Heinrich Medicus

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Colonel Heinrich Medicus

Heinrich Medicus (born August 18, 1743 in Atzbach , † September 2, 1828 in Lichtenau ) was a colonel from Baden and a collector of sagas.

Life

family

Medicus was a son of the Nassau-Weilburg bailiff Johann Reinhard Medicus and Rosina Margaretha Medicus née Thoma. He married Anna Beata Heinsius (1755-1802) on January 10, 1771, with whom he had 14 children. In 1803 he married Christina Magdalena Dietrich († 1827) for the second time.

Military career

In 1759 he joined the Hesse-Kassel Army as an ensign and in 1763 he switched to the Prussian Army and in 1780 finally joined the Army of Baden as a captain . There he advanced to Rittmeister in 1791. In January / February 1792 Medicus was in command of the Kehl Fortress .

In 1793, as adjutant and war correspondent, he accompanied the second son of Margrave Karl Friedrich , Friedrich, on his trip to the headquarters of the Dutch Hereditary Prince Wilhelm Friedrich of Orange-Nassau . In the 1793 campaign of the First Coalition War against the French Republic, Wilhelm commanded the Dutch troops, which also included a Baden contingent. After the lost battle at Menin , Margrave Friedrich and his adjutant traveled back to Karlsruhe.

In 1794 Medicus was involved as a major in the establishment of the Baden Landmiliz and in 1800 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. On March 1, 1805, he was retired due to physical incapacity and at the same time appointed Colonel of the Hussar Corps.

Collector and poet

Medicus was in contact with Luise Karoline von Hochberg, the second wife of the Baden Grand Duke Karl Friedrich . He dedicated his collection of legends to her, which he wrote down in 30 notebooks between 1800 and 1807, but which were never printed in this form. He wrote 24 of his booklets shortly after his retirement in 1800 and 1801, which he handed over to the Duchess of Hochberg at the beginning of each month. He must have started collecting while he was still on duty. After 1811 he wrote hardly anything that can be ascribed to increasing blindness, which was complete by 1814 at the latest.

Of the 30 stories, which he himself mostly calls “Volcksmaehrgen” (folk tales), about half are from areas of the Grand Duchy of Baden . Nevertheless, August Schnezler's collection was highlighted in the preface to his own collection of sagas as the first Baden collection of its kind. Due to his early collection of folk tales, medicus is also seen as the forerunner of the Brothers Grimm , whose collection of fairy tales appeared in 1812. The handwritten booklets are now summarized in three volumes, which are in the possession of the Baden State Library.

Mone has printed a collection of sagas which he attributes to the initiative of Grand Duke Leopold , but which is said to come from the pen of Heinrich Medikus. The collection published by Mone has been lost and it only partially (14 of the 30 sagas) corresponds to the collection of Medikus, which is apparently a copy of the booklet that Medikus had given the Countess. Grand Duke Leopold probably had the collection from his mother's estate. In this estate, parts of the collection were probably missing, while on the other hand it was supplemented by other legends.

Medicus also left around 120 handwritten poems that are grouped in one volume in the family archive and have not yet been published. One of these poems is reprinted in a modernized form by Decker.

Honors

Medicus was buried in the Lichtenau cemetery. The Heimatverein Lichtenau founded in 1986 is named after Heinrich Medicus, Heimatverein Medicus eV, Lichtenau . In Lichtenau a street was named after Medicus.

Works

literature

  • Ernst Decker: Heinrich Medicus on the 250th birthday. In: Die Ortenau: Journal of the Historical Association for Middle Baden, 73rd annual volume. 1993, pp. 589–594 digitized version of the Freiburg University Library
  • Adolf Hirth: Heinrich Medicus. The versatile hussar colonel. In: Rastatt district. Heimatbuch 1982, pp. 103-127
  • August Feßler: Heinrich Medicus. A collector of sagas from Baden. In: Die Ortenau: Journal of the Historical Association for Central Baden, Issue 27, 1940, pp. 128–139, digitized version of the Freiburg University Library
  • Leopold Oelenheinz : From the Medicus family (doctor) II. In: Heraldic-genealogical sheets for noble and bourgeois genders Monthly for the care of heraldry, genealogy, sphragistics, epitaphics, diplomatics, numismatics and cultural history, 2nd year (1905) No. 7 , Pp. 112-117 in the Internet Archive
  • Heinrich Medicus: Correction to page 117. In: Heraldic-genealogical sheets for noble and bourgeois genders Monthly for the maintenance of heraldry, genealogy, sphragistics, epitaphics, diplomatics, numismatics and cultural history, 2nd year (1905) No. 9, p. 156 in the Internet Archive
  • J. Siebmacher's large and general book of arms: in a new, fully ordered and richly increased edition with heraldic and historical-genealogical explanations; Author / Editor: Sieber, Johann; Hefner, Otto Titan von; Heyer von Rosenfeld, Friedrich; Siebmacher, Johann; Hefner, Otto Titan von; Heyer von Rosenfeld, Friedrich, Bauer & Raspe, Nuremberg, 1873, p. 43 digitized version of the Bavarian State Library
  • Karl August Ferdinand von Wechmar: Handbook for Baden and his servants or directory of all Baden from the year 1790 to 1840, together with an addendum to 1845 , Heidelberg 1846, p. 64 digitized version of the Baden State Library

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Medicus, Heinrich", in: Hessian Biography (as of September 2, 2013)
  2. ↑ see Feßler
  3. ^ See Karl Gustav Fecht : History of the capital and residence city of Karlsruhe, Macklot, Karlsruhe 1887, p. 142 in the Internet Archive
  4. ↑ see Hans Müller: Hans Müller: Badische Fürstenbildnisse , second volume, Karlsruhe 1893, to plate 1 online in the Baden state library
  5. ↑ Folk tales in 30 volumes; Baden State Library; Baden-Baden Castle Library; also contains a listing of the 30 stories.
  6. ↑ see Decker, p. 593
  7. ↑
    Wikisource: Foreword by the editor (Badisches Sagen-Buch)  - sources and full texts
  8. ↑ see Baas
  9. ^ Franz Josef Mone : Badische Volkssagen. In: Anzeiger für Kunde des deutschen Mittelalter, 3rd year (1834), column 87–93 [1]
  10. ↑ see Decker pp. 593/594
personal data
SURNAME Medicus, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colonel from Baden and collector of sagas
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1743
PLACE OF BIRTH Atzbach (Hesse)
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1828
Place of death Lichtenau (Baden)