Eduard von Wietersheim

Karl August Wilhelm Eduard von Wietersheim (born September 10, 1787 in Zerbst , † April 16, 1865 in Dresden ) was a German historian and Saxon minister.

origin

Eduard von Wietersheim came from the noble von Wietersheim family . His father August Christian Ludwig von Wietersheim (1750–1832) was, like many of his ancestors, an officer. His mother was Johanna Friederike Juliane geb. Baroness von Nostitz -Drzewiecki (1786–1831).

Soon after his birth, his parents moved to Luxembourg , as his father, as a major, had been given command of the Anhalt contingent there. But after a few years (1794) Major von Wiersheim resigned from military service and lived with his family on the Mensdorf manor he had previously acquired .

Live and act

Wietersheim initially received private lessons. Later his father took him to school in Dessau , first in the institute of Professor Ferdinand Olivier, a pupil of Pestalozzi , then in the house of Professor Feder. At the age of 17, in 1804, Wietersheim went to study at the University of Leipzig . After three years of study, he passed the law exam and became a higher court auditor . In 1809 he became an assessor at the state government. During the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813, Wietersheim happened to be in the city. Reluctantly, he accepted a position with the Russian governor-general Prince Repnin, who was now responsible for the administration of Saxony. In order to free himself from his inner conflict, he volunteered in the " banner of the voluntary Saxons " to fight in German-national euphoria against Napoleon, but was never deployed. Ultimately elected officer, he was given the opportunity to visit conquered Paris. In 1814 Wietersheim returned to Leipzig. Back in the service of Saxony, he developed into a liberal politician and economist. In 1827 he was District Chief in Plauen and then in Zwickau . Then he took over the office of director of the regional economy as well as manufacture and commerce deputation. He was also used as a Saxon negotiator when the customs union was founded . For his services he was awarded the title of court and judicial councilor. In 1840 he was appointed Minister of Cult and Public Education, which he did until 1848.

After leaving the government he was active in literature, and it is through his historical work that he has secured a name of the first order in the German world of scholars. In contrast, he devoted himself to contemporary politics in only a few writings, such as " Die Demokratie in Deutschland " (1849) and a few smaller essays. In 1850 he published: "The campaign of Germanicus on the Weser in 16 AD"; 1862: "On the Prehistory of German Nations"; 1859: "The population of the Roman Empire"; 1859–64: “History of the Migration Period”, 4 volumes. For the latter work, the University of Leipzig appointed him "Honorary Doctor". In 1846 he was elected honorary member of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences .

He died in Dresden on Easter morning in 1865. His body was taken to his Nöbdenitz estate and buried in the local hereditary funeral on April 19.

family

Eduard von Wietersheim was married twice, first to Constanze Charlotte von Thümmel († 1833), daughter of the Saxon-Altenburg minister Hans Wilhelm von Thümmel . She died after giving birth to six children, three of whom died before her and three before their father. His second wife was the widowed Baroness Amalie Auguste Agnes von Gutschmid, nee. von Burgsdorff (1786–1852), who died childless.

Works

• The campaign of Germanicus on the Weser in the year 16 AD. Treatises of the philological-historical class of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences , Vol. I, pp. 429–481. Weidmann, 1850
• History of the Great Migration. Several volumes, from 1859

literature

• Theodor Stenzel: On the genealogy of the von Wietersheim family , in: Vierteljahrsschrift für Wappen-, Siegel- und Familienkunde 8 (1880), pp. 135–163
• Caesar Dietrich von Witzleben: Eduard von Wietersheim: A picture of life , 1865
• Georg Müller:  Wietersheim, Eduard von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 55, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 72-89.
• Hans-Joachim Böttcher: "Wietersheim, Eduard Karl August Wilhelm von", in: Important historical personalities of the Dübener Heide, AMF - No. 237, 2012, pp. 106-107.
• Leipziger Zeitung, No. 96, 1865, Nekrolog

Web links

• Literature by and about Eduard von Wietersheim in the Saxon Bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ^ Members of the SAW: Karl August Wilhelm Eduard von Wietersheim. Saxon Academy of Sciences, accessed on December 13, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of baronial houses, 1882, p.263