August Kestner

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August Kestner around 1810
August Kestner

Georg August Christian Kestner (born November 28, 1777 in Hanover , † March 5, 1853 in Rome ) was a German lawyer , diplomat , archaeologist , draftsman and art collector .

Life

Origin and youth

Georg August Christian Kestner was born as the fourth child of the Hanoverian lawyer and councilor Johann Christian Kestner and his wife Charlotte Sophie Kestner, nee. Buff , born in Hanover. August grew up with 11 siblings, of whom the eleven years younger sister Charlotte (1788–1877) was closest to him.

Johann Christian Kestner met the young Charlotte Buff while working at the Imperial Court of Justice in Wetzlar (1767–1773), with whom he went to Hanover after their marriage (1773). Here Johann Christian Kestner held the position of vice archivist and later became royal British-Hanoverian councilor. A close friendship between the Kestner family and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe goes back to the time in Wetzlar . Kestner and Goethe met while they were working together at the Imperial Court of Justice in Wetzlar. Because of the unhappy love for Charlotte Buff - she was already engaged to Johann Christian Kestner - she became the model for Lottchen in Goethe's famous epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .

The Kestner family was one of the so-called pretty families in the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg in the 18th and 19th centuries . As members of the bourgeois upper class of Hanover, they usually held positions of secret state secretaries.

Following his uncle's will, his nephew Hermann Kestner donated the August Kestner art collection to the city of Hanover and thus laid the foundation stone for the Kestner Museum (opened in 1889).

Studies, training, employment

After August Kestner had been trained at home by private tutors, he studied law at the University of Göttingen from 1796 to 1799 . Shaped by his upbringing and the general zeitgeist, he attended lectures in the subjects of art history and philosophy in addition to studying law.

August Kestner took music lessons from the Göttingen music director Johann Nikolaus Forkel . His interest in music was also expressed in collecting folk texts and melodies together with Wilhelm Blumbach . A large number of settings (songs for voice and piano accompaniment) of Goethe and Hölty poems are evidence of his musical ambitions. Parts of it - together with comparable compositions by Hermann Kestner (Eichendorff and Heine poems) - were first published on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the death of Charlotte Kestner, b. Buff (January 16, 1828) and the 250th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (August 28, 1749) recorded on CD under the title Soiree for Werthers Lotte .

After graduating in 1799, he began his career as a lawyer. Stations of his activity were the office of the interrogation judge (auditor) at the court court in Hanover (until 1801), an internship at the Reich chamber court in Wetzlar (1802) as well as employment as secret clerk in the civil service in Hanoverian, French and Prussian services (1803-1806). With the annexation of Hanover to the Kingdom of Westphalia by Napoleon (1810) August Kestner's activity as secretary of the Secret Chancellery ended and he retired from the public service. The activity as a notary of the Hanoverian canton in Linden and his fight (from 1816) in the wars of freedom led him back to his actual profession. After the re-establishment of the Secret Chancellery in November 1813, he was given back his old post as Secret Chancellery Secretary and was appointed to the Chancellery. In this position he made a career in Rome from 1818 to 1849.

First stay in Italy

From 1808 to 1809 August Kestner undertook a trip to Italy planned as a recreational stay due to his poor health, which in the course of the time increasingly developed into a grand tour . Rome, Pompeii and Naples, but also Milan and Florence are his travel destinations. Already at this time Kestner established close contacts with German artists ( German Romans ) living in Rome : Franz Riepenhausen (1786–1831), Johannes Riepenhausen (1788–1860), Friedrich Overbeck (1789–1869), Joseph Anton Koch (1768–1839) , Christian Daniel Rauch (1777–1857) and Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844).

The diplomat

Concordat negotiations

With the elevation of the electorate to a kingdom decided at the Congress of Vienna (1814/15), Hanover was expanded to include considerable areas. Essentially, these were Catholic parts of the country, the dioceses of Osnabrück and Hildesheim . The reorganization of the Catholic Church and the ecclesiastical conditions in the Kingdom of Hanover, for which papal consent was necessary, was in the interests of the state. In March 1817 a legation reached Rome, in which August Kestner also traveled as legation secretary at the request of the Hanoverian Ministry and with the approval of the Prince Regent in London. Since 1817, under the leadership of Friedrich von Ompteda, Hanover was the first Protestant state of the German Confederation to negotiate with the Curia. Kestner's job was the correspondence with London and Hanover as well as regular reports on the progress of the negotiations. Kestner himself played a not insignificant role in these negotiations and especially in the final phase he played an increasingly important role.

