The sorrows of “the werther of Celje”, the earthly concerns of his son and an introduction to the decline of their family

Memoirs of two descendants of Valvasor, the Barons of Dienersberg from Celje

Abstract

The handwritten memoirs of two members of the family of Dienersperg Barons, the father Franc Ksaver (1773-1846) and his son Anton Aleks (1829-1889), comprise personal accounts about the period from the mid-1770s till the 1850s. Franc Ksaver began writing a memoir in 1835 in Dobrna. Together with a small note on the destiny of his son Anton Aleks’ two children from 1910, it covers four generations. At first sight, this is a story about the destiny of a once semi-affluent noble family who moved from the area of Celje to Graz in the 1830s and practically collapsed financially after a series of wrong moves following the agrarian reform. However, a peek beneath the surface reveals stories of life and interpersonal relationships that could only be intuited. The central problem of the two generations is the role of the dominant father in what was still a patriarchal family. It is common to each of the two writers that they were unable to live their professional dreams because of the father; this was a complaint common to many in their generation. Even in old age, their memoirs return insistently to what had always burdened them the most. At the forefront lies their self-perception and their experience of the world around them. The “Werther of Celje”, Baron Franc Ksaver, experienced a breakdown in his youth but never committed suicide, even though he had often considered this option after a serious and long-lasting conflict with his “absolutist” father Auguštin, who is practically central to the son’s entire narrative. Baron Auguštin Dienersperg (1742-1814) was a grandson of the Carniolan polihistorian Janez Vajkart Valvasor (1641-1693), and is the joint predecessor of all still living descendants of Valvasor.