed to relocate the routes and organize war relays as quickly as possible . For compliance with the contract, he had to be responsible for life and property.

Further development of the Habsburg Post

Votive altar with Johann Baptista von Taxis and his wife as donor figures (before 1541)

Many members of the Taxis family had been postmasters in the Habsburgs since 1490, including Gabriel as the founder of the Innsbruck line from 1505 . The main headquarters of this Habsburg post (1490–1556) was headed from 1517 by Johann Baptista in Brussels, who followed his deceased uncle Franz that year as the Burgundian-Dutch postmaster general , and from 1520 also as the first imperial postmaster general for the empire. In addition, there was an independent post office in Madrid from 1518 under Maffeo de Tasso (later taken over by Johann Baptista's son Raimundo), post offices in Rome and Milan under Simone de Tasso and from 1521 one in Venice under Davide de Tasso. The first Augsburg line was founded by (Johann) Anton von Taxis from 1522. He was married three times, including Janetto's only child, Katharina von Taxis. Anton's sons Johann, Ambrosius and Christoph von Taxis worked for King Ferdinand I's postal service. They left no male descendants and so the second Augsburg line was founded by the brothers Seraphin I and Bartholomäus; Seraphin II , son of the latter, continued them. In 1543 Antwerp was added (under Johann Baptista's son Anton).

The so-called Dutch postal rate was thus a transnational transmission of messages from Antwerp to Naples, from Prague to Seville, but which so far only served Habsburg interests and could not be used by the public. After Charles V had been elected German-Roman king on June 28, 1519, Johann Baptista von Taxis rode personally as a courier from Frankfurt to Brussels and was able to report the election results to the new king two days later at the Brussels court.

The frequent financial difficulties of their Habsburg clients forced the taxis to open up additional sources of income. They secretly sold messages, transported letters for outsiders and brokered horse changes for their couriers between Antwerp and Rome. Therefore, in 1520, Johann Baptista received a letter from Emperor Charles V from Cologne, in which he forbade external transport. Public correspondence should continue to be carried out only through urban messenger agencies, market ships and the very widespread butcher's mail . From 1531, however, external transport by the imperial court mail of taxis was tolerated. Emperor Karl had recognized that outside transport reduced costs for him and that it was also easier to track down spies if the control of foreign letters was carried out by the Taxis-Post, for which purpose the black chambers at the post offices from then on served. The first regular post offices with postholders on site were soon set up as receiving and issuing points for letters and parcels. According to Italian sources, there were two modes of transport on the Dutch postal route in 1539, the Ordinaripost (normal mail), which rode on set days, and the Extraordinaripost (express mail, special mail). The post offices, like the Fugger's factories , were at the crossroads of trade; Johann Baptista von Taxis and Anton Fugger were - according to Richard Ehrenberg's dictum - "chiefs of entire clans of related capitalists " . The two Catholic and loyal emperor families from the beginning of the modern era were involved in numerous joint financing transactions across Europe.

Leonhard I von Taxis (* around 1522, † 1612)

In 1541 Franz II. Succeeded his late father Johann Baptista as postmaster general, two years later his brother Leonhard I followed. In 1545 the Taxis family even got the monopoly for the transnational private transport of letters from the Netherlands, as the emperor to all merchants, especially those from Antwerp, forbidden to send their letters by own messengers and couriers by changing horses. In early 1551, the Brussels branch opened a regular relay post once a week in both directions between Antwerp, Brussels and Augsburg. This was the first regular mail line in which certain departure and arrival dates were adhered to and thus the beginning of the organized correspondence, which still exists today. From now on, the Ordinari relay started once a week at the same time and also transported valuables and loads. A disadvantage of this regulation was that the riding times were known and could therefore also be planned for robbers . The raids increased in the period from 1555 to 1561. For this reason the court postmaster Christoph von Taxis undertook an inspection trip on the postal route in 1561.

Charles V abdicated as Emperor and King of Spain in 1556, his brother Ferdinand was elected Emperor in 1558 , Charles's son Philip became King of Spain; thereby the Habsburgs divided into two ruling houses, the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs. The Brussels post office now worked for Habsburg Spain, and the Dutch postal rate (from Brussels to Rome , with branches to changing Reichstag and to the respective residences of the emperor) became a Spanish transit route through the empire ( see: Habsburg Post (1557–1597 ) ).

Postal rates 1563

Fierce disputes broke out between various members of the Taxis family about certain post offices and income, for example in 1563 between Seraphin II and Christoph over the post office in Augsburg, in 1564 over the same between Seraphin II and the Füssen postmaster Innocent von Taxis or in 1580 between Seraphin II and Leonhard I. for the postmaster general in the Reich. The financial situation of the Brussels postmaster Leonhard von Taxis worsened when, after the Spanish bankruptcy in 1565, the grants were stopped by the Spanish-Dutch tax authorities in Lille, and in 1568 there were protests by the postmen, including slow strikes because of payment arrears. In 1574 there was another Spanish bankruptcy, followed in 1576 by the coup d'état in the Netherlands with the proclamation of the States General . Leonhard and his son Lamoral von Taxis fled Brussels to Luxembourg, the Dutchman Johann Hinckart took over the postmaster's office in Brussels. In 1577 Seraphin II set up a rerouting of the post from Augsburg to Antwerp, an important port city at that time, via Cologne. Leonhard, however, was reinstated as postmaster in Brussels in 1580.

