Joseph Ferdinand Maria of Salern

Count Joseph Ferdinand Maria of Salern (* 1718 in Berg Kling, Upper Bavaria, † December 7, 1805 in Munich) was a natural Wittelsbach.

Biography

Salerns parents were Prince Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria Innocent (1699-1738) and his wife to the left hand, Countess Marie Adelheid of Fortunata Spaur (1693-1781), sister of the later Bavarian court bishop Joseph Ferdinand Guidobald of Spaur ( 1705-1793 ). It is thus a direct nephew of Emperor Charles VII and his brothers Clemens August, Elector and Archbishop of Cologne, and Cardinal Johann Theodor of Bavaria, Bishop of Freising, Regensburg and Liege.

Salern was landlord of the Geltolfing in Straubing. In the Napoleonic Wars he was General of Artillery in 1804 and owner of the 4th Line Infantry Regiment "Graf Salern ", which had emerged from the 4th Bavarian Infantry Regiment " King Wilhelm of Württemberg". He was also General Feldzeugmeister and Hofjägermeister. As general director of court music, he was the patron of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In 1779 he was appointed a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. On a painting he is confidant as his cousin, Elector Max III. Joseph represented in Drechsel Cabinet. (Johann Jakob Dorner the Elder, 1765 )

In his first marriage he was married to Countess Maria Antonia Mechtildis Theresia Franziska von Toerring Jette Bach ( 1734-1764 ). From this connection, the only son showed Max von Salern († 1810); with this, the family died out in the male line.

Then he married Countess Maria Josepha Theresia Walburga von La Rosee (1746-1772), daughter of Lieutenant-General Johann Kaspar Basselet of La Rosee. From this marriage two daughters were born, among other things, received by Mozart music lessons.