Alois Friedrich von Brühl ' onMouseout='HidePop("3311")' href="/topics/Dresden">Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 – 30 January 1793 Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

) was a Polish

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...

-Saxon

Electorate of Saxony

The Electorate of Saxony , sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356...

 diplomat, politician, Freemason, soldier, actor and playwright.

Biography

He was the eldest son of minister Heinrich von Brühl

Heinrich von Brühl

Heinrich, count von Brühl , was a German statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth...

, one of the advisors to King August II of Poland. He was sent to the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

, but his mother was not satisfied with the progress the much pampered minister's son was making there and sent him on to Leyden, where the foundation of his knowledge was laid. When he was 19, his father contrived to have him appointed as a general master of ordnance for the Polish crown, and he traveled through most of Europe without significant expenditure. During the Seven Years' War

Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...

, he participated in several of the campaigns as a volunteer in the Emperor

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife effectively executed the real power of those positions. With his wife, Maria Theresa, he was the founder of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty...

's army.

With the death of king August III in 1763, he lost all his offices, and thereafter devoted his time to his passion for the theater: he wrote plays and performed on stage.

He was also briefly a governor of Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

. In that role, he founded the modern sewer system there.

Literature

• Johann Georg Meusel: Lexikon der vom Jahr 1750 bis 1800 verstorbenen teutschen Schriftsteller. Band 1, 1802. S. 625–627 (GBS)
• Hans von Krosigk: Karl Graf von Brühl, General-Intendant der Königlichen Schauspiele, später der Museen in Berlin und seine Eltern. Lebensbilder auf Grund der Handschriften des Archivs zu Seifersdorf. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin, 1910
• Juliusz Dudziak: Alojzy Fryderyk von Brühl (1739 - 1793), Zielona Góra, 2010