Arnold Robens
Arnold Robens (Latinized name: Arnoldus Ludovicus Antonius Robens; ~ November 9, 1758 in the Catholic parish church of St. Anna in Düren ; † May 26, 1820 in Aachen ) was secretary of the Jülich knighthood , legation secretary of the Electoral Palatinate Mayor of Aachen and finally mayor of the city of Aachen . He was the author of several genealogical-heraldic works. His specialty was the Jülich knighthood.
Life
The son of Thomas Heinrich Wilhelm Robens (~ August 17, 1730 in Düren; † May 16, 1823 in Aachen), imperial notary in Düren and later owner of the Robenshof on Kölnsteinweg in Aachen, and his second wife, Johanna Margaretha Westerich, was initially mentioned as a secret clerk of the Jülich knighthood and as such resided in Gerresheim near Düsseldorf in 1789 . Soon afterwards he was proven to be the secretary of the legation at the Electoral Palatinate Vogtmajor in Aachen.
When the French occupied the Rhineland at the end of 1792, Robens left Aachen in the wake of Baron Baldwin von Merode-Houffalize zu Frenz, director of the knighthood of Julich and Berg, but soon returned there. His office as legation secretary had become obsolete because of the French.
At the time when Aachen was under French administration, Robens was elected second adjunct from 1805 , first under the Mayor Johann Wilhelm Gottfried von Lommessem and from 1808 under Cornelius von Guaita . After the end of the French occupation and the incorporation of the Rhineland into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815, Robens was re-elected as mayor of the city of Aachen during the years of rebuilding under Guaita, who is now mayor. He held this office until shortly before his death and died on May 26, 1820 of a "vicious bladder fever".
Robens was married to Maria Theresia Thekla Fincken (* around 1756; † August 26, 1832 in Aachen?), Daughter of the Dutch postmaster Wilhelm Fincken and Elisabeth Kreusch. This marriage resulted in two daughters, both of whom died in childhood.
As early as 1894, one of the streets that ran through the former area of the Robensgarten was named "Robensstraße". The Robensgarten belonged to the Robenshof, which belonged to the father of Arnold Robens and was named after him. The street name has been preserved to this day.
Genealogical-heraldic activity
Robens was related to the Aachen city archivist Karl Franz Meyer (Aachen Stories), whose brother Franz Meyer Robens had married aunt Franziska Theresia Robens on October 12, 1750 in the Aachen church St. Foillan . Robens also maintained good relationships with Karl Franz Meyer's son and successor to his father as the city archivist, Karl Franz Leonhard Meyer . Perhaps this relationship inspired him to his first work Elementar = Werkchen der Wapenkunde , which he published in two volumes in Düsseldorf and Aachen in 1790.
During this time he wrote his intended four-volume work “The knightly - landed nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine, represented in coats of arms and origins” . He couldn't find a publisher and so Robens finally had the first two volumes self-published by the city printer, M. Weiß. The work received a lot of attention and acclaim. In 1818 Robens even became King Friedrich Wilhelm III. presented and received the gold medal for scientific achievements. Nevertheless, the costs could not be covered. The other two volumes were no longer printed. His widow gave the subscribers of the planned volumes 3 and 4 back the money they had already received. The manuscripts are lost. According to Schumacher, “at last they fell into the hands of playing children [.] And [were] destroyed [.]. "
Robens genealogical-heraldic works are exemplary for many others that emerged in the course of romantic currents. Although they strive for accuracy, they do not meet today's scientific standards. Much was taken from other documents unassigned and unchecked. Schumacher writes: “ Even strange etymological interpretations of family names and imaginative explanations of heraldic symbolism would have been better avoided. The numerous, often mediocre verses that are switched on and exuberantly glorify the nobility as the epitome of Germanness and all virtue, as the leader of the nation determined by Providence, are very disturbing. "
Fonts
-
Elementary work of heraldry : Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
- Volume 1: Something of family tables and complete collection of all knightly family coats of arms that were sworn up in the Gülisch-knight-born college , Düsseldorf (among others) 1790.
- Volume 2 under the title: Complete collection of the family coats of arms that existed in the Electoral Cologne-knight-born Collegio in Bonn and in the Westphalian-knight-born Collegio zu Arensberg , digitized edition Düsseldorf (among others) 1791.
- The knightly landed nobility of the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine: depicted in coats of arms and origins . Weiß, Aachen 1818 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf )
- Book of Arms , (Sl) 1881.
-
The knightly rural nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine: depicted in Wapen and Descent , Aachen (White) 1818 (Published: Volume 1 - 2)
New publisher in the LTR-Verlag, Wiesbaden, ISBN 3-88706-054-7
Robens' works are recorded in the KVK . They are also available in digitized form on CDR and DVD. It is possible to inspect these digital copies while in the Haltern am See city library.
literature
- Friedrich Adolf Beck: Life pictures from the Prussian Rhineland. An instructive and entertaining reader for school and home . Self-published, Neuwied 1832, p. 96.
- Matthias Michael Bonn: Collection of materials on the history of Düren . Knoll, Düren 1835-1838, p. 446 f.
- August Schumacher: Arnold Robens . In: Heimatblätter (supplement to the Dürener Zeitung) 3/1926, No. 18.
Web links
- Robens (family name) in GenWiki (genealogical information on the family name and blazon of the coat of arms)
Individual evidence
- ↑ all information according to: August Schumacher: The Rhenish genealogist and heraldist Arnold Robens , in: Communications of the West German Society for Family Research, Volume 10/1938, Sp. 77-84.
- ^ City library Haltern am See , Lavesumer Straße 1g, 45721 Haltern am See.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Robens, Arnold |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Robens, Arnoldus Ludovicus Antonius (Latinized name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Secret scribe of the Jülich knighthood |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 9, 1758 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Anna , Düren |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 26, 1820 |
| Place of death | Aachen |