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Ludwig Siegfried Vitzthum von Eckstädt was a Saxon diplomat and administrator of the electoral art collections of the Electorate of Saxony. He was a real secret councilor and most recently a chamberlain. He was the youngest son of the Saxon cabinet minister Friedrich Graf Vitzthum von Eckstädt and his wife Rahel Charlotte, née. Countess von Hoym and grew up on his parents' estates, primarily at Wölkau Castle near Leipzig. He studied law at Universität Leipzig from 1729 to 1736 (enrolled on October 14, 1729), obtaining his doctorate in March 1736 with a feudal law dissertation.
See: Heinrich Ludwig Carl von Hochberg (C-21).
After his studies, Ludwig Siegfried Vitzthum von Eckstädt went on a long trip abroad. In 1739 he was appointed chamber squire and in 1742 chamberlain. The first stage of his diplomatic career was accompanied by Stanisław Graf Poniatowski on his special mission to Paris. In 1741, he was put to the side of the new Saxon envoy to the French court, Johann Adolf Graf von Loß. Already in 1743 he obtained his first independent diplomatic position as a representative at the Sardinian court in Turin (Italian Torino). In 1746 he was appointed to the post of St. Petersburg, which was more important for Saxon foreign policy, and was given the title of Secret Council. In Russia, he had to try to eliminate Tsarina Elisabeth I's mistrust of Saxony, which had signed a subsidy agreement with France in April 1746, although it had a defensive alliance with Austria and Russia. During his only 14-month stay, he managed to clear the differences so far that he was invited to join the St. Petersburg treaty in Saxony. When he was recalled in September 1747, he received the order of the Alexander from the Tsarina.
From March 1749 to September 1751, Ludwig Siegfried Vitzthum von Eckstädt was envoy in Munich. At the center of his work were family affairs of the two closely related spa houses. In the following years, he devoted himself to the management of his goods in Upper Lusatia and near Leipzig. The redesign of the park of his estate Otterwisch in the English style made it a supra-local attraction. In 1755 he was appointed Real Secret Council and in October of the same year took over the legation post at the French court, which he kept until 1757. He was in Paris at the time when the Alliances Renverement was taking place, which brought Saxony and Austria to the side of France. Even before the overthrow of the alliances, he had advocated a Saxon contract with France; however, no such had come about. He spent the time of the Seven Years' War on his estates and without connection to the court. After the end of the war and under the rule of Elector Friedrich Christian, he was appointed envoy to the imperial court. His handling to Vienna was delayed until the end of 1765.
In November 1768, when Ludwig Siegfried Vitzthum von Eckstädt finally returned to Saxony, he received the position of chief chamberlain at the newly created court of Elector Friedrich August III. (from 1806 King Friedrich August I, the Righteous), which he held until his death. In this role, the management of the electoral collections. In 1771, he proposed the chronological hanging of the pictures within the individual schools in a report on the reorganization of the Dresden picture gallery; however, this groundbreaking suggestion was not realized. This type of painting presentation was first implemented in Vienna in 1781. He also contributed to the electoral library, which, at his instigation, bought valuable writings from the Saxon school libraries in Freiberg, Chemnitz, Annaberg and Schneeberg as well as private libraries in Schneeberg and Zwickau, including rare parchments and incunables from the 15th century. He also owes the suggestion to unite the library, which is housed in inadequate premises in the Zwinger, together with the Münzkabinett and the Antikensammlung in the Japanese Palace. In addition to Christian Friedrich Exner, Friedrich August Krubsacius and Johann Rudolph Faesch, he contributed his own design for the construction of a country and tax house in Dresden.
On October 4, 1748, Ludwig Siegfried Vitzthum von Eckstädt married his first cousin, Christiane Caroline Countess von Hoym. She was the daughter of Count Carl Siegfried von Hoym, his mother's brother. From this marriage four children emerged, of which the name of the son who died as an infant is not known: Friederike Antonie Louise Josepha (1753); Erdmuthe Charlotte Sophie (1754-1755); Louise Constanze (1757-1759)
After the death of his first wife in 1760, he married Auguste Erdmuthe von Ponickau and Pilgrim (1738–1775). From this marriage in turn six children emerged: Johann Ludwig (1763-1764); Friedrich August (1765-1803); Carl Alexander Nicolaus (1767-1834); Heinrich Carl Wilhelm (1770-1837); Erdmuthe Louise (1772-1844); Josefa Auguste Amalie (1775-1809). In his third marriage, he married Amalie Sybille Eleonore von Stammer (1749–1795) shortly before his own death in 1776.
He is considered the founder of the three Vitzthumschen lines, which existed until 1945 through the sons Friedrich, Carl and Heinrich and their descendants. After the extinction of the 1st line, the 2nd and 3rd line still exist today.
References: Koska: C-24 |
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Literature 2: Woldemar Lippert: Kaiserin Maria Theresia und Kurfürstin Maria Antonia von Sachsen (Leipzig 1908), S. CXCV ff (eingeschränkte Vorschau in der Google-Buchsuche).
Lierature 3: L W. Lippert, Kaiserin Maria Theresia und Kurfürstin Maria Antonia von Sachsen, Leipzig 1908, S. CXCV-CXCVIII; R. Vitzthum von Eckstädt, Ludwig Siegfried Graf V. 1716-1777, in: Vitzthumsche Familienblätter 6/1940, S. 1-41 (Bildquelle); G. Heres, Dresdner Kunstsammlungen im 18. Jahrhundert, Leipzig 1991; V. Spenlé, „Eine chronologische Historie der Mahlerey in Gemählden“, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 67/2004, H. 4, S. 461-478; J. Matzke, Ludwig Siegfried Graf V., in: Vitzthumsche Familienblätter 16/2011, S. 61f. – T. Bürger/K. Hermann (Hg.), Das ABC der SLUB, Dresden 2006, S. 232 (P). |
