Franz Xaver von Schönwerth
Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (16 July 1810 – 24 May 1886; born Franz Xaver Schönwerth, ennobled in 1859) was a Bavarian civil servant who was an important collector of folklore in the Upper Palatinate region. Life and career Schönwerth was born in Amberg as the first of five children of Joseph Schönwerth, a royal drawing professor. He entered the Erasmus Gymnasium there in 1821 and began university studies in 1832, first in construction at the Munich Academy of Art and in cameralism and mathematics, then from 1834 in law at the University of Munich. He received his first permanent position with the administration of Upper Bavaria in 1840. In 1845 he became private secretary to Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria. In 1847 first the prince and then his wife Marie of Prussia entrusted him with managing their wealth, which he did well; during the upheavals of 1848, he disguised himself as an odd-job-man, loaded some 3 million thalers' worth of cash, securities, and valuables on a handcart, and took them to Nymphenburg Palace for safekeeping. After the prince's accession as King Maximilian II, he headed his cabinet as well as continuing to serve as his private secretary and manage his