August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome
August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome (born August 6, 1753 in Sengwarden , rule of Kniphausen ; † June 11, 1833 in Rödelheim ), a German late reconnaissance , was professor of cameralistics in Giessen , statistician and economist . His “Product Card Europens” became particularly well known. He was exposed to political hostility from his compatriots because of his attitude towards the French occupation under Napoléon Bonaparte .
Live and act
youth
Crome came from the educated middle class . His father Johann Friedrich Crome (born January 29, 1724 in Einbeck; † August 9, 1802) was rector in Stadthagen , then first pastor, later superintendent and consistorial councilor in Sengwarden near Kniphausen. He was said to have had two fabulous encounters with the devil and published theological writings. The mother Christiane Lukretia, née Büsching, was a pastor's daughter from Stadthagen. In his autobiography (1833), Crome praised the simple way of life at home, which laid "a good foundation for a physically strong constitution". Pure, unclouded common sense was connected with true religiosity of the heart.
Together with his brother Heinrich, August Friedrich Wilhelm was taught by his father and temporarily by private tutors until he reached university entrance qualification. Heinrich later studied law in Göttingen and became a lawyer in Kniphausen.
Thanks to the financial help of his uncle, the consistorial councilor Anton Friedrich Büsching in Berlin, the Count von Bentinck and the father's parish, Crome was able to study theology in Halle from 1772 to 1774 . By teaching at the Latin school of the orphanage , he earned lunch and dinner and gained his first pedagogical experience. He was friends here and a. with Josias Friedrich Löffler , Philipp Julius Lieberkühn and Johann Stuve .
Time as private tutor, Monday club
After the Halle years there was a private tutoring, first in Berlin with the then Colonel Georg Ernst von Holtzendorff for his son Karl . Crome did not give up his theological studies, often preached, as he writes, “not without applause” and passed the theological test after a trial sermon in 1775. He did not accept offered pastoral positions, but remained private tutor, from May 1775 in the house of Baron Karl Alexander von Bismarck in Schönhausen. One of his pupils became the father of the future Chancellor .
Crome's uncle introduced him to the Berlin Enlightenment Circle around Moses Mendelssohn and Friedrich Nicolai .
Crome reports anecdotally that he was invited by Uncle Büsching in Berlin to an afternoon trial sermon on the “value of suffering” in the presence of several senior consistorial councilors. At the preceding lunch, however, there was a dispute over the recently published epistolary novel Werther , which Büsching sharply disapproved of, but Crome defended. Angry, the uncle left the lunch table, Crome was late at church, but then delivered a sermon that reconciled the uncle - so that Werther's sufferings did not become undoing the value of suffering.
Teacher in Dessau
Instead of the profession of pastor, Crome took up that of the teacher and from 1779 taught at the Philanthropin Basedows in Dessau , mainly in the subjects of geography and history. It was here that his first publication “ On the relationship of the educator to his pupils ” was created. Crome also promoted his friend Christian Konrad Wilhelm von Dohm's ideas for the emancipation of the Jews .
Respected colleagues were Friedrich Gottlieb von Busse and Christian Gotthilf Salzmann .
Product map of Europe
The work that made Crome widely known was created in Dessau, the first product map of Europe (1782), in which the goods and goods produced there were listed for all regions of Europe. It found a very positive reception, including a review by Georg Forster , and was also an economic success for Crome. Crome now lived as a private scholar and writer . He published geographic and statistical works and read the general theory of the state . Based on statistical analysis of available data, he predicted the economic rise of the United States and defended its right to independence. In 1783 he met the French enlightenment expert Guillaume Thomas François Raynal in Dessau . From 1784 he taught geography and statistics to Friedrich von Anhalt-Dessau .
The honors included membership in the Imperial Free Economic Society of Saint Petersburg and the Academy of Non-Profit Sciences in Erfurt, as well as an honorary doctorate in philosophy from the Georg-August University in Göttingen . He declined the appointment as assessor at the Imperial Academy of Sciences (until 1934 in Saint Petersburg ). In 1829 he became an honorary member of this academy.
