II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

ducted. This is what distuinguishes a summer
residence from a hunting lodge or the occasional
stay of a ruling prince at a castle. 30
What held for the emperor at Vienna held for
Schwetzingen too. Carl Theodor frequently
held ministerial conferences there and
received high-ranking guests, among them
the bishops of Speyer (August Philipp Count
of Limburg-Styrum), Hildesheim (Friedrich
Wilhelm von Westphalen) and Augsburg
(Joseph Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt),
Princess Christine of Saxony, the Electress
of Saxony, Maria Antonia, Duke Carl von
Curland, the Electors of Mainz (Emmerich
Josef von Breidbach-Bürresheim and Friedrich
Karl Joseph von Erthal), the Elector of Trier
(Clemens Wenzeslaus Duke of Saxony), the
Princes Radziwill and relatives from Bavaria
and Zweibrücken. During the summer months
at Schwetzingen the council of the Palatine
ministers chaired by the Elector had near-daily
sittings. Outside their holidays, (mid-July to
mid-August) the ministers had a choice of
staying at Schwetzingen or commuting there
from Mannheim on a regular basis 31 .
Even during the holidays the cabinet secretary
had to be present at Schwetzingen in order
to conduct government business with Carl
Theodor. The palace inventories of the late
18th century explicitly name a fi rst-fl oor
“conference room” – but in view of the general
lack of space in the electoral couple’s bel
étage, it is likely that the conference room also
served as an anteroom and cardroom.
In 18th-century France, on the other hand,
30 Andreas Pécar, Die Ökonomie der Ehre. Der höfi sche Adel am
Kaiserhof Karls VI. (1711-1740), Darmstadt 2003, pp. 158 f.
31 I am indebted to Stefan Mörz for this piece of information.
II. Schwetzingen – A Prince Elector’s Eighteenth-Century Summer Residence
there was no offi cial royal summer residence.
During the reign of Louis XIV the one-time
hunting lodge of Versailles became the
permanent residence. In order to provide the
King and selected guests, with opportunities
for withdrawing from the court, smaller “fi lial
palaces” were built. The fi rst of them was
the Trianon de porcelaine in the immediate
vicinity of the main palace; later it was
replaced by the Trianon de marbre; later still
there was the ensemble of twelve pavilions
grouped round a central pleasure palace at
Marly-le-Roy. But at the same time there were
the great royal palaces of Fontainebleau,
St. Germain-en-Laye and Compiègne, all of
them suffi ciently spacious to lodge the entire
French court. Nevertheless they were used
only sporadically by the French kings, for
hunting trips or excursions. 32 This is evident
from the memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon
and the letters of Lieselotte von der Pfalz and
Madame de Sévigné. 33
It was an era when courtly culture, fashion, art
and architecture were dominated by France;
nevertheless the summer residence appears
to be a phenomen unique to the Holy Roman
Empire of the German Nation. 34
To conclude it may be stated that from 1718 to
1778, Schwetzingen was the offi cial abode of
the Palatine court during the summer. There is
suffi cient justifi cation to call it the Palatinate’s
summer capital. It is thus an authentic and
characteristic example of the type described
above, the offi cial summer residence. 35
(Ralf Richard Wagner)
32 The great royal palaces of France had conference rooms well
suited for the business of ruling. Usually the court was present
in full force, and so were the ministers. However, there is no
noticeable continuity or regularity, or of the court’s staying
there for several months at a time as was the case in the
Geman summer residences.
33 Die Memoiren des Herzogs von Saint-Simon 1691-1723, trans.
and ed. by S. von Massenbach, Frankfurt a. M./Berlin 1990.
Helmut Kiesel, Briefe der Liselotte von der Pfalz, Frankfurt a.
M. 1981. Theodora von der Mühl, Madame de Sévigné - Briefe,
Baden-Baden 1979.
34 Other European states have not been considered in this
examination.
35 Bernd Roeck, “Staat ohne Hauptstadt. Städtische Zentren im
Alten Reich der frühen Neuzeit”, in: H.-M. Körner/K. Weigand
(eds.), Hauptstadt. Historische Perspektiven eines deutschen
Themas, München 1995, pp. 59-72.
II.
19