Christian Gottfried Elben

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Christian Gottfried Elben on a photograph of a painting from the family archive around 1800
Sophie Elben, born Feuerlein, on a photograph of a painting from the family archive around 1800

Christian Gottfried Elben (born May 4, 1754 in Zuffenhausen , Duchy of Württemberg ; † February 3 or 4, 1829 in Stuttgart , Kingdom of Württemberg ), professor of geography at the Hohen Karlsschule , was the founder and editor of the Swabian Mercury .

Life

Origin and school time

Christian Gottfried same is the son of Johann Kaspar same (1716-1783), schoolmaster, bailiff and Umgelder in Zuffenhausen and his wife Susanne, born Zayser (1724-1774), daughter of Hans Michael Zayser, blacksmith , miner and Holy nurses in Stammheim in Stuttgart . Christian is one of the sons of the 16 children born in the marriage of his parents.

Christian Elben received his first lessons in the German School in Zuffenhausen before attending the Latin schools in Cannstatt and Güglingen . After attending the Latin school, Elben attended the Illustre grammar school in Stuttgart . After Elben had initially walked the long way to school from his parents' house to the grammar school and back home on foot, he was able to finance a lodging in Stuttgart by giving private lessons. In 1771 Elben began studying theology in Tübingen , but had to interrupt his studies several times due to lack of money.

Military service and graduation

In 1774 he was picked up by recruits for the Prussian army near Heilbronn and recruited for the army of Frederick the Great . There he belonged to the second battalion in the Möllendorf Regiment and was billeted in Soldin . He gave Latin and geography lessons to the sons of his host, a shoemaker, and he used to read newspapers to the shoemaker himself.

In 1778 his father was able to free him from his military service, after which Christian Gottfried Elben became tutor for the children of Carl Friedrich Feuerlein , the secret secretary of Carl Eugen von Württemberg , in Stuttgart. In addition to teaching at the Feuerlein house, he continued to give classes in the city of Stuttgart and prepared for his degree in Tübingen.

On September 27, 1779, he completed his studies with a disputation on modern history . In addition, Elben had also written a number of articles for entertainment newspapers during these years, which were published in Mannheim , Frankfurt am Main and other places. In 1784 Christian Gottfried Elben published the first part of the history of the German order , a year later the articles on the history of the high and German masters .

Foundation of the "Swabian Mercury"

On October 3, 1785, the first issue of the Swabian Mercury , founded by Elben, was published , a successor to the “ Mercurius or Stuttgart Ordinari Chronicle, which hurried across sea and land ”. This sheet had existed since 1731; Elben took over from the Mäntler brothers, who had held the privilege for this newspaper. The Swabian Mercury brought twice a week in each half arch political news; Elben also published the Swabian Chronicle , which contained patriotic news from Swabia and Upper Austria. It was printed in Esslingen , where the censorship conditions were milder.

The High Charles School

The Swabian Merkur competed with a court newspaper which had been published as a political newspaper by the bookseller Stoll since 1751 and which had been taken over by the Cottaschen court book printer in 1756 when it was raised to the court newspaper. The privilege for the newspaper was renewed in 1787 by the Duke of Württemberg for 20 years on the condition that the printing from then on took place in the ducal academy. The same demand was made for the Swabian Chronicle , which has now been united with Mercury . Elben was initially able to make a request that no court censorship was exercised on his sheets. He was supported in this by the director of the academy, Colonel von Seeger . He considered Elben to be less dangerous than Schubart , whose Patriotic Chronicle also appeared in the academy's printing press. In November 1788, however, the Elector of Bavaria received a complaint about an intrusive article from Munich , and in 1789 Elben got into trouble with an article about the coinage of the Swabian district. Thereupon, on the ducal orders, a censor was ordered for Mercury and Chronicle , which Elben was able to reverse a week later.

Marriage to Sophie Feuerlein

Christian Elben married Sophie Caroline Auguste Magdalene Feuerlein (* 1772; † 1847), a daughter of the government council and secret cabinet secretary CF Feuerlein (* 1730; † 1808) and his wife Auguste Franziska, née Fischer, in Stuttgart on October 1, 1789 . From Christian Elben's marriage with Sophie Feuerlein ten children emerged who established the Elben tribe in the genealogical family book of the descendants of the government councilor Carl Friedrich Feuerlein .

Extra sheet of Mercury on the Hirsch disaster in 1906

The same proposal to hold a Collegium novellisticum once a week for the students of the Academy was also accepted by the Duke in the summer of 1788. He made Elben professor of geography at the High Charles School , for which he received a salary of 100  florins . After Carl Eugen's death and the dissolution of the High Charles School in 1794, Elben had to forego this income. Likewise, the document book for the Swabian Chronicle, a kind of legal gazette that Elben had published from 1791, has now been discontinued. Christian Gottfried Elben now fully concentrated on the Swabian Mercury . Despite censorship and growing competition, the paper survived wartime and the Württemberg constitutional struggles from 1815 to 1819. On January 30, 1817, censorship was lifted and the press took a significant boom as a result. The Swabian Mercury and the chronicle were published six days a week and were produced in our own printing house. However, the Thurn and Taxis Posten did not distribute it in most parts of the country at this rate, but only on a few post and messenger days. The freedom of the press in Württemberg, which had only just been guaranteed by the constitution, was ended again by the Karlsbad resolutions in 1819.

Grave of Christian Gottfried Elben in the Hoppenlaufriedhof in Stuttgart

Late years

Christian Gottfried Elben had eight sons. One of these joined the editorial team of Schwäbischer Merkurs in 1817 and another in 1823 ; Elben was in charge of overhead management until his death. His son Karl then took over the management and editing of the Swabian Chronicle ; he mainly wrote articles on the issues of customs unification and railway construction. From 1830 an evening edition of the paper was published daily. This service came to an end after the Elben factor Stänglen successfully applied for the abolition of Sunday work at the printer's meeting in Mainz in 1848 . After Karl Elben's death in 1854, the Swabian Mercury was continued by other family members and also by outside forces. At that time it had developed into the most widely read political paper in Württemberg and continued to exist until 1941.

Christian Gottfried Elben found his final resting place in the Hoppenlaufriedhof , which was abandoned and still exists today as a park. Many important tombs can still be found and studied today.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See also family data from the Martinszeller Family Foundation Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.martinszeller-verband.de
  2. ↑ Thomas Borgmann: Magazine about the Hoppenlaufriedhof. on: stuttgarter-zeitung.de , December 30, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Elben, Christian Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, founder of the Swabian Mercury
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH Zuffenhausen
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1829 or February 4, 1829
Place of death Stuttgart