II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

Elector’s scholarly and artistic inclinations but
also to the personal interest an enlightened
ruler took in a foreign country’s industrial and
charitable institutions. 18
The Elector’s library at Mannheim refl ects
his wide-ranging intellectual interests. Of
the 36,840 volumes 13,890 were historical
in nature, 6,464 were scientifi c, 5,504 were
belles lettres, and there were 5,400 theological
tracts. 19 The library at Mannheim was among
the fi rst princely libraries to be opened to
the public. Very early Carl Theodor turned to
the new movement in German literature, the
so-called “Sturm und Drang”.
It would be impossible to overstress Carl
Theodor’s interest in music, and generous
support of it. His incomparable patronage
led to the emergence of a whole new musical
school or style, today known as “Mannheimer
Schule”. It was due to his personal involvement
that the German language was fi rst
used in opera. Contemporaries like Leopold
Mozard praised the modern performing
technique of the Mannheim orchestra and
the extraordinary cooperation between its
composers and soloists. “Music appears to
be His Serene Highness’ favourite and most
frequent pastime“ 20 , was what Charles Burney
wrote on concluding the report of his visit to
18th-century Palatinate.
A large building programme was put into
practice in Carl Theodor’s time. At Mannheim
he had to be satisfi ed with decorating the
interior of the palace built by his predecessors
21 , but the Schwetzingen garden shows his
hand. Among the churches built or completed
in his time, is the Jesuit church at Mannheim,
the enlargement of the Catholic church of St.
Pankratius at Schwetzingen and the new buil-
18 Stefan Mörz, Aufgeklärter Absolutismus in der Kurpfalz
während der Mannheimer Regierungszeit des Kurfürsten Karl
Theodor 1742-1777 (= Veröffentlichungen der Kommission
für geschichtliche Landeskunde in Baden-Württemberg, Series
B, Vol. 120), Stuttgart 1991, p. 58.
19 Geheimes Hausarchiv der Familie Wittelsbach in München,
Traitter’sche Papiere, Handschriften 215.
20 Charles Burney, Tagebuch einer musikalischen Reise durch
Frankreich und Italien, durch Flandern, die Niederlande und
am Rhein bis Wien, […] 1770-1772, ed. Eberhardt Klemm,
Wilhelmshaven/Locarno/Amsterdam 1980, p. 229.
21 Interior of the great court library and the small private library
of the Electress.
IV. Biographies
ding of the pilgrimage church of Oggersheim.
At Düsseldorf, his second residence in the
Jülich and Berg heartland, he commissioned
Nicolas de Pigage to build the summer palace
of Benrath, a typical ‘maison de plaisance’
strongly inspired by the books of the French
theoretician François Blondel.
Late at night on New Year’s Eve, 1777, Carl
Theodor received the news of the death of the
Bavarian Elector, Maximilian III Joseph. The
inheritance was settled by old contracts. Carl
Theodor was to inherit Bavaria but was also
required to move his residence to Munich. He
died there on 16th February 1799.
(Ralf Richard Wagner)
Elisabeth Augusta (1721-1794), Wife
of Elector Carl Theodor
Elisabeth Augusta was born 17th January
1721, the eldest daughter of Duke Josef Carl
von Sulzbach, heir of Elector Carl Philipp, and
of Carl Philipp’s daughter Princess Elisabeth
Augusta. After her parents’ premature deaths,
she was raised in the household of her
grandfather the Elector at Schwetzingen and
Mannheim, together with her two sisters. In
1732, Carl Philipp provided the girls with
a small household of their own, that was
watched over by his third (morganatic) wife,
IV.
Carl Theodor (1724-1799),
Elector Palatine (1742-1799)
171