Franz August von Etzel

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Franz August O'Etzel

Franz August O'Etzel (also Franz August Etzel, from 1846 Franz August von Etzel ; * July 19, 1784 in Bremen , † December 25, 1850 in Berlin ) was the first "Royal Prussian Telegraph Director" and a pioneer in the introduction of telegraphy in Germany. He managed the construction and later the operation of the Prussian optical telegraph from Berlin to Koblenz and played a decisive role in the development and establishment of electromagnetic telegraphy in Prussia .

Life

He was the son of Franz August O'Etzel († 1808) and his wife Gesche, née Borgmann († 1792). Etzel's father, an immigrant tobacco manufacturer, came from a noble Irish family. The family's nobility was initially not recognized in Prussia, which is why Franz August O'Etzel was not accepted to study at the Royal Engineering Academy in Potsdam , which was reserved for young noblemen. He eventually learned the profession of pharmacist , but continued to deal with technology and geography . In 1803 he traveled to the mines of the Harz Mountains and then went to study in Paris . There he met Alexander von Humboldt , with whom he traveled to Naples in 1805 . After that, he was in Wittenberg to Dr. phil. PhD. From 1808 to 1810 he ran the pharmacy "Zum krönten Schwarzen Adler" in Berlin .

Etzel joined the Brandenburg Uhlan Regiment of the Prussian Army on November 19, 1810 . In 1811/12 he was assigned to the General War School and was promoted to secondary lieutenant in February 1812 . As such, Etzel was assigned to the headquarters of the Blücher Army during the Wars of Liberation from February 10, 1814 to May 4, 1815 . He took u. a. participated in the battles of Ligny and Waterloo . He is also said to have been involved in the destruction of a French optical telegraph in 1814 . During the Battle of Paris in 1815, Karl von Müffling became aware of the young officer who, thanks to his earlier stay in the city, had a good knowledge of the area. Back in Prussia, Müffling was responsible for the military-topographical mapping of the Rhine province , for which he ordered Etzel to Koblenz from 1816 to 1820, where he then worked as a geodesist .

In 1828 he counted with Johann Jacob Baeyer a . a. to the co-founders of the Society for Geography in Berlin.

Back in Berlin, Etzel was appointed to the "Immediate Commission for the Establishment of Telegraphs" in 1831. He received the order to build the 550 km long optical telegraph line from Berlin to the Rhine Province. Furthermore, he developed the code system and the procedural instructions for the operation of the telegraph and managed the entire system from 1835 as the “Royal Prussian Telegraph Director”. As such, he dealt intensively with the emerging electromechanical telegraphy, developed appropriate equipment himself and carried out preparatory work for the introduction of the system in Prussia, which took place during his tenure.

He received on June 25, 1846 the Prussian nobility recognition and renewal as "von Etzel". In the summer of 1846 he suffered a stroke from which he was never to fully recover. At the end of March 1847, he was promoted to major general before Etzel retired on May 9, 1848 with a pension . He died two years later as a result of a second stroke in Berlin. Etzel was buried in the French cemetery .

family

Etzel had married Elise Adelheid Hitzig (born June 23, 1789, † August 13, 1866) in Tornow on September 20, 1807. The following children were born from the marriage:

  • Friedrich August (1808–1888), Prussian infantry general , politician and member of the German Reichstag ⚭ Fanny Luise Marianne Nernst, (* January 25, 1816; † November 17, 1884)
  • Marie Luise Franziska Adelaide (born August 30, 1810 in Berlin)
  • Franz Friedrich Hermann (born April 10, 1812 in Berlin; † April 20, 1883), Colonel zD ⚭ 1856 Auguste Sophie Koch (born April 11, 1833; † February 2, 1875), parents of Lieutenant General Günther von Etzel
  • Franz Rudolf Ludwig (born September 24, 18198 in Koblenz )
  • Franz Erich Anton (born April 29, 1821 in Berlin; † December 9, 1870) ⚭ 1854 Adolfine Wilhelmine Dützler (born August 4, 1827)
  • Hermann Franz (born October 6, 1822 in Berlin)
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Franz Eugen (born July 28, 1825 in Berlin; † May 9, 1894)
⚭ September 30, 1855 Karoline Minette Adolfine Amalie von Kotze (born April 26, 1828 - † June 29, 1856)
⚭ April 19, 1866 Marianne Sophie Magnus (June 4, 1843 - December 20, 1882)

Freemasonry

In 1803 Etzel was accepted into the Freemasonry League while studying in Paris . He founded the Koblenz lodge "Friedrich zur Vaterlandsliebe" and was also its master of the chair . In 1821 Etzel was accepted by the Berlin lodge “Zur Eintracht” and from 1825 to 1828 he held the office of presiding master.

In the further course he became national grandmaster of the Great National Mother Lodge "To the three world balls" (GNML 3WK). During his term of office, he spoke out in favor of admitting Jews to the Freemasons' union on the basis of the old duties .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gelder, Hermann : To the history of the privileged pharmacies of Berlin . Berlin 1925, p. 17
  2. ^ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon , revised and expanded new edition of the 1932 edition, (p. 271, Lemma: Etzel 1. Franz August ) Munich 2003, 951 p., ISBN 3-7766-2161 -3
personal data
SURNAME Etzel, Franz August von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES O'Etzel, Franz August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian major general, geodesist, first "Royal Prussian Telegraph Director", pioneer of telegraphy in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1784
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1850
Place of death Berlin