Friedrich Albrecht, Graf von der Schulenburg

Count Friedrich Albrecht von der Schulenburg (18 June 18 1772 – 12 September 1853) was an Electoral Saxon, then Royal Saxon, diplomat and minister.

Early life

Schulenburg was born on 18 June 18 1772 in Dresden in the Electorate of Saxony. He was the son of Albrecht Ludwig von der Schulenburg (1741–1784), Privy Chamber and Mountain Councilor, and Auguste Friederike von Stammer (1751–1809). and was looked after by his mother and his guardian, Baron Heinrich Ulrich Erasmus von Hardenberg (the father of the poet Novalis). After studying in Leipzig and Wittenberg, he devoted himself to diplomacy and politics. In 1799 he became Ambassador in Copenhagen, from 1801 to 1804 he held the same post in Saint Petersburg and from 1810 to 1830 at the court of Vienna. This sealed the division of Saxony and ceded the former Saxon Courlands to Prussia. Schulenburg's property, the Klosterrode estate (which his grandfather Adolf Friedrich had acquired in 1739), also came to Prussia. There were no children of the marriage.

Count von der Schulenburg-Klosterroda died on 12 September 1853 in Klosterrode, the last descendant of the family from the Klosterrode line, and was buried in the family crypt at St. Lamberti in Blankenheim.