Brühl (family)

The von Brühl family

Ethnicity German
Current region Germany, United States, Sweden, Denmark, France, United Kingdom
Place of origin Free State of Saxony,
Holy Roman Empire
Distinctions Imperial Count (European nobility)

Brühl (de Brüel, von Brühl) is the name of an old German noble family from Saxony-Thuringia, with their ancestral seat in Gangloffsömmern in Thuringia. Branches of the family still exist today.

With the era of Heinrich von Brühl during the 18th century, who indirectly controlled Saxony and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and thus was one of the most powerful persons in the Holy Roman Empire, the family was one of the most influential families in the world, and has been compared to the House of Medici, the Richelieu family, and the Rothschild family.[1]

One of the most important branches of the von Brühl family uses the spelling Brüel, and mainly resides in Denmark and Sweden.

History

Brühl Palace, Warsaw
Brühl's Stairs and Ständehaus
Brühl Estate in Nischwitz
Brühl Estate in Brody
Brühl Estate, Castle Gaussig, view from the park
Brühl Estate, Warsaw

Not much is known about the family's early history. They are first mentioned in 1344, with Heinrich aus dem Brühl. He is named as a ministerialis of the Counts of Hohnstein. The name Heinrich was later often still given to new members of the family.

Heinrich von Brühl (died 1446) owned the manor Wenigen-Tennstedt and is first mentioned in records in 1424. The familial line starts with him. His descendant Heinrich von Brühl acquired a manor at Gangloffsömmern in 1470, which became the family home.

In 1464 the manor of Pakosław (Greater Poland) was bought by one Johannes Brühl (senior), whose son Johannes Brühl (junior) left Poland for Saxony in 1496, with his wife Balice Banarowna, heiress of Oświęcim, accompanying the king's daughter, Barbara Jagiellon (later the wife of George, Duke of Saxony). The name Brühl-Oswiecino was still in use into the 18th century.

At the end of the 17th century the family seat was owned by the Oberhofmarschall and Wirklicher Geheimer Rat Hans Moritz von Brühl. His son was the well-known Heinrich von Brühl (1700–1763). From 1719 he served the court of the Electorate of Saxony, and progressed quickly through the favour of Augustus II the Strong. For almost two decades, Brühl was the most powerful man in the Electorate, as prime minister he indirectly controlled Saxony and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth . His fiscal policy, unchecked by a weak Duke, almost led Saxon to financial disaster, but made Brühl extremely wealthy. Like his three older brothers a year later, Heinrich von Brühl was made an Imperial Count in 1737.

The two youngest of the four brothers founded two lines, the older Saxonian line, starting with the Saxonian Landeshauptmann Friedrich Wilhelm von Brühl and a younger Saxonian-Prussian line, starting with prime minister Heinrich von Brühl. The older line retained possession of Gangloffsömmern, Forst, and Seifersdorf.

An offshoot started to use the name Brühl-Renard from 1909. It died out in the male line in 1923. The family today has many branches.

United Kingdom

Hans Moritz von Brühl (1736–1809), was the son of F. W. Graf von Brühl of Martinskirchen, who died in 1760, and nephew of Heinrich von Brühl. Born at Wiederau in the Electorate of Saxony, he studied at Leipzig, and there formed a close friendship with Christian Gellert, who corresponded with him for some years. At Paris, in 1755, Brühl, then in his nineteenth year, took an active part in Saxon diplomacy, and was summoned to Warsaw in 1759. He was named, through his uncle's influence, chamberlain and commandant in Thuringia, and in 1764 appointed ambassador extraordinary to the court of St. James's.

He loved astronomy and promoted its interests. Brühl helped determine, in 1785, the latitudes and longitudes of Brussels, Frankfort, Dresden, and Paris. Brühl built (probably in 1787) a small observatory at his villa at Harefield, and set up there, about 1794, a two-foot astronomical circle by Jesse Ramsden, one of the first instruments of the kind made in England. He was intimate with William Herschel, and transmitted news of discoveries abroad through Johann Elert Bode's Jahrbuch. He supported the advancement of chronometry, in the work of Thomas Mudge and Emery. He also gave attention to political economy, and made a tour through the remoter parts of England early in 1783 to investigate the state of trade and agriculture. "Count de Bruhl" was next to Philidor, Verdoni and George Atwood one of the greatest chess player of his time.[2]

He married, first, in 1767, Alicia Maria, dowager countess of Egremont, daughter of George Carpenter, 2nd Baron Carpenter, who died on 1 June 1794, leaving him a son and daughter; secondly, in 1796, Maria, daughter of General Christopher Chowne, who died in 1835. The family was thus joined with the British aristocracy and intellectual elite, and offspring went on to possess significant influence in the United Kingdom. For example, Lord Polwarth was Brühl's grandson.

Scandinavia

Georg Wilhelm de Brüel (von Brühl), was sent to Denmark in the late 18th century to an establish operational plan of the forests in the stock houses Krenkerup on Lolland. Brüel was greatly successful, creating a close relationship with the Danish king, and started spelling his name "Brüel".[3]

Wealth

Second Belvedere
Patron presents Emperor Augustus Fine Arts, painting from the collection of Bruhl

The family achieved to accumulate remarkable wealth during the different reigns of their members, especially during the era of Heinrich von Brühl, whose fortune was sequestered but afterwards restored to the family. The inquiry showed that Brühl owed his immense fortune to the prodigality of the king rather than to unlawful means of accumulation.

Art and architecture

The family's power was often beneficial to the arts and sciences. The family was a dedicated collector and protector of the arts. They owned a large gallery of pictures, which was bought by Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1768, and their library of 70,000 volumes was one of the biggest private libraries in the Holy Roman Empire.

Brühl's glories refers to the, on the behalf of Heinrich von Brühl, on the Brühl Terrace in Dresden constructed buildings and collections. These include the Brühl Palace, the Brühl's library, the Brühl's Gallery, the Belvedere and the Brühl's garden.

Brühl's Terrace is known as the "Balcony of Europe", a name which was first thought up and used at the beginning of the 19th century and which since then has been used in all kinds of literature.

View over Brühl's Terrace

Numerous books and films has been made about the family and its members. "Saxony's shine and Prussia's Glory: Brühl the Great Career" and "Saxony's shine and Prussia's Glory: Brühl the War" (1985) was two parts of a six-part television film aired in Germany. Polish author Józef Ignacy Kraszewski immortalized the von Brühl family in two novels from the 1870s ("Count Brühl", "From the Seven Years' War").

Members

Heinrich von Brühl
Alois Friedrich von Brühl

Brüel, branch

Osaka, Japan, one of Brüel & Kjær's offices

United Kingdom, branch

Family tree

Coat of Arms of the von Brühl family

Coat of arms

See also

Literature

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Boroviczény, Aladár von. Graf Von Bruehl: Der Medici, Richelieu Und Rothschild Seiner Zeit. Zuerich, Amalthea-Verlag, 1930.
  2. ↑ Archaeologia. Band 9, London 1789, S. 14
  3. ↑ http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Dansk_Biografisk_Leksikon/Landbrug,_skovbrug_og_gartneri/Overf%C3%B8rster/G.W._Br%C3%BCel

Boroviczény, Aladár von. Graf Von Bruehl: Der Medici, Richelieu Und Rothschild Seiner Zeit. Zuerich, Amalthea-Verlag, 1930.

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