Friedrich Aly

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Christian Friedrich Aly (* approx. 1664 to approx. 1674 in the Ottoman Empire ; † December 9, 1716 in Berlin ) was an Ottoman soldier and Chamberlain at the court of Elector Friedrich III. of Brandenburg .

Life

Origin, baptism, wedding

After the victorious Battle of Ofen (1684/1686) in the course of the Great Turkish War against the Ottoman Empire, Aly was captured as a young man and brought to Berlin as a booty Turk via Hanover . He was rescued by General Hans Albrecht von Barfus from the turmoil in which 3,000 Turks were killed and left as a lackey to the Elector's second wife, Sophie Charlotte . Sophie Charlotte had already employed the servant Hassan , who was also kidnapped as spoils of war in the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , in Hanover . After marrying the elector in 1684, she took him to Berlin with her. The historian Götz Aly , a direct descendant of Alys, suspects that both first came to the court in Hanover and, as a result of Sophie Charlotte's marriage to the elector, came to Berlin. In a later letter from Hassan, it is said that he was the last of those who came to Berlin from Hanover at the time. According to historians' estimates, thousands of Turks came to the entire German-Austrian region “as victory trophies”.

The exact original name of Aly is as little known as his date or place of birth. The information about how old he was when he started work in Berlin vary considerably; possibly he was already over 20 years old, other hypotheses assume 12 to 16 years. On April 13, 1692 he was baptized Lutheran under the name Christian Friedrich Aly in Grieben an der Elbe in the Stendal district . The first name Ali had become the last name Aly.

In Berlin, Aly met the Turkish girl Marusch (also Maruscha ), who had also moved to Berlin and who had been baptized Sophie Henriette Zollin in Spandau in 1691 . The two married on July 23, 1694; Sophie Henriette was six months pregnant at the time. The couple's first-born son was named Gottfried (baptized in January 1695), followed by six more children.

Court life and social position

The court and cathedral preacher Ursinus von Bär took care of the training of Friedrich Aly and Hassan at court . As a minor servant, Aly had no demanding duties to perform. His duties included accompanying the Electress and later Queen (from 1701) on going out and on trips, as well as receiving guests, running errands and serving coffee, tea, chocolate and jam. From 1702 he appears in the official position of a "chamber doorman". Occasionally he had to take part in courtly costume parties and Ottoman coffee ceremonies. With their caftans and turbans , Friedrich Aly and Hassan served exotic longings at court.

As a chamber Turk Sophie Charlottes, who had resided in Charlottenburg Palace since 1699 , Friedrich Aly received an impressive annual salary of 366 thalers. This high salary is testimony to the considerable appreciation that is expressed in the fact that Friedrich Aly received the Freihaus privilege from the king in 1705 and was able to have a house built at Charlottenburger Schloßstraße 4, in the immediate vicinity of the palace. The corner lot was an impressive 115 meters deep.

The bond with the queen was very personal. The Queen's mother wrote in a letter in 1705 after the death of Sophie Charlotte that Aly “was always like a shadow hinder to the blessed Queen, and she said plaintively that God had punished him and taken away his Queen because he had IKM [Her Royal Majesty] Gedint with mer fleis than him. "On the deathbed, the Queen's last greeting is said to have gone to the two Chamber Turks:" Adieu Ali! Goodbye Hassan! ”.

With the assumption of office of Friedrich Wilhelm I , the son of Sophie Charlotte, the situation of the Chamber of Commerce deteriorated. The lavish court of his parents was a thorn in the side of the new king . Friedrich Aly was struck off the payroll and in 1715 he had to sell his house due to financial need. However, he retained his reputation and outstanding social position. As early as 1711 he was able to take over the position of city governor of Charlottenburg; Among other things, he was in charge of the militia. Aly's office and later residence was not far from the castle on Breite Strasse .

Aly's wife Sophie Henriette died on April 27, 1716, and he followed her a few months later. In the death register of the Parochialkirche in Berlin-Mitte it is recorded that the “Königl. Cammer-Türcke Herr Friederich Aly ”died on December 9, 1716 at the age of 52 years. On December 11, 1716, he was buried in the church cemetery.

Descendants

The couple's descendants include high-ranking Prussian officials, clergymen, officers and professors. Aly's great-grandson Ernst August Wilhelm Aly (1768-1825) became a teacher at the Friedrichs orphanage and pastor of the Reformed congregations in Jerichow and Ziesar . Later descendants are the classical philologist Gottfried Friedrich Aly , the architect Heinrich Tscharmann , the businessman and district council member Ludewig Rudolf Metz and the historian Götz Aly .

literature

  • Hilke Gerdes: Turks in Berlin , Berlin Edition in Be.bra Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 3-8148-0163-6 .
  • Harald Marpe: The Kammertürken-houses. Early development on Schloßstraße (= Kiez-histories, issue 1), published by the Kiezbündnis Klausenerplatz eV, 2nd extended edition, Berlin 2014 (2010), DNB 1007241934 .
  • Stephan Theilig: Turks, Moors and Tatars. Muslim (living) worlds in Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th century , Frank & Thimme Verlag for Scientific Literature, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86596-525-7 (Dissertation Humboldt University Berlin 2013. 404 pages, under the title : Sociocultural relations, intercultural transformation and translation processes in history - Turks, Moors and Tatars as exotic (forced) migrants in Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th century ).
  • Stephan Theilig (ed.), Andreas Bödecker (among others): Türcken, Mohren and Tartaren - Muslims in Brandenburg-Prussia. Catalog for the special exhibition from March 23 to October 5, 2014 in the Brandenburg-Preußen Museum Wustrau, Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau / Berlin / Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-7930-9764-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Harald Marpe, Die Kammertürken-Häuser. Early development on Schloßstraße , 2nd extended edition, Berlin 2014, p. 4
  2. ↑ Leyla Cosan, martyrdoms Turkish prisoner of war in the integration. - In: Stephan Theilig (ed.), Türcken, Mohren und Tartaren - Muslims in Brandenburg-Prussia , Freiburg im Breisgau 2014, pp. 48–50, here: p. 48.
  3. ↑ Stephan Theilig, Turks, Moors and Tatars. Muslim (living) worlds in Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th century , Berlin 2013, p. 90
  4. ↑ Marpe 2014, p. 5.
  5. ↑ Theilig 2013, p. 91.
  6. ↑ Theilig 2013, p. 91.
  7. ↑ Theilig 2013, p. 94.
  8. ↑ Theilig 2013, p. 90.
  9. ↑ Marpe 2014, p. 6 f.
  10. ↑ Theilig 2013, p. 96.
  11. ↑ Marpe 2014, p. 8.
  12. ↑ cit. according to Theilig 2013, p. 96.
  13. ^ Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, Life of the Queen of Prussia Sophie Charlotte , Berlin 1837, p. 229.
  14. ↑ Hilke Gerdes, Turks in Berlin , Berlin 2009, p. 19 f.
  15. ↑ Theilig 2013, p. 92.
  16. ↑ Marpe 2014, p. 10.
personal data
SURNAME Aly, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ottoman soldier, Chamberlain at the court of Elector Friedrich III.
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Ottoman Empire
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1716
Place of death Berlin