Montgelas
| Maximilian von Montgelas | |
|---|---|
Maximilian Josef Montgelas
|
|
| Minister of the Royal House and of Foreign Affairs of Bavaria | |
|
In office 1799–1817 |
|
| Monarch | Maximilian Joseph |
| Preceded by | Count Matthäus von Vieregg |
| Succeeded by | Count Heinrich Aloys von Reigersberg |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
12 September 1759 Munich |
| Died | 14 June 1838 (aged 78) Munich |
| Spouse(s) | Countess Ernestine von Arco |
| Children | 8 |
| Parents |
John Sigmund Garnerin, Baron Montgelas Countess Ursula von Trauner |
Maximilian Josef Garnerin, Count von Montgelas (September 12, 1759 Munich – June 14, 1838 Munich) was a Bavarian statesman, a member of a noble family from the Duchy of Savoy. His father John Sigmund Garnerin, Baron Montgelas, entered the military service of Maximilian III, Elector of Bavaria, and married the Countess Ursula von Trauner. Maximilian Josef, their eldest son, was born in the Bavarian capital Munich on the September 10, 1759.
Montgelas was educated successively at Nancy, Strasbourg, and Ingolstadt. Being a Savoyard on his father's side, he naturally felt the French influence, which was then strong in Germany, with peculiar force. To the end of his life he spoke and wrote French more correctly and with more ease than German. Nevertheless, the Munich-born Montgelas always wanted to be addressed as a Bavarian by nationality.
In 1779 he entered the public service in the department of the censorship of books. The Elector Charles Theodore, who had at first favored him, became offended on discovering that Montgelas was associated with the Illuminati, a secret society in Bavaria that held the most anti-clerical propositions of the Enlightenment. Montgelas therefore went to Zweibrücken, where he was helped by his brother Illuminati to find employment at the Court of the Duke, the head of a branch of the Wittelsbach family. From this refuge also he was driven by orthodox enemies of the Illuminati.
The brother of the Duke of Zweibrücken, Maximilian Joseph, took Montgelas into his service as a Private Secretary. When his employer succeeded to the Duchy, Montgelas was named a Minister, and in that capacity he attended the Second Congress of Rastatt in 1798, where the reconstruction of Germany, which was the consequence of the French Revolution, was in full swing.
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