II. - Schloss Schwetzingen

condemned Catholicism as “cursed idolatry”,
served as a pretext for moving the capital of
the electorate to Mannheim in 1720. During
the subsequent half-century, not only Mannheim
was enlarged and beautifi ed with the
enormously big electoral palace and various
government buildings, aristocratic houses and
grand Catholic churches. The new Catholic
aristocracy also turned the countryside around
the new residence into an area “studded”
with smaller and bigger aristocratic countryhouses,
and the electoral family not only used
Schwetzingen as their summer-palace, but
also built another big palace at Oggersheim
just beyond the Rhine, destroyed in 1794, and
several other country-houses and huntinglodges
nearby. Thus, baroque splendour and
refi ned tastes spread across the heartland of
the electorate.
The second half of the 18th century, however,
saw the spread of a different movement 4 .
Among the ruling elite, the infl uence of “the
spirit of the age” began to be felt. Even in such
a comparatively small state as the Palatinate,
which, apart from Mannheim, could not boast
of any bigger town, a new generation of upper-
and middle-class people infl uenced by the
Enlightenment, had grown up. Many of them
presented their ideas to the Elector: Catholic
clergymen wanted to promote reform in the
Church and to fi ght “superstition”, well-read
farmers advocated agricultural improvements,
both aristocratic and bourgeois civil servants
from all tiers of government, proposed a
rationally structured, well-governed body
politic, teachers hoped for better educational
establishments, legal experts wanted to
abolish the “dark” statute-books and confused
judicial system and replace them with just
and rational creations.
The young Elector, Carl Theodor, intelligent
and well-read, proved quite accessible to
modern ideas. This mirrored a European trend
– the increasing infl uence of enlightened
4 For Carles Theodore’s reign: Stefan Mörz, “The Palatinate. The
Elector and the mermaid”, in: German History. The Journal of
the German History Society, Vol. 20, Number 3 (Special Issue:
Imperial Principalities on the Eve of Revolution: The Lay
Electorates), London 2002, pp. 332-353.
III. Schwetzingen – Historical Context
ideas on practical governance in many states.
Apparently, the Elector was driven by a
mixture of motives: genuine interest, a strong
desire to be praised by the contemporary
“philosophes”, and the realization that quite a
few of the intended reforms could consolidate
his power base. Carl Theodor was ready to
take up a lot of the projects suggested to him,
so much so that in the mid-1770s, government
offi cials complained that so many important
reforms were being discussed at the same
time, that they were completely overburdened.
From the rotation of crops to the abolition of
torture, many improvements were discussed
and partly implemented.
However, the Elector’s “enlightened” impulses
were constantly at war with his traditional Catholic
upbringing, and the staunchly absolutist
creeds he had been taught by his relatives and
his tutors. Carl Theodor grew up to become
a sceptic – sceptical of tradition, but also
sceptical of the lure of “the spirit of the age”:
While he called a “Life of the Saints” a “bunch
of lies” 5 , he also compared the age of enlightenment
to a mermaid with an attractive head
but a terrible fi sh-tail. 6 He received Voltaire at
Schwetzingen and paid generous tribute to his
anti-clerical and even anti-Christian plays, but
also gave shelter to the conservative jesuits
driven out of France by Louis XV.
In 1777, Carl Theodor became Elector of Bavaria,
after the death of the last male member of
the Bavarian branch of the Wittelsbach family.
The treaty of mutual succession obliged him
to reside in Munich. Count Oberndorf (1720-
1799), a minister of the Elector, who enjoyed
his particular confi dence, was appointed
stadholder of the Palatinate with far-reaching
competences. The Mannheimers were deeply
shocked by their master‘s departure. One
night, returning from the theatre shortly
before he left for Munich, the Elector and his
wife were besieged in their coach by desperate
people who, with tears and cries, beseeched
them not to leave them and lamented their
5 Recounted by the librarian Jung (Traitteur papers, Wittelsbach
family archive (GHAM Munich, Corr. 882 Vg).
6 Karl Theodor to Voltaire, Jan 12, 1757, in: Voltaire, Correspondence,
ed. Theodore Bessel, Geneva 1953 ff., no. 7116.
III.
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