Gerhard Anton von Halem

Gerhard Anton von Halem (1752–1819)

Gerhard Anton von Halem (born March 2, 1752 in Oldenburg (Oldb) , † January 4, 1819 in Eutin ) was a German writer , lawyer and Oldenburg administrative officer.

Life

Early years

Halem was in time to Denmark belonging Oldenburg born. His parents were the city counsel and judiciary Anton Wilhelm von Halem (1711–1771) and his wife Magdalena Sophia Wardenburg (1733–1809). After the early death of his first son, his father attached great importance to a good education for his remaining son, also in order to get him into an income-securing but also prestigious professional position as quickly as possible. This gave Halem early access to his father's library. At first he was tutored by private tutors and from 1761 attended the Latin school in Oldenburg. Here he received his first literary impressions from his teacher Johann Michael Herbart , with whom he remained lifelong friends. At the age of 16 he attended the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt on the Oder and later the University of Strasbourg . His life was not only determined by his education as a legal profession, but at the same time he was to develop civic virtues in order to gain social and societal recognition as an academically trained high achiever in addition to professional advancement. He went on trips with his father to Bremen , Hamburg and Holland , attended theaters and concerts, traveled to Berlin during his studies and learned the Italian language . After an internship at the Imperial Court in Wetzlar doctorate he was already with 18 years at the Dr. jur. in Copenhagen .

After returning to Oldenburg, he initially supported his father in his office and after his death in 1771 took over the business and the food of the bereaved family.

Entry into the Oldenburg State Service

As early as 1775, the Enlightenment officer entered the civil service of Oldenburg, which was again independent and raised to a duchy after the Treaty of Tsarskoe Selo in 1773. With the creation of the independent duchy after a long Danish administration and the establishment of the residence and the administrative center in the city of Oldenburg, Halem had the opportunity, from the mid-1980s, to form an academic state administration that was moderately reform-oriented in the sense of the Enlightenment educated, capable and state-loyal civil servants to be involved.

At first he worked as an assistant to the bailiff Georg Christian Oeder , who was exiled from Denmark after the Struensee affair , and then took over the position of the late Helfrich Peter Sturz as legal advisor in the Oldenburg government chancellery. During this time Halem was significantly involved in the reforms of the Oldenburg social and judicial system, as well as the infrastructure and land law.

Since 1776 Halem belonged to the Oldenburg Freemasons lodge Zum golden Hirsch and acted as their master of the chair from 1785 to 1790 . He followed the reform efforts of Freemasonry in a time of ongoing crises with interest and sympathy. He was at least close to the Order of Illuminati , he was known for the two leading representatives of the order in northern Germany, Adolph Freiherrn von Knigge , Johann Joachim Christoph Bode and Friedrich Nicolai , for whom he also reviewed the General German Library .

Activity in the French period

Halem remained in the service of Duke Peter Friedrich Ludwig for most of his life . In 1807 he was appointed head of the government chancellery and the consistory and thus reached the peak of his career. When Oldenburg was incorporated into the French Empire in 1811 (→  Oldenburgische Franzosenzeit ), Duke Halem offered to accompany him into Russian exile . However, Halem refused this on the grounds of his advanced age and, losing his previous offices, initially served as a judge at the Oldenburg Tribunal in French services. In 1812 he had to move to Hamburg, where he became a member of the Imperial Court of Justice ( Cour Impériale ) of the three Hanseatic departments . Even when Hamburg was recaptured by French troops in the turmoil of the Wars of Liberation after brief occupation by Allied troops, Halem returned to his office at the Imperial Court of Justice in Hamburg.

One reason for this can be seen in the fact that Halem had high hopes for new French, orderly, enlightened and civil jurisprudence, especially since he himself tried to implement a reform in this direction in Oldenburg. As a lawyer, he followed the development of justice in revolutionary France. He welcomed the introduction of the Civil Code in the affiliated departments in Northern Germany in a speech that has been handed down to the content.

End of career

After the defeat of Napoleon and the subsequent restoration, Halem became the first councilor of the government in Eutin in the Principality of Lübeck , which belonged to Oldenburg, since after the wars of liberation he was reinstated because of his Francophile attitude and suspicion - also in public - against his continued "friendliness to the French" contrary to his hope did not appear possible. In Eutin he was active as a judicial councilor in the highest authority of this part of the country since March 1814. What reputation Halem must have had with the returned Duke is shown by the fact that Peter Friedrich Ludwig bought the private library of his official in the course of this transfer and had it brought to the Eutin Palace, where Halem could continue to use this collection of 8,000 volumes. The Halems library forms the basis of today's Eutin State Library .

