August von der Heydt (banker, 1801)

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August von der Heydt
Photo portrait
Villa von der Heydt, view from the southwest
Villa von der Heydt, Berlin-Tiergarten, west facade
Honor grave , Berlin-Schöneberg

August Freiherr von der Heydt (born February 15, 1801 in Elberfeld , in today's Wuppertal , † June 13, 1874 in Berlin ) was a banker and Prussian trade and finance minister under King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.

origin

August von der Heydt came from the respected merchant family von der Heydt zu Elberfeld . His father was Daniel Heinrich von der Heydt (1767-1832), banker, city councilor, mayor and president of the commercial court in Elberfeld. His mother was his wife Wilhelmine Kesten (1771-1854). His grandfather Abraham Kersten (1733–1796) from Spangenberg in Hesse was also a banker and merchant. He founded the Abraham Kersten banking house as early as 1754 and took Daniel von der Heydt on as a partner in 1794, thus creating the von der Heydt-Kersten banking house .

Life

After a stay in England and France, he took over the banking business of their father with two brothers. He married Julie Blank (1804-1865), also from Elberfeld, on June 6, 1836 in Elberfeld. He took a lively interest in the public affairs of his hometown and was deputed by the latter to the provincial parliament of the Rhine Province in 1841 and to the United Parliament in 1847 . Here he stood out through his parliamentary talent. In 1848 he was a member of the pre-parliament . Elected to the National Assembly by Elberfeld at the end of 1848, he took over the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Public Works in the Brandenburg-Manteuffel cabinet on December 4, 1848. In 1858 it was also transferred to the Hohenzollern cabinet. He administered his department with energy, and he was also said to have “some bureaucratic arbitrariness” to enforce state interests. The Von der Heydt settlement near Saarbrücken, the Von der Heydt mine in Herne and the Von-der-Heydt shaft in Ibbenbüren are named after him .

Von der Heydt was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Berlin-Schöneberg . The grave has been one of the honor graves of the city of Berlin since 1984 .

politics

Although a liberal by nature and inclined to commercial railway construction, he showed himself to be a supporter of the state railway concept in the service of Prussia. As a result of his efforts, the Prussian Eastern Railway was initially built and operated at state expense, and later the state railways were also substantially expanded through takeovers and acquisitions. In 1850 he was a member of the Volkshaus of the Erfurt Union Parliament .

Simultaneously with the dismissal of ministers Auerswald, Patow, Pückler, Schwerin and Bernuth from the Hohenlohe cabinet on March 17, 1862, " von der Heydt became finance minister, with the interim management of the state ministry for trade, industry and public works “Appointed. When Otto von Bismarck joined on September 24, 1862, he left the cabinet and was raised to the hereditary Prussian baron status in January 1863. From 1855 to 1862 and again from 1863 to 1870 he was a member of the Prussian House of Representatives , from 1854 until his death he was a member of the Prussian Council of State .

Shortly before the outbreak of war with Austria, on June 5, 1866, he took over the Ministry of Finance for the second time and knew how to raise the funds for the campaign without borrowing. He also skilfully managed the financial operations for the retablissement of the army, the endowment of the state treasury, etc. But when business began to stall and part of the budget was transferred to the North German Confederation , August von der Heydt predicted a large deficit and demanded a lot more Taxes in the Reich and Landtag, none of which were approved. On October 26, 1869, he was awarded the Order of the Black Eagle, the requested release. From August 1867 to the end of March 1870 he was a member of the Reichstag of the North German Confederation , but did not join any parliamentary group.

family

On June 6, 1836 in Elberfeld he married Julie Blank (1804-1865), who was also from Elberfeld, a daughter of the factory owner Johann Wilhelm Blank (1773-1846) and Sibylla Helene Simons . The couple had five sons and one daughter. Von der Heydt was the father of the banker August Freiherr von der Heydt (1825–1867) and the grandfather of the banker and art patron August Freiherr von der Heydt (1851–1929). He was also the father of Bernhard Freiherr von der Heydt (1840–1907), district administrator of the Obertaunus district and Robert Freiherr von der Heydt , district administrator of the Eupen district .

His villa on the Landwehr Canal in Berlin-Tiergarten , in the street named after him, is today the seat of the President and the headquarters of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation .

Honors

Together with Caspar Wilhelm Meckel and Johann Adolf von Carnap , he was the first citizen of the city of Elberfeld to be awarded the title of commercial councilor in 1834 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://preussenprotocol.bbaw.de/bilder/BAND_42 p. 585
  2. ↑ GStA PK I. HA Rep. 87 ZB No. 363
  3. ↑ Bernd Haunfelder , Klaus Erich Pollmann : Reichstag of the North German Confederation 1867-1870. Historical photographs and biographical handbook (= photo documents on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 2). Droste, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-7700-5151-3 , photo p. 168, short biography p. 417.
  4. ^ Fritz Specht, Paul Schwabe: The Reichstag elections from 1867 to 1903. Statistics of the Reichstag elections together with the programs of the parties and a list of the elected representatives. 2nd Edition. Carl Heymann Verlag, Berlin 1904, p. 106.
  5. ↑ Wuppertal Chamber of Commerce and Industry 1831–1956. Wuppertal 1956. p. 221

literature

Web links

Commons : August von der Heydt  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: August von der Heydt (1801–1874)  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Heydt, August von der
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heydt, August Freiherr von der
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker and Prussian trade and finance minister
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld (now Wuppertal )
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1874
Place of death Berlin