August von Waechter

Baron Johann August von Wächter zu Lautenbach (3 April 1807 – 3 August 1879) was a Württemberg diplomat and politician.

Early life

Wächter was born in The Hague on 3 April 1807 into an old Württemberg family of civil servants. He was the son of diplomat Baron August Heinrich Christoph von Wächter (1776–1852) and Marie Sophie ( Haagen) (1782–1831). His father was a Württemberg Legation Councilor and since 1807 and served as chargé d'affaires of the Kingdom of Württemberg in The Hague, Brussels, and Frankfurt. He had four older siblings, including a brother, Baron Christoph Ludwig von Wächter, upon whose death in 1856, August was entailed Lord of the inherited estate in Lautenbach. On 19 September 1819, his father was elevated to the Württemberg nobility by royal decree. On 1 August 1823, his father acquired the Lautenbacher estate in Oberamt Neckarsulm for 75,000 guilders. On 18 June 1825, the Wächter zu Lautenbach family was raised to the status of hereditary Barons of Württemberg. In the autumn of 1857, he returned to Stuttgart in his capacity as Ambassador to the meeting of the two Emperors, Napoleon III and Franz Joseph I. In the run-up to the Sardinian War, Wächter had to be reminded by Foreign Minister Baron Karl Eugen von Hügel in Stuttgart to report more punctually and carefully on the policies of the French government.

Minister of Foreign Affairs On 9 January 1871, Wächter became Foreign Minister of Württemberg, succeeding Count Adolf von Taube. As such, he was among the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles on 26 February 1871. After the unification of the Reich, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was abolished in the Grand Duchy of Baden, however, in Württemberg, similar to its larger neighbor Bavaria, maintained its own foreign policy for reasons of prestige. Wächter wanted to retain the full scope of the tasks of the Foreign Ministry and those of the Württemberg legations and felt that he was in agreement with King Charles I on this issue, but not with the majority of the Deputies in the Second Chamber. As Foreign Minister, Wächter strengthened King Charles I in his critical attitude towards Prussia, especially since the founding of the Reich in 1871, the King felt that the government in Berlin was a constant threat to Württemberg's sovereignty. In this attitude he was strengthened by the Royal Head of Cabinet Baron von Egloffstein. On Wächter's recommendation, King Charles I stayed away from the meeting of the Three Emperors in Berlin in 1872. Because of his hesitant administration of office, Wächter came into conflict with Hermann von Mittnacht, who was pushing for the Foreign Minister to be replaced in his own favour. On 27 August 1873, Wächter resigned from his post, not least because of pressure from the Chamber of Deputies, who demanded by a vote of 62 to 11 that the State Department should be merged with another department for cost reasons. He was then succeeded by Mittnacht, who became the first Prime Minister of Württemberg in 1873.

Personal life On 19 December 1855, Wächter married American heiress Louise Josephine Lee (1833–1930) in Paris. Josephine was an older sister of the Princess of Noer ( Mary Esther Lee), the widow of Prince Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein, who later married Field Marshal Count Alfred von Waldersee, in 1874. In the year of his marriage in 1855, August von Wächter worked to have the Lautenbacher court included in the Oedheim association to obtain citizenship there. The von Wächter couple were known and valued in the Oberamt Neckarsulm and especially in Oedheim as generous patrons of numerous social institutions and foundations. Together, they were the parents of a daughter and a son:

Wilhelmine Pauline Blanche Josephine Louise Sophie von Wächter-Lautenbach (1856–1941), Oleg-Ludwig David August Carl Emil von Wächter-Lautenbach (1861–1940),

Wächter died on 3 August 1879 in Lautenbach. His widow was considered one of the wealthiest women in the Kingdom of Württemberg. In 1921, she inherited the entire estate of her only surviving sibling, Abby Blanche ( Lee) Murray (who had married a grandson of the a grandson of John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore).