Baron Samuel von Brukenthal

One of the great reformers of Transylvania in the 18th century was Baron Samuel von Brukenthal.

Steliu Lambru, 13.12.2021, 14:00

One of the great reformers of Transylvania in the 18th century was Baron Samuel von Brukenthal. He was not only a law expert, but also a passionate art collector. The National Museum in Sibiu, that bears his name, is proof of Brukenthals respect for human values and of his work as reformer of the Habsburg state. A German ethnic, Samuel von Brukenthal was born 300 years ago, in 1721. Both his parents died while he was still a child. At 15, he dedicated himself to studying. Transylvania was, at that time, part of the Habsburg Empire, which had freed it from the Ottoman occupation at the end of the 17th century.

Historian Thomas Sindilariu tells us more about the most important moments of the barons life: ”By the time when Samuel von Brukenthal was born, Transylvania had been a part of the European world for 30 years. Under the 1691 Diploma Leopoldinum, Transylvania had become part of the Habsburg Empire, which included, alongside Transylvania, Banat and Partium, the following countries of today: Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria, parts of Serbia, North Italy, South Germany and Belgium with its capital Brussels. Brukenthals biography is clear proof of the great potential that a large European framework, that enjoyed long-term peace, had to offer.”

Brukenthal was not an aristocrat by birth. In 1724, while he was 3, his father, was ennobled and received the noble name von Brukenthal. His mother, Susanna, was part of the aristocratic family of Conrad von Heydendorff. Social status was everything at that time. The young Samuel left his native area to go to studies. There he would have access to the highest circles, those of the masonry. Thomas Sindilariu: ”In 1743, before going to studies in Halle an der Saale, he had been accepted among the members of the newly set up masonic organization Aux trois canons. Quite surprisingly, Brukenthal found itself in the middle of a society entirely devoted to the ideal of humanism and enlightenment, whose members were part of the intellectual elite of the empire. In Halle, he became an active freemason. There he founded and led a masonic organization connected to The Three Globes, believed to include the entourage of King Frederic the Great.”

Through the masonic network, Brukenthal became known also due to his skills and appointed in higher positions in the empires administration. He led Transylvanias aulic chancellery in Vienna, winning the respect of his collaborators and of Empress Maria Theresa. It was also there, that he found opposition to his plans. Thomas Sindilariu: ”Objective arguments had always been his strong point, so that the empress would often agree to his ideas to the detriment of those of other high ranking officials of the empire. In fact, Brukenthals ideas proved to be the most important reforming steps taken at that time. The most important reform he decisively implemented was the fiscal reform. It referred to taxing people and properties and included, as final perspective, the taxation of the noblemens huge properties. This made many of them hate Brukenthal. The partial implementation – that is without including the taxation of the noblemen – of the new taxation system in 1770, generated a huge increase in revenues to the state.”

Samuel von Brukenthal became a governor of Transylvania, a position in which he again proved his skills. There he had the chance to approach the most difficult problem of the empire, which concerned the peasants. Thomas Șindilariu: ”Starting in 1774, Brukenthal led the Government, the highest civil authority in Transylvania. Between 1776 and 1787 he served as its governor. With perseverance, he managed to transform Transylvania’s administration into a mechanism that worked by itself. He was the embodiment of virtues of the Enlightenment period and his actions proved his concern for the main problem of the Habsburg Empire — that of the peasantry.

He looked for ways to decrease the peasants duties to the noblemen, improve their economic situation and increase their financial possibilities as contributors. From this viewpoint and from a military perspective, the expansion of the empires south-eastern military borders between 1762 and 1766, in which Brukenthal played a decisive role, was also meant to improve the situation of peasants. Being a peasant within the military border meant a far better legal position than that of servant on the noblemens properties. ” Samuel von Brukenthal, one of the outstanding personalities of the XVIII century Transylvania, died in 1803 in Sibiu, aged 81. (EE)