Adam Lux

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adam Lux, graphic by François Bonneville

Adam Lux (born December 27, 1765 in Obernburg am Main , † November 4, 1793 in Paris ) was a German revolutionary and sympathizer of the French Revolution .

Life

Adam Lux came from a humble background, but was given the opportunity to study at the University of Mainz . At the age of 18 he received his doctorate from the philosopher and natural rights activist Johann Heinrich Vogt with a thesis on enthusiasm ( “De enthusiasmo” ).

He found a job as a tutor with the upper-class Mainz merchant family Dumont, into which he married. The couple acquired the historic Donnermühle, an agricultural property in Kostheim near Mainz on the right bank of the Rhine , cultivated arable land and vineyards, and lived a rather secluded life, mainly studying Rousseau's writings . However, he maintained contacts with the royal seat of Mainz, for example with Nicolaus Vogt , Georg Christian Gottlieb Wedekind , Johann Georg Reuter and others.

He was enthusiastic about the ideas of the revolution that broke out in France and welcomed the invasion of the republican army in Mainz on October 22, 1792. The revolution of Kostheim with the erection of a tree of freedom was his first political activity. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Mainz. He joined the Mainz Jacobin Club ("Society of Friends of Freedom and Equality") and became a member of the "Correspondence Committee", but his reserved personality did not seek a leading role. On February 24, 1793, he was elected to the Rhenish-German National Convention , the legislative body of the Mainz Republic founded on the French model .

On March 21, 1793, the convent sent Adam Lux together with the natural scientist and writer Georg Forster and the merchant Potocki to Paris in order to obtain approval from the French for the planned connection. On their trip they were accompanied by Convention Commissioner Nicolas Haussmann . The desired consent was given on March 30, one day after their arrival. The return of the delegation was prevented by the enclosure of Mainz by troops of the First Coalition ; the MPs had to stay in Paris. The following description is based on the report of his friend Johann Georg Kerner .

The Mainz delegation arrived in Paris at the height of the fighting between the Mountain Party and the Girondins . Lux was already acquainted with leading Girondins in Mainz. Convinced that only this party represented a freedom based on law and order and convinced of the danger that threatened the republic and freedom from its ruin, he decided in May to publicly stab his dagger in the chest in the National Assembly ; only the contradiction of his friends could keep him from it.

By chance, Lux witnessed the execution of Charlotte Cordays on July 17, 1793. Deeply moved and following his conscience that he had to make a sacrifice to the truth and civic duty, he wrote a pamphlet in which he praised Corday as a heroine. As early as July 13, the same day on which Corday murdered the radical Jacobin Marat in order to - in Kerner's words - "to avenge freedom," he attacked the Mountain Party as a traitor to the republic, knowing full well that he sealed his fate of dying on the scaffold with both writings. As expected, he was arrested and brought before the National Convention Security Committee. An attempt by Wedekind to save him by ascribing his act to love for Charlotte Corday, which would have maddened him, he unwillingly refused. In prison his calm and courage were admired by his fellow prisoners and, according to Kerner, even by the prison guards. Kerner writes: "He climbed the scaffold like a speaker's platform."

The fate of this German revolutionary found a literary echo. Jean Paul wrote: “He died pure and great at the same time. ... And no German will forget him! ". In connection with the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, a fragment of a play by Stefan Zweig was found that depicts Adam Lux's life in pictures.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Adam Lux  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ this and the following: Emanuel Leser in ADB 1884, Günter Christ in NDB 1987.
  2. ↑ CV on deutsche-biographie.de , accessed on December 5, 2019
  3. ^ Theodor Henner: Reuter Johann Georg. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. 28 (1889), pp. 327-328, online version
  4. ^ Günter Christ, NDB 1987
  5. ^ Ludwig Uhlig: Georg Forster. Life adventure of a learned world citizen (1754–1794). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-36731-7
  6. ↑ In: Kerner (1795). Both share a similar political point of view. (Andreas Fritz: Georg Kerner (1770-1812). Verlag Neue Wissenschaft, Frankfurt am Main 2002, 144.)
  7. ^ "Avis au citoyens Français" (Emanuel Leser, ADB 1884); Kerner (1795) mentions, without mentioning the title, “a second work on the counter-revolution of May 31, ” which Lux would have written shortly after the “eulogy” in Corday. It is probably the same font.
  8. ↑ Wedekind had caused the editor of the Journal de la Montagne, Jean-Charles Laveaux , to publish an article in favor of Luxen, in which this was alleged; Lux insisted on withdrawal, which Laveaux did (Kerner, 1795).
  9. ↑ Kerner did not attend the execution; it was described to him by a friend (Kerner, 1795)
  10. ↑ From: "The 17th Julius or: Charlotte Corday" . First print in the paperback for 1801, hersg. by Friedrich Gentz , Jean Paul, Johann Heinrich Voß , Berlin. Modified and included in: Dr. Katzenberger's bathing trip. In: Jean Paul. Works in twelve volumes, Norbert Miller , ed., Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1975, Volume 11, pp. 77–364. Jean Paul is said to have relied on an article by LA Champagneux in the magazine Frankreich , 1800, vol. 3 and Georg Kerner's report ( Adolf Wohlwill : Georg Kerner. A German life picture from the age of the French Revolution. Hamburg / Leipzig 1886, cited in : Justinus Kerner. Selected works, edited by Gunter Grimm , Reclam, Stuttgart 1981, p. 479, note 161). Quoted here from Günter de Bruyn : The life of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter. A biography . Revised and increased new version. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-10-009644-9 , p. 284.
  11. ↑ Stefan Zweig: Adam Lux. Ten pictures from the life of a German revolutionary . With essays by Franz Dumont and Erwin Rotermund . Logo Verlag, Obernburg 2003, online review by Holger Dauer, TourLiteratur 2004
personal data
SURNAME Lux, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German revolutionary and sympathizer of the French Revolution
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1765
PLACE OF BIRTH Obernburg am Main
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1793
Place of death Paris