Friedrich Lehne

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Friedrich Lehne

Johann Friedrich Franz Lehne (born September 8, 1771 in Gernsheim , † February 15, 1836 in Mainz ) was Professor of Fine Sciences in Mayence, France . At that time Lehne was politically close to the Mainz Jacobins , whom he already joined in November 1792. Lehne achieved regional fame primarily through the constitution of Jacobean literature in the most varied of forms, for example from texts to revolutionary songs or poems. He later worked in Mainz as the city librarian, newspaper publisher and regional historian. Its Roman and medieval collections were the basis for the Mainz antiquity museum, which was later founded . Lehne fought all his life to achieve democratic goals in Germany.

Family, youth and studies

Lehne was born as the son of the judicial officer Franz Berthold Lehne in Gernsheim, which at that time still belonged to Kurmainz , and his wife Maria Theresia Müllenkampf. Both parents died early (1781 and 1782), and Lehne came to live with relatives in Mainz as early as 1782. He lived here with his maternal uncle, Franz Damian Friedrich Müllenkampf, who had been a professor at the Mainz Artistic Faculty since 1786. Lehne attended grammar school in Mainz and, together with numerous former classmates, studied history and fine sciences at the University of Mainz from the winter semester 1789/90 . A doctorate followed later on.

Friedrich Lehne married Josephine Katharina Alberica Burkard on July 22, 1802 in Mainz, the daughter of Johann Stephan Valentin Burkard (born August 5, 1747), an Illuminati who had already joined the Jakobin Club in Mainz on November 12, 1792 and whose vice-president he was temporarily . Burkhard had studied in Mainz and had worked here as a city physician since 1773.

3 daughters and 3 sons were born to the couple. Julia Lehne, born in 1803, remained, like her 5 years younger sister Luise Josephine Lehne, unmarried in the household of her youngest sister Josephine Melanie Laura Lehne, born in 1809, who was married to Lothar Johann Heinrich Franz Maier from Osthofen, but after the death of her husband ( 1844) lived in Mainz and often received Richard Wagner in her cozy house , who made friends with their daughter Mathilde Maier. Wagner's correspondence with Mathilde Maier was published in 1930 by Hans Scholz.

The son Eduard August Lehne , born in 1805, became a lawyer in Mainz and Alzey, in 1848 a member of the Fifties Committee and the Frankfurt Pre-Parliament, and in 1850, in the Hessian high treason trial, general defender of the protagonists of the '48 revolution. As a member of the state parliament, Eduard Lehne fought for freedom of the press and achieved that the Grand Duke of Hessen-Darmstadt had to lift press censorship on March 16, 1848. In 1806 the second son Friedrich Anton Lothar Lehne, later justice of the peace in Oppenheim and Mainz, was born. The youngest son Anton Lehne, born in 1819, died at the age of ten.

Professional background

In his troubled youth, Friedrich Lehne worked in various professions in France and Germany. In addition to his artistic activities, he was also active as a newspaper publisher, administrative officer and soldier. It was not until the end of the 18th century that there was a certain consistency in 1799 with his appointment as Professor of Fine Sciences in Mayence. From 1798/99 he was already a teacher of fine arts at the Mainz Lyceum and now lived in one of the professors' houses on Neue Universitätsstrasse , near Thiermarkt . In 1813 the Sorbonne awarded him an honorary doctorate. From 1814 to 1829 he headed the Mainz city library as senior librarian and was also the city archivist. In addition, Lehne took care of the Roman and medieval remains in Mainz and for the first time arranged the existing finds in an exhibition. He also worked as a conservator in this area and in the meantime was still in charge of the Mainz antiquity museum . - In the French as well as in the Grand Ducal Hesse period, Lehne had turned to Freemasonry .

