Schwetzingen - Schlösser-Magazin

VII.
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VII. Appendices
new and prestigious palaces in more spacious
surroundings, was not uncommon in the
early 18th century. Several examples could be
found in the vicinity – Rastatt, Karlsruhe and
Ludwigsburg.
During the reign of Carl Philipp,
Schwetzingen was occasionally used as an
alternative residence while the Mannheim
palace was being built; afterwards it served
as a hunting lodge and summer residence.
The stuccoed, Régence-style ceilings date
from Carl Philipp’s time. 12 In the garden, in
the vicinity of today’s Arion fountain, the
Elector had an orangery built. This housed the
plants from the Düsseldorf orangery that had
been brought to Schwetzingen in 1724, being
shipped up the Rhine to Ketsch. There were
447 orange trees and 313 other plants in tubs.
The orangery also contained a large hall for
festivities, and was connected with the main
palace by a passage. However, it soon became
dilapidated, and was pulled down in 1755. 13
Carl Philipp died on 31st December 1742.
He had been married three times but left no
male heir. His only daughter had died in 1728,
leaving three granddaughters, the eldest of
whom, Elisabeth Augusta, had been married
to the nearest male relative and heir of the
Palatinate – Carl Theodor, Count Palatine.
(Susan Richter)
Carl Theodor (1724-1799),
Elector Palatine (1742-1799),
Elector of Bavaria (1777-1799)
Carl Theodor was born on 10th December
1724 at Drogenbusch near Brussels; his title
was then Count Palatine of Sulzbach. 14 In
1733, he was engaged to be married to his
cousin, Elisabeth Augusta, and after the death
of his father, Duke Johann Christian von Pfalz-
Sulzbach, he became heir of the Palatinate
12 Carl Ludwig Fuchs, Schloß Schwetzingen, Schwetzingen 1991,
p. 9.
13 Hubert Wolfgang Wertz, “Die Schwetzinger Orangerien”, in:
Der Süden im Norden, Regensburg 1999, pp. 59 ff.
14 Susan Richter/Ralf Wagner: “Geburt und Taufe Karl Theodors.
Eine Betrachtung zum 275. Geburtstag des Kurfürsten 1999”,
in: Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter, new series, Vol. 6. Ed. Gesellschaft
der Freunde Mannheims und der ehemaligen Kurpfalz
Mannheimer Altertumsverein von 1859, Ubstadt-Weiher 2000,
pp. 297-304. The baptismal register confirms the date of birth,
10th December 1724.
in the same year. The ruling Elector Carl
Philipp (b. 1661, r. 1716-1742) brought him to
Mannheim in 1734 to be educated. In 1742,
the marriage of Carl Theodor and Elisabeth
Augusta was celebrated at Mannheim with
much splendour. On New Year’s Eve of that
year Carl Philipp died, and Carl Theodor
succeeded him as Elector Palatine.
The guiding principle of Carl Theodor’s
foreign politics was the maintenance of peace
and the avoidance of military conflict. The
Elector realized that small countries were
better off remaining neutral than trying to
meddle in the affairs of larger powers. During
his 56-year reign, the transition from the
age of Absolutism to that of Enlightenment
is unmistakeable. Legal texts now cited the
principles of reason and stressed human
happiness and the benefits for the state
arising from it. Thus Carl Theodor wrote to
his sister-in-law, Franziska Dorothea, that
“the happiness of the most insignificant
among my subjects” was dear to him. 15 These
sentiments, so characteristic of their time, in
1776, culminated in the abolition of torture in
the Palatinate.
Carl Theodor’s fostering of the sciences
reached European status. Among the
accomplishments of his academy, the
Pfälzische Akademie der Wissenschaften
founded at Mannheim in 1763, were the
introduction of lightning conductors 16 ,
the discovery of new stars and the first
scientifically based weather observation in
history 17 . The Elector’s interest in Classical
antiquity, so evident from the layout of the
Schwetzingen garden and its buildings,
resulted in a trip to Italy in 1774/1775;
another was to follow in 1783. Carl Theodor’s
schedule – he visited Rome, Florence, Livorno,
Pisa and Venice – bears witness to the
15 Geheimes Hausarchiv München Correspondenz Akten 1313.
The letter is without a year.
16 In1776, Carl Theoodor became the first German ruler to have
his palaces outfitted with lightning conductors; they are still
visible on the roofs of Schwetzingen Palace.
17 Carl Theodor owned some meteorological instruments himself;
in his Mannheim and Schwetzingen cabinets he regularly
took readings and noted down the results. These scientific
statistics were conducted in all the 39 Palatine weather stations
worldwide.