Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern

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Hans Christoph von Gagern
Hofgut of the Gagern family and the Alte Martinskirche in Hornau
Grave of Charlotte and Hans Christoph von Gagern

Hans Christoph Ernst Freiherr von Gagern (born January 25, 1766 in Kleinniedesheim near Worms , † October 22, 1852 in Hornau near Frankfurt ) was a statesman and political writer .

Life

He came from the old Rügen noble family von Gagern , which his great-grandfather Claudius Mauritius von Gagern had transplanted to southern Germany. Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern was born at Kleinniedesheim Palace , the son of the Palatinate-Zweibrückischen privy councilor and chief court master Karl Christoph Gottlieb von Gagern (1743-1825) and his wife Susanne Esther Laroche von Starkenfels. The father was of the Lutheran denomination, the mother a Calvinist. The Catholic priest Ernst von Gagern was his half-brother.

In Worms he went to school with the Jesuits. From 1778 he attended the grammar school in Zweibrücken and from 1779 the École militaire in Colmar . In 1781 he began studying law and political science in Leipzig and Göttingen . In April 1785 he entered the Palatinate-Zweibrücken civil service as a government assessor in Zweibrücken, where his father was chief steward . In 1787 he moved to the Nassau-Weilburg state service as a councilor in the royal seat of Kirchheim am Donnersberg and was promoted to chief minister and supreme court president in 1788 as the successor to Friedrich Ludwig von Botzheim . In 1791 he was envoy to the Reichstag , from 1801 a Nassau negotiator in Paris and soon afterwards privy councilor and regional president . Napoleon's I decree that no one born on the left bank of the Rhine outside of France was allowed to hold a public office, forced him to retire from civil service in 1811. He went to Vienna , where he was in contact with Josef von Hormayr and Archduke Johann and worked on the drafts for the new uprising of the Tyroleans in 1812. Therefore, he was expelled from Austria in 1813 and went to the Prussian-Russian headquarters. In 1813 he was a member of the board of directors for the liberated German territories under Freiherr vom Stein .

He then moved to England, where he entered the service of the Prince of Orange and participated in his restitution in the Netherlands . The new king of the Netherlands appointed him the leading minister of the four Orange principalities in Germany with his seat in Dillenburg .

In 1815 he took as an envoy of the King of the Netherlands at the Congress of Vienna in part and obtained through close connection to England and Austria, the magnification of the new Kingdom of the Netherlands by the Belgian provinces and the establishment of the Duchy of Nassau as oranischer central state between Prussia and France , which he to 1818 represented as Dutch envoy to the German Bundestag .

Retired in 1818, he privatized his estate Hornau near Höchst am Main . He wrote memoranda about the history, present and future of the German states and was in lively correspondence with many well-known contemporaries. From 1820 to 1824 he was a member of the second chamber of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse for the constituency of Pfeddersheim . From 1829 he was a lifelong member of the First Chamber of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. As a member of parliament, he propagated patriotic and philanthropic projects. Until 1847 there was hardly a meeting of the estates in which Gagern did not submit an application. Although he had earlier rejected the idea of ​​representation in the Bundestag, he welcomed the Frankfurt National Assembly .

He is buried next to his wife in the listed family grave in Hornau.

Political positions

Von Gagern represented moderate national liberal positions. When the French Revolution broke out , he recognized that it was justified. Against the background of the revolution and the following Napoleonic era, he pushed for a political unification of Germany, also with a view to the military struggle against France. In view of the contrast between Austria and Prussia, he assigned a pioneering role to the third Germany of the medium-sized and small states. In principle, however, he spoke out in favor of peace between the German states and France. In 1795, for example, under the pseudonym "Peter the Hermit", he designed the project for a joint colonization of the Mediterranean region and America. He later pleaded in the German Federation for the introduction estates of the land constitutions .

family

Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern married Caroline (called: Charlotte) Freiin von Gaugreben (1776–1881) on December 7, 1793 . The couple had 7 sons and 3 daughters, including:

