Count Hans Caspar von Bothmer was instrumental in paving the way for his master the way to Great Britain and Ireland's throne. The Elector of Hanover showed his gratitude with largesse and the count built one of the most beautiful castles in northern Europe. After extensive restoration by the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, it can now be admired in its baroque beauty. The money to build a palace in Germany, by the way, didn't come from Hanover.
They were established aristocrats, the Bothmer family line. They were first mentioned in documents and certified in the 12th century in Bothmer in Schwarmstedt in Lower Saxony. They held many estates in northern Germany and gave the Holy Roman Empire generals, politicians, scientists, clergymen, musicians and diplomats.
West of the city of Mecklenburg, in the fertile angle halfway between Lübeck and Wismar called Klützer, an architectural jewels was left to posterity. Bothmer Palace, one of the most beautiful baroque palaces in the North of Europe that is hard to surpass. After a long and costly restoration, it is now open to the public showing off its former glory.
The palace is a unique ensemble, it's at the same time outrageously elegant and grounded with showing off its red bricks. The main building with its two levels is connected to the two cavalier houses by sweeping baroque galleries not seen in Germany before. Lower economic tracts and four higher cavalier houses at an angle bring the palace to a symmetrical end while framing the two hundred meter (656 ft.) wide courtyard. The construction of the palace was begun in 1721 and completed in 1732. Bothmer himself never saw it.
Count Hans Caspar von Bothmer wrote and left us his biography. The Bothmer Vita became as memorable and was as unusual as the palace. His name is closely associated with the European history of the 18th century. European rulers were familiar to him. He was the one who made any bumps disappear that threatened the way of George I to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1714, German George was crowned as George I in London's Westminster Abbey. Little later, Bothmer moved as a Minister into 10 Downing Street.
Bothmer became a man of the world moving between Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, Vienna, The Hague, Paris and London. But his career began in Lüneburg. At the Academy of St. Michael, he was educated in German, Latin, law, theology, history, mathematics, military defense buildings, natural science and civic education. The education included riding, fencing, and dancing, too.
After the Academy, he made his way to the university in Geneva, but in Celle he met envoys traveling to peace negotiations in Nijmegen in Holland. He was able to tag along and got his first insight into the diplomatic milieu. Instead of getting bored at university, he went on the grand tour through Holland and France.
At the court of the Electoral Princess Sophie Dorothea von Braunschweig-Lueneburg in Celle, he became a gentleman of the bedchamber. This position at any court was the preparation for a military or diplomatic career. In 1682, he experienced the evil trade off for the marriage of his chatelaine with her cousin Georg Ludwig of Hannover. The match was made in view of a territorial rounding out of the Hanover estates. The marriage ended twelve years later in an unprecedented scandal. The Elector accused his wife of adultery with the fiery Count of Königsmarck who shortly afterwards disappeared without a trace within the Hanoverian castle; most likely, he was the victim of an assassination. Sophie Dorothea was exiled to an old castle in Ahlden an der Aller, where she remained until the day she died in 1726.
In 1683, the 27-year-old took on his first mission to represent Hanover in Copenhagen and Stockholm. He then went for five years to Berlin as Envoy Extraordinary of the entire House of Brunswick-Lüneburg to the court of the Elector of Brandenburg.
Then it was time for holy matrimony: In 1684, he married the 16-year-old Sophie von der Asseburg whom he loved and for whom he rejected a 40,000 Taler dowry of another bride who was actually intended for him. But Sophie died after only four years, and their two children did not survive into adulthood.
In 1690, two years after his wife's death, he moved to Vienna. As Secret Privy Counsellor, he improved the relations between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Elector of Hanover, which included an election promise to the Habsburg family. At this time, his colleagues already thought of him as an outstanding diplomat.
In 1701, London's Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, which allowed only Protestants to succeed to the British throne. William of Orange, in personal union governor of the Netherlands and King of England, and Mary remained childless. After them, Queen Anne remained without issue, too. Elector George in Hannover was the grandson of Elizabeth Stuart and a pretender to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland. Anne's Catholic half-brother James was no longer in the line of succession together with 50 odd Catholics in line before German George.
What a chance for the Elector! Bothmer ran with it. In 1711, he moved to London. He cultivated the connections to the liberal Whigs who were in favor of calling the Elector of Hanover to succeed Anne. And he bet on the right card. Immediately after Anne's death in 1714, he was able to secure George the British crown.
Bothmer's star was on the rise. German George on the other hand was getting increasingly surly. He was kept in London, sunk from being an independent prince to playing a royal beggar. In Hanover, he was an absolute sovereign; he now had to live with a parliament and with sullen ministers who insinuated he should take care of Hanover and leave British politics to them. A caustic press mocked him for his mistresses and his ignorance of English.
As 'First Minister of German Affairs' Count Hans Caspar von Bothmer resided in an old grace and favor house in London's political center. The address was 10 Downing Street. Today, it is the seat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and is sometimes still called 'Bothmer House'.
In 1696, he married a second time. This marriage was less fortunate, and the wife remained in Germany. In London, he had a mistress and enjoyed the finer things in life. His lavish lifestyle wasn't covered by his annual ministerial salary. He knew how to help himself to much needed cash. London was soon aware that the Count wasn't averse to accepting cash donations for political favors; he invested in high risk ventures; and he ran a race horse breeding stud catering to the high nobility.
In Germany, Bothmer was rich. In the decade from 1721 to 1731, he bought a number of farms in western Mecklenburg for the huge sum of 314,000 Taler. He acquired most of it in the Klützer landscape from a local noble family. The Plessen family was at that time in a financial meltdown. The real estate transactions resulted in a large and rounded out estate.
He then engaged the architect Johann Friedrich Künnecke. Little is known about his origins, but he probably came from Hanover. The architect got detailed instructions from 10 Downing Street as to how the palace should represent the Bothmer family. The influx of Italian workmen, plasterers, crafters, and artists upsets the local country idyll. Sundays got rowdy, and the number of unmarried women giving birth was unprecedented as the registry in the local church shows.
When King George I died during a trip to Hanover on June 22, 1727, from a stroke, his son George II followed on the throne of both Hanover and the United Kingdom. Against expectations, the new monarch held with the counselors of his father. The fact is attributed to the advice of his wife, the wise and politically astute Queen Caroline, a Princess of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Walpole remained in office, and so did the first Minister for German Affairs, Count Hans Caspar von Bothmer. Until his death on February 6, 1732, he remained at 10 Downing Street.
It was his nephew Count Hans Caspar Gottfried von Bothmer and his wife who moved into Klützer Palace. They were not welcomed by the local gentry as being nouveau riche and liberals. Both aspersions can't be refuted easily, the palace was paid for mainly by the British tax payers, and the Whig connection was a liberal one.
While the family sat on 8,000 acres of prime farm land at the beginning of the 20th century, they were cash strapped after World War I. Large parts of their possessions and estates were auctioned off. The highest bidder was the Free State of Mecklenburg. Within four years, the family had gone from the high peerage to citizens of the newly formed Republic of Germany. This was the norm in Germany at the time; most lost their fortunes and all their titles with the end of the Empire. Years later, Adolf Hitler still feared those old aristocratic families. With his Princes' Edict, he robbed them of most of their civilian rights to keep them under control.
The Nazis expropriated the family's palace and converted it into a hospital. After World War II, the communists used it as a vocational school and a home for the elderly was built in the park as well as a sport field for the young. None of the Nazis or communists invested a single cent into the upkeep of the historical buildings. Which lets Mecklenburg-Vorpommern pick up the bill in the 21st century.
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