Sigismund von Reitzenstein
Baron Sigismund Karl Johann von Reitz Stone ( born February 3, 1766 Nemmersdorf; † March 5, 1847 in Karlsruhe ) was a Baden diplomat and politician.
Life and work
Reitz stone came from the same original Frankish noble family of Reitsenstein. He was the third child of five of Baron Sigmund von Reitz Stein and his wife Auguste. The father was in the service of the Margrave of Bayreuth. After his father's death in 1770 the children were under the guardianship of relatives and were educated by private tutors.
Reitsenstein began with fifteen years of studying law in Erlangen. He moved in 1783 to the current recognized as advanced in the 18th century University of Göttingen. After his studies he began a career as an official. He initially worked as a secretary for the minister Friedrich Karl von Seckendorf. This represented the margrave Karl Alexander von Brandenburg- Ansbach Bayreuth in its possessions. He then joined in 1788 in the Baden government service a. Karl Friedrich von Baden appointed him Privy Councillor Councillor in College and 1790 Chamberlain. After that Reitsenstein Landvogt the reign Rötteln based in Lörrach. In 1793 he married.
In 1796 Reitsenstein acted in Paris from a separate peace with the French Republic bathing. In August 1798 he was appointed Minister of Baden in France until June 1803, he held the office in Paris aus.In the following years, when it first goal was simply to get Baden as a state, Reitsenstein pleaded for a fixed link to France. The attempt to maneuver between France and Austria, he refused. By doing knotted connections he could in the Imperial Diet in 1803 to achieve the multiplication of the territory of Baden and the transfer of the Palatinate Electorate of Baden. The main task of the coming years he described in 1803, during the weeks of his departure as Baden envoy to Paris, clear: " to give a true doubled increased, but composed of a set of heterogeneous components landing an entirely new form. " Reitsenstein the same matter by letter in June 1803 Ludwig of Baden: "The plan and the will is still the same to fill the missing gaps in the utter context of the country, the [ ... ] made a Hanoverian division becoming speculations on the one hand, and. the possibility of a [ ... ] Continental war on the other offer mannichfache combinations represents the realization of that plan. " He sat down at this time trying to open up to the principles of the French Revolution.
1803 made him the consequences of typhoid fever, temporarily withdraw from politics. After his return from France Reitsenstein was initially domestically in the shadow of the rather conservative Johann Nicolaus Friedrich Brauer, but acted at the request of the Elector Karl Friedrich of Baden from autumn 1805 to autumn 1806 as a cabinet minister in the government of Baden. During this time, he returned again to Paris in 1806 to negotiate the planned marriage of Napoleon's adopted daughter Stéphanie de Beauharnais with Karl Ludwig Friedrich of Baden. In the following years from the autumn of 1806 Reitsenstein was preoccupied with the reorganization and reform of the University of Heidelberg. He defied there as well later at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau to direct state intervention, which provided the autonomy of universities seriously questioned. The model for the reform was the University of Göttingen, the Reitsenstein knew from his previous studies ago. Reitsenstein taught in Heidelberg a philological and a related educational seminar.
From 1809 to 1810 Reitz stone was then re- state and cabinet ministers. In this office he was instrumental in the unification and restructuring of the motley of various previously independent dominions of land on the French model. In particular, he aimed the old feudal influences of a " bigoted, ohnwissenden, domineering and selfish " clergy and a " ohnkultivierten, the lack of education replaced by pride " nobility and to combat urban aristocracy. He was convinced that change is only possible by one, if necessary, even tough approach of the state. This went so far that the press has been monopolized and opposition newspapers were banned. Reitsenstein became the real founder of the modern state of Baden. Despite its generally positive attitude towards France, the French ambassador intrigued against Reitz stone. This led in 1810 to the end of his reign.
1813 was Reitsenstein helping to lead Baden to the alliance against Napoleon. In 1817 he was again under Grand Duke Karl head of government and instrumental in helping to pass a relatively liberal and modern constitution. This came into force on 22 August 1818.
From 1832 to 1842 Reitz stone was again Minister of State. In this position, he fought the liberal, democratic and national aspirations of the time. After his death he was indeed honored with a state funeral, but came later largely forgotten. His grave stone is in the crypt of the Old Hall Cemetery in Karlsruhe.