As early as 1578, the Augsburg merchants proposed to the emperor to set up their own imperial post with a head office in Augsburg. The initiator was the Augsburg patrician Konrad Rott . This route should be accessible to the general public and bring the emperor free messaging without subsidies. Long discussions followed and a commission was set up. It was not until 1595 that Leonhard von Taxis finally received an imperial appointment letter for all posts in the German Empire, insofar as they were paid by the Spanish King Philip II. At the same time he received the title of General Obrist Postmaster in the Holy Roman Empire. Based on an imperial post office shelf , the Imperial Post Office began operations in 1597 .

The Imperial Postal Service

The operators of the Imperial Post Office were members of the Taxis family, who changed their name to Thurn und Taxis from 1650 with the approval of the Kaiser and provided postmaster general without interruption . The head office was in Brussels , the capital of the Spanish Netherlands, until 1701 , but was relocated to Frankfurt during the War of the Spanish Succession and to Regensburg in 1748 . Only with the laying down of the imperial crown in 1806 by Emperor Franz II and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire did the Imperial Post Office end.

It was under the protection of the emperor and was accessible to anyone interested in return for payment. At first there were only two postal courses in what is now Germany. The focus was on the Dutch postal route , which was also a transit course. It led from Brussels via Augsburg, Innsbruck and Trento to Italy (Milan, Venice, Rome). The post office keepers on the Dutch line, which also served as a transit route for the Spanish Habsburgs, were paid by the Brussels headquarters, with the Spanish crown granting the emperor grants. The income from the external transport went in full to the Taxis family in Brussels. Serious competitors of the Imperial Post Office were the messengers of the cities. In 1597, Emperor Rudolf II therefore issued a decree in which he forbade secondary messengers and butcher mail in the empire and its hereditary lands . So the Taxis'sche Reichspost came to Lübeck around 1579 , it existed there alongside the Hansepost, which led to friction.

Lamoral von Taxis set up a Ordinaripost from Cologne via Frankfurt and Nuremberg to the Bohemian border for Emperor Matthias, who had ruled since 1612, in 1615, which was continued by the Habsburg Court Post to Prague. As a thank you, the Taxis House received the post of General Postmaster on the Erbmannslehen from the Kaiser. Since then, the Brussels taxis have called themselves general inheritance postmasters .

Social advancement

The Augsburg post house in 1616

During the 16th century, the Taxis dynasty was entrusted with the transport of imperial courier mail in the Holy Roman Empire , the Burgundian Netherlands , later the Spanish Netherlands , Spain and Burgundy. The Dutch branch of the family first chose Mechelen and then Brussels as their place of residence.

In 1512 Franz and his brothers, including Janetto , as well as the nephew Johann Baptista and his brothers Maffeo and Simon received the simple nobility letter as "von Taxis", in 1514 also the founder of the Augsburg line, Seraphin , and his brother Bartholomäus and the couriers Hieronymus, Christoph and his son Anton. Johann Baptista's son Raimundo de Tassis (approx. 1515–1579) took over the postmaster's office in Madrid as Correo Mayor , whose son Juan de Tassis y Acuña was raised to Count of Villamediana in 1603. The Augsburg court postmaster Christoph von Taxis fathered a Protestant wife, a natural, later legitimized son, Carlin von Taxis († 1628), whose part of the name “von” was not a valid nobility predicate ; A middle-class (and Protestant) Taxis family in Deizisau in Baden-Württemberg , which still exists there today, can be traced back to him .

It was not until 1608 that the Brussels line was elevated to the status of hereditary imperial baron , and in 1642 also the Innsbruck line. From 1615 the postal generalate became hereditary, and the taxis were from now on general hereditary postmasters of the empire . In 1624 Baron Lamoral von Taxis and his son Leonhard II were raised to the status of hereditary count . After a change of name applied for, Ferdinand III. 1650 that the taxis were allowed to call themselves Thurn, Valsassina and Taxis in the future , which became Thurn and Taxis . In 1680, the Innsbruck line also received the count, it is still called by Thurn Valsassina und Taxis .

In 1681 the Brussels line (later in Frankfurt and Regensburg) with Eugen Alexander was elevated to the Spanish-Dutch princehood, with Braine-le-Château as titular principality ( Principauté de la Tour et Tassis ), and in 1695 to the imperial princehood, although at that time there was still no territorial possession in the empire. Admission to the Reichsfürstenrat took place in 1704, with a share in the electoral vote of the Kurdish district in the Reichstag , in 1724 Eglingen was accepted into the Swabian Imperial Counts College , in 1754 the prince received a virile vote for the Reich General Hereditary Postmaster's Office, and in 1803 another for the Imperial Principality of Buchau . Since 1741 the house has been the principal commissioner of the "Perpetual Reichstag" .

Thirty Years' War

Count Leonhard II von Taxis (1594–1628), on the rider's carpet from 1646
Countess Alexandrine von Taxis (1589–1666)

In 1618 the Thirty Years' War began with the fall of the Prague window . After Lamoral's death in 1624, the Reichspostlehen was transferred to his son Leonhard II . This planned an organization controlled centrally from Brussels. The superior postmasters were now called post office administrators . At the same time it was possible to eliminate competitors such as the Cologne postmaster Jacob Henot and the Frankfurt postmaster Johann von den Birghden . After the unexpected death of Leonhard II in 1628, his widow Alexandrine took over the management of the Imperial Postal Service on behalf of the underage son Lamoral Claudius Franz . In 1630 Sweden entered the Thirty Years' War under King Gustav Adolf and occupied Frankfurt in 1631. Between 1632 and 1635, Countess Alexandrine lost almost all of the important post offices in the empire, with the exception of the Dutch postal route to Italy and Vienna, which was diverted via peripheral areas. It was only with the regaining of most postal rates towards the end of the war and an expansion of the existing postal network that Countess Alexandrine succeeded in securing the supremacy of the Imperial Postal Service. In the preparatory phase of the peace negotiations, which came to an end in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, she set up postal routes to Osnabrück and Münster and thus gave the Imperial Post Office a head start in the transmission of messages, which was carried out for all parties.

