Theodor von Schön

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H. Theodor v. Nice

Heinrich Theodor von Schön (born January 20, 1773 in Schreitlaugken , Tilsit district ; † July 23, 1856 at Gut Arnau near Königsberg i. Pr. ) Was a Prussian statesman.

Life

Theodor von Schön was born as the third of six siblings in an old domain tenant family. His mother was Johanna Dorothea geb. Dallmer from Plicken near Memel (died on October 22, 1815 in Obstainen) and his father Johann Theodor von Schön (1744–1796), councilor in Schreitlaucken. His grandfather Gottfried Theodor von Schön (1704–1770) was already a war councilor and domain tenant of the Schreitlaucken estate near Heydekrug . His ancestors on his father's side also include Johannes Schön, who died in the siege of Kaunas by the Teutonic Order in 1362, and Hans Schön, who died in the Battle of Tannenberg (1410) .

Youth and education

Schön spent the first 16 years of his life screaming. He was trained by private tutors. From 1788 he attended the law faculty in Königsberg and devoted himself to detailed philosophical studies with Immanuel Kant, who was a friend of his father . After the end of the course, he switched to political science because he realized that he was not interested in law. From 1792 to 1793 he completed a practical year in the Tapiau domain office . In 1793 he entered the Prussian civil service as a trainee lawyer at the Königsberg War and Domain Chamber and was accepted as a Freemason in Königsberg. In 1795 he became a chamber assessor at the court in Berlin. In 1796 he passed the Great State Exam there.

Political career

Heinrich Theodor von Schön in Cologne

In 1796 Heinrich Theodor Schön undertook an educational trip through Germany and in 1798 to England and Scotland. This trip left a lasting impression on him: “It was through England that I became a statesman”. After his return in 1799, he started working at the War and Domain Chamber in Białystok . This city had belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for centuries and fell to Prussia when the Polish partition was last . In 1802 Schön Geh. Finance Council in the General-Ober-Finanz-War- und Domainen -dirium zu Berlin. In 1806 he followed the royal court to Königsberg. The Combined Immediatkommission wrote an expert opinion on hereditary servitude, the content of which was incorporated into the law on the abolition of serfdom , the so-called October Edict of 1807, issued by Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein . Stein's “Political Testament” also belongs to the Schön draft. After Stein's resignation, Schön joined the newly formed government as head of the state economic department, but soon resigned after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon and joined the reformers, whose aim was to strengthen the state through social and administrative reforms to save from ruin.

Schön returned to Königsberg and in 1809 took over the regional council of Litthauen zu Gumbinnen , which he led until 1816 with two short interruptions, and despite the difficult times of war he successfully managed the administration of his district. When in 1813, soon after the conclusion of the Yorck armistice, Russian troops marched into the province of Prussia and threatened to occupy the eastern parts, Schön countered this and caused Stein to call for General Filippo Paulucci to be recalled. On May 15, 1813 Schön became governor general of the country between the Vistula and the Russian border, then a member of the administrative council of the German provinces occupied by the Allies, but returned to his previous position in Gumbinnen in May.

In 1816 Theodor von Schön by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. appointed Upper President of West Prussia and in 1824, after this province was amalgamated with East Prussia , Upper President of the entire Province of Prussia with its seat in Königsberg. Theodor von Schön had been friends with Eichendorff , who was assigned to the Protestant chief president as a “Catholic council”, since his Danzig years . When Schön moved to Königsberg, Eichendorff followed Schön and headed the Catholic school and church department in the Prussian high presidium. The philosopher Karl Rosenkranz also belonged to Schön's circle of friends, who read to each other and debated with one another in his house .

Around 1835, von Schön was involved in the process of the pietistic circle around the Königsberg pastors Johann Wilhelm Ebel and Georg Heinrich Diestel , which was slandered as the "Muckerbewbewegung" .

When the throne changed in 1840, the province of Prussia was the first to reopen the Prussian constitutional question. Schön supported this with his critical-liberal memorandum Woher und woin ? , which was initially only circulated privately . which the Vormärz politician Georg Fein published together with his own afterword; the memorandum caused a sensation. Schön was appointed Minister of State while retaining his post as Upper President and was repeatedly called to Berlin. But his free-thinking, strictly philosophical views were so inconsistent with those of Friedrich Wilhelm IV that he resigned from civil service in 1842. "If there is one personality who embodied the Königsberg Enlightenment in its intention to be practical philosophy and thus counteracted Berlin neo-absolutism, then it is this" poetic statesman "(Rosenkranz), this" radical Kantian "(Rothfels), this »Pater Borussiae« (Gause). ”Under the impression of the dismissal, Eichendorff wrote the poem Der brave Schiffer (When Heinrich Theodor von Schön retired from civil service) , which was also included in the commemorative publication on Theodor von Schön's 50th anniversary in 1843.

In 1848, Schön officiated as a symbolic figure of the reform era as senior president at the first session of the Prussian National Assembly .