Political activity from 1792 to 1814

Assembly of the Mainz Jacobin Club

As a student at Mainz University, Friedrich Lehne quickly came into contact with the prevailing spirit of the Enlightenment . One of his teachers at the university was Andreas Joseph Hofmann , who later became an important Jacobin in Mainz. This brought revolutionary ideas close to his students. Like his school friend and fellow student Peter Nikolaus Theyer, Lehne was a member of Zumbach's student reading circle . Here too, revolutionary literature from France, but also from its own circles, circulated. When French revolutionary troops took Mainz in 1792, the student, like many of his fellow students and professors, already sympathized with the ideals of the French Revolution . On November 29, 1792, at the age of just 21, he became one of the youngest members of the “Society of Friends of Freedom” , also known as the “Jacobin Club” . Lehne was listed there as a lawyer. In the next few months he was mainly active as a revolutionary writer, poet and songwriter. On January 17, 1793, Lehne gave an exuberant eulogy in the Jacobin Club for his old teacher and now radical Jacobin, Andreas Joseph Hofmann. At the same time, he reprimanded the Jacobin Club for what it thought was no longer revolutionary. The song of free compatriots , an underlay of the melody of the Marseillaise with German text, he wrote on the occasion of the establishment of the Mainz freedom tree on the Domplatz on January 13, 1793. With the poem Gesang during the bombing of the city he tried to improve the morale of his republican roommates during the Lift siege of Mainz 1793. His poems quickly circulated in the Republican-Jacobean environment and could thus be proven in northern Germany and even in Transylvania , for example .

Last stanza of the "Song of Free Compatriots" (sung after the Marseilles March )

“See this tree, all you despots,
We planted it on our right hand;
And in the soil of the fatherland
it should still blossom for our grandchildren "

- Friedrich Lehne

Lehne became secretary to the commissioners Jean-Frédéric Simon and Gregoir in the spring of 1793 . These were supposed to initiate the connection of the Republic of Mainz to France. In his capacity as secretary, Friedrich Lehne signed the “Proclamation of the Franconian National Commissaries” . At the end of March 1793, Lehne also became a member of the "Watch-keeping Committee" , which was responsible for the security of the Mainz Republic. After the city was handed over to the coalition troops on July 24, 1793 , Friedrich Lehne, together with his friend Nikolaus Müller , left Mainz as a French soldier and fled to Paris . There he served in civil administration and was a soldier in the French National Guard with the rank of corporal . From mid-1795 he lived in Strasbourg and the Palatinate , which at that time was still under French occupation. There he worked in the mining industry on behalf of the French administration. In Strasbourg in 1795 and his book of poems appeared attempts republicanischer poems , which the General Literary Gazette in its issue No. 80 on March 11, 1797.

In 1797 Lehne went on an educational trip to Italy, about which he reported in one of his books 28 years later. It was here that his enthusiasm for antiquity arose, which led to his later activity, research into local history. At this time Lehne also began to be interested in the Greek struggle for freedom . This political interest was to continue into the late 1820s.

When Mainz returned to the French Republic as Mayence after the Peace of Campo Formio in 1797, including the left bank of the Rhine, Friedrich Lehne also returned in 1798. In the same year he founded the republican newspaper Observer vom Donnersberg together with the Jakobiner Schlemmer . This appeared until 1801, but after Napoléon Bonaparte came to power in 1799, it increasingly came into conflict with the local government commissioner.

With Nikolaus Müller he published the republican poetry volume in 1799 . When Napoléon came to power on November 9, 1799, he wrote a hymn to the young new Caesar, who in turn would lead the republic to fame and greatness. On the occasion of the Campo Formio peace agreement, Lehne dedicated a poem of praise to the “hero Napoleon Buonaparte”. In this he praises him as a “peace-giver”, as a “stronger brother” than Hannibal or Brutus and writes enthusiastically: “How one can do everything”. But later, like many other German Jacobins, he was unable to make friends with Napoléon's increasingly autocratic politics. Nevertheless, in the later years Lehne belonged to the new bourgeois elite, the "Citoyens notables" , which Napoléon carefully built up . Together with the maire and former Jacobin Franz Konrad Macké from Mainz and the French prefect Jeanbon St. André , he was able to count himself among the grands notables de l'Empire . Lehne had a good relationship with the French prefect, which was particularly noticeable in the local history research and excavations that began under his administration.

Editor of the Mainzer Zeitung from 1816

Friedrich back edited - after parts of the left-bank formerly kurmainzischen and Palatine, in the meantime French territories as a province Rheinhessen with the provincial capital Mainz to the Grand Duchy of Hesse had come - from 1816 to 1822 again a newspaper: The Mainzer newspaper , sometimes also called Neue Mainzer newspaper appeared, was printed by the court printing house Theodor von Zabern . As a critical liberal paper, the newspaper set a milestone in newspaper history and was classified, for example, by the well-known publicist Ludwig Börne as a very good press product. The political views of the young Lehnes can still be read from the topics printed: it was about press censorship, small states and the restorative tendencies of the early Biedermeier period that were becoming apparent everywhere . Under him, the newspaper developed into the most important press organ in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, but led to clashes with the Darmstadt government and the newspaper's temporary ban in 1822.