He was on friendly terms with Gerhard Anton Gramberg , a country doctor in Oldenburg and ducal personal physician, with whose daughters Frederike Wilhelmine and Sophie he was married in second and third marriage. With this he published various magazines of regional importance.

family

He was married several times. His first wife was Susanna Sophia Wardenburg on January 12, 1781 (* January 10, 1762, † June 15, 1782). The couple had a daughter:

• Berhardine Wilhelmine Sophie (December 29, 1781 - November 8, 1808) ∞ Adam Christian Langreuter (February 12, 1772 - March 21, 1859), theologian

After the death of his wife, he married Friederike Wilhelmine Gramberg on June 4, 1798 (* 1772; † September 30, 1815). The couple had the following children:

• Susanne (December 18, 1802 - March 2, 1865)
• Arnold (August 14, 1799; † March 4, 1848) ∞ Dorothea Elisabeth Heuer (* August 20, 1797; † 1880)
• Marie (* 1801; † October 20, 1854)
• Antonie (April 24, 1806 - May 4, 1885)
• Elimar (* November 23, 1809; † October 7, 1846), physician ∞ Friederike Reisner (* July 24, 1820; † after 1870) (from Saransk in today's Mordovia)
• Friederike (born September 30, 1815; † 1872)

After his second wife died in childbirth, he married her younger sister Sophie on December 25, 1816 (* 1780; † March 7, 1864). This marriage remained childless.

Through his son Elimar von Halem, he is a direct ancestor of Nikolaus Christoph von Halem (1905–1944).

effect

Halem was a typical representative of the late Enlightenment . He was on friendly terms with the most important contemporaries. These included Christoph Martin Wieland , Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg , Gottfried August Bürger and Johann Heinrich Voss .

In a letter to Wieland, Halem speaks of the opinion publique . He should be the first to introduce the concept of public opinion into German usage. For a long time, literary studies assumed that this only happened through Georg Forster .

The French Revolution welcomed Halem, which is also in his literary work was reflected and his acquaintance and friendship with Konrad Engelbert Oelsner earned.

Previous research took little notice of Halem. The reason for this is in part due to an exchange of letters between Schiller and Goethe in 1802, in which they refer to the Irene magazine published by Halem from 1801 to 1806 :

"[...] You are politely invited, along with me, to send in some contributions to the Irene von Halem. It is true bestiality that these gentlemen, who try everything possible to annihilate us, can still demand that we promote their works ourselves. But I am willing, Ungern, who made this request to answer right from the bottom of my heart. […] “, Wrote Friedrich Schiller on March 17, 1802 to Goethe. He replies: “[...] I wish you a very good sense of humor and a very tough fist if you answer the Irish invitation. It would be very nice if you could succeed in an epistle that would fit on all the packages, to which I dedicate and vow to hate more and more. […] “(Correspondence between Schiller and Goethe in the years 1794 to 1805. Ed. By Manfred Beetz. Munich edition, Volume 8.1, edited by Karl Richter et al. Munich and Vienna 1990; Munich 2005 for the paperback edition)

Literary work

After Helm came into contact with literature at an early age and developed a strong interest in this art form, he wrote his first story on a trip to the Pyrmont fashion resort , which Heinrich Christian Boie took up in the Deutsches Museum in 1778 and which brought him Boie's long-term friendship.

In the 1780s he became known to a larger audience through his publications in the Deutsches Museum, but also in the Göttingen Muses Almanac and the Muses Almanac by Johann Heinrich Voss. His German poetic models were above all Wieland and Klopstock, Gleim and Gellert . In addition to Ossian ( Macpherson ), Stars , Young and Pope were particularly popular among the then fashionable Englishmen . He combined his early verse, short prose and poetry for the first time in the collection of poetry and prose , published in 1789 .

Halem's Wallenstein drama is considered to be the most important adaptation of the material before Schiller's trilogy. It was first published in full in 1786. An excerpt had previously been printed in the Deutsches Museum 1785, 1st volume, pp. 396–417. Gottfried August Bürger proofread the play. A second - slightly expanded - version appeared in 1794. It has not yet been possible to prove whether Schiller was familiar with this text. There are certainly parallels in the presentation, but they can be attributed to the use of the same sources.

