Christian von Hammerstein (farmer)

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Christian von Hammerstein

Baron Christian von Hammerstein (born June 18, 1769 in Kastorf ; † April 11, 1850 in Uelzen ) was a German officer , farmer and agricultural writer .

Life

Christian von Hammerstein was a son of the Kastorfer landlord Hans Christian Freiherr von Hammerstein (* May 15, 1741 - May 14, 1771) and his wife Caroline Agnes Luise, born von Schrader (* April 19, 1744; † December 28, 1801) . His brother Hans Detlef von Hammerstein was a lawyer and minister.

After his father died, the mother moved with her sons to Ebstorf , then to Lüneburg . He had to join the military against his will . At the age of 14 he was appointed cornet in the body regiment on horseback in Lüneburg, stationed in Bleckede . He lived in Bleckede for the next few years. At the end of 1790 his mother acquired the Bahnsen estate and formally commissioned her son to manage the estate. For this he received leave from the military. Records indicate that he had previous agricultural knowledge, which was probably based on extensive literature research during the garrison period in Bleckede. From December 1791 he had access to his inheritance share in Gut Kastorf. He sold the Bahnsen estate and bought the Goldberg estate in Mecklenburg. Shortly after his promotion to Rittmeister in April 1792, he finished his military service in order to concentrate on agriculture.

Garden side of the Kastorfer Herrenhaus (2009)

In 1794 Hammerstein parted from the Goldberg estate. A year later he bought with his wife the good Hülseburg with Presek and the following year in addition to the Grange Vortsahl. nominally owned by his wife. In 1799 he acquired the Kastorf estate that his brother had sold. The Kastorf manor house was designed in 1801/1802 by the Danish builder Christian Frederik Hansen and built by Joseph Christian Lillie until 1803. The purchases and new construction were based on large loans, which caused him problems in the poor economic situation, for example due to the French occupation . In 1806 Kastorf was plundered. In the years after he had to repeatedly fire and hail damage suffered until 1813 several quartering . Especially due to the agricultural crisis after the Napoleonic wars , von Hammerstein went bankrupt in 1815 and sold Kastorf. He was previously a major and commander in the Ratzeburger Landwehr - Battalion occurred, which he in 1815 against Napoleon fought. After the end of the war he served as a commander in Ratzeburg and in 1816 disbanded his Landwehr battalion. Then he was given command of a Landwehr battalion in Lüneburg that existed until 1833. In the same year he left the military as a colonel .

Von Hammerstein had held Gut Hülseburg for several years during his time in the military. In 1823 his wife's fortune also suffered from his own bankruptcy. The couple therefore had to part with the over-indebted property. The family moved to the Lenthe estate to rent , but von Hammerstein only spent holidays there until the end of his military service. As an officer, he had repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to switch from military service to the Hanoverian civil service at the Landes-Oeconomie-Collegium, which was in charge of the common division and coupling. At the beginning of 1834, he was to head the old Oldenstadt office , based in Wrestedt , as replacement commissioner . The prerequisite for this was a qualification for judicial office , which he did not have. Therefore, at the age of 64, he passed a law exam.

In 1838 von Hammerstein moved to Uelzen, where he lived until the end of his life.

Working in agriculture

The monument erected for von Hammerstein

In 1827 von Hammerstein published several articles, some of them award-winning, in the anthology "Landwirthschaftliche Schriften", which made him known as a specialist author. In 1830 he founded the “Uelzen Agricultural Association”, which later became the Provincial Association. Here he tried to modernize the agriculture of the Lüneburg Heath. In 1832 he was elected president of the Provincial Association for life. Until the end of his life he edited the association magazine "Agricultural communications, especially for the principality of Lünebuirg, and negotiations of the agricultural provincial association of Uelzen". In 1849 he also took over the editing of the “Sunday weekly paper for the farmer in the principality of Lüneburg”.

The Agricultural Association initially wanted to provide information about new findings as a reading community with lectures, publications and the exchange of experiences. From around 1840 this gradually became a body of experts who wanted to modernize agriculture through concrete practical actions. The particular concern of the association was the introduction of modern cultivation methods from England. This included, in particular, a significant expansion of the cultivation of green forage, with which meadow building projects should help. The livestock should be improved and increased and thus the fertilizer production increased. The association also promoted marching floors .

Von Hammerstein campaigned for the fight against potato diseases, wanted to cultivate tobacco plants and build modern equipment. He achieved varying degrees of success with his efforts. The long-term most successful initiative of his association was the so-called “farm regulation”. Farms that were already linked switched from a grain / fallow economy to a more productive crop rotation of grain, feed and root crops. From 1837 the association used all available means for a systematic farm regulation. This project could only be completed decades after Heinemann's death in 1894.

In 1832 von Hammerstein reached his peak as an agricultural specialist writer. He edited seven smaller articles and the "Neue Agricultural Writings", which contained seven earlier texts. A small but important monograph “On the improvement of the condition of the farmer in the Principality of Lüneburg” belonged to them. The Royal Agricultural Society had campaigned for this text to be spread. Another noteworthy publication by Heinemann was a short presentation of the principles of modern agriculture by William Bland , which he translated from English into German.

Honors

In 1834 Hammerstein received the silver medal of the Royal Agricultural Society. T. Rühne designed a memorial for him, which was erected in Uelzen the year he died. It stands at Hammersteinplatz, named after him.

family

On April 3, 1793 von Hammerstein married Dorothea Agnies Sophie von Plato (1771-1858). She was a daughter of the district administrator Otto Ernst von Plato auf Grabow. The couple had six daughters and four sons, including Wilhelm von Hammerstein , who was Hanover's Minister of State.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Hans-Jürgen Vogtherr: Hammerstein, Christian Freiherr von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 157.
  2. ↑ Ilsabe von Bülow: Joseph Christian Lillie (1760-1827) , p. 22 ff.
  3. ^ Hans-Jürgen Vogtherr: Hammerstein, Christian Freiherr von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 158.
  4. ^ Hans-Jürgen Vogtherr: Hammerstein, Christian Freiherr von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 158.
  5. ^ Hans-Jürgen Vogtherr: Hammerstein, Christian Freiherr von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 158-159.
  6. ^ Hans-Jürgen Vogtherr: Hammerstein, Christian Freiherr von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 159.
  7. ^ Hans-Jürgen Vogtherr: Hammerstein, Christian Freiherr von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 159.
  8. ^ Hans-Jürgen Vogtherr: Hammerstein, Christian Freiherr von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 157.
personal data
SURNAME Hammerstein, Christian von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, farmer and agricultural writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1769
PLACE OF BIRTH Kastorf
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1850
Place of death Uelzen