Deo fidens fronte serena. Losy katolickiego rodu von Ingenheim

Abstract

Count Gustav Adolf von Ingenheim was the son of king Frederic William II. Raised at the Prussian royal court, he has received a thorough education and was prepared for state duties since his early years. His interests, however, were oriented more towards art and art collecting. He was also a patron and maecenas for numerous German artists working in Rome. Pro-catholic attitude of count von Ingenheim were revealed during his first trip to Italy. Being a half brother of next Prussian king, Frederic William III, known for his contempt for Catholics, he was forced to abandon his intention to convert to Catholicism and return to Prussia. He was also made to swear to the king he would never abandon the protestant faith in the future. That oath was breached several years later when, following the example of his half sister, Duchess von Anhalt-Köthen, Gustav von Ingenheim converted to Catholicism in order to marry his half niece Eugenie Thierry von der Marek. The conversion angered the king, who banished the family von Ingenheim from his court, changing the fates of the family forever. After Gustav Adolf died in 1855, his family moved to Silesia, where several other catholic noble families of Prussia lived already. They bought and rebuilt a palace in Rysiowice, in which paintings from the Ingenheim collection were exhibited. The architectural details of the palace, as well as the contents of the collection, always reminded the catholic ways of the family. The same could be said about a huge library (over 32 000 volumes), which included numerous books on theology, hagiographies, prayer books and historical works on the catholic church.