Franz Johannes von Rottenburg

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Franz von Rottenburg (around 1890)

Franz Johannes ( Fritz ) Rottenburg , from 1887 von Rottenburg (born March 16, 1845 in Danzig ; † February 14, 1907 in Bonn ) was a Prussian lawyer and diplomat. He was head of the Reich Chancellery under Otto von Bismarck (1881-1891), then Undersecretary of State in the Reich Office of the Interior (1891-1896) and finally curator of the University of Bonn (1896-1907).

origin

Rottenburg came from a merchant family originally from Cologne , from 1673 in Danzig verifiably, and was the son of the merchant and grain broker Franz Napoleon von Rottenburg (1802–1867) and Charlotte Jeanette (Ida) le Goullon (1819–1866). The British General Francis de Rottenburg (1757-1832) , who came from Danzig, also belongs to this family .

His great-grandfather Franz († 1799), a citizen and merchant in Danzig, was raised to the Polish nobility on November 25, 1790 in Warsaw . His father Franz Napoleon von Rottenburg was stripped of the title of nobility by the Prussian government after he had joined the free religious community in Danzig . Franz Johannes Rottenburg received Prussian approval to use the title of nobility on May 16, 1887 in Berlin as a royal Prussian Privy Higher Government Council and lecturer in the Reich Chancellery .

Life

Rottenburg began his legal career from 1862 to 1865 when he studied law and political science at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin , where he also received his doctorate . Then he worked at the city ​​court and the higher court in Berlin. In 1870 he became assessor , but at the end of 1872 he retired from the Prussian judicial service and lived in London until 1876 , where he studied constitutional law and got married. From 1876 he worked in the Foreign Office in Berlin until Bismarck appointed him to the Reich Chancellery in 1881.

Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , who became aware of Rottenburg through his work On Concept of the State (1878), had appointed him in March 1881 to succeed Christoph Willers von Tiedemann in the Reich Chancellery, which he headed as a lecturer until 1891. Through his work as Bismarck's closest collaborator, he also became his personal confidante. Then Rottenburg was Undersecretary of State in the Reich Office of the Interior from 1891 to 1896 , resigned for health reasons and was curator of the University of Bonn from February 1896 until his death in 1907 .

Rottenburg was a member of the Association for Social Policy .

family

Rottenburg married the Englishwoman Marian Hutton (1855–1889) from London in his first marriage in London in 1876 , his second marriage on June 1, 1893 in Berlin, the American Marian Phelps (born August 10, 1868 in Teaneck , Bergen County , New Jersey ; † November 1, 1922 in New York City ), daughter of William Walter Phelps (1839-1894), US Ambassador to Berlin from 1889 to 1893 , and Ellen Maria Sheffield (1838-1920). The couple divorced again in 1900, Marian took her maiden name Phelps again and went to the USA with both children. His son Phelps Phelps (1897–1981) became a US politician, u. a. in 1951/1952 the 55th (the first civilian) US governor on Samoa and 1952/1953 US ambassador to the Dominican Republic .

Rottenburg's sisters Therese and Charlotte grew up with their uncle Louis Leisler in Glasgow . Charlotte married the merchant and consul Johannes Kiep . The entrepreneur Louis Leisler Kiep and the diplomat Otto Kiep are consequently Rottenburg's nephew, the CDU politician Walther Leisler Kiep (1926-2016) is his great-nephew.

Works (selection)

  • On the concept of the state , Duncker & Humblot publishing house, Leipzig 1878

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Manz: Migrants and internees. Germans in Glasgow, 1864-1918. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden / Stuttgart 2003, p. 62, fn. 50.
  2. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume XII, Page 73, Volume 125 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 2001, ISBN 3-7980-0825-6 .
  3. ^ Rudolf Vierhaus: German biographical encyclopedia (DBE), page 580, Verlag Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 359825038X or ISBN 9783598250385 ( digitized version )
  4. ↑ American Samoa Government (with a short vita of the father)
  5. ^ Stefan Manz: Migrants and internees. Germans in Glasgow, 1864-1918. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden / Stuttgart 2003, pp. 63-64.

literature

  • Michael Epkenhans :  Rottenburg, Franz Johannes von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , pp. 140 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon , FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1896, page 1025
  • Hermann Julius Meyer: Meyers Lexikon , Bibliographisches Institut, 1924, page 600
  • Karl TH. Schäfer: Constitutional history of the University of Bonn 1818 to 1960 . - With appendix: Gottfried Stein von Kamienski: Bonn curators 1818 to 1933 , page 553, Verlag H. Bouvier, 1968
  • Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871 - 1945. 5. T - Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0 , p. 459 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rottenburg, Franz Johannes von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rottenburg, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 1907
Place of death Bonn