Negotiations on a concordat were delayed due to fundamentally different positions of the curia and the Hanover government. Only after the death of Friedrich von Ompteda was his successor, Franz von Reden (1754–1831), able to give new momentum to the negotiations from 1821 onwards. In the end it was only agreed to regulate external church conditions. The result was the so-called Circumcription Bull ( Impensa Romanorum Pontificum ), which was adopted on March 26, 1824.

Second stay in Italy - As Hanoverian ambassador in Rome

August Kestner's second stay in Rome includes his work as the royal Hanover chargé d'affaires and envoy to the Holy See in Rome and the Sicilian court in Naples . In doing so, he represented both Hanoverian and British interests, since at that time there was a personal union between Great Britain and Hanover and the United Kingdom had not had diplomatic relations with the Holy See since 1534. Kestner is referred to as the UK's first ambassador to the Holy See. Historically, the stay fell during the period of the Restoration and the Vormärz , which began with the return of Pope Pius VII from French captivity (1814) and the restoration of the social and political conditions of the pre-Napoleonic period. Its end can be equated with the outbreak of the revolution of 1848/49 , in the course of which the republic was proclaimed in Rome and Pope Pius IX. was forced to flee to Gaeta in Naples.

The delegation, which had previously negotiated successfully with the Pope, was converted into an official embassy in 1824, which August Kestner now represented as legation counselor. In 1849 Kestner was released from diplomatic service and retired, but remained in Rome until his death.

Art historian, archaeologist and collector

During his first stay in Italy (1808/09) August Kestner devoted himself in particular to the study of the old Italian masters, primarily Raffael . The deep impression that the works of the Renaissance made on August Kestner runs through his entire life. In the book of art and literature , but rather in the Roman studies found the confrontation years later so that their art theoretical peak. During a visit to Heidelberg he met the brothers Melchior Boisserée and Sulpiz Boisserée . know whose extensive art collection he studied. This encounter and the intensive examination of the paintings in the Boisserée Collection made him decide to turn his back on jurisprudence and do his habilitation in the arts. While the negotiations on the Concordat were still in progress, Kestner resumed the contacts he had made with artists during his first visit to Italy. Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794–1872), Peter Cornelius (1783–1867), Johann Christian Reinhart (1761–1847) and others belong to the artistic circle of friends . Kestner also campaigned for young, as yet unknown artists, such as the Swiss sculptor Ferdinand Schlöth , whose brother Friedrich Ludwig Schlöth was then home to August Kestner's sister Charlotte in Basel.

August Kestner becomes an intimate connoisseur and avid art collector, dealing with questions of art theory. In the course of time, however, he devoted himself more and more to archeology, archeology and the study of ancient art. His apartment in Palazzo Tomati in Via Gregoriana, which he has lived in since 1827, is like a museum. Over the years he has compiled an extensive collection of ancient cabaret that covers almost all geographical areas of the ancient Mediterranean - from Egyptian, through Greek to Roman art - and includes all types of material and finds. Notable among them is the collection of Greek vases. August Kestner also developed into one of the best connoisseurs of antique gems of his time. Around 2000 gems are in his possession. His particular merit, especially in connection with his work at the Instituto Corrispondenza di Archaeologia, is the publication of the Impronte Gemmarie dell 'Instituto , a collection of casts that brings together all the important gems known since 1829 and also includes specimens from his own collection.

He also shows great knowledge in the field of ancient numismatics and European handicrafts. In the area of ​​post-ancient European art, he is primarily interested in painting and graphics from the Renaissance, and he also acquires handicrafts such as Italian majolica from the 16th century, musical instruments and furniture.