After the war, regional post offices were founded, for example by Brandenburg-Prussia, Saxony , Mecklenburg , Hessen-Kassel or Braunschweig-Hanover , which, however, operated the existing postal rates of the Imperial Post Office as paid transit routes. A Bavarian post had existed since the 16th century, with messenger connections to the Taxis imperial post offices in Regensburg, Augsburg and Innsbruck, and from 1664 also in Munich. However, when Elector Max Emanuel wanted to set up a riding post from Munich to Brussels, the Kaiser forced him to retreat. Austria also operated its own post office - the highest court post office in Austria was occasionally overseen by members of the Taxis family from 1480 onwards, but these remained in Innsbruck, Augsburg or Brussels; It was then the family Wolzogen issued, then the Magno and finally in 1622 for a hundred years to the postmaster dynasty of the pair who held office since 1560, in Bratislava and also with the Oberhof Postmaster Office of Hungary, Bohemia, Austria above and below the Enns and the Styria were enfeoffed and thus were in long-term competition with the Thurn und Taxis; they, too, were elevated to the rank of counts in 1654 and princes in 1769. Count Karl von Paar's application in 1665 for the Imperial Post Office to take over the Tyrolean postal service operated by Innsbruck Taxis failed because the Emperor had to take into account the special status of the Spanish transit route. Urban messengers soon only played a regional role. Lamoral Claudius Franz, who had been of legal age since 1646, tried repeatedly after the end of the Thirty Years' War to switch off or to push back the Protestant state post offices with the help of the emperor. This did not succeed, but the increasing number of correspondence led to an increase in profits. On the other hand, was Hamburg branch opened, which so far only about the courier trains the Hanse was tied; the imperially privileged mail and freight carriage between Hamburg and Nuremberg was created.

In the three districts of Mainz, Trier and Cologne, the military campaigns of the French King Louis XIV , which soon began, hampered the continuous expansion of the Imperial Postal Service. In the Electoral Palatinate, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt , Württemberg, Bavaria and Tyrol, on the other hand, the Reichspost could continue to work unhindered, difficulties with the local authorities were eliminated through contracts. Under Lamoral Claudius Franz, the Imperial Post Office began its first attempts to introduce driving mail and stagecoaches after a number of competing state post offices had already made advance payments. According to Wolfgang Behringer , however, the Fahrpost was initially more of a losing business and was only expanded for reasons of competition.

Relocation to Frankfurt and Regensburg

The Palais Thurn und Taxis in Frankfurt am Main (built 1731 to 1739, demolished in 1951, rebuilt from 2004 to 2009)

After the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession , the Brussels headquarters had to be given up and the Thurn und Taxis moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1702 . In 1706 the Augsburg postmaster line of taxis, descended from Seraphin II, died out, now there was only the Innsbruck line, descended from Gabriel von Taxis , which operated the Tyrolean post office, and the Taxis-Bordogna-Valnigra family , based on Johann , in addition to the Frankfurt line Baptista's sister Elisabeth went back and held the postmaster office of Colonel in Trento and Bozen . The Madrid line had already expired in 1622 with Juan de Tassis y Peralta, 2nd Conde de Villamediana . Anselm Franz von Thurn und Taxis had the Palais Thurn und Taxis built in Frankfurt from 1729 . The acquisition of extensive estates followed, including in 1723 the imperial rule Eglingen , 1734 the market Dischingen with Trugenhofen Castle , which became a popular summer residence of the family, 1735 the rule Duttenstein , 1741 also the village Trugenhofen and 1749 the manor and the rule Ballmertshofen .

In 1743 Prince Alexander Ferdinand was appointed imperial principal commissioner in the Reichstag by Charles VII and the Reichspostgeneralate was converted into a feudal throne and flag, whereupon the prince also tried to get his own viril vote in the Reichsfürstenrat , which was granted to him in 1754 for the postmaster general office. In 1748 he was reappointed Principal Commissioner by Franz I , after being dismissed in the meantime, and represented him at the Perpetual Reichstag in Regensburg , where the Thurn und Taxis have resided since that year. This post as the emperor's deputy at the Perpetual Reichstag was very costly and a subsidy company, as it was also associated with extensive representational duties. In 1786 Prince Karl Anselm acquired the Upper Swabian county of Friedberg with the lords of Scheer , Dürmentingen and Bussen , which from 1787 was called the Friedberg-Scheer county. Only since then did the Thurn and Taxis rule their own territory for 20 years, but their main source of income remained the Imperial Postal Service . In the following years further areas were added: 1786 goods in Dunstelkingen , 1789 the rule Grundsheim , 1790 the rule Göffingen and in the same year the rule Heudorf .

Thurn and Taxisscher Postreiter in the 18th century

The Imperial Post Office operated by the Thurn und Taxis reached its greatest expansion in the years before the French Revolution. In 1787 there were 22 Taxis' upper post offices, through which almost the entire imperial post was processed. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, Thurn und Taxis lost the post in 1790, initially in Flanders and Brabant, but in the same year after the Reichspost was abolished in Hanover and Braunschweig. From 1794 the Dutch possessions were occupied by France, shortly afterwards the Swabian possessions were affected by the war. The Peace of Lunéville in 1801 put an end to the armed conflicts, but also stipulated the cession of the areas on the left bank of the Rhine .

