Claus Kühl

Claus Kühl (born July 7, 1817 in Barsbek ; † February 10, 1896 in Schleswig ) was a German teacher , surveyor , publicist and Hardesvogt .

education

Claus Kühl was a son of Jochim (not: Clas) Kühl (born March 21, 1777 in Stakendorf ; † July 1857 in Lilienthal in the USA). The father worked as a kater in Barsbek and from 1855 called himself James Kuehl as an American immigrant. The mother Antje, nee Stoltenberg, (born January 28, 1788 in Barsbek, † June 1855 in Davenport in Iowa, USA) was the daughter of a farmer. Kühl spent the first years of his life on his parents' farm in Barsbek, where he already worked in agriculture as a child. He attended a village school until he was sixteen. Then he moved to the deacon Wilhelm Friedrich August Kähler, who gave him lessons. From 1839 he studied at a teachers' college in Segeberg, where he was considered extraordinarily gifted in mathematics. The training ended in 1842 with the successfully completed examination.

In 1842, Kühl received a position as a third teacher for arithmetic, drawing and German at the newly founded elementary school in Rendsburg . The school should enable peasant children to reach an educational level above that of a primary school within two years. In 1846 he passed an exam as a surveyor.

During the Schleswig-Holstein survey

At the beginning of the Schleswig-Holstein movement , all students and teachers joined the initiative. The headmaster Julius Heinrich Lütgens published the "Rendsburger Tageblatt" for the first time on March 25, 1848, of which Kühl immediately became an editor. When the school had to close the following month due to political events, Kühl was the sole editor of the paper, which had meanwhile played an important role. In his contributions, Kühl showed himself to be a Schleswig-Holsteiner who was influenced by the German liberal movement and who represented constitutional and monarchical views.

In June 1848, Kühl belonged to the Rendsburg Committee, which was supposed to convene a general people's assembly according to old land law. Presumably because of the contacts he had made while working as an editor, the Provisional Government also appointed him a surveyor. At the end of June 1848 the “Rendsburger Tageblatt” appeared for the last time. In the fall of 1848, Kühl then joined the Schleswig-Holstein Army and initially worked as an artillery instructor. As a gunner he took part in the Battle of Frederica in 1849 and suffered minor injuries. He then served as an ensign at the Battle of Idstedt in 1850 and left the army in March 1851 as a second lieutenant.

Change to Kiel

The end of the uprising meant for Kühl that he had no prospects of a new government post in the duchies. He moved with his family to Elmshorn, worked here as a brickworker and went bankrupt in 1852. His siblings gradually emigrated to the USA, their parents were the last to do the same. In 1855, Kühl moved to Kiel. Here he worked as a private teacher and attended lectures at Kiel University.

At the end of the 1850s, Kühl got a job as a teacher at the higher boys' school in Kiel. In 1858 he became royal landmaster for Holstein and Lauenberg. The association north of the Elbe for the dissemination of scientific knowledge commissioned a geological map of Holstein from him. Kühl developed several measuring devices and received a patent for the hose level . He himself referred to it as a “water level” and marketed the product. The local press therefore called him a "teacher and engineer". In addition, Kühl wrote several educational articles for the "Schleswig-Holstein School Newspaper". In 1863 his book was published "On the adoption of a new land tax cadastre for the Duchy of Holstein".

In politics, Kühl maintained his German-minded, liberal position and expressed himself accordingly in public speeches. When the German-Danish War broke out , he registered for a job in a Schleswig-Holstein engineering corp, but would also have taken on a civilian post. The plan to create an army in Schleswig-Holstein failed, however. After officials of the Danish king had moved into the occupied territories, Kühl worked as bailiff of the Gottorf office. Road and haulage, forests and public buildings fell into his area of ​​responsibility.

Work as a Prussian civil servant

After the annexation of the duchies by Prussia, Kühl reluctantly accepted them and hoped that his old goals would be at least partially implemented. He then worked as a Prussian civil servant loyal to the king and had the first opportunity to put his ideas into practice. In 1868 he received the office of Hardesvogte in the Hardesvogteidistrikt Schleswig I, which included the south and west of Schleswig, and held this position until 1891. Associated with this, he worked simultaneously as co-inspector of the Sorgerkoog and district official of the Börmerkogg , as treasurer of the Schleswig tax office and registrar.