The Roman Hyperboreans

In 1823 August Kestner founded the Roman Hyperboreans together with the archaeologists and art historians Otto Magnus von Stackelberg , Theodor Panofka and Eduard Gerhard . The group made trips through Italy, studying and drawing ancient inscriptions and buildings. For two years, the Hyperboreans met regularly in Kestner's apartment in the Palazzo Tomati for joint reading and scientific discussion.

Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica

The desire to make the findings of these excursions and investigations available to a wider public in the form of publications gave rise to the idea of ​​a research institution that ultimately led to the establishment of the Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica , based in Palazzo Caffarelli . The Italian trip of the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (1795–1861) in 1828 was used to bring the predecessor institution of the German Archaeological Institute into being at the Winckelmannsfest of the same year under his patronage and with the help of the Prussian ambassador, Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen call. The founding members Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen, Eduard Gerhard , Carlo Fea , Theodor Panofka , Bertel Thorvaldsen and of course August Kestner come together for the first meeting on April 21, 1829. In a letter to his sister Charlotte (July 4, 1829), August reports:

" We have also formed a learned society here since this winter, named Instituto di corrispondenza archeologica, whose idea partly came from me and which I therefore have to work on [...] ."

The first general secretary of the Instituto was the Prussian ambassador in Rome in 1829, Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen, August Kestner his deputy; after Bunsen left Rome, August Kestner took over the management himself in 1837.

Own research

With Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, August Kestner took part in the excavations of the newly discovered chamber graves of Corneto ( Tarquinia ) in 1827 . August Kestner wrote to Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen on June 16, 1829:

“ Before Corneto in the open field, Saturday, if I'm not mistaken, June 16, 1827. Dear friend [von Bunsen]! […] We drew more than two hundred figures in the Greek and Etruscan styles and lived more below than above the earth. We ourselves dug a strange burial with paintings. […] Orally, we [von Stackelberg and Kestner] bring beautiful things, including Etruscan inscriptions, which, because they seem to lay out objects, promise use . "

Names like Tomba del Barone and Tomba Stackelberg are reminiscent of the research carried out by the two men. August Kestner himself reported several times between 1829 and 1834 about some Etruscan burial chambers in the publications of the Instituto . In 1829 August Kestner was present when excavations on the property of Lucian Bonaparte , the brother of Emperor Napoleon, brought valuable art objects from the old Etruscan town of Vulci to light near Canino . Kestner reports to Charlotte Kestner, July 14, 1829:

“ […] At the beginning of June I went on a small archaeological tour of 4 days with Bunsen and Gerhard, to none other than Lucian Bonaparte […]. There it is in the middle of ancient Hetruria, and who, like many others, was digging, he has come across such an immeasurable series of never-dug tombs or burial chambers, which are usually carved in stone a height or two below the ground, that he has found over 2000 painted vases within a year, some of them of great beauty, besides interesting vessels and other antiquities . "

Death and inheritance

At the end of February 1853, August Kestner fell ill and died at the age of 75 on March 5, after he had drafted his own epitaph, said goodbye to his friends and servants and provided information about where his will can be found. He found his final resting place on the Cimitero acattolico in Rome near the Cestius pyramid .

In his will of September 12, 1851, August Kestner designated his nephew Hermann Kestner (1810–1890) to be the heir of his extensive collection of 47 boxes. He brought the art objects to Hanover with the stipulation that they would be placed under “ official protection ”. The University of Göttingen was named as a possible recipient named in the will, but it waived the collection. The negotiations with the city of Hanover, on the other hand, are fruitful. In 1884 the collection with an additional 100,000 marks for the construction of the Museum Kestnerianum passed into the possession of August Kestner's hometown through a donation agreement. On November 9, 1889, the Kestner Museum, called Museum August Kestner since 2007 , opens.

