Gustav Kolb (publicist)

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Gustav Eduard Kolb (born March 6, 1798 in Stuttgart , † March 16, 1865 in Augsburg ) was editor of the Allgemeine Zeitung from 1828 .

biography

Gustav Kolb came from a family of goldsmiths in Stuttgart and attended high school there. He wanted to prepare for community service in the office of the municipal foundation administration. During his youth, his interest in literature, art and theater was aroused in artistic circles. In 1818 he studied camera science at the University of Tübingen . He was inspired by the boys 'movement, became a member of the Old Tübingen Burschenschaft Germania in 1818 and, together with Franz Gräter, represented the Tübingen students at the Boys' Day in Dresden in September 1820 . Out of enthusiasm and idealism for a free and unified fatherland, he founded a branch of the Youth League as a secret society at the request of Adolph von Sprewitz . In 1820 he graduated with an excellent exam. Since he was unwilling to enter the civil service, he accepted the office of city tax commissioner. As a member of the secret society, he was arrested at the end of September 1824 with 15 other comrades, including Karl August Mebold , Franz Gräter, Johann Friedrich Immanuel Tafel , Friedrich Rödinger and the private lecturer Karl von Hase as members of a treasonous association and taken to the Hohenasperg fortress . After assuming sole responsibility, he was punished with four years of imprisonment, which ended prematurely after two years. All were the civil rights back detected. Even King Wilhelm apologized to Kolb for having seen the harsh punishment due to the political circumstances at the time.

In 1827 the Minister of Justice recommended him to the owner of the Allgemeine Zeitung Freiherr von Cotta as an employee. Shortly after his appointment, he was appointed to the editorial office after submitting a political essay. His first focus was, among other things, the establishment of the magazine “ Auslands” in January 1828.

After the death of Karl Joseph Stegmann in March 1837, he took over the management of the Allgemeine Zeitung, which he had actually been running for years because of Stegmann's serious illness. Under his direction, the newspaper developed into a German, cosmopolitan world newspaper. It was his aim to be an independent, not one-sided, non-partisan body. He was able to bind numerous well-known personalities to himself and his paper. Among them, he offered Heinrich Heine and Karl Gutzkow a platform in his newspaper, despite their publication ban. Franz von Dingelstedt , Heinrich Laube , Berthold Auerbach , Levin Schücking , Friedrich von Bodenstedt , Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl , Ludwig Steub , Moritz Rugendas , Friedrich von Hegnenberg-Dux and Gustav von Lerchenfeld also wrote for him .

In 1855 Kolb suffered a stroke that paralyzed him on one side. Although he was able to recover from it to a large extent, walking and speaking have since been difficult for him. But he was able to fully fulfill his profession for another decade. In 1864 his only daughter died in childbed. Six months later he died after a two-day illness in March 1865.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ August Lewald in Europa Chronik der Bildungswelt : Nekrologe Stegemann 1837, p. 575.
  2. ↑ Norbert Altenhofer: Poets about their poems: Heinrich Heine . Volume 8 / Part 2, p. 19ff.
  3. ↑ John Neufeld: Gustav Kolb, a political journalist in the pre-March period. GRIN Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-638-92180-0 , p. 15.
personal data
SURNAME Kolb, Gustav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kolb, Gustav Eduard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1865
Place of death augsburg