Caspar Voght

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caspar Voght, portrait painting by Jean-Laurent Mosnier , 1801

Caspar Voght (born November 17, 1752 in Hamburg ; † March 20, 1839 ibid), since May 2, 1802 Caspar Reichsfreiherr von Voght (mostly Baron Caspar von Voght at the time ), was a German merchant , Hanseatic and social reformer .

Together with his business partner and friend Georg Heinrich Sieveking , he ran one of the largest trading houses in Hamburg in the second half of the 18th century. He crossed all of Europe on numerous trips. One of his greatest achievements was the reform of the Hamburg poor and prison system in 1788. From 1785 he devoted himself increasingly to agricultural and landscape gardening projects and built a model agricultural estate in Flottbek at the gates of Hamburg .

life and work

Origin, youth and 'Grand Tour' through Europe

Caspar Voght was the first of three children of the Hamburg businessman and later senator Caspar Voght (the elder, * 1707 in Beverstedt near Bremen † 1781 in Hamburg) and the Hamburg senator's daughter Elisabeth Jencquel (born September 26, 1723). The Bremen cathedral preachers Johann Vogt and Wolbrand Vogt were his uncles. His father joined the trading house Jürgen Jencquels as an apprentice around 1721 and represented the company, which specializes in the Hamburg Portugal trade, for sixteen years in Lisbon from 1732 . After his return, Voght's father founded his own trading company in Hamburg specializing in linen and silk and later rose to be Senator for the Hanseatic city.

At the age of twelve, Caspar Voght fell seriously ill with smallpox and from then on was marked by conspicuous smallpox scars. In contrast to his friend Georg Heinrich Sieveking, whom he met as a teenager in his father's office , he felt more drawn to literature, politics and science throughout his life and had little to gain from being a businessman. When his father wanted to send him to Lisbon to study at the age of twenty, he cleverly used his mother's fears, who had lost two of her brothers in the great earthquake in Lisbon in 1755, and instead went on an educational tour across Europe in 1772 (' Grand Tour '). His path took him via Amsterdam, London, Paris and Cádiz to Madrid, where he made new trade contacts for his father's company. He traveled on to Switzerland via southern France, where he met Johann Caspar Lavater and Albrecht von Haller and made the acquaintance of Voltaire in Ferney near Geneva . Via Turin, Milan, Parma and Bologna, he reached Rome, where he met Pope Pius VI. was presented. After trips to Pompeii, Naples and a short stay in Venice, Voght traveled to Bergamo , where he established contacts with the silk manufacturers there for his father's business. In 1775 he finally returned to his hometown Hamburg via Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Potsdam.

Love for the married merchant wife Magdalena Pauli

In 1777 at the latest, Voght fell in love with the sister of his closest friend Piter Poel , Magdalena Pauli , née. Poel (1757-1825). She returned her affection for the educated Hanseatic. In 1801 she divorced the sober businessman Adrian Wilhelm Pauli (1749-1815), whose wife she had been since April 14, 1776. Even after his death she did not marry her passionate lover Voght; it remained a friendly relationship. As an admirer of Magdalena Paulis, Voght was a successor to the Hessian-Kassel chamberlain Heinrich Julius von Lindau ; Charlotte Louise Ernestine, b. von Barckhaus called von Wiesenhütten (1756-1821), later (since 1784) Edle von Oetinger since her marriage to Eberhard Christoph Ritter and Edlem von Oetinger, again in the winter of 1775/1776 Lindau's unreachable lover was a successor to Magdalena Poel, who was almost the same age before their marriage. She was a sister of the later Hesse-Darmstadt State Minister Carl Ludwig von Barckhaus called von Wiesenhütten and the painter Louise von Panhuys , née. von Barckhaus called von Wiesenhütten. She was also a role model for the literary figure “Fräulein von B.” in Goethe's epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .

Commercial activity and development of the sample property in Flottbek

Voght's country house in Klein-Flottbeck, steel engraving by L. Wolf from 1805
Voghts Landhaus in August 2015

When Caspar Voght the Elder died in 1781, Voght and Georg Heinrich Sieveking continued the father's business under the name "Caspar Voght & Co.", from 1788 under the name "Voght & Sieveking". Together they used the independence of the former English colonies to establish solid business connections with trading houses in the ports of the North American east coast. The official letter of congratulations from the Hamburg Senate to the Philadelphia Congress, dated March 29, 1783, was brought to Johann Abraham de Boor , a Hamburg citizen who had traveled overseas on behalf of the trading company "Caspar Voght & Co."

Georg Heinrich Sieveking, colored copper engraving by PM Alix, Paris

However, Voght's interest was more in agriculture than in the commercial profession. Even in his youth, he was enthusiastic about his father's garden in Hamburg-Hamm , which was designed by a French landscape gardener . When he realized in later years that his penchant for landscape architecture and horticulture was more than a hobby and that business life began to repel him more and more (shortly before his death, Voght confessed in a letter: “ When the trade could no longer occupy my imagination , he disgusted me ”), he left the management of the trading house mostly to his business partner Sieveking. From 1785 Voght began to buy land in Klein Flottbek at the gates of Altona . After a trip to England in the winter of 1785/86, where he had familiarized himself with the landscape architecture there and the farming methods that were modern at the time, he acquired his property for the then considerable sum of 45,600 marks, which is still in the cityscape today four recognizable parts consisted: Süderpark (today's Jenischpark ), Norderpark (today including a botanical garden ), Osterpark (today including a golf course) and Westerpark (initially a tree nursery, now a park again). Voght was inspired in the landscaping of his property by the estate The Leasowes of the English poet William Shenstone . He planned an extensive ideal landscape with which he wanted to achieve a connection between aesthetic and economic aspects, social responsibility and agricultural use. Together with the Scottish landscape architect James Booth , he designed a model estate in the form of a so-called ornamented farm , a landscape garden with agricultural use. A park landscape was created with easily embedded agricultural areas, buildings, wooded areas and groups of trees. With the French Joseph Ramée he brought another art gardener of European standing to Flottbek. In 1787 Voght imported potatoes, which until then had mainly been imported from the Netherlands, as a field crop. In 1797 he supported his administrator Lukas Andreas Staudinger in setting up an "Agricultural Education Institute" in Groß Flottbek , the first agricultural college in German-speaking countries. The most prominent student of this institution was Johann Heinrich von Thünen , who later corresponded with Voght, especially on questions of soil statics (= soil fertility).

Voght as a reformer of the poor

Idealized view of the Hamburg school and workhouse (1800). In the foreground on pedestals engraved with the names of the important Hamburg social workers: Bartels, Büsch , Voght, Günther, Sieveking (steel engraving by L. Wolf, 1805)

Voght had already come into contact with the prison system in 1770 when he led the English prison reformer John Howard through the Hamburg penitentiary on behalf of and as his father's deputy. Since then he has had a keen interest in issues relating to the poor and prison. Together with the director of the commercial academy Johann Georg Büsch and the lawyer Johann Arnold Günther , Voght initiated the establishment of a “ general poor institution ” in 1788 , thereby reforming the poor system in Hamburg. The basis of the reform was the division of the city into individual care districts, whose residents were cared for by around 200 volunteer poor carers. The facility guaranteed medical care for the poor, their support during pregnancy and childbirth, as well as education and work for the children of the poor. In contrast to the church care for the poor, which had hitherto been practiced under moral and ethical aspects, the reform started with the concrete economic needs of those affected. The company's costs were raised through collections in churches and weekly gatherings of the poor. As a result, the number of inmates in the Hamburg penitentiary dropped dramatically.

Voght's successes in the fight against poverty had an impact far beyond Hamburg. In 1801 Emperor Franz II called him to Vienna to report on Voght's measures and to have suggestions for reforming the Viennese poor system. For his services, he gave Voght the title of imperial baron and raised him to the nobility. During a stay in Berlin in the winter of 1802/03, Voght wrote at the request of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Report on the Berlin poor system. During a stay of several months in Paris in 1807, Voght prepared expert reports on the condition of the Parisian poor, orphanages and maternity homes and prisons on behalf of the French Interior Ministry. In addition, he reformed the poor system in Marseille and Lyon and sent his reform concepts to Lisbon and Porto. At the age of 86, in 1838, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Hamburg Poor Asylum, he published a text entitled “Collected things from the history of the Poor Asylum during its 50-year period”.

