Alexander Georg von Humboldt

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Alexander Georg von Humboldt (born September 22, 1720 in Zamenz , † January 6, 1779 in Berlin ) was a Prussian officer and businessman. He was the father of Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt .

origin

He was the son of Captain Hans Paul von Humboldt (1684-1740), who was raised to the hereditary Prussian nobility in 1738 , and his wife Sophie Dorothea, née von Schweder (1688-1749).

Life

Humboldt became a soldier in the "von Finckenstein" dragoon regiment of the Prussian army . With this regiment he took part in the Seven Years' War in 1756/63 - initially as a prime lieutenant . He gained the trust of the Commander-in-Chief, Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig , whose life he saved in the Battle of Krefeld on June 28, 1758; as a result, he quickly rose to the rank of sergeant-major and regimental adjutant . In 1761 he said goodbye for health reasons.

As a regimental adjutant for the regiment's food and equipment, Humboldt had also benefited greatly from the war economically; that helped him in his rise within the Berlin court society. Frederick the Great appointed him Chamberlain for his services in the Seven Years' War . From 1765 he was on duty chamberlain for Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig , the wife of the heir to the throne Friedrich Wilhelm . Even after the divorce of this marriage, he remained closely connected to Friedrich Wilhelm.

Family grave in Berlin-Falkenberg
Coffin tablets by Alexander Georg von Humboldt (left) and Friedrich Ernst von Holwede , the first husband of Marie-Elisabeth von Humboldt (right), in between a photo of Marie-Elisabeth's missing grave slab in the Protestant church in Berlin-Wartenberg

Humboldt invested his fortune in shares in the General-Tabaks-Lehn-Gesellschaft from 1765 and in the Giro-und-Lehn-Bank, which was also founded in 1765, a forerunner of the later Reichsbank . The exploitation of tobacco farmers by the general tobacco leaf magazine was criticized; Regarding the economic conduct of Alexander Georg von Humboldt later at Gut Tegel, however, it was said: “It touched me not a little when I heard the local people of the place speak so tenderly of him during the short stay in the new Kruge. A common man praised his care for the local day laborers, for whom he had provided work and bread at all times. ”Humboldt was also involved in founding the Prussian number lottery. This made contact with Karl Friedrich von Dacheröden the Elder . J. (1732–1809), later father-in-law of his son Wilhelm.

In 1766 Humboldt married the widowed Baroness Marie-Elisabeth von Holwede, née Colomb, on their estate in Lanke near Berlin . From this marriage his two sons Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt emerged. Through his marriage in 1766 the hunting lodge in Tegel came into his possession, where the family lived in the summer and where he devoted himself to agriculture. A requirement of the domain chamber to grow mulberry trees for silk farming on the estate could not be met due to unsuitable soil conditions and had to be discontinued in 1770. The stable feeding system introduced by Humboldt first in Tegel enabled increased milk yield, which led to an increase in the yield per cow to 50 to 60 thalers. In addition, he recognized the benefits of growing clover as a fodder plant before Johann Christian Schubart (1734–1787) propagated it. The company thus became the first fresh milk supplier to the royal and princely courts. The Ringenwalde estate, which also belongs to the property, came from the inheritance of the brothers Friedrich Ernst (March 12, 1723 - January 26, 1765) and Victor Ludwig (March 8, 1737 - February 2, 1793) von Holwede , who owned the Marie sisters -Elisabeth and Wilhelmine Anne Susanne Colomb (1743–1784) had married.

After his untimely death in early 1779 at the age of 58, Gottlob Johann Christian Kunth , a confidante of the family and tutor of the eleven and nine year old sons Wilhelm and Alexander, took over the management of the property.

literature

  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses 1876. Sixth and twentieth year, p.337

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The village church of Falkenberg as the burial place of the two Marie Elisabeth von Humboldt families on von-humboldt.de (with text from the coffin tablets)
  2. ↑ Biography of Alexander Georg von Humboldt
  3. ↑ Anton Friderich Büsching : Description of his trip from Berlin to Kyritz in the Prignitz, which he made from September 26th to October 2nd, 1779 . Leipzig 1780 [quoted: AF Büsching, 1779]
  4. ↑ Thomas Richter: Alexander von Humboldt: Rowohlt, Reinbek 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-50712-0 , p. 9 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Humboldt, Alexander Georg von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian officer and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1720
PLACE OF BIRTH Zamenz
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1779
Place of death Berlin