Gustav Gardthausen

Gustav Waldemar Gardthausen , pseudonym: Justus Ernst , (born April 4, 1807 in Copenhagen , † October 25, 1872 in Ulkebüll ) was a German pastor and writer.

Live and act

Gustav Gardthausen was an illegitimate son of the teacher and writer Hans Gardthausen (1776-1845). His mother was born Thyberg and was called Collin as a married woman. The mother was from Copenhagen, where Gardthausen was born in the royal maternity hospital. The mother's name cannot be found in the register there. He was initially given the name "Gustav Waldemar" and is recorded with the corresponding surname "Waldemar" at the learned school of Glückstadt. The change of the family name did not take place until 1827 after an application by his father.

In 1809 Gardthausen moved with his father to Kappeln , where he spent his childhood. The pastor Wilhelm Thieß from Arnis gave him the basics for a visit to the Glückstadt School of Academics. Here he got into disputes with the principal and the primary school due to a secret school connection. Presumably for this reason, he switched to the Eutin School of Academics at the end of 1824 , where he passed his school leaving examination at Easter 1827. He then studied theology and philology at the University of Kiel. Here he was one of the supporters of Claus Harms . In the summer semester of 1828 he moved to Berlin and stayed there for three semesters. In the winter semester of 1829/30 he went to Kiel again. As a result, he studied a total of four semesters at the local university and thus fulfilled the admission criteria for a position in the duchies.

Gardthausen passed the exam in the fall of 1831. He then taught as a private tutor in Burg on Fehmarn until 1835 . From 1836 to 1839 he worked as an educator for the widowed Countess Luckner in Plön, whose stepdaughter he later married. His father had worked as a tutor in the countess's parents' house. Rochus von Liliencron , with whom Gardthausen was a close friend, was one of the Luckners' relatives .

In 1835/36 Gardthausen tried unsuccessfully for a pastor's position. Later statements suggest that he did not pursue this career aspiration very seriously. Instead, he tried his hand at being a freelance writer. From 1828 he wrote smaller works under his own name. Before that he had written poems that his father had published under his name in the yearbook "Eidora". In 1839 the first more extensive work was published with “Die Ostsee”. He dedicated the book to Christian August von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg . The book sold so successfully that a second edition appeared in 1847. King Christian VIII became aware of Gardthausen. When the king was in Kiel in September 1840, he asked to get to know the poet. During his rounds he promised him to finance a travel grant. After that he should get a job as a pastor.

Church in Ulkebüll

Gardthausen had his first marriage and continued to live with his wife with Countess Luckner. He received a first installment from the Fond ad Usus Publicos and traveled to Italy at the beginning of August 1841. His father unsuccessfully urged him to take the full two-year scholarship and write a travelogue for the king. Gardthausen, however, returned earlier. From February to June 1842 he lived in Berlin. In July 1842 he moved to his wife in Kappeln. Here he was initially without income. He tried in vain to get a pastor's position. In February 1843 he applied for a professorship for aesthetics and national literature at the University of Kiel, but did not get the position. In June 1844, a royal decree gave him the second compastorate of Barmstedt . The pay was relatively bad. Since Gardthausen criticized Christian VIII in an "open letter" in 1846, he probably prevented his promotion himself. In 1846, Duke Christian August helped him to the parish of Ulkebüll. This was one of the most highly endowed in the region. Here he worked from November 1846 until the end of his life.

Works

Gardthausen initially wrote lyrical poems and occasional poems. He also wrote sacred poems, one of which was included in Claus Harms' collection of songs, "Songs for Communal Prayer". Then he wrote "The Baltic Sea", which was the sole reason for his interim reputation as a writer. Gardthausen followed George Gordon Byron's "Don Juan" . In 1841 he designed the "Antonello" in a similar way. In 1851 he wrote the political one-act play "The Ministerial Congress" under a pseudonym. Both works were unsuccessful and are not significant in terms of literary history. In addition, he mostly created political poetry in the style of Friedrich Rückert or Emanuel Geibel . He showed humorous tendencies and produced works that are, if at all, interesting for political history.

Political commitment

Gardthausen initially advocated a nationwide Danish state. From his early works such as “Ostsee” it can be seen that he emphasized being German and Schleswig-Holstein at the same time. After his “Open Letter” he showed himself to be much more separatist, albeit only a little anti-Danish. In July 1848 he ran for the Schleswig-Holstein State Assembly , in which he represented constituency II (Elmshorn) until 1851. In 1848 in particular, he spoke as a speaker on key issues, such as the question of whether the provisional government was legitimate.

After the Schleswig-Holstein uprising ended , Gardthausen criticized the policies of the great powers and Prussia. He wrote a "Ministerial Congress" and anonymous poems that were to be read in 1862 in particular in the "North German Border Messenger". At the beginning of January 1864 he wrote an open letter which the newspaper "National Party" published. In it he spoke out in favor of the homage events that took place in Schleswig-Holstein for Frederick VIII of Schleswig-Holstein and were directed against the disapproval expressed by the federal commissioners in Altona on December 26, 1863.

In January 1864, Gardthausen visited the state deputation of the state committee of the Schleswig-Holstein clubs in Frankfurt and Munich. During the events he appeared repeatedly as a speaker. At the meeting in Munich, he and four other MPs submitted a petition to the state deputation to King Maximilian II . After Prussia had annexed the duchies, Gardthausen, who was clearly on the side of the Augustenburger, wrote in 1868: “We Schleswig-Holsteiners are now Prussians, if not from our hearts, then with our heads”. During his time as a pastor on Als in a congregation whose members mostly spoke Danish, he tried to mediate between Germans and Danes. So he gave sermons in excellent Danish.

family

Gardthausen married on October 22, 1840 in Preetz Constanze Adelaide Seidel (born January 20, 1809 in Glückstadt , † January 8, 1862 in Barmstedt ). Her father Johann Ernst Seidel (1765–1832) came from Markbreit , worked as mayor of Glückstadt and was married to Auguste Amalie, née Dittmer from Kiel. Gardthausen's first marriage resulted in at least two daughters and three sons.

In his second marriage, Gardthausen married Adamine Helene Luise Countess von Luckner (born February 11, 1828) on November 25, 1864 in Barmstedt , with whom he had a daughter. Her father Ferdinand Graf von Luckner (1797-1836) was a Danish cavalry captain and owner of Fideikommiss at Schulenburg. His first marriage was to Mathilde, née Countess zu Stolberg-Stolber (1803-1830) from Plön . In his second marriage, von Luckner married Sophie de Chaufepié (1804–1887) from Hamburg .

literature

• Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 143-146.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 143.
2. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 143.
3. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 144.
4. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 144.
5. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 144.
6. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, pp. 144-145.
7. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 145.
8. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 145.
9. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 145.
10. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 143.
11. ^ Hartwig Moltzow: Gardthausen, Gustav . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1987, p. 143.