Ezekiel Spanheim

Ezekiel Spanheim, engraving by Pieter van Gunst

Ezechiel Spanheim (born December 7, 1629 in Geneva , † November 7, 1710 in London ) was a German diplomat, lawyer and theologian of Swiss origin.

Life

Spanheim was the son of the theologian Prof. Friedrich Spanheim and the brother of the church historian Friedrich Spanheim .

After attending school in Geneva, Spanheim went to Leiden with his family , where he studied philosophy and theology at the university. Spanheim completed his studies at the age of 16 with a doctorate on the age of the Hebrew alphabet . This escalated a controversial discussion on this topic between Johann Buxtorf and Louis Cappel , as Spanheim supported Buxtorf with his theses.

In 1651 Spanheim accepted a position at the university in his hometown and began teaching rhetoric there as a professor . The following year Spanheim was appointed to the Grand Council of the city and from that time he neglected his teaching position and was interested almost exclusively in politics.

In 1656 the Palatinate Elector Karl I. Ludwig , who had once studied with him in Leiden, appointed Spanheim to his son Elector Prince Karl's private tutor and brought him to the Heidelberg court. As such, Spanheim accompanied his pupil on a trip through Italy. During his employment as a private tutor, Spanheim wrote his work Traité du Palatinat et de la dignité éléctorale conte les prétentions de duc de Baviere and thus recommended himself to his employer as a politician.

In 1661, Spanheim established diplomatic relations between Heidelberg and the Vatican on behalf of the elector in Rome . In Rome, Spanheim also made the acquaintance of Christina , the Queen of Sweden and her scientific and literary circle. Inspired by Roman antiquity, Spanheim began collecting coins and also tried to develop a modern system of numismatics .

Back in Heidelberg, Spanheim soon represented the interests of the Palatinate in the political disputes between Spain and France. At times he was suspected of having been bought by the French court. At the beginning of 1675 Spanheim represented the Heidelberg court at the court of the English King Charles II , but was recalled at the end of the same year.

In 1678 Spanheim went to London again: this time, in addition to the Heidelberg interests, he also represented those of the Brandenburg “Great Elector” Friedrich Wilhelm . In 1679 he was elected a member of the Royal Society at the suggestion of Theodor Haak . When the peace of Saint-Germain had been negotiated, Spanheim entered the service of the Elector of Brandenburg on February 3, 1680, although the Elector of the Palatinate was reluctant to let him go. With the support of Minister Paul von Fuchs , he was promoted to Privy Councilor and associate envoy in Paris. There he maintained close contact with the daughter of the Palatinate Elector, Liselotte von der Pfalz , married Duchess of Orléans, whom he knew well from Heidelberg and who introduced him to her brother-in-law Louis XIV .

In 1685 Spanheim represented his employer at the accession to the throne of the English King James II at the English court. After his return to Paris, Spanheim experienced the massive emigration of Huguenots there at the end of 1685 as a result of the repeal of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV and the ensuing persecution. He was instrumental in spreading the Prussian admission decree and helped many emigrants by taking them into his house and organizing escape routes. He also took care of the emigration of Liselotte's aunt Emilie von Hessen-Kassel .

In 1689 Spanheim returned to Berlin . There he was appointed director of the French colonies in Brandenburg by the elector with effect from May 12, 1689. Five years later, Spanheim also advanced to become President of the newly established Commission ecclésiastique . During this time the Spanheim Society , a Huguenot scientific association, was founded.

As a diplomat, Spanheim was involved in the negotiations in 1696, which were manifested a year later in the Peace of Rijswijk . He was then sent to Paris as an envoy until 1702. On the occasion of the coronation celebrations of King Friedrich I , Spanheim was ennobled and raised to the rank of baron; associated with this was the office of minister of state. Financial difficulties caused Spanheim to sell his valuable library to the Prussian King Friedrich I. This completed the royal library in Berlin.

At the age of 73, Spanheim again represented his employer as an associate envoy at the English court. He died in London on November 7, 1710 at the age of 80.

Works (selection)

as an author

• Dissertatio de praestantia et usu numismatum antiquorum , editio princeps: Roma 1664; Last edition: London 1706/17 (2 vol.)
• Orbis romanus , Halle 1728
• Relation de la Cour de France in 1690 . Mercure de France, Paris 1973

as translator

• Aristophanes : Commoediae , Fritsch, Amsterdam 1710
• Julianus: Les cesars , Leipzig 1696
• Callimachus : Hymni, epigramata et fragmenta , Halman & van de Water, Utrecht 1697 (2 vols.)

literature

• Sven Externbrink : Diplomacy and République des Lettres. Ezechiel Spanheim (1629-1710), in: Francia. Research on Western European History 34/2 (2007), pp. 25–59.
• Sven Externbrink: "International Calvinism" as a family history: the Spanheims (approx. 1550–1710), in: Dorothea Nolde , Claudia Opitz (eds.), Cross-border family relationships: Actors and media of cultural transfer in the late Middle Ages and early modern times, Cologne, Vienna 2008, Pp. 137-155.
• Gerhard Fischer: The Huguenots in Berlin. For the 750th anniversary of Berlin. Union Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-372-00144-3 .
• Victor Löwe: A diplomat and scholar. Ezekiel Spanheim. E. Ehering, Berlin 1924, DNB 580595587 . (Reprint: Kraus, Vaduz 1965, DNB 780155971 )
• Eduard Muret: History of the French colony in Brandenburg-Prussia. Büxenstein, Berlin 1885, OCLC 163316692 . (Reprint: Scherer, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-89433-161-5 )
• Hermann von Petersdorff :  Spanheim, Ezekiel . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 35, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, pp. 50-59.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry on Spanheim, Ezekiel (1629 - 1710) in the archive of the Royal Society , London
2. ↑ Van der Cruysse: Being a Madame is a great craft . P. 336.

Web links

Commons : Ezechiel Spanheim  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Prussian envoy in London 1701–1710	Karl Wilhelm von Finckenstein