Dietrich von Stein

Dietrich Freiherr von Stein zu Nordheim and Ostheim (born May 14, 1793 in Völkershausen , Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen ; † December 3, 1867 in Meiningen ) was a German politician in Saxony-Coburg .

family

→ Main article : Stein zu Nordheim and Ostheim (noble family)  and list of Frankish knight families

As the son of the Saxon-Weimar Chamberlain and Burgmann zu Friedberg Julius Wilhelm Freiherr von Stein zu Nord- und Ostheim (1770–1816) and Countess Amalie nee. Bachoff von Echt (1766–1810) came to Dietrich Frhr. v. Stone was born on the family's ancestral estate in Völkershausen. He was married to his cousin Henriette Freiin von Günderode (1793-1869) since October 4, 1815 . This marriage produced ten children, four sons and six daughters.

Profession and Politics

Stein studied forest science first at the Zillbach Forestry School , then at the Tharandt Forestry School . Then he enrolled at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg . In 1812/13 he was one of eleven known members of the Corps Saxonia Heidelberg. In the Wars of Liberation in 1814 he joined the Würzburg volunteer hunter battalion as a war volunteer and took part in the campaign against France. Returning from the war, he took over the management of the extensive property soon after the death of his father in 1816. Shortly afterwards he was also politically active. In 1818 he began studying cameralistics in Jena, where he became a member of the original fraternity . In 1818 he was elected chivalrous deputy in the state estates of Saxony-Hildburghausen , an activity that he carried out until 1824 and from 1822 as landscape director. In 1845/25 he was Land Marshal of the Meiningen Landtag of Saxony-Meiningen . He then switched to the immediate civil service and became a civil servant in Saxon duchies. Initially he was in the Saxon-Meiningian service as a Privy Councilor from 1825 to 1831, then he entered the Saxon-Coburgian service, where he was also a Privy Councilor, District President and Chief Tax Director in Gotha (1835–1846). In 1846 he became Minister of State of Saxony-Coburg (until 1849). In 1849 he finally became the Duke's agent in Frankfurt for the German central government. In 1850 he belonged to the state house of the Erfurt Union Parliament .

Von Stein was a liberal, politically-minded person even during his various civil service positions. As early as 1824 he had drawn up the first state constitution for Saxony-Meiningen (the basic law on the landscape constitution of the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg-Meiningen ). Afterwards he had participated in the trade unification of Germany 1828-1830, which finally led to the establishment of the German Customs Union under Prussia's leadership. Later he arranged the state administration of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and led the country according to liberal principles through the German Revolution of 1848/1849 . Politically, he advocated a small German solution to the German question. His motto was:

"German with Prussia, Prussian without Prussia!"

- Dietrich von Stein

Stein was a legal knight of the Order of St. John and a member of the inheritance of the House of Alten Limpurg in Frankfurt am Main. He died at the age of 74 and was buried in Völkershausen.

Awards

• Grand Cross of the Duke of Saxony-Ernestine House Order
• Order of the Zähringer Lion
• Order of Leopold (Belgium)
• Really Go advice

Individual evidence

1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Vol. FA VII, p. 443, CA Starke Verlag , Limburg 1969
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Hans Körner (1971)
3. ↑ Kösener Corps Lists 1910, 119a , 10
4. ^ Peter Kaupp (edit.): Stamm-Buch of the Jenaische Burschenschaft. The members of the original fraternity 1815-1819 (= treatises on student and higher education. Vol. 14). SH-Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89498-156-3 , p. 151.
5. ↑ Körner: Dietrich Freiherr von Stein, a liberal Frankish-Thuringian statesman in Vormärz and in the revolution of 1848/9 ; Yearbook of the Coburg State Foundation, 1960, pp. 59–154

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 8: Supplement L – Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8253-6051-1 , pp. 307-309.
• Friedrich Facius : The directing ministers of the Thuringian states 1815-1918. In: Klaus Schwabe (Ed.): The governments of the German medium and small states. 1815–1933 (= German leadership classes in modern times. Volume 14 = Büdinger research on social history. Volume 18). Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1983, ISBN 3-7646-1830-2 , p. 279.
• Hans Körner: Frankfurt patrician . Ernst Vögel Verlag, Munich, 1971, p. 340.
• Jochen Lengemann : The German Parliament (Erfurt Union Parliament) from 1850 , 2000, pp. 302–303.
• Ulrich Heß: Research on the constitutional and administrative history of the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg-Meiningen 1680 - 1829 . Volume 3: Authorities and civil servants. 1954.