The late years

Caspar Voght's crypt in the Nienstedten cemetery

As early as 1793, Voght had ceded all business with the exception of the American trade to his partner Sieveking. The trade crisis that shook Hamburg in 1799 also hit his company hard, so that he subsequently had to decide to dissolve the trading house, which dragged on for several years.

During the time of the continental blockade, he again undertook a multi-year trip through Switzerland, France and Italy. He met Emperor Napoleon and his first wife Josephine in Paris. After his return to Flottbek, he lived mainly on the income from his agriculture. After the sale of the model property to the banker and senator Martin Johann Jenisch in 1828, he lived in his house, later he lived with the widow of his business partner Georg Heinrich Sieveking, who died in 1799 . His son Karl Sieveking , who wanted to transform his country estate in Hamm, acquired in 1829, into a model estate based on the Flottbeck model, advised Voght on this as well as on founding the Rauhe Haus .

On January 26, 1795 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . On June 28, 1809, "Caspar Friherre von Voght til Flotbek Etatsraad" was awarded by the Dannebrogorden .

On March 20, 1839 Caspar Voght died very old at the age of 86. He was buried in the Nienstedten cemetery in Hamburg. His crypt is located directly at the entrance to the cemetery on Elbchaussee .

Aftermath

Two streets in Hamburg were named after Caspar Voght: Baron-Voght-Strasse in Klein Flottbek and Caspar-Voght-Strasse in Hamm . Also in Hamm was the former secondary school for girls Caspar Voght (OCV), in whose building the ballet school of the Hamburg Ballet is now located. A school in Rellingen was recently named after him. In Jenisch House , the exhibition was held April 6 to November 23 2014 Caspar Voght (1752-1839) - citizen of the world outside of Hamburg instead.

Portraits

Caspar Voght. Lithograph by Johann Joachim Faber
  • Jean-Laurent Mosnier , oil on canvas, 129 × 99 cm (unframed), 1801, Altonaer Museum Collection, (knee piece. The sitter, in a black skirt and breeches, with a white collar, sits on a chair with a carved laurel leaf ornament, his left hand rests on his knee, his right arm lies on the table with a red blanket standing to his left. In the background a gathered red curtain and a row of books. Left view of a park).
  • Johann Joachim Faber , Lithography , Bez .: “Lithog. Institute v. P. Suhr in Hamburg / J. Faber fec. ”, Sheet 40.5 × 30.3 cm, ( online , portrait collection of the State and University Library Hamburg).
  • Johann Michael Speckter , lithograph after Friedrich Carl Gröger , 1820, ( online , portrait collection of the Hamburg State and University Library).
  • Ludwig Voght, silhouette , without information on place and year, ( online , portrait collection of the Hamburg State and University Library).

swell

  • Caspar Voght: life story. Edited by Charlotte Schoell-Glass. Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1344-3 . (Voght's memoirs cover the years from 1752 to 1811, so they have remained a fragment)
  • Life story , Janssen, Hamburg, 1917, ( online , SUB ).
  • (Caspar Voght :) Caspar Voght and his Hamburg circle of friends. Letters from an active life. Christians, Hamburg 1959. 1964. 1967 (publications by the Association for Hamburg History, Vol. XV, 1 - 3).
    • Part 1. Letters from 1792 to 1821 to Magdalena Pauli, b. Poel . Edited by Kurt Detlev Möller. From his estate, ed. by Annelise Tecke. Hamburg 1959;
    • Part 2. Letters from 1785 to 1812 to Johanna Margaretha Sieveking, b. Reimarus . Modifications made by Annelise Tecke. Hamburg 1964;
    • Part 3. Travel journal 1807/09. Modifications made by Annelise Tecke . Hamburg 1967.
  • Caspar Voght: Collection of agricultural writings. T 1. Perthes, Hamburg, 1825, ( online ).
  • Caspar Voght: Flotbeck and this year's order, with regard to the experiences intended by the same: a guide for the agricultural visitors of the same with attached Flotbeck garden experiments in 1821. Busch, Altona 1822.
  • Publications in: "Central Administration of the Schleswig-Holstein Patriotic Society" (Hrsg.): Landwirthschaftliche Hefte , u. a. in the 2nd issue, 1821, 6th issue, 1822 and 10th issue, 1825

