Christian Gottlieb Daniel Müller

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Christian Gottlieb Daniel Müller (born December 9, 1753 in Göttingen ; † May 8, 1814 in Stade ) was Lieutenant Colonel of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Hanover , captain of the Elbe customs frigate and author and translator of specialist maritime literature.

Life

Born as the second son of the chief construction inspector Johann Michael Müller and Dorothea Köhler, he attended school in Göttingen for three years until 1767. He then went to the Archigymnasium in Soest until 1770. There he learned how to explain mathematics in French. At the age of 17 he was a student of mathematics and law at the University of Göttingen. Professors Abraham Gotthelf Kästner (1719–1800) and Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) praised the quality of his mathematical studies and mentioned his above-average hard work.

He interrupted his studies to make several trips in the service of the Dutch Navy . After some time as a private tutor in the house of Count von Schulenburg, he resumed his studies. On December 2, 1774, he received a patent as a lieutenant in the British Navy . During an operation against Chinese pirates , his leg was broken by the return of a cannon . Since it grew crooked, he had to use a crutch all the time.

On the way back he stopped in Lisbon. There he became engaged to the sister of his brother's wife, Anna Christine Moller (1766–1848). Returning to the Electorate, he applied for the post of commander of the Elbe customs frigate at Brunshausen an der Schwinge . Since his invalidity put him at a disadvantage against competitors with the British king, he was supported by the privy councils in Hanover. They referred to his agreeable character, his morally impeccable nature, his language skills in English, French, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish and his good reports. He would also want to have his knowledge thoroughly trained at the Hamburg Admiralty College. On August 15, 1778, he received the longed-for patent as captain and then married his fiancée on October 9. His official residence was on Schwinger Schanze .

His post included the command of a cron hunt , two chalets, a gunboat and the jump at Brunshausen. In addition to collecting customs duties, he was also responsible for the formal greeting, compliance with the quarantine , pilotage on the Elbe and border matters. In 1790 he was promoted to major and in 1801 to lieutenant colonel. With the incorporation of the electorate into the French Empire in 1803, Müller must also have taken a new oath of service. He officially abdicated on January 1, 1812. During the French period went to a dinghy all vehicles lost. Nevertheless, the Brunshausen customs station was not dissolved as an institution. It was not until the beginning of 1814 that the customs station was rebuilt and set up for the Kingdom of Hanover after the French had left.

Completely surprising, CGD Müller died on May 8, 1814 in his son's house. He had been suffering from severe gout for a long time . The years since 1803 are also said to have been marked by great financial need. He was buried in the garrison cemetery in Stade.

plant

The importance of Müller lies in the publications on theory and practice of shipping, shipbuilding and navigation. In the second half of the 18th century there was a noticeable boom in scientific works on numerous topics relating to shipping. In addition to works of a theoretical nature by Pierre Bouguer and Leonhard Euler , engineering papers have also appeared, e. B. by Fredrik Henrik af Chapman . In addition, works for broader educated circles appeared (see Age of Enlightenment ). Against this background, Müller published a larger part of his work. He also tried to incorporate new ideas for specialists. His most important work is the translation of the work Traité de la fabrique des manœuvres pour les vaisseaux, ou l'Art de la corderie perfectionné Paris 1747 by Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau . In addition to the pure transfer of the content from one language to the other, he added additional notes and explanations via footnotes. Contemporaries also regarded its scope as an almost independent work. Together with Johann Hinrich Röding's General Dictionary of the Navy , these are the most widely received German works on shipbuilding and shipping in the 18th century. In the English Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture founded in 1792 , under the patronage of the Dukes of Clarence , he was an honorary member. In 1793 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Fonts

literature

  • Richard Graewe: The two hundred year history of the Elbe customs frigate in Brunshausen and its commanders 1650-1850. Stade 1963.
  • Gerhard Timmermann: CGD Müller, guard ship captain in Stade, a promoter of German shipbuilding around 1800 . In: Announcements of the Stade History and Local History Association. 34, No. 4, 1956, pp. 115-119.
  • Kurt van Düring: Family history news about the Müller family in Stade. In: Stader Archive: Yearbook of the Stader History and Local History Association. 30, 1940.

Web links

Wikisource: Christian Gottlieb Daniel Müller  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Graewe mentions his grave monument for 1963 as still there.
  2. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 174.
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Christian Gottlieb Daniel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Captain and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1753
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1814
Place of death Stade