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803

In the course of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1802/03, the Princes Thurn and Taxis acquired further lands to compensate for the postal lines ceded to France, including the Buchau dynasty with the rule of Straßberg , the abbeys of Marchtal and Neresheim , the office of Ostrach with the rule of Schemmerberg and the Weilern Tiefental, Frankenhofen and Stetten as well as the monasteries Ennetach and Sießen in the county of Friedberg-Scheer . As a result of the expansion of their property, the Princes Thurn and Taxis also carried the title of Princes of Buchau and Counts of Marchtal and Neresheim in the future. The House of Thurn and Taxis also took two places in the order of calls for the Reichstag.

In the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, Thurn und Taxis was also guaranteed the preservation of the previous posts, whereby Prussia did not adhere to this regulation and immediately took over the postal sovereignty in the areas that fell to Prussia in 1803.

Foundation of the Rhine Confederation in 1806

Wörth Castle on the Danube from 1812 to 1978 owned by Thurn und Taxis

With the establishment of the Rhine Confederation in 1806, the dissolution of the previous empire began and with it the end of the Imperial Postal Constitution and the end of independent territorial rulers, such as that of the Thurn and Taxis, which lost and mediatized the sovereign rights in their areas to Württemberg, Hohenzollern and Bavaria were, so that they were considered to be noblemen since 1815 . Similar to the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, the Rheinbundakt also provided for the continuation of the previous postal system, but the individual states claimed the post office shelf for themselves. Thurn und Taxis then concluded individual agreements with some German states on the exercise of postal sovereignty. Some states like Bavaria and Baden paid high and long-term compensation payments to the Thurn und Taxis after the state took over the postal service. Nevertheless, especially immediately after 1806, the princely family was in an economically tense situation, which only improved after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 , when Thurn und Taxis was able to operate the post in some areas on the left bank of the Rhine and in north-west German areas.

St. Emmeram Castle in Regensburg, headquarters of the family since 1810

In 1810 the princely general post office was relocated from Regensburg to Frankfurt. Even then, due to the political situation, it was not clear whether the Taxis Post would continue to exist in Bavaria, which is why its administration was also moved to the more centrally located Hesse. Prince Karl Alexander finally ceded the Bavarian mail shelf to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1812, for which the monastery buildings of St. Emmeram including the brewery, fountain and building yard in Regensburg were transferred to him as compensation . These buildings were then gradually expanded to form St. Emmeram Castle , which in future would be the residence of the Thurn und Taxis. Furthermore, the lords of Wörth on the Danube and Donaustauf were transferred in the post compensation agreement , after the associated large forests had previously been sold to the Princely House for half a million guilders by the Bavarian King Max Joseph. In 1815 the postal rights in the Grand Duchy of Würzburg and in the Principality of Aschaffenburg were ceded, which was compensated by the Bavarian state with the Sulzheim office in Lower Franconia, and in 1820 also the post in some former Fulda and Hessian places that had fallen in Bavaria. In 1825, Thurn und Taxis was compensated with further ownership, including the Traustadt manor.

During the Congress of Vienna in 1815, ownership was reorganized. Not least thanks to the successful negotiations by Princess Therese , the House of Thurn and Taxis was given back the possession and usufruct of the former post offices in the Reich under Article 17 of the German Federal Act , unless compensation was paid by the individual sovereigns. After the congress, an agreement was reached with Prussia about the post office in the areas that had recently come to Prussia. In 1816 Prince Karl Alexander waived the post office shelf there in exchange for compensation and was also awarded four offices in Posen as a principality under Prussian sovereignty by the Prussian King in 1819, including the title of Prince of Krotoszyn .

Thurn-und-Taxis-Post in the German Confederation from 1816

After the establishment of the German Confederation in 1816, Thurn and Taxis operated the post in the following countries: Electorate of Hesse , Grand Duchy of Hesse , Landgraviate of Hesse , Nassau , Saxe-Weimar , Saxe-Meiningen , Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , Principality of Reuss older line , Principality of Reuss younger Line , Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , Schwarzburg-Sondershausen , Hohenzollern , Lippe-Detmold and Schaumburg-Lippe , also in the free city of Frankfurt am Main and in the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg , Bremen and Lübeck , and until 1849 in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen .

The reason that Thurn und Taxis continued to operate the post, especially in medium-sized and small states, is that, in contrast to the larger territorial states, these states usually did not have the logistical and financial means to set up their own postal network. The Kingdom of Württemberg , which had to return the Württembergische Post illegally captured in 1805 to Thurn und Taxis in 1819, withdrew from the Taxis Post in 1851 in return for high compensation.

The Thurn-und-Taxis-Post joined the German-Austrian Post Association in 1850 . The first Thurn-und-Taxis postage stamps were issued in 1852.

Mail delivery with the Thurn-und-Taxis- Fahrpost 1852

Despite the agreement reached with Prussia in 1816/19, the relationship between Thurn und Taxis and Prussia was marked by ongoing tensions. Above all, the turn of the Thurn und Taxis towards the Habsburg dynasty and the anti-Prussian articles in the Frankfurter Oberpostamtszeitung initiated by the princely family gave cause for anger in Prussia. On the Prussian side, Otto von Bismarck in particular appeared as a critic and opponent of the Princes Thurn and Taxis. When Hesse was occupied by Prussia in the course of the German War , the Prussian Postal Councilor Heinrich von Stephan was appointed administrator of the princely posts, while Prince Maximilian Karl was forced to sign a postal assignment contract on January 28, 1867, in which he granted all postal rights to the 1st July 1867 ceded to the Prussian state. Thus, after almost 600 years, the Taxis family's postal economic activity and at the same time one of the longest existing large family businesses in world history ended.

