Christian Ehrenfried Charisius von Olthoff

Christian Ehrenfried Charisius von Olthoff (born March 17, 1691 in Stralsund , Pomerania , † 1751 ) was a Swedish government official, diplomat, post director and theater writer. He was one of the founders of the Swedish theater.

Life

After graduating, he entered the Swedish military service and took part in the campaign to Norway in 1718 . In 1719 he became extraordinary clerk and in July of the same year a copyist in the secretariat for foreign affairs of the royal chancellery. In 1723 he was accepted into the knight's house . On December 8, 1725 he was promoted to the ordinary chancellery.

In 1727 he accompanied the rear admiral ("Schoutbynacht") Johan von Utfall as secretary to Algeria , where he helped to conclude the first trade agreement between Sweden and Algeria. On August 7, 1733 he was appointed royal chamberlain . In 1740 he was promoted to registrar and in late 1741 to state secretary in the Secretariat for Foreign Affairs.

He was later a member of the government council for three years and on February 21, 1745 appointed postal director in Swedish Pomerania. He died in 1751 with the rank of Chief Postal Director.

family

Christian Ehrenfried Charisius von Olthoff was the son of Christian Ehrenfried Charisius and his third wife Juliane Katharina Coch. Two years after his father's death, his mother married Justus Ludwig Olthoff in 1699 . This was raised to the nobility in 1707. The letter of nobility also included the stepson and Christian Ehrenfried Charisius had to add the addition "von Olthoff" to his name. In literature, Justus Ludwig Olthoff appears as the biological father, which is due to the remarriage of the widow Charisius.

Christian Ehrenfried Charisius von Olthoff was married twice. His first wife Engel Charlotta Lindhielm was the daughter of the court marshal and chamberlain Axel Lindhielm. His second wife came from Mecklenburg .

Theater in Stockholm

In Sweden, the name Olthoff is primarily associated with the creation of the first permanent Swedish-language theater. In the 1730s, he and Anders Johan von Höpken belonged to a society of drama amateurs from the upper classes of Stockholm who staged plays in Swedish and French under his direction. With the increasing popularity of these performances, the desire for a permanent venue arose. This was opened on October 4, 1737 in the Ballhaus in Stockholm with the performance of the play "Plutus eller Mammon" as "Kongliga svenska skådeplatsen". The play was a comedy by Marc-Antoine Legrand (1673-1728), translated into Swedish by Olthoff and published in 1740 as a print. In 1738 he wrote a prologue . Due to various difficulties and his transfer to Swedish Pomerania a few years later, he was unable to continue working on it.

literature

• Unlike Anton von Stiernman, Carl Fredric Rothlieb: Matriculation öfwer Swea rikes ridderskap och adel. Volume 2. Stockholm 1755, pp. 1359 f. ( Google books , Swedish).
• Olthoff, Christian Ehrenfried Charisius von . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : L – Z, including supplement . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 237 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
• Olthoff, Kristian Ehrenfried Charisius von . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 20 : Norrsken – Paprocki . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1914, Sp. 656 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johann Albert Dinnies : News concerning the councilors of the city of Stralsund. Volume II, 1779, p. 403.