Carl Grete
Carl Grete (also: Carl Wilhelm Anton Grete ; * May 23, 1810 in Vorsfelde ; † February 16, 1871 ibid) was a German merchant and mayor of Vorsfelde. From 1848 to 1849 he was a member of the Braunschweig State Parliament .
life and work
Carl Grete founded the Vorsfelde Citizens' Association in 1845 , of which he was president for many years. Initially the association was a choral society , later an educational association and during the revolution of 1848/1849 a political association through which Vorsfelde developed into a focal point of the national-liberal movement in the Duchy of Braunschweig . The association had around 150 members, mainly craftsmen, farmers, merchants, academics and members of the public service.
Grete was mayor of Vorsfelde from 1841 to 1848. In this function, during the revolution of 1848 in the Duchy of Braunschweig, he sent the Braunschweig Duke Wilhelm a petition from the citizens of Vorfeld in March 1848 . In it, the citizens called for a vigilante group , freedom of the press and a new right to vote . Then Grete called a vigilante group in Vorsfelde, which the Helmstedt district authority tolerated because of the revolutionary events in Braunschweig. It was supposed to protect the inhabitants and their property against attacks from the lower classes. As head of the vigilante group, Grete applied for 50 rifles with bayonets to the Vorsfelde office . In view of the street fighting during the Berlin March Revolution , Grete received the weapons and an additional 20 sabers from the authorities. In April 1848, according to Grete, 130 men were part of the Vorsfeld militia. He advocated the merger of all vigilante groups in the Duchy of Braunschweig, even if public safety was hardly endangered. Carl Grete wanted to establish vigilante groups as a political achievement of the bourgeoisie .
After the end of his term of office as mayor in March 1848, Grete ran for the Braunschweig Landtag in the 8th rural electoral district, to which the offices of Calvörde and Vorsfelde belonged. In November 1848 he was elected as a member of the highest tax group. Grete campaigned for the unity of Germany and for freedom of expression. In 1849 he resigned his mandate because of differences with the Epiphany . From 1851 to 1856 he again held the office of mayor in Vorsfelde.
Carl Grete's house in Vorsfelde was the temporary residence of the poet Hoffmann von Fallersleben , with whom Grete was friends. There is a plaque attached to the house in 1941.
Investigation against Grete
In 1853 Grete belonged to a group of oppositionists who wrote the subversive text “Remorse of a Prussian soldier about the atrocities of the magnificent army in Baden. In desperation he wrote it down as a warning to his comrades “spread. Its content is the military suppression of the Baden Revolution by federal troops under Prussian leadership in 1849. Grete received a number of the papers in a parcel and transported them to a friend and lawyer in Fallersleben , who sent them to Hanover . There the documents came into the hands of the Hanover Police Department , which searched the house of the lawyer in Fallersleben . Carl Grete came under suspicion due to the reconstructed parcel delivery. Since Vorsfelde was in the area of the Duchy of Braunschweig, the Hanoverian police had Grete's house searched through a request for assistance from the Helmstedt public prosecutor's office . It was unsuccessful. The Prussian Interior Ministry later authorized the Hanover police to arrest Grete on Prussian territory. When Grete went to a church event in Wolfsburg in July 1853 , which was a Prussian exclave , Hanoverian gendarmes wanted to arrest him. Several citizens prevented this and Grete managed to escape to his residence in Vorsfelde in the Braunschweig area. The investigation was later closed as nothing could be proven.
family
Carl Grete had three siblings. His brother Eduard later lived in Halberstadt . His sister Emilie married in Schöppenstedt and his sister Minna married in Wolfenbüttel . On his death he left behind the four children Carl Friedrich Wilhelm, Heinrich Wilhelm Otto, Emilie Dorothee Friedericke Therese and Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Theodor. His son Otto was mayor of Vorsfelde from 1872 to 1878. His son Wilhelm founded MTV Vorsfelde in 1862 .
Appreciation
A street in Vorsfelde is named after Carl Grete. Since 1992, the local council of Vorsfeld has awarded the Carl-Grete Medal to a citizen who has rendered outstanding services to the place. A memorial stone in memory of Carl Grete was erected on the Ehrenfriedhof in Vorsfelde. At his former home in Vorsfelde there are two panels with inscriptions that refer to his services.
literature
- Dirk Riesener : Mayor Carl Grete and the Revolution of 1848 in: History of Vorfeldes Volume 1 . Wolfsburg City Archives, Wolfsburg 1995, pp. 232–265
- Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries. Hahnsche Buchhandlung , Hannover 1996, p. 223
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Vorsfelde: In memory of Ludwig Klingemann in Wolfsburger Allgemeine from June 2, 2017
- ↑ Herbert Stoppelhaar: What is in the files ... in: History of Vorsfeldes Volume 2 . Matthias Brodtmann, Wolfsburg 1995, p. 241
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Grete, Carl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German merchant and mayor of Vorsfelde |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 23, 1810 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vorsfelde |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 16, 1871 |
| Place of death | Vorsfelde |