The von Brenkenhoff family, originally from
Westphalia, owned the Gorenzen
estate near
Mansfeld at the beginning of the 17th century. Franz's ancestor, Nikolaus von Brenkenhoff, was the first of the lineage to carry a
title of nobility in the mid-seventeenth century. Franz Balthasar Schönberg was born on 15 June 1723 in Reideburg, near
Halle. He was the eldest son of Christine Sabine von Barsewisch, who died at a young age, and Julius, a
rittmeister in the Austrian army, who died in 1738 fighting the Turks in
Hungary. Two of Balthasar's brothers died in war. As a young boy, he was left without a family or a livelihood. He entered the service of
Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau as a
page. He gained recognition and respect from Leopold I, who entrusted him with carrying out works related to
drainage and wet
land reclamations on the
Elbe river. Hence, while working with Materne, a Prussian engineer and builder, he learned the science of
land development, performing measurements and leveling the soil. Furthermore, Franz acquired knowledge about
horse breeding: he became very rich with this business. Thanks to this expertise, in 1745, he was appointed to the position of
Master of the Horse of the
Grand Duchy of
Anhalt-Dessau. There, he took up farming in the principality and was nominated director of the Economic Chamber. As cultivated land expanded and yields increased, the financial situation of the principality stabilized. The accumulated reserves helped supplying
Frederick the Great's army in preparation of the
Battle of Torgau (1760) during the
Seven Years' War. It is highly likely that Balthasar's economic successes enabled him to enter civil service of the
Kingdom of Prussia. In June 1762, Franz von Brenkenhoff was appointed secret financial advisor and member of the war and finance councils. He was de facto the president of the
governmental districts of
Pomerania and
Neumark. During his assignment, he dealt mainly with the reconstruction of cities ravaged the by war and the land drainage on the
Noteć river combined with its using for agricultural crops. His seat was then in
Drezdenko, where he will have his estate built afterwards. Franz was also interested in the condition of waterways, especially the Noteć river, which annual floodings were regularly destroying the crops at the Skórzewski's Palace. It may have been the initial trigger for him to devise a link between the Noteć and the
Brda rivers. He reported his observations to Frederick II in June 1772, during a meeting which took place in
Bydgoszcz, where the monarch stopped on his way from
Königsberg. Once the First Partition achieved, the territory boarding the Noteć River became part of the Kingdom of Prussia: Brenkenhoff was then responsible for establishing the borders and the administrative divisions of the annexed lands. In 1772, he led the seizure commission for the
Netze District (-) as a representative of the king and received the homage of the estates in
Inowroclaw. The initial Prussian plan was to incorporate the new areas into the Neumark-East Brandenburg region, with
Kostrzyn nad Odrą as the administrative main city. A different scheme was presented by von Brenkenhoff in February 1773: he suggested the creation of a new district with Bydgoszcz/Bromberg as its administrative seat. The rationale for this proposal was the expected economic boom of the entire area, thanks to the construction of the
Bydgoszcz Canal. The size of the project required establishing three colonies along its path, settling bakeries, breeding cattle for slaughter and setting up dedicated
lazarettos due to high level of illness (
malaria,
dysentery, colds) among the labor, which was caused by a poor sanitation in difficult outdoor conditions. The building took only 18 months and was completed in September 1774. This achievement coincided with the end of Brenckenhoff's career. In late July 1774, he was suffering a serious
bleeding condition, which impaired his health. In such circumstances Frederick II handed over his duties to
Johann Friedrich Domhardt, the president of
West Prussia. Franz von Brenkenhoff was finally released from the Prussian administration of the Netze District in 1775. At the time of his departure, accusations of bad finance managements were raised, in particular linked to the excessive construction costs of the canal. Far from being legitimated, the answer to these claims led von Brenkenhoff to lose part of his personal property. The last blow was a king's letter from March 1780, charging him of inconsistency in the accounts with the royal intention to conduct a financial audit. Following this news, Franz died on 21 May 1780 of asthma attack on his estate in
Gardzko (). von Brenckenhoff was buried in the nearby church in
Licheń. His descendants got back his possessions years later by way of grace of
Frederick William II.
Family Franz von Brenkenhoff married twice. His first marriage to Louise von Bergen ended in a divorce in 1774. The couple had two children. Their son Leopold (1750–1799) became a soldier and military writer. He served in the
Saxe army then joined the Prussian forces. He reached the position of
adjutant general to
Friedrich von Braunschweig and was awarded the
Pour le Mérite on 17 October 1794. The second wife was Elisabeth von Papstein, from
Friedeberg in der Neumark. They had five children, among whom: • Leopoldine Frederika Eleonora Gottliebe. • Franziska Karoline Philippine Elisabeth (1775–1858) who married Wilhelm von Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff (1769–1848), a knight of the
Order of St. John and owner of the Mansfelde manor near
Friedeberg. As a
Dragoons Lieutenant Colonel, he volunteered in the 1st Neumark Landwehr Cavalry Regiment in 1812 and took part in the
campaign against Napoleon (1813-1815). They had seven sons and one daughter; The Knobelsdorff-Brenkenhoff family remained in possession of the property in Friedeberg -today's Lipie Góry- until the beginning 1945. ==Commemoration==