Empire and Weimar Republic to this day

In August 1870, the bankruptcy of the Belgian speculator André Langrand-Dumonceau (1826–1900) put the heavily invested Thurn und Taxis company in trouble. The banker Friedrich Emil von Erlanger , established in Frankfurt and Paris, saved it. This earned the Erlanger family the Austrian baron in 1871 .

Until 1919 the titles of the respective head of the family were: His Highness the Prince of Thurn und Taxis, Prince of Buchau and Prince of Krotoszyn, Duke of Wörth and Donaustauf, Prince Count of Friedberg-Scheer, Count of Valle-Sássina, also of Marchtal, Neresheim etc., Hereditary Postmaster General .

As a result of the Weimar Imperial Constitution and the Bavarian Nobility Act , the family lost their noble privileges after the First World War, including the right to use titles of nobility. Since then, all family members have had the surname Prince or Princess of Thurn and Taxis (or in the Innsbruck line Count / Countess of Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis), with the respective head of the house as a designation of his position, like the heads of other former royal houses also, continues to appear - albeit unofficially - under the name "Prince". Today the house is run by Albert von Thurn und Taxis , whose mother Gloria von Thurn und Taxis has a significant influence on the management.

various

Manors and castles

Brussels, Frankfurt, Regensburg, Upper Swabia

In the course of the family's history, numerous castles and palaces were owned by the family. After Camerata Cornello moved to Brussels, the family resided in a city palace there, which was opposite the Notre Dame du Sablon church , which houses a burial chapel with the remains of 19 members of the family; the palace was demolished in 1872 for the Rue de la Régence , a line of sight to the Palace of Justice . The Taxis family took up their country estate at the nearby Buizingen Castle and, from 1670, at Braine-le-Château .

Prince Anselm Franz built the Palais Thurn und Taxis (which was only sold in 1895) there after relocating the main administration of the Imperial Post Office from Brussels to Frankfurt am Main at the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession . His son Alexander Ferdinand , however, was the first principal commissioner of the Perpetual Reichstag to move to Regensburg from 1743 , where he initially rented the episcopal Freising Court on Emmeramsplatz. After the fire in 1792, the family moved into today's government building at Emmeramsplatz 8 as the tenant of the Prince Abbot of St. Emmeram. After the secularization of the ancient Sankt Emmeram monastery in 1803, the buildings and grounds of the monastery were transferred to the Princely House in 1810. From 1812 a stables was built by Jean Baptiste Métivier . In 1883/88 under Prince Maximilian Maria von Thurn und Taxis, the royal master builder Max Schultze rebuilt and expanded the palace to become the residential palace in its current state . Since then it has been called Schloss St. Emmeram and has remained the main residence and business headquarters of the Thurn und Taxis company to this day.

By investing their income from the postal business - later also the compensation for the postal rights - in numerous manors, many rural castles were added in addition to land ownership, which were mostly used for local judicial and administrative purposes until they - often in the 20th century - sold again The first was Trugenhofen Castle , located in the Dischingen rulership from 1734 , which has remained in the family's possession until today as a hunting seat and forest headquarters , from 1735 also the Duttenstein Castle acquired by the Fuggers (sold in 1996), from 1749 Ballmertshofen Castle near Trugenhofen ( 1865 sold), 1773 the Bohemian rule Luže , from 1786 the Upper Swabian county Friedberg -Scheer with Scheer Castle (sold in 1967) and the Dürmentingen rule , 1789 the Grundsheim and Heudorf Castle (sold 1956), the rule Bussen (the ruin Bussen was sold in 1997), 1790 the Göffing rule en , after 1803 Höfling Castle , 1809 the Bohemian rule Dobrovice (until 1929).

In 1812, the Prince of Thurn und Taxis was granted jurisdiction in the 1st and 2nd instance over his entire Regensburg servants (including relatives). Even after 1848, the organization of princely jurisdiction in Regensburg remained in place in the first and second instance. The “Law on the Princely Thurn and Taxis Civil Courts in Regensburg, dated April 29, 1869” at least allowed the Prince to have at least voluntary jurisdiction, which in this form also outlasted the Imperial Justice legislation. The princes of Thurn and Taxis therefore remained the last owners of aristocratic court rights in the German Empire. Only with the introduction of the BGB on January 1, 1900, the Thurn and Taxis civil courts were repealed.

The numerous secularized monasteries in Upper Swabia , which were assigned to the Princes of Thurn and Taxis by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1802/03 as compensation for the loss of the post office shelf on the Left Bank of the Rhine annexed by France , are combined as the Imperial Principality of Buchau in 1803 and given a virile vote in the Imperial Council of Dukes However, as early as 1806 they were added to the Kingdom of Württemberg through mediatization . However, the land remained the property of the Taxis company, whereby the monastery buildings were used in various ways and in some cases were kept for a relatively long time, for example Buchau monastery until 1937, the monasteries and monasteries in Sießen and Oggelsbeuren until 1860, Neresheim until 1919 and Marchtal until 1972, whereby all five were returned to church property. Ennetach Monastery , however, was canceled. The Hochstatter Hof belonging to the Neresheim Abbey was only sold in 2004.

