Franz Voitel

Franz Joseph Stephan Voitel (* 1773 or December 25, 1774 in Solothurn ; † July 19, 1839 there ) was a Swiss educator and soldier.

Life

Voitel was a son of Martin Lukas Voitel and Anna Maria Buri. By 1789 he completed his school education in Solothurn, first at the city schools, then at the grammar school. At the age of almost 16, he voluntarily entered the Spanish Schwaller regiment and took part in the wars between Spain and France . In 1795 he was transferred to the grenadiers as a subordinate, in 1796 he became first lieutenant and in 1797 captain of the first rank. In 1798 he married Franziska Paula Wirz from Rudenz. After a stay in Switzerland from 1802, which was devoted to studying Pestalozzi's teaching methods, among other things , he returned to Spain and founded a school for soldiers' children in Tarragona , which was also attended by children of local citizens. Voitel trained qualified soldiers to become assistant teachers and called the linguist Johann Andreas Schmeller as an assistant to his school, who also followed him when he was called to Madrid , where he was supposed to set up a trial school for officer's sons. The school in Tarragona was continued by a Mr. Vilmold from Lausanne . Among other things, Voitel succeeded in drawing the attention of the Archbishop of Tarragona and the head of the War Ministry, Francisco Amorós, to his school, and thus finally winning Manuel de Godoy as a supporter for his Real Instituto Militar Pestalozziano.

From 1806 on Voitel was the director of this institute, which opened on November 11, 1806 and is under royal protection. The youngest son of the king Francisco de Paula de Borbón was one of the students at the institution . Numerous scholars also visited this school as so-called discipuli observatores in order to familiarize themselves with the new teaching method. In 1807 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

The school closed in early 1808 after the French invaded Spain and Godoy was expelled. Voitel then rejoined his regiment in Tarragona. He came to the division of General von Cadalquet and became his first aide-de-camp . During the battle of Molins del Rey , the general was trapped and freed by Voitel, who was wounded and taken prisoner. Therefore he spent the years 1808 to 1810 in French captivity in Barcelona , Dijon and Biel and was then exiled to his hometown Solothurn. According to the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland, Voitel moved back to Barcelona four years later and rejoined his regiment, which was now called "Regiment Wimpfen". According to the necrology of a FF v. However, he first came to Mallorca and became aide-de-camp with General von Couppigni before he was transferred back to Barcelona in 1819 and became General Castannos' aide-de-camp.

There he was sentenced to service on a galley in 1829 . The necrology reports that Voitel was arrested and thrown into a tower dungeon without knowing what he was accused of. There he spent 13 months and was then sentenced to ten years and one day galley service in Ceuta without a proper interrogation and court judgment. “Some of his own compatriots and a Pole , to whom he always did good, had stated that he was free-thinking in the case of the cruel, suspicious Count D'Espana ,” says the necrology ; but all that could be accused of him, according to the judgment itself, was that he was Zschokke's friend , whose portrait was hanging over his desk and had previously been in correspondence with him and other liberal people. "

After six months and several interventions e.g. B. with Queen Christine of Spain Voitel was acquitted, left Spain, moved again to Solothurn and lived there until his death as an archivist and commandant. A revision process in Spain in 1835 led to the rehabilitation of Voitel, who in 1839 became a Grand Councilor in Solothurn .

From 1811 Voitel was a member of the Masonic Lodge La Concorde in Solothurn, in 1813 he joined the Solothurn Literary Society, in 1825 the Solothurn Natural Research Society and in 1836 he became a member of the Swiss Natural Research Society and the Royal Academy of Natural Sciences and Art in Barcelona. In 1835 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Hermenegild.

With his Swiss wife, Voitel is said to have had two daughters who died at a young age and whose hearts he is said to have taken from Spain to Switzerland in lead vessels to bury them there. On June 19, 1816, an illegitimate daughter of Voitel is said to have been born in Palma de Mallorca , who was then put in the doorway and adopted by his wife. The child was christened Marie Josefa and married Alexander Gottfried Zschokke on September 8, 1840. The marriage resulted in three sons, Friedrich Viktor Conradin , Franz Theodor Otto and Julius Alexander Emil Zschokke, who died as a toddler.

In 1929 Johann Valentin Keller-Zschokke self-published a biography of Voitel under the title Franz Josef Stephan Voitel von Solothurn, 1773–1839, Lieutenant Colonel in the First Spanish Swiss Regiment : His Fateful Life. A contribution to the history of the mentioned regiment .

Individual evidence

1. ^ According to the Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz , Voitel was baptized on December 25, 1773; In the explanations to Schmeller's diary, however, the year of birth 1774 is given. Cf. Reinhard Bauer, Ursula Münchhoff (ed.): "Louder mowed meadows for the reaction". The first half of the 19th century in the diaries of Johann Andreas Schmeller. Munich 1990, ISBN 3-492-10884-9 , p. 313. The necrology of the author FF v. S. names 1774 as the year of birth and December 25th as the birthday. Cf. FF v. S .: Franz Joseph Stephan Voitel. In: New Nekrolog der Deutschen. Seventeenth year, 1839. Second part. Weimar 1841, pp. 634–638 ( limited preview in Google book search).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Andreas Fankhauser: Franz Voitel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland. (hls-dhs-dss.ch)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} F. F. v. S .: Franz Joseph Stephan Voitel. In: New Nekrolog der Deutschen. Seventeenth year, 1839. Second part. Weimar 1841, pp. 634–638 ( limited preview in Google book search)
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Reinhard Bauer, Ursula Münchhoff (ed.): "Lauter mown meadows for the reaction". The first half of the 19th century in the diaries of Johann Andreas Schmeller. Munich 1990, ISBN 3-492-10884-9 , p. 313.
5. ↑ Rebekka Horlacher, Daniel Tröhler (ed.): All letters to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Critical edition. Volume 2: 1805-1809. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung / de Gruyter 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-022833-5 , p. 223. ( limited preview in Google book search)
6. ↑ According to the commentary on Schmeller's diaries, Voitel was married to a Spanish woman, but the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland does not mention this. The necrology reads: "[He] r had [...] already married a compatriot in Spain, whose father had settled in this country and lived in happy circumstances." Possibly the word "compatriot" was used by the Schmeller commentators misinterpreted.
7. ↑ The Historical Lexicon of Switzerland and the Commentary on Schmeller's Diaries use quite different formulations, but neither give any further details.
8. ^ Marie Josefa (Voitel) Zschokke on www.wikitree.com