Professor in Giessen
In 1787 he accepted the professorship in Giessen, which was offered to him because of his rhetorical talent. On the trip he briefly visited Weimar and met Wieland and Musäus .
His inaugural speech in Latin dealt with the relationship between politics and statistics. For more than 40 years (until 1830) he practiced the professorship in the same place (despite numerous calls , including Berlin, Leipzig, Göttingen, Marburg, Greifswald, Dorpat, Landshut, Basel).
His scientific achievements as a “reform mercantilist ” are less characterized by theoretical originality, but above all by practical usefulness, pedagogical preparation and thoroughness. He constantly developed new methods of statistical display, including bar and area diagrams for the first time .
His political concerns were the education, the defense of the freedom of the press and popular education, especially through the free availability of statistical data.
Diplomatic activity
In 1790, at his request, Crome was accepted as a "scholar a consiliis" in the electoral Saxon embassy, which traveled to Frankfurt for Leopold II to be elected emperor . A friend registered him for an unsolicited audience. The emperor, to date Grand Duke of Toscana, commissioned him, after a lively conversation, to translate and publish his book " Governo della Toscana " with commentary . As a reward, he was promised one of the five prebenders of the Protestant Reich donors. Only the son and successor Franz II kept the promise after a further audience on the occasion of his election. More than 70 ruling princes were among the 1,000 subscribers to the work that was subsequently published by Crome.
In 1797 the French troops occupied Upper Hesse and moved their headquarters to Giessen. To General Bernadotte , who in 1798 took command in Giessen, won Crome a good relationship and its was more frequent diner. As a member of a so-called land war commission, which had to mediate between the population and the occupiers, Crome prevented, among other things, the looting of the university library (1799).
After the end of the occupation, Crome was commissioned to negotiate a pacification treaty with Bernadotte in Mainz , which was intended to prevent a renewed occupation of Hessen-Darmstadt. On Crome's advice, the French changed their plans and instead of Darmstadt chose Mannheim, which was then only sparsely occupied by the Austrians, as their headquarters. The secret pacification treaty with the landgrave was signed.
Crome conducted further negotiations in Mannheim and was no longer a stranger to the circles of French generals and politicians.
His youngest sister Christiana Dorothea married the French staff officer and later Baron de Larroque in 1799.
marriage
Crome himself married Demoiselle Dorette Wagner (born February 12, 1778, † May 23, 1857 in Hanover ) in 1805 at the age of 52 . Her mother's sister, Elisabeth Lamprecht (1778–1853), was the wife of Captain Carl Ludwig Buff (1769–1841) in Wetzlar , a long-time friend of Crome's. In their house he saw his future bride for the first time. Buff, for his part, is the older brother of Charlotte Buff, known from the novel Werther, and the father of the Giessen chemist Heinrich Buff .
Crome's marriage was childless. The much younger wife survived him by 19 years.
Political writings scandal
In his and Jaup's magazine Germanien , Crome confessed to being a supporter of the Rhine Confederation , which he praised as a sensible creation.
Serious attacks, however, earned him his behavior in 1813 : at the request of the French headquarters, he wrote his work “ Germany's Crise and Salvation in April and May 1813 ”, which was published from the draft against his will and knowledge. He pleaded for peace with France, warned of a revolutionary war in Germany and the destruction of the German-Franconian culture by a Russian-Asiatic. In France, he saw Germany's protective power as a bulwark against the East, and hoped that Napoleon's victory against Great Britain would bring peace to the continent and thus a flourishing of the continental economy and culture. The German people must keep calm and order and follow their ruling princes.
After the coalition's victory near Leipzig , Crome then experienced massive attacks, for example in the Rheinisches Merkur Joseph Görres . Blücher called him a "rascal". The accusation of betrayal of the fatherland ( August von Kotzebue ) was even followed by a death threat and finally Crome's writing was burned by radical nationalist students at the Wartburg Festival in 1817 .
Crome stayed in Switzerland from November 1813 to April 1814. In his work “ Germany's and Europe's State and National Interest ” (Giessen 1817), Crome expressed changed views without commenting on the change in attitude. He scourged the vile French secret police and now warned of a foreign protecting power.
