Count Eduard Carl Albert Gustav George von Dyhrn zu Schönau (12 June 1791 - 30 December 1871), also known as George, was a German nobleman, entrepreneur, landowner, high state official and a deputy in the Silesian Parliament (Landtag).
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Count Eduard von Dyhrn or George, as he was commonly known from an early age, was born at Schloss Saabor on 12 June 1791, three months premature and was therefore not even expected to survive. He was descended from the most prestigious aristocratic houses of Silesia. His father was the Count Wilhelm Carl Adolph von Dyhrn, Baron zu Schönau (1749-1813), a Prussian diplomat and a minister, who was made a "Count" in 1775 in Berlin. Wilhelm was the former owner of the enormous estates Loslau and Dyhernfurth. Eduard's mother was the Princess Henriette zu Schönaich-Carolath (1765-1793), Wilhelm's second wife. Eduard was born as an illegitimate son of his parents, who married after he was already born. His illegitimate background produced through his descendants an "illegitimate", but still a noble family branch.
His grandmother was the well-known Silesian entrepreneur Countess Sophie Caroline von Dyhrn (1712-1793), who in the 1770s was considered to be the richest woman in Prussia and had a very big influence in the Prussian cabinet, as well as on the King Frederick himself.
Only a few months after his mother's death in 1793 Eduard got a stepmother, Baroness Franziska von Schwade, who moved to Schloss Gimmel, the Dyhrn family residence. After her death, Eduard got a new stepmother in 1799, Baroness Albertina von Köller. In 1800 his half-brother Alex was born (he later married Emilie Scholz, who in her second marriage became the wife of the famous German author Gustav Freytag).
Eduard's cousin was Antoinette von Maltzan-Wartenberg-Penzlin, the mother of Count Mortimer von Maltzan and the granddaughter of Joachim Carl von Maltzan, Prussian ambassador in London. The Prussian industrialist and the owner of Schloss Neudeck, Count Carl Lazarus Henckel von Donnersmarck, was also a first cousin of Eduard.
His second cousins were Prince Heinrich of Carolath-Beuthen (1783-1864) and Princess Dorothea of Reuss-Schleiz-Köstritz (1799-1848). Eduard was also a grandnephew of the Princess Johanna Wilhelmine of Anhalt (1728-1786), heiress of Pleß.
Eduard's father, Count Wilhelm, was a close friend of Charlotte von Schiller and her mother Luise; in Weimar he frequently visited Goethe and Charlotte von Stein as well. He was exchanging correspondence with them through many years and stayed connected with them till he died in 1813. Count Eduard continued to nurture his father's relationships to all of them, being especially close to Charlotte von Stein's son Fritz, who was raised by Goethe and who was later living in the capital of Silesia, Breslau. Dyhrn often attended gatherings at the famous literary salon of Amalia von Helvig in Berlin.
In 1817 he married, firstly, a Russian Countess Feodora Alexeevna Weletzka (1790-1856), by whom he had issue:
Feodora was a cousin of the Count Andrey Ivanovich Tolstoy, who married her sister Olga Weletzka, and Countess Feodora herself was therefore also a distant relative of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910).
Eduard divorced Feodora in 1819 and married next year, secondly, Elisabeth of Hochberg from Schloss Fürstenstein (1800-1866), who was also an illegitimate daughter of a Countess Hochberg, like Eduard himself, but with a far more "unpleasant" past. With Elisabeth he had the following children:
Countess Elisabeth von Dyhrn was an art collector and an amateur painter, who was also a member of the Silesian Art Society. She was a friend and a benefactor of the German painter Julius Schrader.
After his marriage to Elisabeth, Eduard became the owner of her inheritance in Ober-Waldenburg and began to call himself "Herr auf Waldenburg" (Lord of Waldenburg), adding the name of the property to his surname in order to separate his family and branch in Waldenburg from the Dyhrn family in Gimmel and from all other branches of the Dyhrn family. His family left Ober-Waldenburg already in the second half of the 19th century.
