Adolf Wohlwill

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Adolf Wohlwill

Adolf Benjamin Wohlwill (born May 10, 1843 in Seesen , † July 7, 1916 in Hamburg ) was a German historian .

Adolf Wohlwill was the son of the Hamburg writer and educator Immanuel Wolf Wohlwill and his wife Friederike Reichel Warburg . His father had been a teacher at the Hamburg Israelite Free School since 1825 . In 1838 he became director of the Jewish interdenominational Jacobson School and Education Institute in Seesen ( Harz ). At that time, the Seesen Jewish community was one of the most important Jewish reform communities. Wohlwill was born in 1843 as the youngest child in the family. His siblings were Fanny Henriette (1832–1903), Wolf Emil (1835–1912), Daniel Theodore (1837–1900) and Anna (1841–1919). Wohlwill hardly got to know his father because he died in 1847 when Wohlwill was not even four years old. Four years later the family moved back to Hamburg.

Wohlwill attended the Wichmann'sche private school, from 1856 the learned school of the Johanneum and later the academic high school . In the summer semester of 1863, Wohlwill studied under Wilhelm Wattenbach and Ludwig Häusser, among others, history and philology at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg and from 1865 at the University of Göttingen . Häusser aroused Wohlwill's interest in the history of the early modern period and in the period of the French Revolution and Napoleon . In 1866, at the age of 23, he received his doctorate from Georg Waitz with the thesis The beginnings of the rural constitution in the Diocese of Liège . In 1867 Wohlwill returned to Hamburg. At first he could not get a permanent job. Wohlwill began as a freelance lecturer on behalf of the Hamburg High School Authority at the Academic Gymnasium and sometimes also at private schools. The great success of his lecturing activities meant that the school authorities gradually increased his moderate starting salary and in 1880 set it at 6,000 marks per year. His first writings deal with the history of Alsace (1870 and 1879) and the history of Swabia ( Cosmopolitanism and Fatherland Love of the Swabians , 1875).

In 1872 he joined the Association for Hamburg History . In 1873 Wohlwill married Marie Nathan, with whom he had four children. In 1886 Wohlwill published a treatise on the doctor and publicist Johann Georg Kerner . The Hamburg History made from then on his main area. In 1887 Wohlwill was made a civil servant. In 1890 the Senate awarded him the title of professor. For the inauguration of the Hamburg City Hall in 1897, Wohlwill presented his presentation From Three Centuries of Hamburg History (1648–1888) . In 1902 Wohlwill was appointed to the newly formed professors' convention of the Hamburg scientific institute. Wohlwill resigned from teaching in 1907 for health reasons. Wohlwill's research was published in 1913 in the Modern History of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In particular summarized from 1789 to 1815 . With numerous publications, Wohlwill made a significant contribution to the knowledge of Hamburg's history from 1789 to 1815. The Association for Hamburg History made him an honorary member. After Joist Grolle , Johann Martin Lappenberg and Adolf Wohlwill made the “breakthrough” to the “scientification of historiography” in Hamburg .

His sister Anna Wohlwill directed the Paulsenstift school for 45 years from 1866 to 1911 . In her honor, Wohlwillstrasse in St. Pauli bears her name.

Fonts

  • Modern history of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In particular from 1789 to 1815. Gotha 1914.
  • From three centuries of Hamburg's history (1648–1888). Hamburg 1897.
  • Georg Kerner. A German image of life from the age of the French Revolution. Hamburg / Leipzig 1886.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Adolf Wohlwill  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ^ Wilhelm von Bippen: Adolf Wohlwill, an obituary. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History , Vol. 22 (1918), pp. 1–20, here: p. 9.
  2. ^ Joist Grolle: Hamburg and its historians. Hamburg 1997, p. 3.
  3. ↑ Christian Hanke: Hamburg's street names tell a story. 4. revised and additional ed., Hamburg 2006, p. 319.
personal data
SURNAME Well will, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wohlwill, Adolf Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Seesen
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 1916
Place of death Hamburg