Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor - Josefov, Czech Republic
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Statue of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II the founder of Fortress named after him - Josefov (East Bohemia)
Waymark Code: WMCR8V
Location: Královéhradecký kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 10/06/2011
Views: 70
Statue of the founder of Fortress Josefov (Czech - Pevnost Josefov) Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II on Rieger's square of the Fortress. Fortress Josefov is a large historic defence complex of 18th-century military architecture, built between 1780-1790, in eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic just on the order of Joseph II. The bronze statue is a copy of a statue made of cast-iron, which was found in Moravian village Vojkovice u Brna. The statue was in 1990 transported to Fortress Josefov and it was dedicated on July 7, 1991. Later the original statue has to be given back to Vojkovice and the recent bronze copy replaced it.
Joseph II
Born: Mart 13,1741 (Vienna, Austria) - Died: February 20,1790(Vienna, Austria)
Reigned from August 18, 1765 - February 20, 1790 (24 years, 186 days)
Holy Roman emperor was eldest son of the empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis I. He became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire upon the death of his father in 1765, and King of Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia and Slavonia upon the death of his mother in 1780. After his death on 20 February 1790, he was succeeded by his brother Leopold II (1747-1792).
Joseph II was a uniquely progressive Hapsburg ruler. His emphatic reform ideas harmonized with the Enlightenment philosophers, whose (esp. Voltaire's) dedicated student he was (see Emancipation). Friedrich II of Prussia and Czarina Catherine of Russia had provided patterns for Joseph's policies designed to induce settlers to come to his lands. Joseph's imperial objectives included attempts to redress long and complicated grievances in law and law court procedures. These efforts, incidentally, brought up the local privileges as regards the Mennonite position on the oath. Refreshingly sound views were aired.
The death of Maria Theresa in 1780 made Joseph the uncontested ruler. Eager to apply reason and enlightenment to the power of state he issued on 13 October 1781, a Toleranz-Patent (Patent of Tolerance) granting freedom to the Greek Orthodox and Protestant confessions. Parallel to Catherine's 1763 Manifesto inviting German farmers to Russia, he issued on 17 September 1781, the "Kolonisten-Patent" opening his eastern provinces to immigrants. This law attracted a number of Palatinate Mennonite families into Galicia. The decree of acceptance (Annahmedekret) for the Palatine group was handed down on 29 March 1784. Alsatian Amish followed from Montbeliard. The 1781 events mark a memorable chapter of Joseph's reforms. They reveal him as a just benefactor to Mennonites and other Protestants. His toleration patent brought relief to them and provided an escape avenue far less troublesome than the passage to the New World.
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