Franz Seraph von Pfistermeister
Encyclopedia
Franz Seraph von Pfistermeister (14 December 1820 - 2 March 1912), was the court secretary and State Council
State Council
State Council may refer to:In politics:* State Council of the Soviet Union, was the chief administrative authority of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics...

 of the Kingdom of Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...

. Pfistermeister entered history not only as a politician, but also musically when in his first official administrative function he was ordered by King Ludwig II to find the composer Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

 and bring him to Munich.

Life and work

Franz Seraph Freiherr von Pfistermeister was born on 14 December 1820 in Amberg
Amberg
Amberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. Population: 44,756 .- History :...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. After attending the gymnasium in Amberg, Franz Pfistermeister began his career in the Royal Bavarian governmental service as military fiscal adjunct. In 1849 he was appointed to the Court Office in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, and by the year 1866 he then began working as Cabinet Secretary
Cabinet Secretary
A Cabinet Secretary is almost always a senior official who provides services and advice to a Cabinet of Ministers. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powers, including general responsibility for the entire civil service...

 to Kings Maximilian II
Maximilian II of Bavaria
Maximilian II of Bavaria was king of Bavaria from 1848 until 1864. He was son of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.-Crown Prince:...

 and Ludwig II. Because of his opposition to Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

,Wagner was drawn into a plot conceived by Prince Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis to found a new kingdom for his eldest son
Maximilian Anton Lamoral Erbprinz von Thurn und Taxis
Maximilian Anton Lamoral, Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis
-Titles and styles:*28 September 1831 – 26 June 1867: His Serene Highness The Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis-Honours:*Knight of the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece -Ancestry:-References:...

 consisting of Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....

-Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...

 and approximately half of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. In order to succeed a bank should be found, and indeed the Landgrand-Dumonceau agricultural Bank in Antwerp was created. Councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

 Georg Klindworth
Georg Klindworth
Georg Klindworth, born Johann Georg Heinrich Klindworth on 16 April 1798 in Göttingen, Germany, was a nineteeth-century German diplomat and intelligence agent employed by several European leaders and princes. He was a political exile from the 1848 upheavals, who had worked as a theater agent for...

 from Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 and Baron Franz Josef von Gruben
Franz Josef von Gruben
Franz Josef Freiherr von Gruben was a nineteenth-century German social politician, member of the German Reichstag, poet, lawyer, artist and Head of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis in Regensburg.-Life:...

 from Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...

, the Thurn und Taxis estate manager and a prominent figure in the Bavarian Catholic Party
Bavarian People's Party
The Bavarian People's Party was the Bavarian branch of the Centre Party, which broke off from the rest of the party in 1919 to pursue a more conservative, more Catholic, more Bavarian particularist course...

, offered Wagner capital in the form of bonus share
Bonus share
A bonus share is a free share of stock given to current shareholders in a company, based upon the number of shares that the shareholder already owns. While the issue of bonus shares increases the total number of shares issued and owned, it does not increase the value of the company...

 in the recently formed bank to finance his plans. All that Wagner had to do was to use his influence with the king and persuade him into firing the hated ministers Pfistermeister and Karl Ludwig Freiherr von der Pfordten
Baron Karl Ludwig von der Pfordten
Ludwig Karl Heinrich Freiherr von der Pfordten was a Saxon and Bavarian attorney and politician.- Biography :...

.


and his costly promotion by King Ludwig II in 1866, his dismissal from the 1866 service was "the highest immediate service". From 1864 to 1895 he served as State Council of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He died on the 2 March 1912 in his home on Knöbelstraße, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, where he lived from 1881. His grave with a landmarked bust is located in the old south cemetery
Alter Südfriedhof
The Alter Südfriedhof is a cemetery in Munich, Germany. It was founded by Duke Albrecht V as a plague cemetery in 1563 about half a kilometer south of the Sendlinger Gate between Thalkirchner and Pestalozzistraße.-History:...

in Munich.

Sources

  • Karl Bosl: Bosls Bayerische Biographie. Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2, p. 586
  • Hermann Rumschöttel: Ludwig II. In: Alois Schmid (Hrsg.): Die Herrscher Bayerns. Beck, München 2001, ISBN 3-406-48230-9, p. 350
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