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- BIOGRAPHY
Ferdinand Wilhelm Eusebius was the fourth of seven children of Johann Adolf, 1.Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, and Gräfin Maria Justina von Starhemberg.
On 22 May 1674 at Langenargen, Ferdinand Wilhelm married Gräfin Maria Anna von Sulz, daughter of Graf Johann Ludwig II von Sulz, Landgraf im Klettgau, and Gräfin Maria Elisabeth von Königsegg-Aulendorg. Of their eleven children, only his heir Adam Franz, the future 3.Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, would have children to carry on the line.
Ferdinand Wilhelm acquired his nickname 'der Pestkönig', which translates literally as 'the plague king', for his generous, selfless and firm actions during the terrible epidemic which engulfed Vienna in 1678-79. When in the warmer weather the plague flared up and death laid its pall over Vienna, the citizens fled in droves from the city, and the imperial court also fled, first to Mariazell, later as far as Prague. The provincial delegates responsible for the medical service fled to Krems and remained there until January 1680 despite being threatened with suspension. Public life ceased and the schools were closed. Now all the usual things happened: no one was ready to help the people stricken with the plague. The surgeons, it is said, had to be dragged along tied to the sick. No one wanted to take away the dead.
Ferdinand Wilhelm was the city's police chief. He was also appointed by the government as chairperson of the plague committee. He took decisive action, making imprisoned criminals fetch the corpses from the houses and bury them, having some looters hanged, and with his own funds establishing hospitals for plague victims, run by the military. He was known to ride daily from early morning around the city's streets, organising transportation of the sick to the military hospitals, funerals for the dead and steps to prevent the further spread of the epidemic. He visited houses and the hospitals, comforting the sick and the dying. He also used his own funds to relieve poverty or to provide immediate help.
The epidemic eventually ran its course, after thousands had fallen victim to it. But the nickname 'der Pestkönig' will always be associated with Ferdinand Wilhelm.
It is less well known that the final defeat of the Turks in 1699 and Leopold I's reintegration of Hungary into the empire after two centuries of Turkish occupation, would not have been possible without the help of the greatest fortune in Bohemia, that of Ferdinand Wilhelm Schwarzenberg. Several times he lent the huge sum of 100,000 florins to the emperor.
Ferdinand Wilhelm died on 22 October 1703 in his beloved Vienna.
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