Gustav von Flotow

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Gustav von Flotow

Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Christian Ferdinand von Flotow (born January 8, 1789 in Bayreuth , † April 29, 1864 in Dresden ) was a royal Saxon Privy Councilor and director of the Economic Society in the Kingdom of Saxony in Dresden.

Life

Gustav von Flotow comes from the Mecklenburg noble family Flotow , which has been documented since 1241. His parents were the Prussian chamberlain and first chamber director Helmuth Heinrich Gustav von Flotow (* September 24, 1741, † September 17, 1797) and his wife Magdalene Dorothea Charlotte, née von Benckendorff (1748-1797). The couple married in 1773 and lived first in Arzberg , later on Gut Schlottenhof with Magdalene's parents. The father served in the Seven Years' War and in Bohemia in 1778/79 . At the end of 1781 he retired from the military and took up a position as a landscape councilor in Bayreuth in 1783 , where his wife and children did not follow him until 1785.

Gustav von Flotow was born on January 8, 1789 in Bayreuth as the eleventh child of his parents, with four of the siblings having died at an early age. His father died on September 17, 1797. His mother could not get over the loss of her husband and died in December of the same year, so that von Flotow and his siblings were orphans. Von Flotow was brought up in his youth by Captain von Lindenfels in Neustadt am Kulm , a relative of his brother-in-law Adam Friedrich Christian Karl von Lindenfels, whom his eldest sister Caroline had married in 1796.

He married Marianne von Lindenfels (born June 17, 1797) in Thumsenreuth on October 27, 1818 , the eldest daughter of his eldest sister Caroline. The couple had two daughters: Ludmilla (* April 11, 1821 in Dresden; † October 6, 1884 in Blasewitz) and Karoline (* October 7, 1830 in Dresden, † October 1, 1882 in Blasewitz). Von Flotow's wife died in Dresden on December 6, 1833.

Gustav von Flotow died in Dresden on April 29, 1864.

In the gender census of the noble family von Flotow he bears the number 151. Gustav von Flotow was the youngest brother of the royal Bavarian chamberlain and cavalry general Georg Friedrich Carl von Flotow (* April 10, 1786, † 1876), who on January 4, 1829 in the Bavarian baron was raised and his grandson Ludwig Freiherr von Flotow (* 1867, † 1948) was the last Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary. His sister Caroline von Lindenfels (* 1774, † 1850) kept a diary from her early youth until shortly before her death, which gives insights into the everyday culture of the nobility in the 18th and 19th centuries. His cousin was the botanist Julius von Flotow .

education and profession

In 1807, Gustav von Flotow went to Erlangen to there cameralistics study. He continued his studies in Leipzig. After completing his studies, he took up a position at the Saxon office of Voigtsberg and at the Finance College in Dresden in 1810 , in order to later become official governor . Since he had special economic and building science knowledge, he was allowed to accompany the governor of Nostiz-Drzewicki on a commission trip in 1813. He was called in as an advisor when taking over the royal Schönfeld cask estate and assessing the Sedlitz estate , which had been badly damaged in the battle for Dresden and the retreat of the Allies. In 1814 he made his first independent commission trip to Kammergut Kappan , after which he was appointed to the chamber council . Due to his achievements in the field of Saxon domain affairs, he was promoted to the secret finance council in 1820 and was active in this task as a reporter in domain and building construction matters.

In 1820 he published a textbook on the assessment and evaluation of domain goods, which was followed by a second volume in 1822.

His work, Attempt at a Guide to the Appraisal of Plots According to Classen, also published in 1820 , especially for the purpose of real estate tax rectification. became the basis for the introduction of a new property tax system in Saxony. He conducted a survey at various economic institutions throughout Saxony, which was intended to provide an overview of the agricultural conditions in the state. To promote general and agricultural education, he set up libraries at the agricultural district associations and ensured the spread of popular reading establishments in Saxony. He initiated price suspension for improvements in cattle breeding.

In 1824 he was appointed deputy to the then State Economics, Manufacture and Commerce Deputation and in 1831 he was elected director of the Economic Society in the Kingdom of Saxony. In 1841 he was appointed director of the second department of the Ministry of Finance by King Friedrich August II . His tasks included the administration of state property and the supervision of the Bergakademie in Freiberg and the Academy for Foresters and Farmers in Tharandt . In 1849 he was appointed to the Privy Council.

