Friedrich von Zandt


Friedrich, Freiherr von Zandt was a Prussian Hussar colonel and landowner who served as chamberlain to the King of Bavaria.

Early life

Zandt was born in 1785 and was from Würzburg, Germany.

Career

Baron von Zandt and his wife owned the freehold property in central London's Knightsbridge district located between Brompton Road to the north-west and Walton Street to the south-east. After his death, the property was developed into a garden square by his widow in 1844, who named it Ovington Square after their house in Ovington, Hampshire. The houses surrounding the green were built from 1844 to 1850 by W.W. Pocock. While protected under the Garden Square Act and maintained under the Kensington Improvement Act, both from 1851, responsibility for the garden passed to Trustees following a settlement made by Sir John Dyer, 12th Baronet in 1912.

Schloss Seehof

In –1841, Baron von Zandt acquired Schloss Seehof in Memmelsdorf, Bamberg, which had been built in the late 1600s as a summer residence and hunting lodge for Marquard Sebastian Schenk von Stauffenberg, Prince-bishop of Bamberg. Before von Zandt, the castle and garden had been owned by the Wittelsbach family who acquired it after secularization in 1803. The property remained in the von Zandt family until the death of the last male heir, Baron Franz Joseph von Zandt, who drowned in the castle pond in 1951, after which it was sold to the von Hessberg family. In 1975, the Free State of Bavaria acquired the property and restored it, and today is administered by the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes.

Personal life

On 30 May 1839, Baron von Zandt married Elizabeth Standerwick, the widow and heiress of Lt.-Gen. Sir Thomas Dyer, 7th Baronet who was the only daughter and heir of James and Elizabeth Standerwick. They lived at Ovington House in Hampshire which had been built for Elizabeth's father.
Baron von Zandt died unexpectedly at Seehof on 5 March 1842, and was buried in the von Zandt family vault in Memmelsdorf near Bamberg. His widow, and the heir of all his property, died at Seehof on 27 May 1864. As they had no children, Schloss Seehof was left to her husband's relative, Walther, Baron von Zandt, and legacies to Baroness Caroline von Zandt.