In the year of Theodor von Schön's retirement, his supporters organized themselves and looked for ways to honor his services in Prussia. The list included more than a thousand names. For his 70th birthday, the circle of his admirers erected an obelisk next to the art academy in Königsberg.

The king appointed Theodor von Schön burgrave of Marienburg , whose castle he had begun to restore. Since then, Schön has lived on the Preussisch-Arnau estate near Königsberg, which he acquired in 1827, and died there on July 23, 1856.

The appreciation Theodor von Schön enjoyed in East Prussia after his death is shown by the national monument, unveiled in Memel in 1907 , erected on the 100th anniversary of the October Edict published there and the temporary relocation of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and Queen Luise to Memel during the Fourth Coalition War in 1807. One of the eight assistant busts of Prussian celebrities surrounding the monument is the bust of Theodor von Schön.

The place of his last rest was unknown for many decades. His wife and daughter were buried under a block of granite, the whereabouts of which are unknown. In 1993, the von Schön family crypt was found during clean-up work on the Katharinenkirche in Arnau. After the excavation work was completed, Theodor von Schön was buried again and a granite block with German and Russian inscriptions was erected as a grave and memorial.

The Königsberger Schönstrasse named after him has been called Generala-Sommera-Strasse , Kaliningrad , since 1946 .

Contact with Napoleon

Theodor von Schön's autobiography mentions a conversation with Napoleon that took place during his stay in Gumbinnen, before the attack on Russia. Napoleon was interested in the administration and history of the country: “ Then he went over to the history of Prussia, asked about various circumstances about the conquest of the country by the German order and asserted that the old Prussians must have been Slavs. I allowed myself to contradict this completely. The emperor did not want to let go of his opinion and at the end referred me to the map, where the location of the country gives evidence of his opinion. I repeated that our news shows the opposite and that the old Prussians were a very different original tribe from the Slavs ”. After this conversation one of Napoleon's chamberlain approached Theodor von Schön and asked him to give the date when the order had conquered the country. Napoleon wanted to transport the grain stored in stores for his Russian campaign from Białystok to Kaunas and have it ground there, assuming that there were mills there. Von Schön let him know that there weren't enough mills there. Overall, he was rather critical of France. In a letter from 1812 he said: " We hated Asian apathy no less than French despotism ."

Of Schön and his "beloved Litthauen"

Theodor von Schön set up the region's first public library in Gumbinnen and suggested the publication of the first regional newspaper, “Intellektivenblatt für Litthauen”. The "Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language", published by Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann in 1851, was dedicated to him. In 1811 the teachers' college was founded in Karalene near Insterburg during his reign. Teachers for the Lithuanian elementary schools were also trained there and courses in the Lithuanian language were offered until 1882. The maintenance of the Lithuanian language in schools and offices during Schön's reign was the subject of controversial public debate. The same applied to the maintenance of the Lithuanian and Polish seminars at the University of Königsberg as part of the educational reform of 1809.

After Schöns was dismissed, there were immediate attempts to remove the Lithuanian language from schools. In spite of differences of opinion with the incumbent school councilor Gustav Friedrich Dinter, von Schön appointed the teacher Eduard Gisevius as a teacher at the Royal Litthau Provincial School , who began his work on April 1, 1825. Soon he was allowed to teach Lithuanian in high school. As a result, Gisevius worked to preserve the Lithuanian language in schools. Gisevius complained to the king about the discontinuation of the Lithuanian language as a subject in schools and obtained the withdrawal of this regulation. It was not until 1873 that the Lithuanian language was finally banned from schools as a subject.

family

Grave of Theodor von Schön

In 1802 he married Lydia von Auerswald (1785–1807), the daughter of Chamber President Hans Jakob von Auerswald from Marienwerder (West Prussia) . After her death (from typhus in 1807) he married Amalie von Langenau in 1808 , a daughter of Lieutenant General Bernhard von Langenau (1737-1794) from the Electoral Saxony . From the first marriage there are two sons and a daughter, of whom only one survived.

  • Hans Robert Theodor (born September 20, 1803; † December 8, 1877), Lord of Groß-Dirleben ⚭ Karoline Kirsch

The second marriage has four sons and four daughters, including:

  • Malvine (born June 21, 1810 - † January 4, 1852)
  • Alexander Bernhard Theodor (* December 28, 1819 - † February 25, 1884) ⚭ Ida Beatrice von Seebach (* March 2, 1821; † January 29, 1915)
  • Herrmann (* August 24, 1821; † April 10, 1900), Prussian Colonel ⚭ 1853 Charlotte von Knobelsdorff (* December 4, 1831; † December 15, 1901), from the Popschütz family
  • Lydia Wilhelmine (December 27, 1812 - March 22, 1861) ⚭ Kurt von Bardeleben (1796–1854), Prussian politician
  • Johanna Auguste (* March 12, 1815; † April 26, 1892) ⚭ Siegfried von Brünneck-Bellschwitz (1814–1871), Prussian district administrator
  • Anna (February 11, 1817 - April 9, 1902) ⚭ Freiherr Hugo von Esebeck (1818–1880), son of Karl August Ludwig Hans von Esebeck

