Caspar Siegfried Gähler

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Caspar Siegfried Gähler, lithograph by Carl Friedrich Kroymann (1825)

Caspar Siegfried Gähler , also: Casper (born January 13, 1747 in Delmenhorst ; † January 2, 1825 in Altona ) was a German administrative lawyer and mayor of Altona.

Life

Gähler came from a family in the Duchy of Schleswig who had been in the royal Danish service for several generations. His father Nicolaus Ullrich Gähler (* 1695 in Flensburg ) initially worked at the German Chancellery in Copenhagen and became royal Danish governor in Delmenhorst at the end of the 1730s . In his second marriage he was here with Adelheid Margaretha, geb. Voltmann, married. The couple had eight children: two sons and six daughters. Caspar was named after his uncle, the Royal Danish War Commissioner Casper (von) Gähler (1680–1759), who was ennobled in 1749.

He received private lessons from his father and began studying law at the University of Leipzig in 1763 , which he continued at the University of Jena . After completing his studies, he practiced as a lawyer in Delmenhorst.

In 1768 he became secretary to the then Chief President of Altona, his cousin Sigismund Wilhelm von Gähler (1706–1788). From 1776 he was general administrator of the royal lottery in the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.

On April 14, 1779 he was appointed Syndic and First City Secretary of Altona. As such, he also had to record the wills of the citizens and developed into a widely valued expert in will and inheritance law . On April 15, 1791, he was promoted to conducting mayor and became a member of the Justice Directorate and in 1792 of the Commerzcollegium. The effects of the French Revolution fell during his term of office : Altona's rapid growth due to French refugees, but also rapid price increases and bankruptcies. This boom came to an end with the Elbe barrier in 1803 .

Gähler was active in numerous commissions that were supposed to regulate the relationship with the neighboring city of Hamburg. During the time of the French occupation of Hamburg , he negotiated on behalf of the Chief President Christian Ludwig von Stemann (1789-1808) with the French authorities and administered the position of Chief President until Conrad Daniel von Blücher-Altona took office , with whom he helped to preserve the neutral city Altona worked closely together.

Since April 4, 1781 he was with Margaretha Elisabeth, geb. Geismer, married from Hamburg. The couple had two sons, one of whom died early, and two daughters.

Gähler was interested in many things, especially in the philosophical and musical fields. Soon after his arrival in Altona he became friends with Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and took lessons with him; he supported the theater and concerts in Altona. He was also friends with Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg ; he helped him to his position in Altona and took care of the edition of his writings in 1815/16. Gähler was one of the founding members of the Schleswig-Holstein Patriotic Society .

In decades of collecting, he had amassed an extensive private library, which was auctioned in February 1827. A history Bible from the Lübeck Michaeliskonvent was obtained from this, which is now in the Houghton Library of Harvard University . The musical items included pieces that Gähler had acquired from the estate of C. P. E. Bach, including the score of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata Tilge, Höchster, Meine Sünden ( BWV 1083) based on Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat mater .

Awards

Works

  • Brief description of the city of Altona. Altona 1802

literature

  • Johann Ernst Friedrich Schmid: In memory of the Conference Councilor and Mayor Gähler: A lecture given to a gathering of friends and admirers of the same. [With Gähler's portrait], Altona: Hammerich 1825
  • Caspar Siegfried Gähler , in: New Nekrolog der Deutschen. 3 (1825) Volume 1, Ilmenau: Voigt 1827, pp. 9–28 ( digitized version )
  • Gähler (Caspar Siegfried) , in: Lexicon of Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg and Eutinian writers from 1796 to 1828. Volume 1: A – M, Altona: Ave 1828, p. 184
  • Hans-Werner Engels : Gähler, Caspar Siegfried . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 4 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0229-7 , pp. 110-111 .

Estate library

  • Directory of the book collection left behind by the late conference councilor and mayor, Mr. Casper Siegfried Gähler. First part. Altona, 1825
  • Directory of the book collection left behind by the late conference councilor and mayor, Mr. Casper Siegfried Gähler. Second part. Altona 1826
  • Directory of the book collection left behind by the late conference councilor and mayor, Mr. Casper Siegfried Gähler. Third part, containing: the musical library, consisting of musical writings and musicals by the most famous and oldest and newer composers, which took place on February 19th, 1827 and following days in the house at Große Bergstrasse No. 381, in the morning from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m., is to be sold publicly to the highest bidder by the auction manager Frisch. ( Digital copy of the copy from the University of Virginia (ex Kgl. Bibliothek Berlin ) at Hathi Trust)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sigismund Wilhelm von Gähler in the Danish Wikipedia
  2. ^ Carl Christian Redlich:  Gerstenberg, Heinrich Wilhelm von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 60-66.
  3. ↑ Eckehard Simon: A Lübeck history Bible handwriting (approx. 1470/75) in the Houghton Library. IN: Journal for German Antiquity and German Literature. 107: 113-121 (1978)
  4. ↑ See New Bach Edition. Critical Report I / 41, Kassel: Bärenreiter 2000, pp. 85–110
personal data
SURNAME Gähler, Caspar Siegfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gähler, Casper Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German administrative lawyer and mayor of Altona
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Delmenhorst
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 1825
Place of death Altona