Charles William Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Brandenburg -Ansbach ( born May 12, 1712 Ansbach; † August 3, 1757 in Gunzenhausen ), called the Wild Margrave, was from 1729 until his death, ruler of the Principality of Ansbach.
Life
Origin and family
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich was the son of Margrave Wilhelm Friedrich von Brandenburg -Ansbach (1686-1723) and his wife Christiane Charlotte of Württemberg- Winnental ( 1694-1729 ). The Principality was initially under the regency of his mother.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich married Friederike Luise of Prussia (1714-1784), daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm I.. Emerged from the marriage are Karl (1733-1737), who died as a child, and Karl Alexander von Brandenburg -Ansbach (1736-1806 ). Karl Wilhelm Friedrich was a typical absolutist prince, who used a magnificent court life: He left his only official heir Karl Alexander mass a debt of 2.3 million rix-dollars, solely for its passion for hunting, he gave every year 10% of the state budget from. On August 2, 1757 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich died of a stroke.
Absolutist construction activities
The Principality of Ansbach but he also coined the numerous buildings. So he let the architect Leopoldo Retti renew the Ansbach castle and build two palace buildings in Gunzenhausen. Alone, 56 new churches and parish houses were built during his reign. Between 1736-1738 he was the Santa Gumbertus Church in Ansbach expand in typical margravial style and rebuild.
Falconry
His special love was hawking. In 1730 he commissioned his architect Colonel Carl Friedrich von Zocha with the construction of a hawk and heron house in Triesdorf. Zocha was later replaced because of differences by Leopoldo Retti. According to a statement from the June 14, 1748 Karl Wilhelm Friedrich had the largest falcon of Europe, between Midsummer 1730 and June 1748, he gave more than half a million guilders for this hobby from. The prince spared no expense and so two buildings have also been associated with hunting erected: the later Good Plein Désir called home in Willow Creek and the Palais Heydenab Gunzenhausen in which the commercial bank is housed.
The passion for hunting Karl Wilhelm Friedrich with the hawks in Weidenbach also had consequences (hence the name of wild Markgraf ): With its other partner, Elisabeth, custom, a falconer 's daughter, he had four children. The two sons, Frederick Charles (1734-1796) and Friedrich Ludwig Ferdinand (1748-1811) were later appointed to the Barons of Falkenhausen. For this, the Ansbacher prince had sent his privy councilor Johann Michael Schaudi to the imperial court in Vienna, who immediately procured on this occasion a patent of nobility for themselves. The Margrave equipped his morganatic sons of material: Friedrich Karl received the castles Thürnhofen and Traut churches, Friedrich Ferdinand Ludwig castles Laufenbürg and forest at Gunzenhausen. The castle in the forest had actually built Carl Friedrich von Zocha for themselves, but it was as the associated Good relapsed after his death to Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, as he had no bodily heirs. Two sons on the Markgraf suitable together the Bibersfeld Castle in Schwäbisch Hall. In the Castle of forest still live the descendants of the Barons of Falkenhausen.