Christian Friedrich, Baron Stockmar
Christian Friedrich Freiherr von Stockmar ( born August 22, 1787 Coburg, † July 9, 1863 ) was a German physician and statesman.
Life
Stockmar's parents were Johann Ernst Gotthelf Stockmar (1760-1825) and his wife Johanna Christiane born in summer. On their manor Obersiemau at Coburg Christian was the second of four children to the world. The father was the Duke of coburgischer judicial magistrate in Unterrodach.
Schools and Universities
Stockmar attended high school Casimirianum and made with seventeen years, the High School. From 1805 to 1810, he studied medicine in Erlangen and Würzburg and was a member of the Corps Onoldia (1807 ) and Franconia Wuerzburg ( 1808). In Würzburg, he made friends with his compatriot and Coburg Corp. brother Friedrich Rückert.
After passing in Würzburg with good exam to Stockmar had in Coburg down as General Practitioner, under the guidance of his uncle, Dr. Sommer. Since 1812 urban and Landphysikus ( medical officer ) in Coburg, he established a military hospital, which he ran until November 1813. After he had lain with fever hospital three weeks to the death, in 1813 he joined the Masonic Lodge " Carl the diamond ring " in Hildburghausen in.
Military doctor
In January 1814, he retired as a senior physician of the Duke of Saxony's quota in the campaign against France. In Mainz he was medical officer of the 5th Army Corps and served in the hospitals of Mainz, Oppenheim, Gunter Blum and Worms. Since the autumn of 1814 Practice in Coburg, he went again in 1815 as the Saxon Army Doctor Alsace.
In 1816, he became the personal physician to Prince Leopold of Coburg in his marriage to Princess Charlotte Augusta, the granddaughter of George III. and presumptive heir to the throne of England. Stockmar was her confidant and most influential adviser.
Coburgischer Chamberlain
1817 was Stockmar on the medical profession and was Lord Chamberlain, that is, secretary, treasurer and budget director of the Prince.
On August 12, 1821 he married his cousin Fanny Sommer ( 1800-1868 ), a pharmacist 's daughter from Coburg. The marriage produced three children: Ernst (1823-1886), Mary behaves. Hettner (1827-1856) and Carl ( 1838-1909 ). Over 36 years, the couple lived six months a year in Prince Leopold's castle Niederfuellbach.
On October 31, 1821 Stockmar was elevated to the royal Saxon nobility of Stockmar Manstein.
Royal negotiations
On March 22, 1829 Stockmar was Plenipotentiary Chargé d'Affaires of Prince Leopold in the first London Conference on the independence of Greece, the Kingdom was. Counter Stockmar's advice Leopold took the first choice - and failed to Otto of Wittelsbach.
On January 20, 1830 Stockmar was knighted by King Ludwig I in the Bavarian baron.
At the London Conference (1830 ) Belgium became independent and autonomous as a hereditary kingdom of the Netherlands. Negotiations in turn led Stockmar. The second choice was Leopold, who, persuaded by Stockmar, when King Leopold I took the Belgian crown. Stockmar be Hofwesen organized in Brussels. When Dutch troops marched into Belgium, they took Stockmar caught on 12 August 1831 but forgot him during the retreat. Although Stockmar played a major role in the founding of Belgium, it could not be used as a foreigner in the Belgian polity. Therefore, he retired in May 1834 with a pension of Leopold's services, however, remained his personal advisor. Until 1836, he stays with his family in Coburg.
Matchmaker
In 1835 he pioneered the marriage of Prince Ferdinand Coburg to the widowed Portuguese Queen Maria II.
1836 mediated Stockmar also the marriage of the Coburg Prince Albert with the English crown princess Victoria, which was in May 1837 eighteen and mature government. When William IV died, Stockmar advised the young Queen in her difficult situation.
In August 1838 Stockmar left England and escorted from December 1838 to May 1839 Prince Albert on Victoria's desire for Italy (Florence, Rome, Naples, Milan). After the engagement on October 15, 1839 Victoria announced on January 1, 1840 at the opening of Parliament their upcoming wedding. A mere eight days later negotiated Stockmar as Albert's authorized representative in London against intrigue and resistors, including with the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston about Albert Protestant religion, through the naturalization, his rank, his powers and the appanage. After the wedding on April 10, 1840 Stockmar departed in early August. In November he returned to the birth of the Princess Royal Victoria (later the Empress Frederick ) and took over the care of the "Children Department".
From April to September 1841 Stockmar was in Coburg again, and until October 1842 Victoria's adviser in important foreign policy issues. As godparents for the November 1841 -born Prince of Wales ( later King Edward VII ) Stockmar Friedrich Wilhelm IV suggested as the greatest Protestant princes of the continent; the King of Hanover (Ernst August I ) and the Duke of Coburg rejected the proposal, however. Stockmar developed an educational plan for the two children.
Since the winter of 1842 he lived alternately in England and Coburg. As of May 1847, he remained four years in Coburg, where he devoted himself to German affairs, as a ( failing ) devotion to England and a ( failing ) reorganization of Germany.
Envoy to the Federal Council
In 1848 he represented the duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha as an official envoy in Frankfurt and called for a small German state under Prussia's leadership. In July 1848 and in February 1849 he was asked to take over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Imperial Government. He refused:
" Who would want to take over the age of 60 with gout in the guts nor the hospital attendant service with the suffering from infectious disease Germania, would be purely great."
In the soon -resolution Bundestag he explained the Partikularregierungen unnecessary and demanded their surrender as a patriotic act
Convinced of the futility from the outset, he took in 1850 at Erfurt Union Parliament (Prince's parliament) for consideration of a constitutional part dutifully. However, he did not doubt a fulfilling his dream of German unity:
"The Germans are a good people, easy to govern, and the German princes who do not understand this, do not deserve to rule over a people. Do not let scare you! My younger vermögt not to overlook how much progress are what the Germans did in this century to a unified state. I know, I know these people, you go forward to a great future, you will experience it, but not me. Then think of the old man! "
Age
In 1856, he visited for the last time England and lived since the spring of 1857 only in Germany. In pursuit of his idea of an Anglo- German friendship he founded yet another marriage with Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia with " Vicky ", the English Princess Victoria, the Stockmar was very fond. At their wedding early 1858 Stockmar was unable to attend because of illness. His stay in Potsdam in the fall of 1858 was the Prussian court circles suspicious; he was considered an English or Belgian spy. Then Stockmar Coburg and his estate Marisfeld left no more, but remained with "his" royal courts in England and Belgium in contact by correspondence. 1860 Queen Victoria and Albert visited him in Coburg. After his "political disciple " Albert had died in 1861, Victoria in 1862 alone came to Coburg. Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and Vicky visited him repeatedly. The old friend Rückert was rare.
Last devoted to philosophical and religious thoughts and benevolent, Stockmar died at age 75 after a stroke. He was buried in the simple family vault, which was rich configured later by the Crown Prince and Princess.