Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten

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Alexander Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten

Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander Burgrave and Count zu Dohna-Schlobitten (born March 29, 1771 at Finckenstein Castle ( West Prussia ), † March 31, 1831 in Königsberg ) was an East Prussian statesman and politician.

Life

His parents were Friedrich Alexander Burgrave and Count zu Dohna -Schlobitten (* July 6, 1741, † April 8, 1825) and his wife Luise Amalie Caroline nee. Countess Finck von Finckenstein (born October 23, 1746: February 23, 1825). It comes from a military tradition. His maternal grandfather Friedrich Ludwig Count Finck von Finckenstein was a Prussian lieutenant general, his paternal grandfather Alexander Emil Burggraf and Count zu Dohna-Schlobitten was a Prussian colonel. His brother Friedrich Burggraf and Count zu Dohna-Schlobitten became a Prussian field marshal.

Dohna-Schlobitten studied cameralistics (finance) at the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt and the Georg-August University of Göttingen . Then he attended the Büsch'sche commercial school in Hamburg , where he made friends with Alexander von Humboldt . In 1790 he joined the War and Domain Chamber in Berlin and a decade later became director of the War and Domain Chamber in Marienwerder . There was a friendly relationship with the Protestant theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher , who was tutor in his parents' Schlobitten Castle from 1790 to 1793 . Alexander Dohna and Schleiermacher had extensive correspondence for almost 40 years.

Military time

When Prussia experienced its defeat at Jena and Auerstedt in October 1806 , Dohna-Schlohbitten put Danzig and Graudenz into a state of defense. For West Prussia, he ensured that the authorities there undertook not to take any action against the occupiers while they were in control of the province. When the French demanded a hostage as pledge for this, Dohna-Schlobitten volunteered in order to spare an elderly chosen by the conquerors from this fate and was held hostage by the French for a few weeks.

After Napoléon Bonaparte had made Finckenstein Castle his headquarters, he ordered Dohna-Schlobitten to attend an audience there in April 1807 . The usurper hoped to be able to influence him and his father in such a way that this was the case with King Friedrich Wilhelm III. advocated a separate Franco-Prussian peace and Prussia's exit from the anti-Napoleon coalition. Dohna-Schlobitten succeeded in convincing Napoleon that he would waive a war contribution to West Prussia .

In recognition of this success he was on August 4, 1807 by Friedrich Wilhelm III. appointed President of the War and Domain Chamber . In this role he had to implement the Tilsit Peace of July 7, 1807 with his French opponent Marshal Nicolas-Jean de Dieu Soult .

Political time

The Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl Reichsfreiherr vom und zum Stein became aware of Dohna-Schlobitten and proposed him as his successor as Minister of the Interior when he himself was dismissed under pressure from the French Emperor in 1808. As Minister of the Interior, Dohna-Schlobitten supported Wilhelm von Humboldt in founding the Humboldt University in Berlin , which took place in 1810.

When he set about implementing his predecessor's plan to combine the highest state and administrative authorities in the State Council , a conflict arose with his cabinet chief Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg . The chief minister interpreted the creation of a central authority above him as an attack on his position. When Hardenberg became State Chancellor, Dohna-Schlobitten resigned in November 1810 in protest against his authoritarian leadership style.

Freed from cabinet discipline, Dohna-Schlobitten was able to play a leading role in the uprising of East Prussia against Napoleonic rule . After the fire in Moscow, he and Stein contributed to bringing about the meeting of the East Prussian estates on February 5, 1813 in Königsberg. Together with Johann David Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg , he directed and led the negotiations on the Estates Day.

With his brother and Carl von Clausewitz , who is like Stein in Russian service, he worked out a draft Landwehr ordinance and ensured that it was adopted by skilfully leading the deliberations. He was elected chairman of the General Commission for the People's Armament and began organizing the Landwehr without delay, despite the opposition of the authorities.

Only afterwards did the Prussian king legitimize this independent approach by the East Prussians. On March 17, 1813, he approved the plan to establish the Landwehr . Two days later he commissioned Dohna-Schlobitten, who had been appointed chairman of the General Commission for the People's Armament on the Standing Day, with this people's armament and also appointed him civil governor for Prussia east of the Vistula .

Despite these favors, a return to the Prussian ministry was out of the question because of his opposition to Hardenberg. When, after the end of the Napoleonic wars, on June 3, 1814, his civil governor's position was revoked, Dohna-Schlobitten withdrew from active politics in Schlobitten.

Withdrawal from state politics

As general landscape director , to which he had already been elected on September 28, 1813, and after the introduction of the provincial constitution in 1824 as a member of the Mohrungen district , he exercised considerable influence in the public life of the province even without a state office. Dohna-Schlobitten used it to support the liberal opposition of his friend Theodor von Schön . During the restoration and reaction that followed, he showed moral courage . In 1820, for example, he initiated a protest against the Karlovy Vary resolutions supported by his own king .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review in: Blätter für literary entertainment
personal data
SURNAME Dohna-Schlobitten, Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander too
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dohna-Schlobitten, Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander Burgrave and Count too
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Finckenstein Castle ( West Prussia )
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1831
Place of death Königsberg (Prussia)