literature

author

Web links

Commons : Caspar Voght  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Susanne Woelk: The Stranger Among Friends. Biographical studies on Caspar von Vogth . Weidmann, Hamburg 2000, pp. 193 - 197 on Voght's love affair with Magdalena Pauli; here p. 195: "There is much to be said for the formative role of Magdalena Pauli, which Voght had occupied since 1777 at the latest, when he initiated Georg Heinrich Sieveking into his feelings." See also Alfred Aust: I had a wonderful lot. Love and friendship in the life of Baron Caspar von Voght . Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1972; here especially p. 11 - 38: “The great love. Voght and Magdalena Pauli [, b. Poel] ".
  2. ↑ See her Reinhard Breymayer: Prelate Oetinger's nephew Eberhard Christoph v. Oetinger, in Stuttgart a Freemason and Superior of the Illuminati, in Wetzlar a judge at the Imperial Court of Justice - was his wife, Charlotte, nee, related to Goethe. v. Barckhaus, a role model for Werther's "Fräulein von B."? - 2nd, improved edition, Noûs-Verlag Thomas Leon Heck, Tübingen 2010. - On Heinrich Julius von Lindau cf. also Reinhard Breymayer : Goethe, Oetinger and no end. Charlotte Edle von Oetinger, née von Barckhaus-Wiesenhütten, as Werther "Fräulein von B .." . Noûs-Verlag Thomas Leon Heck, Dußlingen 2012. ISBN 3-924249-54-7 . - P. 13 - 26.53 - 82.93 f.107 - 121 on Heinrich Julius von Lindau as the unfortunate admirer of the Frankfurt millionaire daughter Charlotte von Barckhaus-Wiesenhütten (1756–1823); here p. 13. 30 on Magdalena Poel. Like before him, the young Goethe, who was related and friends with Charlotte von Barckhaus-Wiesenhütten and then his later friend Lindau, referred to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's romance novel Nouvelle Héloise for the difficult love affair .
  3. ↑ Reinhard Crusius, Paul Ziegler, Peter Klein : Chronological data on Caspar Voght, on his model estate and on Jenisch Park and its surroundings to this day . Ed .: Friends of Jenischpark eV Hamburg 2015 ( jenischparkverein.de [PDF; accessed on February 8, 2016]).
  4. ^ Ernst Finder : Hamburg bourgeoisie in the past . Friederichsen, de Gruyter & Co.mbH, Hamburg 1930, OCLC 645744186 , p. 370 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ^ In Lange: Architecture in Hamburg . 2008, p. 261 . stands for the gardener the name "John Booth".
  6. ↑ Caspar Voght: Collected from the history of the Hamburg poor institution during its fifty-year duration. Hamburg 1838. ( online )
  7. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 19, 2020 .
  8. ↑ 1809, June 28, 4th class, Riddere, Kongelig dansk hof- og statskalender. 1826. Carl Friderich Schubart, Kiobenhavn, p. 17 digitized
  9. ^ Website of the Caspar Voght School.
  10. ↑ Heinrich Sieveking: The trading house Voght and Sieveking. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. 17 (1912), ISSN  0083-5587 , p. 88.
  11. ↑ The text appeared as an article in the Landwirthschaftliche Hefte (6th edition, 1822, pp. 1-80), which were published by the "Central Administration of the Schleswig-Holstein Patriotic Society". In the literature the article is abbreviated as "Wegweiser".
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on July 8, 2005 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Voght, Caspar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Voght, Baron Caspar von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Entrepreneur, social reformer
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1752
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1839
Place of death Hamburg