Andreas Dathe

Andreas Dathe (born October 9, 1703 in Hamburg ; † July 23, 1768 ibid) was a Hanseatic consul and historian .

Live and act

Andreas Dathe came from a family who lived on Steckelhörn on Cremoninsel in Hamburg's old town . He had a grandfather of the same name who moved from Meissen to Hamburg in 1659 . His father of the same name (1673-1718) worked as a curate at the main church of Saint Catherine . He had been married to Elisabeth since 1703, whose father was Albert Schulte. Andreas Dathe had five siblings, three of whom died early. Since there is no evidence of Dathes school education, it can be assumed that he received private lessons. In 1729 Dathe bought Hamburg citizenship for 20 marks . Dathe stated when he entered the civil register that he was a merchant and had a musket. His guarantor was Albert Schulte, so probably his mother's father.

Since the Spanish port city of Cádiz was the most important place on the Atlantic , where goods for Spanish colonies in America were handled, the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen maintained a consular representation there in the 17th and 18th centuries. Andreas Dathe was appointed consul there by the city of Hamburg at the end of June 1745; Lübeck and Bremen followed this decision a week later. After the Hamburg Senate had approved the election, Dathe received an annual salary of 400 Reichstalers. Since the Spanish king did not allow foreign diplomats to carry out private business transactions, Dathe demanded an additional 800 marks in banco, which the Admiralty paid. Dathe then settled in Cádiz and visited the Spanish royal court in Madrid on February 21, 1746 . During this visit, the king recognized Dathe as consul. Soon after taking up the job, Dathe was demanding a raise and higher consular fees, which would have increased his income as well. He justified this with gifts that were often necessary for the authorities in Cádiz. After the Hamburg Senate rejected Dathes' demands, he submitted his resignation in 1747 and went to London , where he married. The reason for the choice of the English capital as a new place of residence were presumably British traders in Cádiz who had arranged contacts with England.

In 1766 Dathe returned to Hamburg, where he died two years later.

plant

Dathe gained notoriety not because of his professional activities, but because of a description of the history of Hamburg that he wrote at an advanced age. The first edition of the Essai sur l'histoire de Hambourg was published in 1766 by T. Osborne in London. After returning to Hamburg, Dathe translated the work, which was published in 1767 by Friedrich Christian Ritter with the title An attempt at a story from Hamburg . In addition, the font contained instructions on the Studio Historiae Hamburgensis , which Dathes godfather Michael Richey had written. Dathe's work is reminiscent of a more extensive work by Michael Gottlieb Steltzner . Contrary to the chronological structure of historical events that was customary at the time, Dathe wrote two parts, which contain 23 and 16 chapters respectively, are thematically structured and deal with the history of Hamburg from its foundation to 1712. Following a fundamental chronological main line, Dathe described the history of trade, seafaring and the city constitution, Hamburg's relationship to Holstein and Denmark, the Reformation and popular uprisings. Dathe gave writings by Albert Krantz and Adam Tratziger's Chronica as sources . He also used the Hansische Chronick by Johann Peter Willebrand , De l'esprit des lois by Montesquieu , the history of England by David Hume , the Dictionnaire by Pierre Bayle and the Commentariorum de rebus Sueccis by Samuel von Pufendorf .

Dathe wrote a chapter about The Reformation Lutheri , about which he got into a dispute with pastor Johann Melchior Goeze . Dathe did not criticize the Reformation itself, but highlighted two aspects that, in his opinion, were detrimental to Hamburg's economy. This was the introduction of so-called “monopoly” for craftsmen who rigidly restricted access to offices and controlled trade. Dathe also criticized the persecution of people of other denominations for religious reasons and the difficulties of non-Lutherans to gain a foothold economically in Hamburg. These views were also held by members of the Patriotic Society of 1765 such as Michael Richey . Dathe responded to the criticism of the Orthodox chief pastor Goeze in 1768 with the replica Défense de M. Dathe contre une brochure publièe en Allemand par le très révérand M. Johan Melchior Goeze .

Fonts

• An attempt at a history of Hamburg: from its first origins to the year 1712. (Hamburg: Ritter / Buchholtz) 1767

Digitized at VD 18

literature

• Susanne Rau : Dathe, Andreas . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 88-89 .