Carl Philipp von Venningen

Carl Philipp von Venningen (1728 - 27 August 1797) was an imperial knight from the family of the . He was chief minister of Electoral Palatinate. As a child, he was the last living male descendant of the von Venningen family and so he inherited the whole family estate at Kraichgau, where he left his mark at Eichtersheim and elsewhere through an extensive building programme. Family Carl Philipp belonged to the Catholic branch of the Venninger. His grandfather, Johann Augustin von Venningen (died 1713) converted to Catholicism, while the latter's brother, Eberhard Friedrich von Venningen (1642–1710), remained Protestant. Carl Philipp was the son of Carl Ferdinand von Venningen (1693–1731) and Elisabeth Claudia Reich von Reichenstein. His brother, Christian von Venningen, died in 1731, as a child. His sister, Maria Anna, married Carl Ferdinand von Hatzfeld in 1754 and was the mother of the Prussian general, . Carl Philipp von Venningen was the only male heir of the Venningen family, since all other male lines of the family had died out, his father died early, and his brother died as a boy (in the same year as his father). As a result, Carl Philipp inherited the whole family estate at the age of three. His mother was installed as his legal guardian and regent. In 1743, she married for a second time to Christoph Philipp von Erthal, an amtmann of the Electorate of Mainz and director of the Lohrer mirror factory, becoming step-mother to his children, who included the later prince-bishops Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal and Franz Ludwig von Erthal. The Lohr local historian Karlheinz Bartels proposed that one of her step-daughters, Maria Sophia Margarethe Catharina, was the inspiration for Snow White. In 1750, Carl Philipp married Maria Anna zu Stolzenberg (died 1781), a great-aunt of , prince-bishop of Speyer and cardinal. Between 1751 and 1767, the pair had a dozen children. One son, Franz Anton (1763-1799) founded the "Eichtersheim line", which died out in 1907, and another, (1765-1832) founded the "Grombach line" which survives to this day.