In 1812, the Kingdom of Bavaria gave the Thurn and Taxis the rulers and castles of Wörth on the Danube and Donaustauf as compensation for the repealed imperial post rights in Old Bavaria, and from 1899 onwards with the title of Herzog zu Wörth and Donaustauf (the two castles were sold in 1978 and 1986 respectively, while the princely castle in Donaustauf, built in 1843, fell victim to a major fire in 1880). At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Prince Karl Anselm not only received the property and usufruct of the former postal service back, but also the territories belonging to the former Imperial Abbey of St. Emmeram in Regensburg and - for postal rights in the former Grand Duchy of Würzburg and the Principality of Aschaffenburg - the castle Sulzheim and 21 surrounding villages (sold around 1970), and four Polish lordships from Prussia to compensate for the postal rights that were withdrawn in 1819, which were combined as the Principality of Krotoschin .

From 1820 onwards, the remnants of the Reichspost that were returned as a private postal company ( Thurn-und-Taxis-Post ) began to prosper again in many German medium-sized and small states, so that the Regensburg princes were able to make new acquisitions: in 1822/23 they bought from Philipp Kinsky von Wchinitz and Tettau, among other things, the Bohemian rule Richenburg (with Svratka and Karlštejn Castle ) (expropriated in 1946) as well as the manor of the Chotěšov Monastery with Přestavlky Castle (expropriated in 1946), 1829 Falkenstein Castle (until 1967) and Wiesent Castle , 1832 Zaitzkofen Castle ( until 1926) and Sallach Castle (until 1871), 1834 Neufahrn Castle (until 1988), Eggmühl Castle and Laberweinting Castle , 1835 Alteglofsheim Castle (until 1939), Haus Castle (until 2008), Rain Castle with Einhausen Castle and Hainsbach Castle (during in the same year 1835 the old Belgian property Braine-le-Château was sold), 1838 Oberhaselbach Castle (until 1931), 1840 Oberellenbach Castle , 1844 Pürkelgut Castle in Regensburg (until 2016), in 1855 the Bohemian Litomyšl Castle (expropriated in 1946), in 1872 the Croatian Ozalj Castle (until 1928), in 1872 Hohengebraching Castle (until 1948), 1892 Höfling Castle (until today), in 1895 the Palais Thurn became and sold taxis in Frankfurt, in 1899 bought the monastery in Regensburg (owned until today), in 1937 the castle in Rammelburg in Saxony-Anhalt (expropriated in 1945). In 1887 the wife of Hereditary Prince Maximilian Anton , Duchess Helene in Bavaria , inherited the Garatshausen Castle on Lake Starnberg, which is still used by the royal family as a summer residence.

The Niederaichbach Castle Estate and Bullachberg Castle in 1927 (the latter sold in 2006) and Hohenberg Castle in 1931 were acquired as secondary genetics for the Regensburg line .

Bohemian branch of the Regensburg line

The Bohemian branch of the Regensburg line founded by Prince Maximilian Joseph (1769–1831), a younger half-brother of Prince Karl Anselm , owned the Bohemian rule Luschen / Lautschin ( Loučeň ) from 1809 to 1945 , it was divided into the branches Lautschin-Mzell, Duino and Biskupitz. In 1869 Mzell or Mutzel ( Mcely ) Castle came to the family and from 1874 Biskupice Castle . In 1831 Prince Karl Anselm had Dobrovice Castle converted into the largest sugar factory in Bohemia. Prince Friedrich was murdered on May 10, 1945 in Biskupice by a "revolutionary guard". Just like the Czechoslovakian property of the Regensburg main line, the goods of the Bohemian branch were expropriated in 1946. Claims for restitution made after the Velvet Revolution were rejected because the family had not acquired the ČSSR citizenship in the interwar period . However, the wife of Prince Johann (1908-1959) from Lautschin-Mzell, Marie Julie, was given back the Dolní Beřkovice Castle , which had previously belonged to her Lobkowicz family .

The Duino Castle near Trieste came about Countess Theresa Maria von Thurn-Hofer Valsassina († 1893) to her daughter Marie , Princess of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, married to Alexander von Thurn und Taxis from the Bohemian branch. She became known as the patron of Rainer Maria Rilkes , who wrote his Duinese elegies there and was also her guest in Loučeň . Her youngest son Alexander (1881-1937) was raised in 1923 by the Italian king to Duke of Castel Duino . Today Duino Castle belongs to his grandson, Prince Carlo della Torre e Tasso, Duca di Castel Duino (* 1952).

Innsbruck line ( Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis )

The Innsbruck line of taxis, descendants of Gabriel von Taxis (approx. 1480–1529), were raised to imperial barons in 1642 and to imperial counts of Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis in 1680 . They were accepted into the Swabian Imperial Knighthood in 1648, in 1671 they received a new coat of arms improvement, in 1682 they became countrymen of Tyrol, in 1729 they received the Upper Austrian old gentry. Until 1769, Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis operated the Tyrolean Post . Even after the nationalization of the postal loan they remained active in the postal service: Count Joseph von Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis until 1791, then Count Alexander von Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis until 1834 and finally Count Josef Thadäus von Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis (as only nominal Hofpostmeister) until 1876. In 1729 they inherited Neuhaus an der Donau Castle (until 1868), in 1784 they acquired the Palais Fugger-Taxis in Innsbruck (until 1905), from 1827 they owned Jenschowitz Castle in Bohemia (until 1922) and received it in 1813 from the Kingdom of Bavaria as the new Tyrolean rulership, the South Tyrolean Castle Reifenstein as compensation for remaining postal rights. The castle is still in their possession today; the family lives in Innsbruck and Reifenstein.

Breweries and Industry

In addition to their large land holdings, the Thurn und Taxis also owned breweries (Thurn-und-Taxis-Pils, from 1970 the Hofbrauhaus Berchtesgaden ), but these were sold to the Paulaner brewery; the Schierling specialty brewery went to the Kuchlbauer brewery in 1996/1997 . Since July 7, 2005, beer has been brewed again in the former Remise of the Princely Castle St. Emmeram , the Princely Brewery in Regensburg.