In 1854 he finally retired after forty years of service.

Pomology

From Flotow's Butter Pear

Von Flotow's father already owned a large orchard in Bayreuth, in which he cultivated numerous types of pome fruit. This aroused his interest in nature and fruit growing, which he was already involved in as a teenager. During his studies in Leipzig, he therefore attended lectures in natural sciences as well as law.

In 1824 he bought a plot of land in Neustadt-Dresden , on which he grew numerous types of fruit in order to study their properties. He did all the work in his garden himself and never employed a gardener so that he could get to know the different varieties and their needs better. He obtained the trees from the reputable tree nurseries of the Baumann brothers in Bollwiller in France and from John Richmond Booth (1799–1847) in Flottbeck. He was in close contact with numerous other pomologists, including Franz Hermann Müschen from Belitz and Johann Georg Dittrich from Gotha; he exchanged Edelreiser with Eduard Lucas , Johann Georg Conrad Oberdieck and Georg Liegel and ended up with a collection with more than 1000 different types of fruit.

Since he had problems identifying his own varieties with the variety descriptions published in the pomological literature, he created his own detailed descriptions and sectional drawings. As a co-author he contributed numerous descriptions of varieties to the Illustrirten Handbuch der Obstkunde published in 1859. Among the pomologists of his time he was known as an expert connoisseur of varieties, whose critical judgment was recognized and valued.

Gustav von Flotow criticized the later refuted breeding theory of Jean-Baptiste van Mons early on . In his two-volume work Arbres fruitiers: leur culture en Belgique et leur propagation par la graine: ou, Pomonomie Belge, expérimentale et raisonnée. , which had found widespread use in Europe, the idea of successive regeneration , according to which types of fruit age in the course of several generations of vegetative propagation and the fruits show a decrease in quality. He was of the opinion that high-quality and high-performance types of fruit can only be obtained by constantly sowing seeds from the fruits of young trees. Von Flotow had recognized that many of the observations he had made about fruit cultivation could not be explained by van Mons's theory. He attributed the observations he made to deviations in the quality of the fruit not to aging of the variety, but more correctly to the influence of the regional climate and the local soil conditions.

Especially after retiring, he published numerous articles on fruit growing and cultivar knowledge in the Pomological monthly books , but also in the publications of the economic society in Dresden and the Agronomische Zeitung. Particularly close to his heart was the recommendation and dissemination of varieties in Saxony that he had tested for the regional climate. He gave Reiser the varieties that had proven themselves in his garden to the tree nursery of the Royal Garden in Dresden as well as to the agricultural teaching, experimental and model institute in Hohenheim , where the respective varieties were further cultivated, tested and distributed.

Honors

In 1825 von Flotow was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Civil Service Order. In 1844 he was appointed Comthur second class, in 1852 Comthur first class of the Civil Service Order.

Gustav von Flotow was an honorary member of the Saxon Society for Botany and Flora , of which he was a member of the foundation.

In honor of Gustav Flotow, the pomologist Georg Liegel named a Mirabelle variety he raised as Von Flotows Mirabelle . A pear variety bred by the Belgian fruit grower Jean-Baptiste van Mons was named Butter pear by JGC Oberdieck von Flotow in honor of Von Flotow and later described under the name Colmar Flotow .

