Werner von Haxthausen was born in
Bökendorf near
Brakel. He was one of eight sons of the
Drost of the Paderborn district of Lichtenau,
Werner Adolph, Baron von Haxthausen, lord of Thienhausen, Bökendorf, Abbenburg, and Bellersen (near Brakel), and Baroness Marie Anne von
Wendt-Papenhausen. He also had nine sisters.
Youth, Studies, Wars of Liberation From 1799 to 1801, Haxthausen was educated in the family of the poet
Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg in
Münster, with whom his half-sister Therese, who married Droste zu Hülshoff, had contact within the Münster circle. He studied law and medicine at the
University of Münster and, from 1801, in
Prague; from 1803 to 1804, he lived in Bohemia. After temporarily taking over a cathedral prebend in
Paderborn, he turned to the study of Oriental studies in
Paris,
Göttingen, and
Halle. As a member of the "
Tugendbund" around
Wilhelm von Dörnberg, and involved in Dörnberg's 1810 conspiracy against French rule in the
Kingdom of Westphalia, he had to flee to England, where he worked as a doctor under the cover name "Dr. Albrock," and participated in the
Wars of Liberation as an
adjutant to
General Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn. In Paris and at the
Congress of Vienna, he came into contact with
Wilhelm Grimm,
Ernst Moritz Arndt,
Sulpiz Boisserée,
Joseph von Laßberg, and
Joseph Görres. At the Congress of Vienna, he and Laßberg were among the founders of the secret noble chain. In 1825, he married Elisabeth (Betty) von Harff-Dreiborn (Schleiden), with whom he initially lived in
Cologne. Her inheritance allowed him to financially stabilize the family estates, whose management he then took over.
Public Activities in Prussia In 1815, Haxthausen was appointed a Prussian government councillor in Cologne and tasked with organizational duties in the new Prussian
Rhine Province. He was particularly involved in the return of cultural treasures that Napoleon had taken to Paris and is regarded as the savior of
Altenberg Cathedral, whose acquisition and restoration he facilitated through
Franz Egon von Fürstenberg-Stammheim. In 1825, he was dismissed by the Prussian government after he had assisted the
Brothers Grimm and
Joseph Görres during the persecution of so-called "
demagogues." In the Westphalian Provincial Parliament, he served in 1833 as chairman of the committee on the peasant hereditary estate law. This led to his ultraconservative writing
On the Foundations of Our Constitution, influenced by
Karl Ludwig von Haller, which, due to its sharp criticism of the Prussian government, resulted in Haxthausen's brief arrest. Even his fellow members of the nobility subsequently distanced themselves from him. These experiences contributed to Haxthausen's relocation to Bavaria.
Public Activities in Bavaria In 1837, Haxthausen acquired
Salzburg Castle and Neuhaus Palace in
Bad Neuhaus near
Bad Neustadt an der Saale, which he had become acquainted with during a spa visit in
Bad Kissingen. The Bavarian King
Ludwig I elevated Werner von Haxthausen to the rank of
graf. He died on30 April 1842 in
Würzburg, a year after laying the foundation stone for a chapel in
Neo-Byzantine style on Salzburg Castle together with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and was buried in the family crypt of the Counts
Schenk von Stauffenberg. After his death, his widow managed the entire estate, where she established the spa business, until her death on 21 January 1862. She designated her eleven-year-old grandson, Otto von
Brenken, as heir. Otto's parents managed the estate with the castle on behalf of their son and were also able to acquire the remaining shares of Salzburg. In addition, the couple expanded the private spa Neuhaus, founded by the countess, and built a guesthouse there in the Swiss style.
Activities as a Philologist and Art Collector As a philologist, especially gifted in languages, Werner von Haxthausen worked on a collection of modern Greek folk songs (published posthumously in 1935 by
Karl Schulte-Kemminghausen and Gustav Soyter), which Goethe praised. In addition, he, his brother
August von Haxthausen, other siblings, and his niece
Jenny von Droste zu Hülshoff were involved in the
Brothers Grimm's fairy tale collection, with whom he shared a close friendship. Like his friend
Sulpiz Boisserée, Haxthausen also assembled a significant art collection, the traces of which have been lost, and during his time in Cologne, he worked together with Boisserée on the completion of
Cologne Cathedral. == Family ==