Wilhelm Ludwig von Baumbach

Wilhelm Ludwig von Baumbach (to identify the family line also Wilhelm Ludwig (II.) Von Baumbach-Lenderscheid ) (born April 12, 1741 , † September 19, 1808 in Kassel ) was a German district administrator and member of the Baumbach family .

Von Baumbach was the son of Wilhelm Ludwig (I) von Baumbach (1710–1769). The father was chivalrous chief collector and deputy to the Hessen-Kasselische Landtag 1753–1755 and 1758. The mother was the heiress of Sontra, Sabine Friederike von Baumbach (1720–1789). Caroline von Baumbach married Luise Henriette Wiebrecht (* April 17, 1737 - January 10, 1820) from Zerbst. The only child was the daughter Friederike von Baumbach.

Von Baumbach joined the administration of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel and from 1776 to 1786 was the district administrator of the Kurhessian river district of the Fulda river and later district administrator in Hanau. He was awarded the title of a secret government councilor and vice-president, later president of the government in Kassel. He was also used several times by the Elector on a diplomatic mission. From March 14 to April 11, 1790 he was the Hesse-Kassel envoy on a special mission (Investitut of the Elector) in Mainz and from June 21 to July 19, 1792 Hesse-Kassel envoy to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (electoral convention ). In 1802 he became Minister of State and Finance of Hesse. After the Third War of the Coalition, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel navigated between France and the Reich. Von Baumbach rather advised a connection to France ("marriage rather than Prussia"). Hessen-Kassel did not join the Rhine Confederation in 1806 and partially mobilized its army at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War in 1806 to ensure neutrality. Thereupon Napoleon occupied Kurhessen. On November 1, 1806, the French military marched into Kassel. Von Baumbach negotiated a loan of three million thalers and had this handed over to the French as a contribution to avoid pillage.

Elector Wilhelm I fled in good time and went into exile , first to Holstein , where he resided in the Itzehoer Prinzesshof , and later to Prague . On November 3, 1806 he appointed von Baumbach, together with the Minister Friedrich Sigismund Waitz von Eschen , the diplomat Carl Otto von der Malsburg , the chief hunter Friedrich Ludwig von Witzleben and the major general Carl Heinrich von Webern to "reign" in Kurhessen. On December 5, 1806, he was removed from office by the French General Joseph Lagrange as a minister and sworn in as a French civil servant. Even afterwards, he continued to work for the elector in secret. His last report to the elector is dated July 26, 1807.

From June 2 until his death on September 19, 1808 he was a member of the imperial estates of the Kingdom of Westphalia for the Werra department and the landowner electoral group.

literature

• Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 64.
• Jochen Lengemann: Parliaments in Hesse 1808–1813. Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-458-16185-6 , p. 116.
• Carl Lorenz Collmann: History of the old mountain town of Sontra in Niederhessen, 1863, p. 131, digitized .

Web links

• Baumbach-Lenderscheid, Wilhelm Ludwig (II.) Von. Hessian biography. (As of August 2, 2019). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).