Ferdinand de Géramb

Ferdinand of Geramb; Religious name Maria Joseph of Geramb ( born April 17, 1772 in Lyon, France, † March 15, 1848 in Rome) was an Austrian chamberlain in Vienna, commander of a volunteer corps against Napoleon I., Colonel of the Imperial Army, state prisoner in France, finally Trappist monk, General of the Trappist and religious writer.

Family and origin

The parents of Ferdinand Gerambs lived in the Slovak Schemnitz, now Banská Štiavnica that belonged to the Hungarian part of the empire of the Habsburg monarchy at that time. The father of Franz Xaver Geramb had been raised in 1770 in the hereditary kingdom of knighthood; at Ferdinand's birth, the couple kept on just in Lyon, France, where her family operated in the silk industry. The boy grew up in Vienna and became a chamberlain of the emperor. To accept the hereditary Austrian imperial dignity by Francis II wrote Geramb the historical and allegorical poem " Habsburg ", which he on December 8, 1804 as the splendor pressure with 21 illustrations by the artist Johann Veit Schnorr von Friedrich Carol Field ( 1764-1841 ) personally handed to the monarch and became widespread. 1805 Geramb collected together with the well-known humanists Count Friedrich von Berchtold 65,000 guilders in donations for the risk of a famine residents of the Giant Mountains.

In the same year Ferdinand presented by Geramb in Vienna Freikorps against Emperor Napoleon I on and published a sharp proclamation against him with the title: "The enemy has Europens Germany flooded with his armies, and threatened frontiers of our country ." In it, he writes, inter alia:

"Everyone sey willing to help themselves and to forget for the sake of the whole. From this spirit animates I hereby urge you to support me bey a company for the defense of the dear fatherland beyzutragen which I am determined. The sovereign Lord has given me Hofcommissär imparts permission to build a volunteer corps, and to lead it against the enemy, and Se. Majesty had the highest grace to not only confirm, but also the same honor names: Frey Corps of the Austrian empress to approve. To counter the threat to go, I snatch me the arms of a beloved wife and six under-age children. My noble fellow citizens, I urge to Geldbeyträgen for the carriage of this company. "

There is a memorial cross of the Freikorps von Geramb known at Austerlitz as Freikorps Empress Maria Teresa. A photo of the flag is in the image archive, Vienna.

1809 as a colonel commanded Geramb an Austrian regiment, which he led in the Battle of Wagram. In 1810 he embarked for Cadiz to volunteer to fight in Spain against the French. He commanded a guerrilla force here. In order again to establish an anti- French Freikorps for King Ferdinand VII to Geramb went to England to his friend Lord Francis Rawdon -Hastings, who was very weighed him. Again, he issued again calls against Napoleon. The recruitment of volunteers failed, however, the Austrians fell into debt and left the UK.

From there, landing by boat in the then Danish Husum, 1812 Geramb was captured by the French and imprisoned in Vincennes castle as a political state prisoner. Here and in the Paris prison " La Force " developed into a friendship to his fellow prisoners Étienne Antoine Boulogne, Bishop of Troyes.

Trappist monk

Under the influence of Bishop Boulogne Ferdinand of Geramb broke with his former life, gave up and went soldiering 1815, after its liberation by the Allies, in the strict Bußorden the Trappists one. The officer had married in 1796 his kinswoman Theresa of Adda, was a widower since 1808 and had 5 living children. This he confided at the monastery entrance to his brother, General Leopold von Geramb, and also asked the Tsar of Russia and the Emperor of Austria, whom he knew personally both to capture their special Mitsorge.

First, the monk in the convent Port -du -Salut lived with Entrammes, where he took his vows on 13 April 1817 and the religious name Brother Mary Joseph took from 1827 to Oelenberg in Alsace. Although only brother and not a priest, Geramb was well known for his military career to, and you like him related to special missions of the community. In 1823 he traveled through France, to raise funds for the Order, from 1830 he held due to the political situation, with his brothers a long time in St. Urban Monastery in Switzerland, where he met with Abbot Frederick Pfluger ( 1772-1848 ) befriended. 1831 took Frater Geramb a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, which he published a travelogue. In 1837 he traveled to Rome and you chose him to Titularabt or Procurator General of the Trappists, the position in which he was staying from now on mainly in the capital of Catholicism. Pope Gregory XVI. became aware of him and pulled him closer to his environment. In the book "Journey of La Trappe to Rome " portrayed the monk his Roman period and draws from his own experience a vivid picture of the Pope. He also wrote numerous spiritual works.

In its Roman Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman describes memories of Geramb 1858 Ferdinand as " a man of erklecklichem extent, dressed in the white robe of the Cistercians " and continues:

" If the reader shall look on this monk precisely, he is despite his serious countenance noble facial features and the simplicity of his clothing a graciöse attitude notice to him, which betrays the noble finely formed, yes he is still traces of the witty, good-natured and gallant courtier to discover him. In his eyes you can still see a glimmer of the formerly sparkling wit, he has now suppressed or moderated to harmless joke. When I visited him once in his monastery, he showed me a letter from the imperial hand that he had just received and which was over his bravery and the wounding of his son, who fought against the Circassians, reports; as well as several other royal letters which were written in the tone, like a friend to the other writes. He is, however, by and by a monk of the strictest orders to the Church knows; he lives in a very simple cell, sleeping on a straw mattress, is engaged in writing, studying and viewing, is reverently in prayer and edifying in the conversation. "

Shortly before his death, Baron von Geramb collected large sums of money for the needy after the Swiss federal battle of 1847 Catholics. He died in 1848 in Rome and " preserved even in his old age a peculiar freshness of life and romantic chivalry ," as his obituary in the "New obituary for Germany ", 1849, Volume 1 holds. It says also that the many religious writings Gerambs be characterized by " warmth, glow of sensation, knowledge of the human heart and beautiful language."

In Vienna, Danube City ( 22nd district ) was named in 1909 by Ferdinand von Gerambgasse Geramb.

Portraits

• Portrait as Freikorps ( until the next page scroll down )
• Portrait as a Trappist monk ( until the next page scroll down )

Relative

Ferdinand of Gerambs brother Leopold of Geramb (1775-1845) was an Austrian general of the cavalry and the Knights of the Military Order of Maria Theresa Order.

Also, the Styrian folklorist Viktor von Geramb (1884-1958) belonged to the family and never missed it, the grave of Ferdinand Gerambs to visit when he was in Rome.