1648-1742






Pfalz, 1742-1815



The Pfalz was not affected by either the WAR OF AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION (1741-1748) nor by the SEVEN YEARS WAR (1756-1763). Peace provided the economic foundation for a rich cultural life, extraordinary for a territory of the size of the Pfalz.
In 1742 the line of Pfalz-Neuburg ended and the line of Pfalz-Sulzbach succeeded. Duke KARL THEODOR held a splendid court at his residence at MANNHEIM. The city had one of the largest ORCHESTRAs of her time. VOLTAIRE lived in Mannheim after being asked to leave Berlin and while being unwelcome in France (1753). MOZART visited Mannheim four times; he married a girl from Mannheim. In 1763 the PFALZ ACADEMY OF SCIENCES was founded with seat at Mannheim. In 1763 he established an ANTIQUARIUM, a museum for a collection of artifacts of antiquity, collected by Johann Wilhelm.
Reforms under Karl Theodor included the full implementation of RELIGIOUS TOLERATION, economic reforms, the abolition of the practice of selling state offices, education reform. A German National theater was founded in Mannheim; here, Friedrich Schiller's "Die Räuber" had their premiere in 1782.
In 1763 the Academia electoralis scientiarum et elegantiorum litterarum Theodoro-Palatina (Electoral Academy of Sciences and Humanities Theodoro-Palatina) with seat in Heidelberg was founded.
In 1777, the line of the Wittelsbach Dukes ruling Bavaria ended and Karl Theodor also inherited BAVARIA; he and his court moved to Munich (1778). He was still attached to the Pfalz at heart; he was willing to consider plans of trading Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands, plans which lead Prussia to declare war (WAR OF BAVARIAN SUCCESSION, 1778-1779) and which did not materialize. A second round of negotiations in 1784 equally was unsuccessful.

In 1792 and again in 1794 the territory of the Palatinate to the west of the Rhine was occupied by French troops, was to form part of the CISRHENIAN REPUBLIC in 1797 and annexed by France the same year. The Pfalz territory on the right bank in the REICHSDEPUTATIONSHAUPTSCHLUSS of 1803 was allocated in part to HESSEN-DARMSTADT, in part to BADEN (which got both Mannheim and Heidelberg); the dynasty was compensated with territory in Franconia.
In 1815 the dynasty gained a consolidated Pfalz province on the left bank of the Rhine, without the old centers of Heidelberg and Mannheim, which remained with Baden. The'new/ Pfalz was to be a province of the (new) Kingdom of Bavaria.



Counts/Dukes of Pfalz
Karl Theodor von Pfalz-Sulzbach (1742-1799)



EXTERNAL
FILES 		The history of the Castle and City of Heidelberg from 1100-1900, from The Tradition Shop
Kurpfalz, from Alexander Schweickert, in German
Mannheimer Stadtgeschichte, from Mannheim Homepage
Die Kurpfalzische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Mannheim, in German
Biography of Karl-Theodor von Pfalz-Bayern, from BBKL, in German
Kurfürst Carl Theodor zwischen Barock und Aufklärung, from Badische Heimat, exposition, in German
Article Rhenish Palatinate from Catholic Encyclopedia 1911 edition
Chronicle of Scholarly Societies founded in 1760-1779, from Scholarly Societies Project
Kurfürst Carl Theodor von der Pfalz (1724-1799), from Virtuelle Bibliothek Geschichte at Univ. Heidelberg, collection of links, in German
Virtual Library - Geschichte der Kurpfalz, links, in German
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Territorien-Ploetz : Geschichte der Deutschen Länder, Vol.1, Würzburg 1964, pp.249-252
Coins of Pfalz 1601-1700, in Krause, Mishler, Standard Catalog of World Coins : Seventeenth Century 1601-1700, 2nd ed., 2000, pp.641-649
Coins of Pfalz, 1701-1800, in : Krause, Mishler, Standard Catalog of World Coins : Eighteenth Century 1701-1800, 2nd ed., 1997, p.438-447



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2002, last revised on November 11th 2004

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