Franz Xaver von Schönwerth

Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (16 July 1810 – 24 May 1886; born Franz Xaver Schönwerth, ennobled in 1859) was a Bavarian civil servant who was an important collector of folklore in the Upper Palatinate region.

Schönwerth was born in Amberg as the first of five children of Joseph Schönwerth, a royal drawing professor. He entered the Erasmus Gymnasium there in 1821 and began university studies in 1832, first in construction at the Munich Academy of Art and in cameralism and mathematics, then from 1834 in law at the University of Munich. He received his first permanent position with the administration of Upper Bavaria in 1840. In 1845 he became private secretary to Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria. In 1847 first the prince and then his wife Marie of Prussia entrusted him with managing their wealth, which he did well; during the upheavals of 1848, he disguised himself as an odd-job-man, loaded some 3 million thalers' worth of cash, securities, and valuables on a handcart, and took them to Nymphenburg Palace for safekeeping. After the prince's accession as King Maximilian II, he headed his cabinet as well as continuing to serve as his private secretary and manage his wealth; he was responsible for guiding the king in his patronage of the arts and sciences. In 1851 he was made a Regierungsrat; in 1852 he transferred to the Ministry of Finance as a Ministerialrat and in 1859 he was personally ennobled.

Schönwerth read Greek, Latin and Hebrew and also the Scandinavian languages and Gothic, and later in life studied Sanskrit and cuneiform. After beginning his folklore research, he served on the board of the Historical Association of Upper Bavaria from 1868 to 1875.

He retired in 1880 and died in Munich in 1886; he is buried in the Old North Cemetery there.

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