Maximilian Franz von Österreich

Maximilian Franz Xaver Joseph Johann Anton of Austria was born on December 8, 1756, in Vienna, as the youngest son of Emperor Francis I Stephen and Maria Theresa. Among his fifteen siblings were the future emperors Joseph II and Leopold II. After his father’s early death in 1765, his upbringing was entirely entrusted to his mother. He was originally intended to become governor of Hungary. For this purpose, he received the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Stephen as early as 1767 and visited Hungary several times. In 1777, he wrote a memorandum containing proposals for reform. A career in the Teutonic Order was also planned for him. He was elected coadjutor to the grand master as early as 1769 and, on July 9, 1770, at the age of thirteen, was admitted as a knight of the order. During his extensive journey through Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France in 1774, he became more closely acquainted with the order and its members. His stay at the court of Versailles strengthened his lasting dislike of the lifestyle of the French nobility. During his stay in Salzburg, Mozart composed the opera Il re pastore in his honor. Maria Theresa also had her son trained in military affairs. Maximilian Franz took part in the brief campaign of the War of the Bavarian Succession alongside Joseph II, who praised his abilities. A serious illness, however, ended his military prospects. Growths on both legs had to be surgically removed, and the plans for his appointment as governor of Hungary consequently came to an end. At Maria Theresa’s urging, Maximilian Franz was now intended for ecclesiastical offices. State Chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg had convinced her that a Habsburg secondary line in the Electorate of Cologne could counterbalance Prussian influence in northwestern Germany. Maximilian Franz initially agreed to the plan only reluctantly. Prussia, the Netherlands, and influential politicians in Münster were among those who opposed his candidacy in Cologne and Münster. The support of the French king Louis XVI, who was also his brother-in-law as the husband of his sister Marie Antoinette, helped overcome European opposition. On August 7, 1780, Maximilian Franz was unanimously elected coadjutor in Cologne, and on August 16 he was elected to the same position in Münster. That same year, he received the tonsure and minor orders in Vienna. He was initially granted a five-year dispensation from receiving higher orders. At the same time, he increasingly devoted himself to theological studies. After the death of his uncle Charles Alexander of Lorraine, he was enthroned as grand master of the Teutonic Order in Mergentheim on October 25, 1780. The administration of the order and its small, fragmented territory gave him practical experience in government. As a conscientious administrator, he initiated reforms in the judicial system, education, and ecclesiastical affairs. Following the death of the Archbishop of Cologne and Prince-Bishop of Münster, Maximilian Friedrich of Königsegg-Rothenfels, on April 21, 1784, Maximilian Franz succeeded him. He arrived in Bonn on April 27. Toward the end of 1784, he successively received ordination as subdeacon, deacon, and priest; on May 8, 1785, he was consecrated bishop in Bonn Minster. Guided by his Enlightenment convictions, he regarded himself as the first servant of his state and personally governed his territories. Although he had not entered the ecclesiastical career out of a personal calling, he took his episcopal duties seriously. He celebrated Mass several times a week, frequently administered confirmation, took part in religious festivals, and traveled throughout his dioceses. During several journeys, he confirmed tens of thousands of people within just a few days. His modest manner clearly distinguished him from many of his predecessors. He dressed simply, lived in comparatively plain buildings in Bonn and Münster, and mingled with the population without elaborate ceremony. He was especially popular in the diocese of Münster for his affability and helpfulness, while his standing among the conservative nobility remained limited. He avoided an extravagant court life, although he had the Redoute built in Bonn and arranged elaborate celebrations for the inauguration of the university. He spent his free time taking walks and attending musical gatherings. At the same time, he was considered deeply distrustful, which sometimes led him to make unjust or sarcastic remarks. The central focus of his government was reform in the spirit of the Enlightenment. In education, he promoted elementary schools, founded normal schools for teacher training, introduced examinations for teachers, and supported industrial schools that taught practical skills alongside reading and writing. He sought to enforce compulsory schooling and established school funds to improve financing. Education was placed under state supervision, while secondary schools and universities were also intended to take on more state-directed functions. He gave particular support to the new university in Bonn, whereas the older University of Cologne continued in many respects to uphold anti-Enlightenment ideas. He also reformed the judiciary and administration. In 1786, a supreme court of appeal was established in Bonn, making appeals to foreign courts largely unnecessary. Proceedings were to be accelerated, and torture was almost completely abolished. Other measures concerned fire protection, forest conservation, and the exemption of factories and manufactories from guild restrictions. His reform policy nevertheless remained cautious. Unlike Joseph II, he wished to avoid radical breaks and took account of the rights of monasteries, religious foundations, and the estates. As a result, many of his initiatives were never fully implemented. In ecclesiastical policy, Maximilian Franz sought to strengthen the authority of the archbishop. His resistance to the papal nunciature in Cologne was particularly contentious. He prohibited the nuncio from exercising his powers and joined the opposition of the German archbishops, although he did not support all of their more far-reaching demands. He regarded the mendicant orders as outdated and prohibited them from accepting new members. Instead, he aimed to promote an educated and dutiful pastoral clergy. In foreign policy, he oriented himself toward the interests of his territories and of the Empire. In 1784, he rejected Joseph II’s plan to exchange the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria, and he later advocated curbing the power of the nunciatures. Together with Hanover and Mainz, he also sought to establish a “Third Germany” between Austria and Prussia, but this objective could not be achieved. The French Revolution and the First Coalition War directly threatened his rule. Although he deplored Marie Antoinette’s fate, he initially opposed an imperial war against France. As French troops advanced, he had to leave Bonn, flee across the Rhine, and withdraw farther into the Empire via Dorsten, Mergentheim, and Leipzig. France annexed the territories on the left bank of the Rhine. Maximilian Franz unsuccessfully fought to preserve his principalities and to transfer his archiepiscopal and electoral dignity from Cologne to Münster. The Treaties of Basel and Lunéville ultimately confirmed the loss of the territories on the left bank of the Rhine and prepared the way for secularization. As a patron of music, Maximilian Franz supported the young Ludwig van Beethoven. He appointed him court organist in Bonn and financed both his journey to Vienna and, later, his studies with Joseph Haydn. Beethoven intended to dedicate his First Symphony to him out of gratitude, but the elector’s unexpected death made this impossible. Maximilian Franz died after a long illness on July 26, 1801, in Hetzendorf near Vienna. Toward the end of his life, he was bedridden and suffered from obesity, excessive sleepiness, depression, and dropsy. He was buried in the Capuchin Crypt; his heart and intestines were interred separately in accordance with Habsburg tradition. He was the last reigning elector of Cologne and the last reigning prince-bishop of Münster. He did not live to see the dissolution of the ecclesiastical principalities and the end of the electorate in 1803.