Dalberg Karl Theodor

Dalberg Karl Theodor, baron of Dalberg, was born Feb. 8, 1744, at Hernsheim, near Worms; he studied at Gottingen and Heidelberg; became, while yet very young, prebendary of Mayence, and canon of Worms and Wurzburg. In 1772, as governor of Erfurt, he gave a great impulse to agriculture, commerce, and industry. In 1787 he became coadjutor of the elector of Mayence and the bishop of Worms; was made bishop of Constance in 1788, and soon after archbishop of Tarsus. The last elector of Mayence died in 1802, and as, by the treaty of Luneville, the electorate of Mayence on the one side of the Rhine had been abolished and on the other secularized, Dalberg became arch-chancellor, which position he held with great credit; but by suppressing the convents he incurred the hatred of the clergy, and by sympathy for France that of Germany. In 1804 he was present at the coronation of the emperor at Paris. When the confederacy of the Rhine was formed he had to resign his office, but, in exchange, was made prince- primate of the confederacy, and was Napoleon's adviser in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters. He afterwards became grandduke of Frankfort, and appointed Eugene Beauharnais as his successor. In 1813 he renounced his title, went first to Constance, where he protected the vicar general Wessenberg from the enmity of the pope, and afterwards returned to Regensburg, where he lived in retirement on a pension of 100,000 florins, and died Feb. 10, 1817. His principal works are, Betrachtungen i. d. Universum (Frankf. 1777; 6th ed. 1819); Verhaltniss zwischen Moral end Staftskunst (Frankf. 1786); Grundsaitze d. Esthetik (Erf. 791); Von d. Bewusstsein als allgem. Grunde d. Weltweisheit (Erf. 1793); Betrachtungen ueber d. Charakter Karls d. Gr. (Erfurt, 1806); Perikles (Rome, 1811). See Kramer, Geddichtniss-schrift auf K. von Dalberg (Gotha, 1817). —Hoefer, Nouv. Biographie Generale, 12:802.