Friedrich August von Noer

Friedrich Christian Carl August , since 1870: Count von Noer (born November 16, 1830 in Schleswig , † December 25, 1881 in Noer ) was a German orientalist and prince of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

Live and act

Friedrich August von Noer was a son of Friedrich Emil August von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg and his first wife Henriette Countess von Danneskiold-Samsøe (born May 9, 1806, † September 10, 1858). He spent childhood and youth at Gut Noer and in the Prinzenpalais von Schleswig . He saw himself as a effeminate dreamer, which he attributed to his mother's influence. He never dealt with any political or military affairs in which his father was involved. Nevertheless, he joined the army at the beginning of the Schleswig-Holstein uprising in March 1848. In April 1849 he conquered the town of Kolding with the rank of second lieutenant with the 2nd Dragoon Regiment and witnessed the siege of Fredericia .

Noer's time in the military ended in autumn 1849, which was probably not inconvenient for him. Due to a lung disease, he sailed from London to Adelaide and spent half a year in Australia. He then traveled through India, Egypt and Turkey. In Constantinople he made the acquaintance of David Urquardt , who was very familiar with the political and cultural situation in the Middle East. Urquardt had a decisive influence on von Noer's decision to continue his education, remained friends with him for several years and became a mentor.

In the autumn of 1851 Noer reached Europe again. From the beginning of 1852 he studied at Trinity College , where he deepened the knowledge he had gained during the trip and made up for the lack of schooling. His parents also moved to England. In July 1853 the family left again. Noer then dealt with studies of history and Egyptology in Heidelberg . In November 1853 he went to Paris , where he continued his studies and in particular attended the Bibliothèque nationale de France . During this time he edited the notes in his diary that he had written during his time in India and the Middle East. The cultural-historical notes appeared from 1858 to 1860 under the title “Old and New from the Countries of the East”.

In the summer of 1856 Noer lived temporarily in London and went there again in May 1860 to continue his studies. Urquhart made him with the Indologist Theodor Goldstücker , who taught him and developed into his spiritual father. Goldstücker taught him Sanskrit and thus offered him the opportunity to study ancient India. This topic had already attracted particular interest from Noers' first trip.

Noer spent four years in London and left for India again in September 1864. The following year he had to return home due to the unexpected death of his father. Here he arranged the family situation and took over the Noer estate. He then lived again in London and for a longer period in Paris , where his sister Luise was dying. In 1867 he traveled to India again. A short time later, he made the decision to create a biography about Akbar I , which did not exist before. He pursued this goal as part of his Indological work until the end of his life. In addition to the historical importance of Akbar, he personally liked the undogmatic and tolerant worldview of the prince.

Noer's stay in India ended in July 1869. He was now living on Gut Noer and, thanks to a patent from the Prussian king, was allowed to hold a title of nobility and not marry without disadvantages. After that he dealt exclusively with Akbar's biography. In 1881 Denmark's ban on the House of Augustenburg fell. Von Noer immediately traveled to the King of Denmark in Copenhagen and was considered a welcome guest there.

In the years 1880 and 1881 the first two volumes of the biography with the title "Kaiser Akber" appeared. The second, final volume was published posthumously a few years later by Gustav von Buchwald . Von Noer left behind an important academic library that contained around 30,000 works. The library of the University of Kiel took it over as a deposit in the 1920s. The volumes burned here during World War II .

The University of Kiel made von Noer an honorary doctorate in 1878 for his scientific activities.

personality

Von Noer was considered to be an extremely noble and personable person. In national disputes about the Augustenburg house, he held back and seriously pursued a scientific career that was unusual for people of his class. He was always aware that he would always work as a dilettante and never achieve the rank of specialist scholar. The award from the University of Kiel should therefore have been a great pleasure for him.

family

Von Noer married Carmelita ( Carmen) Henriette Louise Mathilde Eisenblat on May 17, 1870 in Hamburg (* August 21, 1848 in La Guayra ; † August 11, 1912 in Noer), with whom he had two daughters. Her father Heinrich Anton Eisenblat (1808 - 1870 at the latest) worked as a businessman and was married to Mathilde Dorothea Johanna, née Altmann, who died in 1854 at the latest.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeyer: Count of Noer, Friedrich August . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 120-122.