Lehne as a homeland and history researcher

Friedrich Lehne's revolutionary enthusiasm turned into a bourgeois-social-liberal attitude with increasing age. In the first quarter century of the 19th century back stood with many others, then known Mainz citizens and the artists and scholars Nicholas Müller , the professor, writer and cartographer Heinrich Brühl (1773 to 1832) or the famous Mainzer lawyer and historian Karl Anton Schaab in Contact. Many of them were former Jacobins and “clubists” like him. In this society and because of his work as a curator of the existing antiquity collection, Lehne increasingly turned to local history and research. Due to his research, especially on the medieval history of Mainz, he became one of the founders of modern Mainz historical research.

Plan of the ancient Magontiacum after Lehne, drawn up in 1809

In 1804 Lehne belongs to a group of artists and scholars whom the French prefect Jeanbon de St. André wanted to bring together in an academy for artists and scholars. Together with Karl Anton Schaab, at the first meeting of this group, he applied for the honor of the Mainz inventor of printing, Johannes Gutenberg. This was the beginning of the efforts that were to lead to the erection of the Gutenberg memorial on Theaterplatz in 1836 . In the days of the French administration, Lehne carried out systematic excavations in the former Roman military cemetery in the Zahlbach Valley, incidentally with great support from Jeanbon de St. André. When stones were broken from the aqueduct pillars there at the beginning of the 19th century in order to use them for building local houses, Lehne ensured the long-term protection of the Roman stones with the support of the prefect. The first Roman city map, which was created in 1809, but was largely speculative in nature, was based on Lehne's work as a historian and local researcher.

The rich finds from his excavations were exhibited together with older Roman stone monuments from the electoral collections in an "antique hall" in the former Burse on Neubrunnenplatz. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited this collection in 1815 together with Sulpiz Boisserée to see "... the ancient collection and a number of valuable paintings" . Together with Friedrich Lehne he also visited the excavations in Zahlbach . Goethe, who was on friendly terms with Friedrich Lehne, recommended visiting the valuable collection to friends on several occasions, for example Friedrich Schiller's son in 1819 , and was in correspondence with Lehne.

Friedrich Lehne's grave

In his work "Art and Antiquity on the Rhine and Main" he wrote about Friedrich Lehne:

“ The resident of Mainz must not hide the fact that he will live in a war post forever; old and new ruins remind him of this. But the eager researcher will also use this to increase his knowledge and to educate the mind, and so we owe a hard-working and careful man, Professor Lehne, many thanks for designating and defining some ancient things, but rediscovering others, has collected and sorted ... "

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Aftermath

Friedrich Lehne died in Mainz in 1836 and was buried in the main cemetery in Mainz . His grave is still preserved. In the year Lehne died, his successor, Dr. Philipp H. Külb , Friedrich Lehnes publish collected writings and notes in five volumes. The last volume was published in 1839. Friedrich Lehne's estate is now in the Mainz City Archives .

There are differing views on Lehne's literary influence. While his historical and urban history works as well as his involvement in this area influenced his successors in Mainz for a long time, his early revolutionary works as “enthusiastic and time-related poetry” soon fell into general oblivion. On the other hand, Friedrich Lehne is also named in today's literary research as one of “the most fruitful political poets of that time”.

Literary works by Friedrich Lehne

  • Try republican poetry . Strasbourg 1795.
  • with Nikolas Müller: Republican Poems . Mainz 1799.
  • The city of Mainz in the Middle Ages . Mainz 1824.
  • Romantic sea voyage to Naples . Mainz 1825.
  • Fr. Lehnes, professor and city librarian in Mainz, collected writings / Külb, Philipp H. [Ed.]. Mainz: Wirth, 1837.
  • The districts of the Taunus and their monuments . Mainz 1827. First article in the first edition of the Nassau Annals