The private bank Thurn und Taxis, based in Munich, was sold to SchmidtBank in 1992 as part of the consolidation of economic activities after the death of Prince Johannes .

Forest and large landowners

Identification of a biotope tree near Pfullendorf

At home and abroad, in 1990 the house had 90,000 hectares of land and forest holdings, an area more than five times that of Liechtenstein . The Thurn und Taxis still have the largest private forest holdings in Germany (according to a statement in 2014: 20,000 hectares , after the sale of more than 5000 hectares of forest to the Merckle family in 2004); a statement from the year 2000 was "approx. 36,000 hectares of land". The Forbes list of billionaires 2008 leads Albert Prinz von Thurn und Taxis as the third youngest billionaire worldwide. His net worth is estimated at $ 2.3 billion.

The princely court music

The princely court orchestra with its famous virtuosos counted in addition to u. a. the Mannheim court orchestra or the Joseph Haydn ensemble in Eszterhaza among the best orchestras of the time. Many virtuosos such as Joseph Touchemoulin , František Xaver Pokorný , Henri Joseph de Croes or Giovanni Palestrini were employed at the court for years, and several princely opera singers such as Maddalena Allegranti , Clementina Baglioni-Poggi or Johann Ignaz Ludwig Fischer later celebrated in London, Vienna, or Berlin Dresden great successes. Joseph Riepel , famous during his lifetime , led the orchestra as Kapellmeister from 1749 until his death in 1782; he was succeeded by Joseph Touchemoulin. Fully geared towards the needs of the Reichstag envoy, the royal court music, with its regular concerts and opera performances, offered a repertoire that was always up-to-date and oriented towards the big cities. Freiherr Theodor von Schacht , who wrote numerous compositions himself, was responsible as music director . Fortunately, the historical performance material has been preserved almost completely in the rich holdings of the Fürst-Thurn-und-Taxis-Hofbibliothek and is today considered one of the most important international sources for the music of the 18th century for musicology.

The princely house order

The von Thurn und Taxis family has had its own house order, the De Parfaite Amitié, since 1806 .

Tribe list

The (Thurn and) Taxis dynasty

coat of arms

Sequence of postmasters general

Mention of Janetto, Franz and Johann Baptista "Daxen" in the Innsbruck Rait books 1489/90
1490 Janetto , Franz and Johann Baptista von Taxis enter the service of Maximilian I.
1501-1517 Franz von Taxis (Dutch Postmaster General, Adelung 1512)
1517-1541 his nephew Johann Baptista von Taxis
1541-1543 Franz II von Taxis (son of Johann Baptista)
1544-1612 Leonhard I von Taxis (brother of Franz II von Taxis; from 1608 imperial baron)
1612-1624 Baron Lamoral von Taxis , (from 1624 Imperial Count)
1624-1628 Count Leonhard II von Taxis
1628-1646 Countess Alexandrine von Taxis , b. de Rye, on behalf of her underage son
1646-1676 Count Lamoral Claudius Franz von Thurn and Taxis (change of name 1650)
1676-1714 Count Eugen Alexander von Thurn and Taxis , (from 1695 imperial prince)
1714-1739 Prince Anselm Franz von Thurn and Taxis
1739-1773 Prince Alexander Ferdinand von Thurn und Taxis
1773-1805 Prince Karl Anselm von Thurn und Taxis
1806 End of the post-generalate under Napoleon

Head of family since 1805/06

1805-1827 Prince Karl Alexander von Thurn und Taxis (mediatized 1806, civil since 1815, retention of the title Prince)
1827-1871 Prince Maximilian Karl von Thurn und Taxis
1871-1885 Prince Maximilian Maria von Thurn und Taxis (initially under the tutelage of his mother)
1885-1918 Prince Albert I. von Thurn und Taxis (until 1888 under the tutelage of his mother)

Heads of family since 1918/19

1918-1952 Albert I. von Thurn and Taxis
1952-1971 Franz Josef von Thurn and Taxis
1971-1982 Karl August von Thurn and Taxis
1982-1990 Johannes von Thurn and Taxis
since 1990 Albert II. Von Thurn und Taxis (until 2001 under the tutelage of his mother Gloria von Thurn und Taxis )

family members

literature

  • Wolfgang Behringer: Thurn and Taxis. The history of your post office and your company . Munich / Zurich 1990, ISBN 3-492-03336-9 .
  • Martin Dallmeier: Sources on the history of the European postal system . Kallmünz 1977.
  • Martin Dallmeier, Martha Schad: The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis, 300 years of history in pictures . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7917-1492-9 .
  • Martin Dallmeier, Manfred Knedlik, Peter Styra: "This shiny German court ..." 250 years of Thurn and Taxis in Regensburg . Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-9806296-1-9 .
  • The coats of arms of the Bohemian nobility. (= J. Siebmacher's large book of arms. Volume 30). Neustadt an der Aisch 1979, ISBN 3-87947-030-8 : Thurn and Taxis pp. 207 and 208, coat of arms 89 and 90.
  • Fabian Fiederer: Blochmann Institute and Stella Matutina. Fragmentary insights into education and training at the court of the Princes of Thurn and Taxis in the mid-19th century. In: Negotiations of the historical association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg . tape 153 . Historical Association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg, 2013, ISSN  0342-2518 , p. 287-294 .
  • Siegfried Grillmeyer: Habsburg's servant in post and politics. The Thurn and Taxis house between 1745 and 1867 . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3566-0 .
  • JB Mehler: The princely house of Thurn and Taxis in Regensburg . Habbel Verlag, Regensburg 1898.
  • Christoph Meixner: Music theater in Regensburg in the age of the everlasting Reichstag . Studio Verlag, Sinzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-89564-114-5 .
  • Max Piendl: Thurn and Taxis 1517–1867. On the history of the Princely House and the Thurn and Taxis Post Office . Archive for German Postal History 1/67, 1967.
  • Taxis (family table) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 37, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, p. 792.
  • Rudolf Reiser: The Thurn and Taxis. The private life of a princely dynasty. Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-931904-31-8 .
  • Johann Georg Heinrich Hassel, Genealogical-Historical-Statistical Almanach , 1847, Volume 23, p.471ff
  • Genealogisches Reichs- und Staats-Handbuch: on the year 1800, p.246ff

