Georg Arbogast von und zu Franckenstein

Georg Eugen Heinrich Arbogast Reichsfreiherr von und zu Franckenstein, was a Bavarian-German politician, a member of the German Reichstag from 1872 to 1890, a leading member of the Catholic Centre Party (Germany), its parliamentary group leader from 1875, First Vice-president of the Reichstag (German Empire) from 1879 to 1887 and President of the Bavarian House of Lords. Family Franckenstein was a descendant from the House of Franckenstein, which owned the Middle Franconian Lordship Ullstadt and other estates in Baden and Hesse. He was born as the eldest son of Karl Arbogast von und zu Franckenstein, royal chamberlain and hereditary imperial councillor of the Crown of Bavaria, and his wife Leopoldine, née Countess Apponyi de Nagy-Appony. Franckenstein began studying law in Munich, but already in 1845, after the death of his father, he took over the administration of the Franckenstein family estates. He resided at Ullstadt Castle and in 1857 married Marie, the daughter of Prince Karl Krafft von Oettingen-Wallerstein. The couple had six children, three daughters and three sons, including the Centre politicians Johann Karl and Moritz von Franckenstein. Political career and role In 1847 Franckenstein was introduced as his father's successor into the Chamber of Councillors, the first chamber of the Bavarian Parliament, to which he belonged until his death and of which he was president from 1881 to 1890. His entry into the Chamber was also accompanied by his appointment as Royal Chamberlain and his admission to the Order of St George, to whose Grand Chancellor he rose in 1879. He was soon regarded as a champion of a Catholic-patriotic course in the first chamber of the Bavarian parliament, voted with the defeated minority against the Zollverein Treaty in 1867, but accepted his election to the customs parliament (constituency of Eichstätt) in 1868. In the chamber of imperial councillors he continued to represent a particularist path for Bavaria: although he voted in favour of Bavaria's entry into the Franco-Prussian War, on 20 July 1870, he was one of only three Imperial Councillors to vote "no" in the vote of 30 December 1870 on the November Treaties and Bavaria's accession to the German Reich. Franckenstein supported the Bavarian Order of St George in caring for the wounded during the war and later advised the Bavarian King Ludwig II on the reorganisation of the Order of Knights.