⚭ 1828 Louise von Pretlack († February 24, 1831)
⚭ 1839 Barbara Tillmann (1818–1889)
  • Moritz (August 18, 1808; † January 2, 1877), MP ⚭ 1838 Freiin Biebrich Auguste von Wintzingerode (* March 10, 1812; † July 14, 1843)
  • Maximilian (born March 25, 1810 - † October 17, 1889), diplomat and politician
⚭ 1835 Franzina Lambert (vom Cap) (1815–1849)
⚭ 1853 Dorothea Biedenweg (1824–1890)

Works

In addition to his autobiographical memoirs ( Mein Antheil an der Politik. 5 (in 6) volumes. Cotta et al., Stuttgart et al. 1823–1845), which provide a vivid picture of the Napoleonic era and the diplomatic situation during the wars of freedom, are to be emphasized:

  • The results of the moral history. 9 volumes. 1808-1847;
    • Vol. 1: The princes. Wilmans et al., Frankfurt am Main 1808;
    • Vol. 2: The rulers or aristocrats. Anton Strauss, Vienna 1812;
    • Vol. 3: Democracy. Wilmans et al., Frankfurt am Main 1816;
    • Vol. 4: Politics or states' constitutions. Cotta Tübingen et al. 1819;
    • Vol. 5/6: Friendship and love. Cotta, Stuttgart et al. 1822;
    • Vol. 7/9: Home, work and property or the family. 1: Civilization. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1847.
  • The national history of the Germans. Strauss, Vienna 1813;
    • Vol. 1: From the ancient times to the Goths under Hermanrich. 1813
  • The national history of the Germans. The great hikes. From the disturbance of the Goths on the Danube to the Frankish Empire. 2 volumes. Wilmans, Frankfurt am Main 1825–1826.
  • Critique of International Law. With practical application to our time. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1840.

literature

  • Rudolf Fendler: Hans Christoph von Gagern. In: Kurt Baumann (Hrsg.): Pfälzer Lebensbilder (= publications of the Palatinate Society for the Promotion of Science in Speyer. Vol. 96). Volume 6 edited by Hartmut Harthausen. Publishing house of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science in Speyer, Speyer 2001, ISBN 3-932155-18-1 , p. 103 ff.
  • Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. An encyclopedia of common knowledge. Volume 6: Faidit - Assistant. 4th, completely revised edition, new impression. Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig et al. 1888, p. 827 .
  • Hans Georg Ruppel, Birgit Groß: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (2nd Chamber) and the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse (= Darmstädter Archivschriften. Vol. 5). Verlag des Historisches Verein für Hessen, Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-922316-14-X , p. 106.
  • Wolf-Heino Struck : The pursuit of civil liberty and national unity from the point of view of the Duchy of Nassau . In: Nassauische Annalen , 77th Volume, 1966. pp. 142-216.
  • Heinrich von Treitschke : Historical and political essays. Volume 1: Characters, mainly from recent German history. 4th, increased edition. Hirzel, Leipzig 1871.
  • Paul Wentzke:  Gagern, Hans Christoph Ernst von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 31 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Karl Wippermann:  Gagern, Hans Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, pp. 303-307.
  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses for the year 1861, p.188f

Web links

Commons : Hans Christoph Ernst von Gagern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.angelfire.com/realm/gotha/gotha/hzn7.html
  2. ↑ Only volume 1 appeared in this edition. See: Michael O. Krieg: More not published. A list of unfinished printed works. Volume 1: A - L (= Bibliotheca bibliographica. Vol. 2, 1, ZDB -ID 407143-8 ). Krieg, Vienna 1954, p. 245.
personal data
SURNAME Gagern, Hans Christoph Ernst from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gagern, Hans Christoph Ernst Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Statesman and political writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1766
PLACE OF BIRTH Kleinniedesheim
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1852
Place of death Hornau