Ferdinand Conrad Seiffart

Ferdinand Conrad Seiffart, dressed as chairman of a Masonic lodge

Ferdinand Conrad Seiffart (born October 25, 1802 in Nordhausen ; † March 15, 1877 ibid) was a Privy Councilor , Prussian Consul General in Mexico, Vice President of the Prussian Chamber of Accounts and a Freemason in Nordhausen.

Life

Seiffart was born into an old patrician family from Nordhausen , whose family tree dates back to 1580. His father was the lawyer and later mayor of the city of Nordhausen Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Seiffart (1766–1841) and his mother Johanna Maria Seiffart (née Rode) was the daughter of the Nordhausen distiller Gottfried August Rode.

On October 22, 1820 matriculated he at the University of Göttingen and studied law . He passed his legal traineeship examination at the Berlin Court of Appeal and then worked in the Prussian Ministry of Trade and Industry . On October 13, 1830, he married Ida Riemann in Nordhausen and then became legal advisor at the Berlin police headquarters.

On August 9, 1834, he was appointed a secret councilor in the Ministry of the Interior and personal advisor to the Minister of Gustav von Rochow . In 1837 he was sent to the German-Russian border to combat smuggling and received the Russian Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd class (neck decoration with breast star) and promotion to the secret councilor for his successes .

In 1845 he was appointed royal Prussian consul general in Mexico . There he had significant influence on the Mexican government to accept the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and thus to end the Mexican-American War and to prevent an annexation of the country by America. He mediated in further conflicts and rose to doyen among the diplomatic ambassadors . A significant part of the Teotihuacan collection in the Ethnological Museum Berlin goes back to his collection of Mexican artifacts from today's state of Teotihuacán .

In 1850 he returned to Berlin. He was employed by the Prussian Chamber of Accounts and on August 22, 1854, was appointed Vice President of the Chamber by the King. On October 3, 1856, Seiffart was retired in the wake of the "Potsdam dispatch theft" and moved his center of life back to Nordhausen.

Back in Nordhausen he was elected to the city council in 1860 and on June 2, 1862 to the city councilor of Nordhausen. His services to the city include the construction of the north wing of the grammar school with auditorium, the redesign of Predigerstrasse and the construction of the swimming pool at Rothleimmühle. Before his death, the city of Nordhausen rededicated the “waiting tower path” to “presidential path”. He held his city council mandate until his death in 1877.

Freemasons

On March 14, 1845, he was admitted to the Masonic Lodge “Zur Schwewiegenheit” (3WK) and a short time later became master of the Johannes Lodge “Minerva” in Potsdam. From 1854 to 1855 he was a member of the “Teutonia zur Weisheit” lodge in Potsdam. On December 14, 1859, he became a member of the Johannesloge "To the crowned innocence" in Nordhausen. Due to his excellent connections to the order leadership in Berlin and to the Prussian royal house, the second order department, the Andreas Lodge and in 1876 still the third order department, the provincial order chapter of the great state box of the Freemasons of Germany (GLL) was established in Nordhausen. This made Nordhausen the center of the Central German order and on special occasions up to 400 Freemasons gathered in the city.

Literature & lectures

• Julius Becker: The lodge masters of the Johannisloge "To the crowned innocence" in Nordhausen. [L. Hornickel], Nordhausen 1924, pp. 66-72.
• Julius Becker: President Ferdinand Conrad Seiffart: Life picture of a Prussian official. [without publisher], [without location] 1932 (printed by Nordhäuser Allgemeine Zeitung, Nordhausen)
• Joachim Kühn: The Germanness in Mexico around 1850. A report by the Prussian Minister-Resident Seiffart. In: Yearbook for the History of the State, Economy and Society of Latin America. JbLA. Volume 2, Böhlau, Cologne [a. a.] 1965, pp. 335-372, ISSN  0075-2673 , ZDB -ID 2548-3 .

• Marcel Hardrath: The life of Ferdinand Conrad Seiffart. Lecture on November 19, 2012 in Nordhausen
• Marcel Hardrath: The history of the Nordhäuser Lodge. Lecture on June 7, 2012 in Nordhausen

Web links

• St. John's Lodge for crowned innocence

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Article on Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Seiffart . Retrieved December 3, 2019.
2. ^ Teotihuacan in the Ethnological Museum Berlin . Retrieved June 19, 2014.
3. ↑ Nordhäuser Logenhaus is ceremoniously handed over. Article in nnz-online.de, September 22, 2000, accessed June 19, 2014.
4. ↑ The life of Ferdinand Conrad Seiffart  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Retrieved June 19, 2014.  
5. ↑ The history of the Nordhäuser Lodge  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Retrieved June 19, 2014.