literature

  • Wolfgang Balzer: Mainz: personalities of the city history . Volume 2: Persons of religious life, persons of political life, persons of general cultural life, scientists, writers, artists, musicians . Kügler Verlag, Ingelheim 1989, ISBN 3-924124-03-9 .
  • Franz Pelgen:
    • Dear good Lehne ... - Ten letters as sources for the biography of Friedrich Lehne (1771–1836). In: Mainz magazine. Middle Rhine yearbook for archeology, art and history. Born in 96/97. for 2001/02, pp. 249-270.
    • Dear good back. (Part 2). Further letters as sources for the biography of Friedrich Lehne (1771–1836). In: Mainz magazine. Middle Rhine yearbook for archeology, art and history. Volume 98. Mainz 2003, pp. 59-71.
    • Dear good back. (Part 3). The honorary doctorate of Friedrich Lehnes by the University of Giessen in 1821. In: Mainzer Zeitschrift. Middle Rhine yearbook for archeology, art and history. Vol. 100. Mainz 2005, pp. 157-164.
    • Dear good back. (Part 4). New discoveries of correspondence on the biography of Friedrich Lehne (1771–1836). In: Mainz magazine. Middle Rhine yearbook for archeology, art and history. Volume 11, Mainz 2006, pp. 119-136.
    • Friedrich Lehne as head of the Mainz city library. In: Annelen Ottermann, Stephan Fliedner (Ed.): 200 years of the Mainz City Library . Wiesbaden 2005, pp. 67-72.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Stephan Pelgen: Biographical sketch of the Italian traveler Friedrich Lehne, in: Friedrich Lehne and the "Romantic sea voyage from Genoa to Naples". Annotated new edition with illustrations by Mario Derra. Gernsheim: Magistrat, 2011, pp. 149–168, here: p. 152.
  2. ^ Jörg Schweigard: Friedrich Lehne. Revolutionary poet, early democrat, journalist. Logo Verlag, Obernburg am Main 2018. ISBN 978-3-939462-32-3 .
  3. ^ Franz Stephan Pelgen: Biographical sketch of the Italian traveler Friedrich Lehne, in: Friedrich Lehne and the "Romantic sea voyage from Genoa to Naples". Annotated new edition with illustrations by Mario Derra. Gernsheim: Magistrat, 2011, pp. 149–168, here: p. 159.
  4. ^ Franz Dumont: The Republic of Mainz from 1792/93. 2., ext. Ed. Alzey: Verlag der Rheinhessische Druckwerkstätte, 1993, p. 107, 385.
  5. ^ Jörg Schweigard: Friedrich Lehne. Revolutionary poet, early democrat, journalist. Logo Verlag, Obernburg am Main 2018, p. 112f.
  6. ↑ Marlene Hübel: "Above all the cathedral." Literary city views of Mainz In: Franz Dumont, Ferdinand Scherf, Friedrich Schütz (eds.): Mainz - The history of the city. 2nd Edition. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2000-0 , p. 1177.
  7. ↑ Meinrad Schaab : Upper Rhine aspects of the age of the French Revolution. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, p. 71.
  8. ↑ quoted from: Walter Hell: Die Lehnes. Poet-politician-scientist . Bulletin of the Oestrich-Winkel City Archives, No. 3 of March 17, 2003 ( Memento of the original of October 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 28 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oestrich-winkel.de
  9. ^ Wolfgang Balzer: Mainz: Personalities of the city history . Volume 2: Persons of religious life, persons of political life, persons of general cultural life, scientists, writers, artists, musicians, p. 216.
  10. ↑ quoted from Marlene Hübel: "Above all, the cathedral ...". Literary cityscapes of Mainz. Pp. 1178-1179.
  11. ↑ Read the original text here
  12. ↑ The review can be read here in the original text.
  13. ↑ quoted from Walter Hell
  14. ^ Kai-Michael Sprenger: Lehne and the enthusiasm for Greeks in Mainz at the beginning of the 19th century. In: Mainzer Geschichtsblätter. No. 11 (1999), pp. 170-190.
  15. ↑ quoted from Gerhard Schulz: The German literature between the French Revolution and the Restoration. First part: 1789 to 1806. In: DeBoor, Newald: History of German literature . Volume VII / 1 2nd edition. CH Beck, Munich 2000, p. 100.
  16. ^ Jörg Schweigard: Friedrich Lehne. Revolutionary poet, early democrat, journalist. Obernburg am Main 2018, p. 86.
  17. ↑ Karl Schramm: Two thousand years where you walk and stand . P. 17
  18. ↑ quoted from Marlene Hübel, p. 1179.
  19. ↑ Marlene Hübel, p. 1178.
  20. ↑ Gerhard Schultz, p. 100.
personal data
SURNAME Lehne, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lehne, Johann Friedrich Franz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jakobiner Mainz, librarian, professor and poet
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Gernsheim
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1836
Place of death Mainz