Honors

Kestner's services to German classical archeology and antiquity are considerable. This commitment was honored, among other things, by an honorary doctorate from the University of Jena (March 16, 1852) as well as honorary memberships in many European academies and antiquity associations. Honors in chronological order:

Fonts (selection)

  • About imitation in painting . Frankfurt a. M. 1818.
  • Sulla. A tragedy in 5 acts . Hahn, Hanover 1822.
  • Treatise on the question: Who does art belong to? . Reimer, Berlin 1830.
  • Overbeck's work and word. An essay by a Roman art lover in relation to Overbeck's explanation of his picture in the Städel Art Institute: Triumph of Religion in the Arts . Frankfurt a. M. 1841.
  • with Emil Braun : Twelve bas-reliefs of Greek invention from Palazzo Spada, the Capitoline Museum and Villa Albani . Salviucci, Rome 1845.
  • Roman studies . Decker, Berlin 1850.
Correspondence
  • Hermann Kestner-Köchlin (ed.): Correspondence between August Kestner and his sister Charlotte . Verlag Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1914.
  • Ruth Rahmeyer (Ed.): So much for this time ... August Kestner - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe correspondence 1828–1831. Olms, Hildesheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-487-13553-3 .

literature

  • Otto Mejer :  Kestner, August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 660-662.
  • Otto Mejer: The Roman Kestner. Georg August Christian Kestner 1777-1853 , Deutsche Bücherei, Vol. 28, Breslau 1883.
  • Anna Wendland : Contributions to August Kestner's life story (1). In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 14, 1911, pp. 96-136.
  • Anna Wendland: Contributions to August Kestner's life story (2). In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 17, 1914, pp. 327-399.
  • Anna Wendland: Contributions to August Kestner's life story (3); (4). In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 20, 1916, pp. 1–101; 113-205.
  • Wilhelm Rothert : General Hannoversche Biography , Volume 2: In the Old Kingdom of Hanover 1814–1866 ; Hanover: Sponholtz, 1914, pp. 274–289.
  • Marie Jorns : August Kestner and his time. 1777-1853. The happy life of the diplomat, art collector and patron in Hanover and Rome . Compiled from letters and diaries. Madsack, Hanover 1964.
  • Jürgen Wittstock:  August Kestner. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 533 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ulrich Gehrig (Ed.): 100 Years of the Kestner Museum Hannover. 1889-1989 . Kestner Museum, Hanover 1989. ISBN 3-924029-14-8 .
  • Hugo Thielen : Kestner (3), Georg August Christian . In: Dirk Böttcher, Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen (eds.): Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present . Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Hanover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , pp. 196-197 ( Google Books ) = Kestner (3), Georg August Christian . In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , pp. 344-345.
  • In the footsteps of August Kestner . Catalog for the exhibition of the same name, March 6 to July 20, 2003. Hanover, Kestner Museum 2003. ( Museum Kestnerianum Volume 5) ISBN 3-924029-33-4 .
  • Hans-Georg Aschoff : August Kestner. Hanover's envoy in Rome. In: Goethe's Lotte. A woman's life around 1800. Catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Historisches Museum Hannover, Hannover 2003, pp. 198–209.
  • Cornelia Regin : August Kestner: a German Roman. In: Goethe's Lotte. A woman's life around 1800. Catalog for the exhibition of the same name. Historisches Museum Hannover, Hannover 2003, pp. 210–211.
  • Rüdiger RE Fock: The Kestner. A German-French-Swiss family makes history (s) . Schnell Buch und Druck, Warendorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-87716-706-9 .
  • Anne Viola Siebert : August Kestner, Etruria and Etruscology , Hanover, Museum August Kestner 2010 ( Museum Kestnerianum Volume 14), ISBN 978-3-924029-49-4 .
  • Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini : August e Hermann Kestner cultori della musa popolare. Le vicende avventurose d'una raccolta manoscritta . In: Markus Engelhardt (Ed.): Music City Rome. Kassel, Bärenreiter 2011, ISBN 978-3-7618-2131-2 , pp. 370–451.
  • Anne Viola Siebert: From the salon to the museum. The collections of the Hanoverian envoy August Kestner (1777–1853) and the beginnings of the August Kestner Museum . In: Historische Anthropologie 23.2, 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-50195-2 , pp. 274–289.

