Georg Christian von Wolff

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Georg Christian von Wolff (born December 4, 1711 in Tönning ; † July 31, 1784 in Kiel ; buried in Schleswig ) was a German statesman and curator of the University of Kiel .

Live and act

Georg Christian von Wolff was the son of Zacharias Wolff and his second wife Magdalena Dorothea, née Müller, who died in 1713. Wolff therefore grew up with his grandmother Müller in Schleswig, with whom his father lived. The environment was considered pietistically pious. Together with his cousin Jakob Friedrich von Preusser, who was a few years older, he received lessons from Magister Johannes Fabri, who had studied with August Hermann Francke at the University of Halle.

At the age of twelve, Wolff was enrolled at the shabby University of Kiel. In fact, he never studied there, or only for a short time. On September 24, 1727, Wolff enrolled at the University of Jena , where he studied together with von Preusser. On April 18, 1730, they moved to the University of Halle . After that, they apparently traveled to Holland and France.

In 1736 Wolff entered the service of Gottorf and was initially chamberlain to Karl Peter Ulrich . In addition, he allegedly worked as an educator for his children until Karl Friedrich's death . What he did after that is not documented. On January 1, 1752, Wolff was appointed chamberlain to the General War Commissariat. Grand Duke Peter, whom he had raised himself, called him to Russia in June 1761. Here he succeeded Gottlieb Georg Heinrich von Stambke and ran the business of the Holstein government together with the Lord Chamberlain Christian August von Brockdorff (1696–1780).

On September 20, Jul. / October 1, 1761 greg. Wolff was appointed to the conference council of the Holstein chancellery in Petersburg. Thus he also belonged to the secret government council in Kiel . Peter III After taking office at Wolff, commissioned a written report on the Schleswig-Holstein question , which he wanted to resolve quickly. After the fall of the Tsar and the takeover of the government by Catherine II , Wolff, like all Holsteiners, was expelled from the country. He then moved to Hamburg to await further developments.

On October 16, 1762, Wolff was appointed to the Real Secret Council in the Kiel government council, and in May 1764 to the district administrator. So he also had to attend the sessions of the Regional Court, which was a forum for the Community Government. The Konseil proposed Wolff as the curator of Kiel University. A curator no longer existed here since 1759, and Wolff had already taken over the interim administration in January 1763. He officially took over the office on May 12, 1763 and became chairman of the board of trustees established on May 29, 1763. He continued to work in the government council and also attended its last meeting on November 15, 1773. His term of service ended, like that of all the ministers of God, with the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo and the assumption of state sovereignty by the King of Denmark.

After leaving office, Wolff lived secluded in Kiel and occupied himself with his private library. He probably died unmarried.

Library

Wolff owned a famous library with 13-14,000 volumes. The University of Kiel bought this shortly before his death. As a result, it almost doubled its holdings, which had been inadequate until then. Due to the Second World War , this “Wolffiana” only exists in remnants. Wolff himself had compiled a systematic catalog from which it emerged that he was one of the most important learned book collectors of his time.

Honors

Wolff was a knight of the ducal Schleswig-Holstein Order of St. Anne and the Imperial Russian Order of St. Alexander Nevsky . Since a portrait probably created in St. Petersburg in 1762 shows Wolff with the medals, it can be assumed that he was given this by Peter III in 1761 and 1762. had received. Catherine II awarded Wolff as the guardianship regent of the Grand Duke of Holstein on 19./30. January 1766 the Exspektanz on the Hamburg Dompräpositur. This can be seen as a high honor and a prominent display of grace. In early 1768, Wolff therefore became provost of the Hamburg cathedral chapter and prelate.

On April 7, 1770 (matriculation number 729) he was elected a member of the Leopoldina with the nickname Maecenas .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry by Georg Christian von Wolff at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on September 9, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Wolff, Georg Christian von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German statesman and curator of the University of Kiel
DATE OF BIRTH December 4, 1711
PLACE OF BIRTH Toenning
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1784
Place of death Kiel