Works

  • Attempt to provide instructions for the production of yield notices on estates, especially domains, as a regulation for the procedure for the appraisal of these goods and as an instruction for the notice commissioners , 1820.
  • Attempt to provide guidance on the appraisal of properties according to Classen, especially for the purpose of real estate tax rectification. CHF Hartmann, Leipzig 1820
  • The procedure for the production of the yield attacks on country estates, together with the associated technical uses, explained by examples. 2nd part of the instructions for the production of the Errags notices on country estates. CHF Hartmann, Leipzig 1822.
  • Contributions to the history of the von Flotow family. Dresden 1844.
  • Contributions to the statistics of the Kingdom of Saxony , 1846.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ B. Spies: The diary of Caroline von Lindenfels, b. von Flotow (1774–1850) - 'The life and experience of an Upper Franconian noblewoman at the end of the class society . Internationale Hochschulschriften, Volume 531, Waxmann Verlag, 2009, pp. 71f, ISBN 978-3-8309-2171-4
  2. ^ B. Spies: The diary of Caroline von Lindenfels, b. von Flotow (1774–1850) - 'The life and experience of an Upper Franconian noblewoman at the end of the class society . Internationale Hochschulschriften, Volume 531, Waxmann Verlag, 2009, p. 12, ISBN 978-3-8309-2171-4
  3. ^ G. von Flotow: Contributions to the history of the von Flotow family. Dresden 1844, p. 44
  4. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of noble houses. 1st year, Verlag Justus Perthes, Gotha 1900, p. 311
  5. ^ G. von Flotow: Contributions to the history of the von Flotow family. Dresden 1844, p. 43
  6. ^ B. Spies: The diary of Caroline von Lindenfels, b. von Flotow (1774–1850) - 'The life and experience of an Upper Franconian noblewoman at the end of the class society . Internationale Hochschulschriften, Volume 531, Waxmann Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8309-2171-4
  7. ^ W. Löbe: Flotow, Gustav von. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Historical commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (ed.), Volume 7 (1878), pp. 134–135
  8. ↑ G. von Flotow: Attempt to provide instructions for producing the yield notices on estates, especially domains, as a regulation for the procedure for appraising these goods and as an instruction for the stop commissioners , 1820.
  9. ↑ G. von Flotow: The procedure for the production of yield notices on estates, explained by examples , 1822.
  10. ↑ G. von Flotow: Attempt to provide instructions for the appraisal of properties according to Classen, especially for the purpose of property tax rectification. Hartmann, 1820
  11. ^ Privy Councilor G. v. Flotow. In: Monthly magazine for pomology and practical fruit growing. 5th year, Verlag von Ebner and Seubert, Stuttgart 1859, pp. 193–196
  12. ↑ F. Jahn, JGC Oberdieck and E. Lucas (eds.): Illustrirtes Handbuch der Obstkunde. , Volumes 1–8, published by Ebner & Seubert, later published by Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart from 1859
  13. ^ Eduard Lange: To remove confusion of names in pomology. In: Monthly magazine for pomology and practical fruit growing. 1st year, Verlag von Franz Köhler, Stuttgart 1855, pp. 311–313
  14. ^ Gustav von Flotow, Theodor Heinrich Otto Burchardt: XXV. New negotiations on Van Mons's theory of fruit growing. In: Negotiations of the Association for the Promotion of Horticulture in the Royal Prussian States. Volume 15, Berlin 1841, pp. 106-132
  15. ^ Jean-Baptiste van Mons: Arbres fruitiers: leur culture en Belgique et leur propagation par la graine: ou, Pomonomie Belge, expérimentale et raisonnée. Vol. 1 (1835) and 2 (1836), L. Dusart et H. Vandenbro, Louvain
  16. ↑ Special lectures: Relation of the results of some cultivation attempts of the Geh. Finanz-Rath v. Flotow. In: Writings and negotiations of the economic society in the Kingdom of Saxony. 38. Delivery, in Commission of the Arnoldische Buchhandlung, Dresden 1837, p. 66ff
  17. ^ Privy Councilor G. v. Flotow. In: Monthly magazine for pomology and practical fruit growing. 5th year, Verlag von Ebner and Seubert, Stuttgart 1859, p. 196
  18. ^ Privy Councilor G. v. Flotow. In: Monthly magazine for pomology and practical fruit growing. 5th year, Verlag von Ebner and Seubert, Stuttgart 1859, pp. 193–196
  19. ^ Directory of the members of the Flora, Society for Botany and Horticulture in Dresden of February 22, 1828, p. 1
  20. ↑ JGC Oberdieck: No. 165. From Flotow's Mirabelle. In: F. Jahn, JGC Oberdieck and E. Lucas (eds.): Illustrirtes Handbuch der Obstkunde. Volume 6: Steinobst, Verlag von Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1870, pp. 191f
  21. ↑ JGC Oberdieck: Instructions for the knowledge and planting of the best fruit for northern Germany. Manz, Regensburg 1852, p. 590
  22. ↑ G. von Flotow: No. 322. Colmar Flotow. In: F. Jahn, JGC Oberdieck and E. Lucas (eds.): Illustrirtes Handbuch der Obstkunde. Volume 5: Pears, Verlag der Dorn'schen Buchhandlung, Ravensburg 1866, pp. 143f.
personal data
SURNAME Flotow, Gustav von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flotow, Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Christian Ferdinand von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saxon privy councilor, director of the Dresden Economic Society
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Bayreuth
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1864
Place of death Dresden