Web links

Commons : August Kestner  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Not much is known about August's childhood and youth; Summary and evaluation of the information and archive materials from the early years of life with Anna Wendland, contributions to August Kestner's life story (1). In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 14, 1911, pp. 96-136; Anna Wendland, contributions to August Kestner's life story (2). In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 17, 1914, pp. 327-399; Anna Wendland, contributions to August Kestner's life story (3); (4). In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 20, 1916, pp. 1–101; 113-205.
  2. ↑ Klaus Mlynek : Pretty families. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 310.
  3. ↑ Among his teachers was the art historian Johann Dominik Fiorillo (1748–1821)
  4. ↑ Otto Mejer: The Roman Kestner. Georg August Christian Kestner 1777-1853 , Deutsche Bücherei, Vol. 28, Breslau 1883, p. 9
  5. ↑ Marie Jorns: August Kestner and his time. The happy life of the diplomat, art collector and patron in Hanover and Rome. Compiled from letters and diaries , Hannover 1964, p. 9 u. P. 47.
  6. ↑ Marie Jorns: August Kestner and his time. The happy life of the diplomat, art collector and patron in Hanover and Rome. Compiled from letters and diaries. Hanover 1964, p. 82
  7. ↑ In 1813 August Kestner joined the volunteer hunter corps Harzer Schützen founded by the Misburg forester Carl von Beaulieu-Marconnay to fight for the liberation of Germany during the wars of freedom. Whether August Kestner was actually involved in the actual fighting is rather doubtful due to his always unstable state of health; Otto Mejer: The Roman Kestner. Georg August Christian Kestner 1777-1853. Deutsche Bücherei, Vol. 28, Breslau 1883, p. 18.
  8. ↑ Otto Mejer: The Roman Kestner. Georg August Christian Kestner 1777-1853 , Deutsche Bücherei, Vol. 28, Breslau 1883, p. 11; Marie Jorns, August Kestner and his time. The happy life of the diplomat, art collector and patron in Hanover and Rome. Compiled from letters and diaries , Hannover 1964, p. 41 ff.
  9. ^ Hans-Georg Aschoff: The relationship between the state and the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Hanover (1813-1866). Sources and representations on the history of Lower Saxony, vol. 86. Lax, Hildesheim 1976.
  10. ↑ Hans-Georg Aschoff, The Diocese of Hildesheim between secularization and new paraphrase - A contribution to the 175th anniversary of the circumscription bull "Impensa Romanorum Pontificum". In: The Diocese of Hildesheim in the past and present, vol. 67, 1999, pp. 193–246.
  11. ^ The epigraphist Wilhelm Henzen , member of the Instituto , comments in his correspondence with the archaeologist Eduard Gerhard Kestner's imminent (letter of March 28, 1849) and pronounced retirement; see. also letter of July 27, 1849: "(...) Kestner went to Germany as a 'victim of the revolution' [1848] with a pension of 2500 rt. I hear from his secretary that he is being met with Sterbini and Canina, the victims of the revolution, seen at the height of Livorno. He laments terribly about such shameful treatment after such great merits " , quoted from Hans-Georg Kolbe (ed.), Wilhelm Henzen and the Institute on the Capitol. From Henzen's letters to Eduard Gerhard . The German Archaeological Institute - History and Documents, Vol. 5, Mainz 1984, pp. 48–49.
  12. ↑ In the book of art and literature is a kind of notebook in which Kestner thoughts and ideas on a variety of art-theoretical questions festhielt.und diary
  13. ↑ See August Kestner's own remarks in Römische Studien , Decker, Berlin 1850, pp. 1–10; see. Hermann Kestner-Köchlin (ed.): Correspondence between August Kestner and his sister Charlotte . Verlag Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1914, p. 78.
  14. ↑ Otto Mejer: The Roman Kestner. Georg August Christian Kestner 1777-1853 , Deutsche Bücherei, Vol. 28, Breslau 1883, p. 16; Marie Jorns: August Kestner and his time. 1777-1853. The happy life of the diplomat, art collector and patron in Hanover and Rome . Compiled from letters and diaries. Madsack, Hannover 1964. p. 81.
  15. ↑ August Kestner: Roman Studies. Decker, Berlin 1850, pp. 113-187 (on Cornelius and Overbeck).
