Franz Seraph von Pfistermeister (14 December 1820 – 2 March 1912), was the court secretary and

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...

of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Pfistermeister entered history not only in the domain of politics but also in the domain of music, when in his first official administrative function he was ordered by King

Ludwig II Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Swan King or ('the Fairy Tale King'). He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the ...

to find the composer

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

and bring him to Munich.

Life and work

Franz Seraph Freiherr von Pfistermeister was born on 14 December 1820 in

Amberg Amberg () is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. In 2020, over 42,000 people lived in the town. History The town was first mentioned in 1034, at that time under t ...

, Germany. After attending the gymnasium in Amberg, Franz Pfistermeister began his career in the Royal Bavarian governmental service as military fiscal adjunct. In 1849 he was appointed to the Court Office in Munich, and by the year 1866 he then began working as Cabinet Secretary to Kings Maximilian II and

. Because of his opposition to

,Wagner was drawn into a plot conceived by Prince

Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis , title = Prince of Thurn and Taxis , image = MKvTuT.jpg , caption = , reign = 15 July 1827 – 10 November 1871 , reign-type = Period , coronation = , predecessor = Karl Alexander , successor ...

to found a new kingdom for his eldest son Maximilian Anton Lamoral Erbprinz von Thurn und Taxis consisting of Rhineland- Westphalia and approximately half of Belgium. In order to succeed, a bank should have to be found, and indeed the Landgrand-Dumonceau agricultural Bank in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

was created. Councillor

Georg Klindworth Georg Klindworth, born Johann Georg Heinrich Klindworth on 16 April 1798 in Göttingen, Germany, was a nineteenth-century German diplomat and intelligence agent employed by several European leaders and princes. He was a political exile from the 18 ...

from Brussels and Baron

Franz Josef von Gruben Franz Josef Freiherr von Gruben (February 13, 1829, Düsseldorf – October 23, 1888, Regensburg) was a 19th-century German Catholic social politician, member of the German Reichstag, poet, lawyer, artist and Head of the Princely House of Thurn un ...

from

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

, the Thurn und Taxis estate manager and a prominent figure in the Bavarian Catholic Party, offered Wagner capital in the form of bonus share in the recently formed bank to finance his plans. All that Wagner had to do was to use his influence with the king and persuade him into firing the hated ministers Pfistermeister and Karl Ludwig Freiherr von der Pfordten.Saffle, Michael (2003)
Liszt and the birth of modern Europe: music as a mirror of religious, Political, Cultural, and Aesthetic Transformations
p. 85, Pendragon Press, and his costly promotion by King Ludwig II in 1866, his dismissal from the 1866 service was "the highest immediate service". From 1864 to 1895 he served as State Council of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He died on the 2 March 1912 in his home on ''Knöbelstraße'', Munich, where he lived from 1881. His grave with a landmarked bust is located in the old south cemetery in Munich.

Additional information

Notes

References

;Attribution *''This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the German Wikipedia. A list of contributors can be found there at the'
History
''section''.

Sources

* Karl Bosl: ''Bosls Bayerische Biographie.'' Pustet, Regensburg 1983, , p. 586 * Hermann Rumschöttel: ''Ludwig II.'' In: Alois Schmid (Hrsg.): ''Die Herrscher Bayerns.'' Beck, München 2001, , p. 350 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pfistermeister, Franz Seraph von 1820 births 1912 deaths German politicians Barons of Germany