In the 1880s, Kühl was a member of the committee for the Eckernförde Railway. He also chaired the water solution commission of the Gottorf office at that time. In this position he worked on an extensive reform of the water system that went beyond his Hardesvogtei. This raised the living standards of the local population significantly. For example, Kühl drew up the regulation plan for the anglers' floodplains and managed its implementation himself. He supported farmers in creating systems for irrigation and drainage and advised them to plant trees. He also helped farmers fertilize correctly.

Cool promoted measures to regulate the groundwater levels and the courses of rivers. He advocated draining swamps and was involved in irrigation projects, including the Treenewiesen, for example. In 1892 he published a brochure in which he described the basis of his activities in the field of water management in context.

The farmers affected by Kühl's plans were not always directly willing to participate. However, he was able to convince her repeatedly to participate in his plans. His practical intelligence, technical expertise and the fact that he knew the way farmers think and act based on his own career helped him. In order to educate the farmers, he wrote articles for the "Schleswiger Nachrichten" and other newspapers, lectured and prepared memoranda and reviews in which he spoke out, for example, that women should not be viewed as pure "scrubbing and household machines".

In 1879, Kühl wrote a collection of rights of way in Schleswig-Holstein. The work was aimed at a specialist audience and appeared in several editions. Until the end of his life he worked for the "Schleswig-Holstein School Newspaper". Shortly before his death, he founded the "Agricultural Association for the Middle Ridge" of Schleswig, which was a peasant educational association.

family

Cool married on August 16, 1846 in Segeberg Angelica Benedicte Christophine Henriette Henning (born June 6, 1825 in Segeberg, † October 3, 1866 in Schleswig), whose father Johann Samuel Henning worked as a physician. From this marriage there were six sons and seven daughters. These included:

• Francisca Kühl , called Frances; (1854-1930). She had engagements as an actress in San Francisco and married the opera singer and stage director Benno Hirsch .
• Anna Kühl (born 1861; died in Hondo, California). She had engagements as a singer at the Hofoper in Hanover and as an actress in Berlin under the name Anna von Wegern . She translated English-language entertainment literature under the pseudonym Anna Jordan . She was married three times, including the writer and actor Max Walden (* 1861).
• Mathilde Mercédes Kühl (1863–1915) was an opera singer and had engagements in the Sultanate of Morocco, among others. She died in Nice .

On November 26, 1868, Kühl married Friederike (Fritze) Elise Lange (born February 22, 1835 in Rieseby ; † April 2, 1913 in Kiel ) in Borby . She worked as a governess on the estate of the von Ahlefeldt family. Her father Carl (v.) Lange worked as a pastor and was married to Johanne, née Siemsen.

From the second marriage of Kühls came two sons and the daughter Ella (1870-1910). She worked as a teacher in Sønderborg , in Rosario, Argentina, and in Berlin, and as a writer and journalist. She married the Berlin journalist and writer Johannes W. Harnisch (1883–1947) and died in Berlin.

literature

• Wolbert GC Smidt, Wolbert K. Smidt: Cool, Claus . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 225-228.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wolbert GC Smidt / Wolbert K. Smidt: Kühl, Claus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 225-228.
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Wolbert GC Smidt / Wolbert K. Smidt: Kühl, Claus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 226.
3. ^ ^{A b c d} Wolbert GC Smidt / Wolbert K. Smidt: Kühl, Claus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 227.
4. ^ Wolbert GC Smidt / Wolbert K. Smidt: Kühl, Claus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 227-228.
5. ^ ^{A b c} Wolbert GC Smidt / Wolbert K. Smidt: Kühl, Claus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, p. 228.
6. ^ ^{A b} Wolbert GC Smidt / Wolbert K. Smidt: Kühl, Claus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 10. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1994, pp. 225-226.