Gotthilf Albert Sterzing

Gotthilf Albert Sterzing (born February 22, 1822 in Zella St. Blasii ; † October 17, 1889 in Gotha ) was court counselor and director of the Gotha regional court in the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha . On July 11, 1861, he founded the German Schützenbund in Gotha .

family

Gotthilf Albert Sterzing was born as the second of eleven children of the Amtsphysicus Sterzing in Zella St. Blasii. The father's income was low for the large family due to the competition of other local doctors, so that a brother also contributed to the family support with a cutting mill (Doctersmühle in Zella St. Blasii). In 1870 one of Sterzing's sons was killed in the battle of Wörth . Sterzing's first wife suffered from increasing blindness. Vipiteno experienced happiness again at an advanced age with his second wife. After being bedridden for ten months, Sterzing died on October 17, 1889 in his house in Gotha.

education and profession

From 1834 to 1840 he attended the Illustre grammar school in Gotha. From 1840 to 1843 Sterzing studied law at the University of Jena . From 1843 to 1850 he was an accessist in Zella St. Blasii, and from 1850 to 1854 official advocate in the Liebenstein office near Plaue . In 1854 he became official commissioner in Gotha, from 1858 he was a district judge at the Gotha district court, from 1859 a public prosecutor, from 1865 head of the Gotha city court and from 1879 director of the Gotha district court. From 1850 to 1861, Sterzing belonged to the Gotha state parliament . He was a member of the Gotha City Council from 1863 to 1875 and advocated the progressive development of public water supply, sewerage and cremation.

For a number of years, Sterzing was a member of the management of the Thuringian Railway Company, the lending committee of the Gotha Life Insurance Bank and the Gotha State Helpers Association. Sterzing also held several charitable offices.

Archery

When the first German shooting festival was celebrated in Gotha in 1861, Sterzing, with the support of his sovereign Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, called the German shooting association into being, which wrote the care of the national idea on its flag and at the same time he founded the Deutsche Schützen- und Wehrzeitung , which he edited almost until the end of his life. For the first time there was an association of citizens of all German states with the establishment of the German Shooting Association. This anticipated the formation of the German Empire and the overcoming of small states in this area. He saw in rifle sport one of the means to maintain "German style and custom" and to promote a feeling of togetherness among men of all German tribes. A few days later, on July 13, 1861, on the initiative of Sterzing, the Thuringian Rifle Federation was founded at the same location .

Two years after his death, the German Schützenbund erected a memorial in his honor on the shooting range of the Altschützengesellschaft zu Gotha. The lifelike bust of Albert Sterzing was created by the Gotha-born artist Christian Behrens . Albert Gotthilf Sterzing is honored here regularly by the shooters.

literature

• Max Berbig :  Sterzing, Gotthilf Albert . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 54, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1908, p. 504 f.