Although Eduard's descendants possessed many properties in Germany until the start of World War II, majority of them were already in 19th century mainly living outside of Germany, some of them moving also to their properties in South Africa and in the USA.
After being sent to the Prussian army and achieving the title Lieutenant Colonel very soon, he studied economics and law; first in Paris and later in London.
From 1818 he was the President of the Prussian Royal Company for Public Lighting, which resided in Berlin. After many inventions being made in England in this field, Count Dyhrn made the initiative to construct a new gas lighting system in Berlin, the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1820 the city of Paris adopted the new English public lighting and in 1825 also the city of Hannover, both of them making a good example for Berlin. The Count von Dyhrn, along with the approval of the King Frederick William III of Prussia and the Chief Minister Count of Wylich-Lottum, initiated the procedures to realize this big project. A contract was signed in 1826 between the Prussian Royal Company for Public Lighting, represented by Count von Dyhrn, and the Imperial Continental Gas Association in London, who was very interested in realizing the deal in Berlin, as they did in Hannover. The first gas Camberwell-lanterns in Berlin were placed the same year all around the city. The system was modernized through the following centuries, but still remains authentic. The public lighting in Berlin is the biggest public lighting in the world. After Dyhrn's resignation, the President of the company became the Baron von Frauendorf.
In 1820s Eduard became a Chamberlain in the district of Oels, where he inherited the estate Pontwitz in 1813. There he had a manufactury of steel, which was only one of many companies he inherited from his wealthy father. In 1833 Eduard established a porcelain factory (on the model of Krister's factory) in the Waldenburg district, named Graf von Dyhrn-Waldenburg Porzellanfabrik Altwasser, which was not successful. In 1841 he met the young Carl Tielsch, who had very promising business ideas in this field. Four years later a porcelain factory, named Porzellanfabrik Carl Tielsch & Co., was established in Altwasser, making Tielsch, Eduard von Dyhrn, Gideon Wallenberg and other investors, business partners and co-owners of the company, who later became one of the most important porcelain manufactures in Prussia. The company was exporting its products even to Australia, USA, Africa and South America.
The Dyhrn family was very active in the Silesian mining industry, especially in Waldenburg district, owning mines and mine-factories of coke (fuel).
In 1840s Dyhrn worked in Breslau as a Secretary-General at the directorate of the Central Economic Union of the Province of Silesia (Zentrales wirtschaftliches Verein der Provinz Schlesien).
From 1825 to 1843 he was a deputy in the Silesian Parliament Landtag in Breslau. The Dyhrn family was being represented by four members of the family: Count Eduard von Dyhrn (George), Count Ernest Conrad von Dyhrn from Ulbersdorf, Count Conrad Adolph von Dyhrn from Reesewitz and Baron Julius von Dyhrn from Hermsdorf (the husband of Amalia von Dyhrn). There was a Commission in the Parliament, which was represented by two representatives of the middle class, one rural representative and three members of Silesian nobility. Those were: Count Eduard von Dyhrn, who was the President of the Commission, Friedrich von Kessel (from the Raake estate) and Baron Carl von Köckritz-Friedland (from Groß-Sürchen). Dyhrn was also a member of the Prussian House of Lords, being the last from his family branch to have this position.
He died as a widower in Danzig, being 80 years old.
| Ancestry of Eduard von Dyhrn | ||||||||
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| Great-Grandparents |
Baron Johann Georg von Dyhrn-Schönau (1651-1729) |
Baron Johann Rudolph von Krausen (1673-1741) |
Prince Hans Carl zu Carolath-Beuthen (1688–1763) |
Count Heinrich Leopold von Reichenbach-Goschütz (1705-1775) |
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| Grandparents |
Baron Anton Ulrich von Dyhrn und Schönau (1704-1768) |
Prince Emilius zu Schoenaich-Carolath ((1724-1781) |
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| Parents |
Count Wilhelm Carl von Dyhrn zu Schönau (1749-1813) |
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Count Eduard von Dyhrn-Waldenburg zu Schönau (1791-1871) |
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