Fabian Gotthard von Steinheil

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Fabian von Steinheil

Fabian von Steinheil ( Russian Фаддей Фёдорович Штейнгель; * 3 October July / 14 October  1762 greg. At Gut Taibel ( Estonian Taebla ), municipality of Poenal ( Lääne-Nigula ) in Wiek ( Lääne ) district, Estonia ; † 23 February July / 7th March  1831 greg. in Helsinki , Finland ) was a German Baltic military. He was the Russian Governor General of Finland between 1810 and 1824 . His name is often corrupted in literature. The term stone gel or stone gale is not uncommon.

Early years

Fabian Steinheil was born in what is now Estonia into a German Baltic family. He became a lieutenant in the Russian army in 1782 . From 1788 to 1790 he took part in the tsarist service in the war against Sweden in Finland.

military

In 1791/92 he was subordinate to General Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov during the fortification work in the Russian-occupied part of Finland . From 1793 to 1795 he was involved in the work of the fortifications of Hamina , Lappeenranta and Taavetti . In 1797 Steinheil received a high honor for a topographical map of Finland that he had worked out . In 1798 he was raised to the rank of major general . In 1805 he took part in the Russian campaign in Prussia and in 1806/1807 in Poland and Prussia.

Governor General

In 1809 Steinheil was appointed commander in chief of the Russian army in Åland . In March 1810, the Russian tsar appointed him to succeed Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly as governor general of Finland. In 1812 Steinheil was admitted to the Finnish nobility as a count. His politics were characterized by strong sympathy for the country, which he also showed great political goodwill. He won the trust of the Finnish elite during his tenure.

From 1812 Steinheil took part in the war against the invasion of Napoléon Bonaparte , fought in the Battle of Smoljany and was replaced as Governor General a year later by Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt . In 1813 he was co-conqueror of Danzig and Elbing . When Armfelt died unexpectedly in August 1814, Steinheil was called back to his previous post as Governor General. In 1819 he was promoted to general of the infantry . In 1823 he ended his work as governor general of Finland and handed the task over to Arseni Andreevich Sakrewski . He remained in office until March 1824.

Last years of life

In the last years of his life Steinheil lived in Finland and devoted himself to scientific research, especially in the field of mineralogy and geology . In a Finnish mine near Orijärvi he discovered an unknown mineral. He had it examined by Johan Gadolin , who named it Steinheilit after him . It is a variety of cordierite .

The Fabianinkatu in the center of Helsinki was named after Count Fabian von Steinheil in the 1820s.

literature

  • Frank Nesemann: A special Baltic German understanding of the concerns of the Finnish special position? The views of the two governors-general Fabian Steinheil (1810–1823) and Arsenij Zakrevskij (1823–1831) on the constitutional basis of Finland's position in the Tsarist Empire . In: Edgar Hösch , Olivia Griese, Hermann Beyer-Thoma (eds.): Finland Studies III (= publications of the Eastern European Institute in Munich. Research on the Baltic Sea Region 7), Wiesbaden 2003, pp. 53–73. ( ISBN 3-447-04715-1 )
  • Fabian Gotthard von Steinheil . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg, Eugen Fahlstedt (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 26 : Slöke – Stockholm . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1917, Sp. 1186 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry in the baptismal register of the municipality of Poenal (Estonian: Lääne-Nigula kogudus)
personal data
SURNAME Steinheil, Fabian Gotthard from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Штвйнгель, Фаддей Федорович
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baltic German military
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Poenal , Estonia
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1831
Place of death Helsinki