  16. ↑ Stefan Hess : Between Winckelmann and Winkelried. The Basel sculptor Ferdinand Schlöth (1818–1891). Berlin 2010, p. 24.
  17. ^ J. Birkedal Hartmann: Palazzo Tomati e casa Buti. Nidi di uccelli migratori e di Romani d'adizione . Reprint from: Lunario 1973, Vecchie Case Romane, pp. 209–219.
  18. ↑ Peter Zazoff (Ed.): Ancient gems in German collections, Vol. 4: Volume 4: Hanover, Kestner-Museum, Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe , edit. by Margildis Schlüter and Gertrud Platz-Horster . 1975, ISBN 978-3515019217 .
  19. ↑ In many German archaeological research institutions , the so-called Winckelmanns Festival is traditionally celebrated on December 9th, the birthday of the founder of classical archeology, Johann Joachim Winckelmann .
  20. ↑ See also Golo Maurer: Prussia on the Tarpeijischen rock. Chronicle of a foreseeable fall. The history of the German Capitol 1817–1918 . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2007, on the importance of Prussian cultural policy in Rome and the establishment of the Instituto ; also the review by Bärbel Holtz in "sehepunkte 7" (2007), No. 2, February 15, 2007.
  21. ↑ Quoted from Hermann Kestner-Köchlin (ed.): Correspondence between August Kestner and his sister Charlotte . Verlag Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1914, p. 172.
  22. ^ August Michaelis: History of the German Archaeological Institute 1829–1879. Festschrift for April 21, 1879 , ed. from the Central Directorate of the Archaeological Institute (1879), pp. 16-17.
  23. ↑ See also Anne Viola Siebert: August Kestner. Etruria and Etruscology . Hanover 2010, ISBN 978-3-924029-49-4 .
  24. ^ Annali dell 'Instituto 1829: Tomba delle Iscrizioni , Tomba delle Bighe , Tomba del Barone ; Annali dell 'Instituto and Bolletino dell' Instituto 1834: 'Tomba Giustiniani'.
  25. ↑ Quoted from Hermann Kestner-Köchlin (ed.): Correspondence between August Kestner and his sister Charlotte . Verlag Karl J. Trübner, Strasbourg 1914, pp. 172-173; Anne Viola Siebert: "August Kestner and research in Etruria in the 19th century". In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter, NF 69, 2015, 178–192; Anne Viola Siebert: "Staying at Musignano. August Kestner and the excavations of the Principe di Canino". In: Ruurd Halbertsma (Ed.): The Canino Connections. The history and restoration of ancient Greek vases from the excavations of Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino (1775-1840) . Papers on Archeology of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities (PALMA). Leiden 2017, pp. 25–42, online edition .
  26. ↑ SACRED / TO THE MEMORY OF / AUGUSTUS KESTNER / WHO FOR MANY YEARS / WAS HANOVERIAN MINISTER / AT THE COURT OF ROME / AND THERE ALIKE RESPECTED / BY ALL / FOR HIS PRIVATE VIRTUES / HIS PUBLIC WORTH / AND / VARIED ACCOMPLASMENTS BORN 1778 / DIED AT ROME 5 MARCH 1853. 2) second inscription in German: SEELIG ARE THE DEADS WHO DIE IN THE / LORD FROM NOW ON / IN THE SPIRIT THAT THEY / REST FROM YOUR WORK ARE THAT / YOUR WORKS ARE BACK TO POLGEN. / APOCC. XIV V XII / G. CHR AUGUST KESTNER / KING OF THE HUNOVRIAN MINISTER / RESIDENT TO THE PAPAL / CHAIRS IN ROME / BY MDCCCXVII. MDCCCLIII / GEB XXVIII NOV MDCCLXXVII IN HANOVER / + V MARZ MDCCCLIII IN ROM / HE LIVED WELL HE ALREADY LIVED AND HE WILL / WILL NOT SET.
  27. ↑ In detail Lothar Sickel: The way to the 'Museum Kestnerianum'. August Kestner's wills . In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter NF 68, 2014, pp. 130–146.
  28. ↑ The documents are in the Hannover City Archives
  29. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Volume 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Series 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 130.
predecessor Office successor
Franz von Reden Hanoverian envoy to the Holy See
1825 to 1849 		Office dissolved
personal data
SURNAME Kestner, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kestner, Georg August Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, diplomat, archaeologist, draftsman and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1777
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1853
Place of death Rome