Carl Leberecht Schwabe

Carl Leberecht Schwabe's grave in the historical cemetery in Weimar

Carl Leberecht Schwabe (born October 26, 1778 in Weimar ; † September 21, 1851 there ) was Mayor of Weimar and Saxon-Weimar Court Councilor.

Life

He was the son of the then court advocate and later secret government councilor Traugott Leberecht Schwabe and his wife Sophia Dorothea Weber. He lost his mother at an early age and grew up at a young age with his brother, the later doctor Friedrich Wilhelm Schwabe (* January 20, 1780, † January 24, 1842) with his maternal grandmother. He had received his first lessons from private teachers and moved to the grammar school in Weimar. Schwabe had studied at the University of Jena , was first commission secretary to the state government in Weimar, had become court secretary in Weimar in 1816 and mayor of Weimar from 1820 to 1838. Since 1806 he was married to Friederike Luise Christiane Schmidt from Weimar (1783-1859). The son Julius Schwabe (born January 29, 1821 in Weimar; † February 1, 1892 in Jena), Dr. med. Medical councilor in Blankenburg near Rudolstadt, gained greater prominence.

Memorial plaque at the grave of Carl Lebrecht Schwabe

One of the most important official acts during his tenure was the recovery of the bones of the poet Friedrich Schiller , which were assumed to be these, from the vaulted box office in Jacobsfriedhof in 1826. Goethe , who did not attend the funeral, dedicated this to his friend Poem: When looking at Schiller's skull . In 1827 Schiller was buried in the royal crypt . Incidentally, Schwabe was also there when Schiller's corpse was transferred to the cash register by his admirers in 1805. This took place in a night-and-fog campaign so as not to turn the funeral into a public spectacle. Both events are mentioned on Schwabe's tombstone in the historical cemetery . It reads: Carl Lebrecht Schwabe, a loyal admirer of Schiller, forfeited his transfer at night 11/12. May 1805 As mayor of Weimar he saved Schiller's bones for the princely crypt in March 1826 .

Most of the descriptions come from the memories of Schwabe's son Julius Schwabe , who, however, used the father's official files.

With Schwabe's exhumation the mystery of Schiller's skull began. The real one, however, was never found.

literature

• Hans Bauer; Schiller's funeral and the search for and burial of his bones 1805 • 1826 • 1827 , based on documents and authentic communications from the estate of the court councilor and former mayor of Weimar Carl Leberecht Schwabe from Dr. Julius Schwabe; Georg Kummer's publishing house in Leipzig.
• Carl Leberecht Schwabe, Julius Schwabe: Schiller's funeral and the search for and burial of his bones. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1852 ( digitized version )

Web links

Commons : Carl Leberecht Schwabe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Karl Ulrich Voss: The Dance of the Dead Poets - or: Whoever laughs last, laughs best!
• post mortem on schiller-biographie.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Heinrich Brockhaus : FA Brockhaus in Leipzig: Complete directory of the works published by the FA Brockhaus company in Leipzig from its foundation by Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus in 1805 up to his centenary birthday in 1872. In chronological order with biographical and literary-historical notes. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1875, p. 602.
2. ↑ Max Hecker , Schiller's death and burial: depicted according to the testimonies of the time on behalf of the Goethe Society , 1935, p. 311.