The travel description he wrote, Views of a Part of Germany, Switzerland and France on a Journey in 1790 (1791) reports on the quietest phase of events in France, but closes the gap between the reports of Campes and Reichardt . The looks are Halem's most important text and are in no way behind other important travelogues of their time. What is particularly striking is the encyclopedic knowledge that Halem can draw on when composing. After all, he quotes in 7 languages! The text, written in letter form, shows a rationally positive attitude towards the French Revolution. Even after the execution of the king and the Grande Terreur , Halem was able to keep his sober eye, although he clearly distanced himself with an ode in the style of his literary role model Klopstock , and recognized the progress of the revolution, especially in the legal field. In the travel description he speaks out in favor of the liberation of the Jews and in his dramolet The Voice of Nature (1794) he celebrates the abolition of slavery in the French colonies by the convention in the same year.

A second trip to Paris ( souvenir sheets from a trip to Paris in the summer of 1811 ) to pay homage to Napoleon does not have the meaning of the looks , but the fact that Halem had it published in 1813, although Napoleon's star was already on the decline, is noteworthy . It was on this trip that Halem met Alexander von Humboldt . His assessment that the great liveliness of his mind the science nor much [promises] , shows how foresight was Halem in terms of Humboldt. Halem realized what the German public only realized almost 200 years later.

In addition to poetry, prose pieces and numerous essays on a wide range of topics, his work contains a three-volume history of the Duchy of Oldenburg , which is based on the Osnabrück history of Justus Möser . Furthermore, Halem wrote biographies of the Oldenburg-born General Field Marshal in Russian service, Burkhard Christoph von Münnich , and Peters the Great . Amazingly, the response to these plants was greater in Sweden, Russia and France than in Germany. Due to its wealth of sources, the latter is not only regarded as Peter's first scientific account, but also as an important aid in today's Russian historical research.

The song Gretels Warning composed by Ludwig van Beethoven (from Sechs Gesänge for voice and piano , op. 75/4, composed 1795, completed 1809) is based on a poem by Halem. Thematically and stylistically, this poem is based on Gottfried August Bürger's daughter of the pastor von Taubenhain .

Further engagement in literary societies

Halem was also particularly interested in modernization in the cultural field. The excellent hymnbook , introduced in Oldenburg in 1792 , was the result of his initiative. With Georg Christian Oeder and Helfrich Peter Sturz, he found not only professional contact but also a friendship based on literary and educational interests. In a small group they read Greek and English literature, in addition to Homer in particular Shakespeare and Milton . In 1779 he visited Hamburg and got to know Klopstock and other comrades-in-arms of the local education society. Inspired by Klopstock's literary society, Halem also founded such a reading and discussion group in Oldenburg, in which ideas of a predominantly literary-aesthetic education, but especially in the Napoleonic era also political, social or other controversial issues, were discussed in a convivial group. Halem presented most of his literary works in this literary society in order to then publish them after critical examination by its members. For example in the sheets of mixed contents of a magazine that he published with friends from the literary society from 1787 to 1797 and whose purpose it was to contribute to the mediation of contemporary practical and theoretical knowledge in many areas of life and work. There he published preliminary studies and parts of his Oldenburg history . The newspaper's program, which was not always free from the attitude of the sovereign and his officials, was continued by Halem and his friends from 1804 to 1807 with the Oldenburgische Zeitschrift . In Oldenburg he maintained close contact with his friends such as Gerhard Anton Gramberg, Christian Kruse and later Christian Ludwig Runde , but also with his brother Ludwig Wilhelm Christian (1758–1839).

In his later years in Eutin, too, he gave the literary society there new impulses. With smaller works, especially poems, he contributed to various magazines, almanacs and calendars. With his last major publication, Reason from God , he turned against the main pastor of Kiel, Claus Harms , a leading representative of the Protestant renewal movement, which sought to spread a Lutheranism that was detached from the Enlightenment and “spiritually” determined .