For Treitschke , the “notorious Bonapartist” only “put on the coat of the German patriot”. From the point of view of modern research, however, Crome is more characterized by a pragmatic and rationalistic view that advocates a cautious reform policy of small steps.
In 1822 he received the title of Privy Council. The first session of the Hessian Parliament (from 1821) accompanied Crome journalistically with a lot of sympathy, especially for the public.
After his 50th anniversary in office in 1829, Crome retired in 1831 and spent his last lifetime in Rödelheim near Frankfurt, where he died.
Works (in selection)
- On the relationship of the educator to his pupils and their parents , 1779
- New product map of Europe , 1782, several editions
- Europens products. On the use of the New Product Map of Europe , 1782
- About the Size, Population, Climate, and Fertility of the North American Free State , 1783
- Handbook for Merchants , 1784, several editions
- About the size and population of all European countries , 1785
- The electoral capitulation of the Roman Emperor, Leopold the Second and Francis the Second , 1794
- The state administration of Tuscany under the government of His Royal Highness Leopold II , 1795/1797
- Germania. A journal for constitutional law, politics and statistics of Germany , 1808–1811
- Germany's crisis and rescue in April and May 1813 , 1813
- Germany's and Europe's state and national interests , 1817
- Autobiography. A Contribution to the Academic and Political Memoirs of the Past and Present Centuries , 1833
cards
- Ratio = map of Europe for an overview and comparison of the area, the population, as well as the other state forces of all European states , 1792 [?] (Digitalisat ULB Darmstadt )
- Verhaeltniss = map of the German federal states. For an overview and comparison of the area, population, state income etc. of these countries ... , 1820
Quote Cromes
"Let every legal person the free use of his powers, let him freedom and property, as unrestricted in physical, civil and moral terms as possible, namely as much as the rights of society and the general welfare of the state always allow."
Quotes about Crome
- "I wake up through the nights thinking of rhymes on Crome / But I tried to rhyme unsympathetically." ( Ludwig Börne )
- "Since the avenging arm has not yet reached the traitor to the fatherland, we want at least to hang him in effigy where the ravens await him." ( August von Kotzebue )
- "Good German or on the gallows" ( Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher )
literature
The above text is based, among other things, on a biographical sketch by Paul Crome, which was published privately in 1963 in the journal of the Krome-Crome Family Association (No. 22). For its part, it is based on the aforementioned Crome's autobiography.
Selection of further literature:
- Johann Friedrich Ludwig Theodor Merzdorf: Crome, August Friedrich Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 606 f.
- Haaser, Rolf: "... the focus of student fanaticism and radicalism". The University of Giessen and the Wartburg Festival. In: Burghard Dedner (Ed.): The Wartburg Festival. Marburg 1994
- Rippmann, Inge: "All bumbling lovers of national honor". Traces of the Wartburg Festival at Ludwig Börne. In: Burghard Dedner (Ed.): The Wartburg Festival. Marburg 1994
- Harms, Hans: August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome (1753–1833), author of coveted business maps. In: Cartographica Helvetica Heft 3 (1991) pp. 33–38 full text
- Kirmis, Alfred: August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome. A contribution to the history of German economics. Dissertation Bern 1908
Web links
- Literature by and about August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome in the German Digital Library
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Lübbing : Frisian sagas. From Texel to Sylt. Verlag Schuster, Leer 1977, ISBN 978-3-7963-0107-0 , p. 16 (reprint of the 1st edition published in 1928 by Diederichs Verlag, Jena, supplemented by an afterword by Reimer Kay Holander ).
- ^ Heinrich Wilhelm Rotermund: The learned Hanover . tape 1 , 1823, p. CX ff .
- ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. August Friedrich Wilhelm Crome. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed September 24, 2015 (Russian).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Crome, August Friedrich Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German economist, professor for camera studies in Giessen |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 6, 1753 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sengwarden , Lordship of Kniphausen |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 11, 1833 |
| Place of death | Rödelheim |