Web links

Commons : Thurn und Taxis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. GHdA with reference to Ughelli, Italia Sacra, Tomus V., Romae 1653, pag. 1598
  2. ^ Pierantonio Serassi: La vita di Torquato Tasso. Pagliarini, Rome 1785, p. 4 ff.
  3. Entry in the Innsbruck Rait books 1489/90, see illustration.
  4. After: Max Piendl: The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1981, p. 35, however, only the descent of the Austrian Counts of Thurn and Valsassina from the Torriani is unequivocally established.
  5. ^ The Encyclopedia Americana: The International Reference Work. , Vol. 25, Utgiver Americana Corporation, 1958, p. 476 .
  6. Luis Felipe López Jurado: Prefilatelia de Murcia: Historia Postal del Reino de Murcia desde 1569 hasta 1861. Editora Regional de Murcia, 2006, p. 26 ff. " La Familia Tassis ".
  7. ^ Website Museo dei Tasso e della storia postale in Camerata Cornello
  8. ^ Exact wording of the contract of 1505 with Rübsam: Johann Baptista von Taxis. S. 188–197, see also Dallmeier: Sources for the history of the European postal system. Part II: Register of documents. Pp. 3-4.
  9. ^ Ohmann: The beginnings of the postal system and the taxis. P. 240.
  10. According to Brussels sources, Ordinaripost was introduced around 1535, see Behringer, Imzeichen des Merkur. P. 78.
  11. ^ Richard Ehrenberg : The age of the Fugger. Money capital and credit transactions in the 16th century. Volume I: The Money Powers of the 16th Century. Fischer, Jena 1896, p. 383.
  12. Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz : The Fugger. Tübingen 1970, Volume 1, pp. 466, 487, Volume 2, pp. 142, 305, 491.
  13. ^ Prince Thurn and Taxis. In: Central Archive Regensburg, FZA PA 2347.
  14. ^ Dallmeier: Sources for the history of the European postal system. Volume II: Documentary Proceedings . Pp. 58-59.
  15. Otto von Alberti : Württembergisches Nobility and Arms Book. Published by the Württembergischer Altertumsverein , Bauer & Raspe, Neustadt ad Aisch 1975, ISBN 3-87947-105-3 , p. 808.
  16. ^ Wolfgang Behringer: Thurn and Taxis. Piper, 1990, p. 123.
  17. ^ Wolfgang Behringer: Thurn and Taxis. Piper, 1990, p. 133.
  18. Martin Dallmeier, Martha Schad: The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis. 300 years of history in pictures . Regensburg 1996, p. 45.
  19. ^ Wolfgang Behringer: Thurn and Taxis. 1990, p. 295.
  20. Martin Dallmeier, Martha Schad: The princely house of Thurn and Taxis. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1996, p. 77.
  21. Martin Dallmeier, Martha Schad: The princely house of Thurn and Taxis. Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1996, p. 79.
  22. Siegfried Grillmmeyer: The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis and the residence question after 1800 In: Thurn and Taxis Studies Vol 20 imperial city and Perpetual Imperial Diet (1663-1806), published by Michael Lassleben Kallmünz, 2001. ISBN 3-7847-1522-2 , Pp. 86-87
  23. Martin Dallmeier, Martha Schad: The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis, 300 years of history in pictures . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1996, ISBN 3-7917-1492-9 , p. 79.
  24. ^ Kirchholtes, Hans-Dieter: "Jewish private banks in Frankfurt am Main", Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 52, ISBN 3-7829-0351-X
  25. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility, Princely Houses. Volume XV, Limburg / Lahn 1997, p. 474.
  26. ^ Karl Bauer: Regensburg Art, Culture and Everyday History . 6th edition. MZ-Buchverlag in H. Gietl Verlag & Publication Service GmbH, Regenstauf 2014, ISBN 978-3-86646-300-4 , p. 325, 336-340 .
  27. Ralf Ruhnau: The Fürstlich Thurn and Taxis private jurisdiction in Regensburg: a curiosity in German legal history , P. Lang, 1998
  28. For Thurn-Valsassina and Taxis see Franz Gall : Österreichische Wappenkunde. Handbook of coat of arms science. 2nd edition Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 1992 ( ISBN 3-205-05352-4 ), p. 353.
  29. ^ Obituary notice Franz Ferdinand Graf von Thurn Valsassina und Taxis , December 1, 2017
  30. The time 50/1990, Empire without a ruler (accessed December 10, 2017)
  31. Waldprinz.de on June 28, 2014: Forest owners: Who owns the forest? For comparison: If their forest holdings were in Austria, the Thurn und Taxis would " only occupy 5th place (after the Mayr-Melnhof families with 34,550 ha, Esterházy with 28,300 ha, Liechtenstein with 24,000 ha and Schwarzenberg with 23,280 ha)".
  32. ↑ Billionaires in Germany marx-forum.de marx-forum.de