Works

• 1786: Wallenstein, a play in Göttingen 1786 (dramatic text)
• 1787–97: Pages with mixed contents , Gerhard Anton von Halem and Gerhard Anton Gramberg , Oldenburg (magazine)
• 1789: poetry and prose (poems and essays)
• 1791: Views of a part of Germany ... Hamburg 1791 (travel description) (annotated new edition Bremen 1990)
• 1792: In memory of Oeder (poem / obituary)
• 1794: Dramatic Works - contains a 2nd version of Wallenstein (Dramatic Texts)
• 1794–1796: History of the Duchy of Oldenburg (overall historiographical representation)
• 1795: An urgent word to the Holy Roman Empire ... (Article in various editions!)
• 1787–1797: sheets of mixed content (magazine)
• 1798: Flowers from ruins (poems)
• 1803: Biography of the Russian Imperial General Field Marshal Burchard Christoph von Münnich (biography)
• 1803–1804: Life of Peter the Great (biography)
• 1803–1810: Writings (articles)
• 1804–1807: Oldenburgische Zeitschrift (magazine)
• 1805: Now valid Oldenburg particular law in systematic extracts [1] (collection of legal texts)
• 1807: Collection of the most important files on the latest contemporary history ... (magazine)
• 1810: Jesus, the founder of the kingdom of God (epic)
• 1812: Magazine for the civil and criminal law of the French Empire (magazine)
• 1813: Souvenir sheets from a trip to Paris in the summer of 1811 (travel description)
• 1813: Statistical manual for the department of the Weser estuaries for the year 1813 (yearbook / calendar)
• 1813: Tones of Time (collection of poems)
• 1816: Reason from God ... (collection of poems)

literature

• Article Halem, Gerhard Anton von . In: Joachim Rückert and Jürgen Vortmann (eds.): Lower Saxony lawyers . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003, pp. 78–82.
• Gerhard Lange: Gerhard Anton von Halem (1752-1819) as a writer. Leipzig 1928.
• Karl Steinhoff: Gerhard Anton von Halem (1752-1819). Oldenburg historian, writer and citizen of the world in the Age of Enlightenment . In: Oldenburg family history. ISSN  0030-2074 . Jg. 22 (1980), H. 1, pp. 147-167.
• Paul Raabe: The estate of Gerhard Anton von Halems (1752-1819) in the Oldenburg State Library (catalog). Oldenburg 1982. ISBN 3-447-02407-0
• Klaus-Peter Müller and Karl-Heinz Ziessow (eds.): The sun rises in the west. Justizrat Gerhard Anton von Halem on trips to Paris 1790 and 1811 (exhibition catalog, publications of the Landesbibliothek Oldenburg 21). 2 volumes. Oldenburg 1990.
• Claus Ritterhoff: Gerhard Anton von Halem In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 .
• Heidi & Wolfgang Beutin: The Lion Knight in the Age of Enlightenment. G. A. v. Halems Iwein version "Ritter Twein" Göppingen 1994, ISBN 3-87452-837-5 .
• Anne-Bitt Gerecke: Halem, Gerhard Anton from: Wallenstein, a play. Göttingen 1786. In: Heide Hollmer, Albert Meier (Hrsg.): Dramenlexikon des 18. Century . Munich: C. H. Beck 2001. pp. 123-124.
• Ronald Heinze: Switzerland as a model for the German Enlightenment in selected travel writings by Halem, Afsprung and Baggesen. In: D. Bähtz, M. Beetz, R. Rittig (eds.): The free spirit free flight - contributions to German literature. For Thomas Höhle . Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-936522-42-1 .
• Ronald Heinze: Halem, Schiller and Wallenstein. Problems of the dramatic design and the representation of the war in the "Wallenstein". In: Helle Panke (Ed.): Friedrich Schiller and the living legacy of the Enlightenment. Berlin 2006.
• Christina Randig: Enlightenment and Region - Gerhard Anton von Halem (1752-1819) Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89971-351-0 .
• August Mutzenbecher :  Halem, Gerhard Anton von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 407-409.
• Gerhard Anton von Halem, Gerhard Anton v. Halem's autobiography , 1840, digitized
• Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg. Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 267-273 ( PDF; 4.6 MB ).

Web links

Wikisource: Gerhard Anton von Halem  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Gerhard Anton von Halem in the catalog of the German National Library
• Gerhard Anton von Halem in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors
• Van Halem Genealogy: VIP's
• family tree

Individual evidence

1. ^ Descendants of Langreuter