Works

  • From where and where , GL Schuler, Strasbourg 1842 (edited and with an afterword by Georg Fein)
  • Personal writings. Volume 1: The Autobiographical Fragments. Edited by Bernd Sösemann, edited by Albrecht Hoppe, Böhlau, Cologne 2006. ISBN 978-3-412-23305-1 .

literature

  • Christopher Clark : Prussia. Rise and fall. 1600-1947. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-05392-3 .
  • Alice Klausa: I'm eagerly awaiting the morning post. Amalie and Theodor von Schön's correspondence from the War of Liberation (1813) . Böhlau, Cologne 2005. ISBN 3-412-20005-0 .
  • The jubilee of the Minister of State v. Schön on June 8th, 1843. Voigt, Königsberg 1843. Digitized
  • Ernst Leyde: The Minister of State von Schön. Traits from his life, his work and his time . CL Rautenburg & Sohn, Mohrungen and Königsberg, 2nd edition 1859/1860.
  • Jurgis Mališauskas: Theodor von Schön and his "beloved Litthauen" . In: Annaberger Annalen über Lithuania and German-Lithuanian Relations 12 (2004), pp. 123–132. ISSN  1614-2608 .
  • Jürgen Manthey : Königsberg. History of a world citizenship republic . Hanser, Munich 2005. ISBN 3-446-20619-1 . In it the chapter Kantians and statesman (Theodor von Schön) , pp. 424–431.
  • Wilhelm Maurenbrecher :  Nice, Theodor von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, pp. 781-792.
  • Prussian statesmen , Vol. 3: Nice . Wigand, Leipzig 1842. Digitized
  • Hans Rothfels : Theodor v. Schön, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. And the revolution of 1848 . Niemeyer, Halle 1937. (= writings of the Königsberg learned society, humanities class, vol. 13,2)
  • Johannes Sembritzki: The Upper President of Schön and the city of Memel . In: Old Prussian Monthly Journal 37 (1900), pp. 245–282.
  • Bernd Sösemann:  Nice, Theodor von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 378-380 ( digitized version ).
  • Bernd Sösemann (Ed.): Theodor von Schön. Studies on biography and historiography . Böhlau, Cologne 1996 (= publications from the archives of Prussian cultural property, vol. 42). ISBN 3-412-12295-5 .
  • Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses 1907. First year, S.689f

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Probably in the lodge Zum Todtenkopf and Phoenix
  2. ↑ Joseph von Eichendorff: Poets and their journeymen . In: Ders .: Works in six volumes . Edited by Wolfgang Frühwald . Vol. 3. Stories . Edited by Brigitte Schillbach and Hartwig Schultz . Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-618-60130-1 , p. 682.
  3. ^ Jürgen Manthey: Königsberg. History of a world citizenship republic . Hanser, Munich 2005, p. 426.
  4. ^ Hermann Dembowski : Afterword . In: Karl Rosenkranz: Königsberg Sketches , Nicolai, Berlin 1991 (= German Library of the East), ISBN 3-87584-383-5 , p. 172.
  5. ↑ Christopher Clark : Prussia. Rise and fall. 1600-1947. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, p. 487.
  6. ↑ Cf. Dieter Lent: Finding aid for the holdings of the estate of the democrat Georg Fein (1803–1869) and the Fein family (1737–) approx. 1772-1924 . Lower Saxony Archive Administration, Wolfenbüttel 1991, p. 88 with further references. ISBN 3-927495-02-6 .
  7. ^ Jürgen Manthey: Königsberg. History of a world citizenship republic . Hanser, Munich 2005, p. 424.
  8. ^ Günther Schiwy : Eichendorff. The poet in his time. A biography . CH Beck, Munich, 2nd edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54963-2 , p. 559.
  9. ^ Sibylle Einholz: Peter Breuer (1856–1930), a sculptor between tradition and modernity . Dissertation. Free University, Berlin 1984, p. 168.
  10. ↑ Alexander von Brünneck: Theodor von Schön in portraits and monuments . In: Bernd Sösemann (ed.): Theodor von Schön. Studies on biography and historiography . Böhlau, Cologne 1996, pp. 141–153.
  11. ^ Parish Kraupischken - Breitenstein: "Home in the Heart", obituary for Beate Volkerding / By Dr. Sigurd Zillmann, on http://www.tilsitragnit.de/breitenstein/brpers_beatevolkerding1.html [19. November 2007].
  12. ↑ From the papers of the minister and burgrave of Marienburg Theodor von Schön. Lippert, Halle 1875, p. 4.
  13. ↑ From the papers of the minister and burgrave of Marienburg Theodor von Schön. Lippert, Halle 1875, p. 78.
  14. ↑ From the papers of the minister and burgrave of Marienburg Theodor von Schön. Lippert, Halle 1875, pp. 73–74.
  15. ↑ From the papers of the minister and burgrave of Marienburg Theodor von Schön. Lippert, Halle 1875, p. 85.
  16. ↑ Jurgis Mališauskas: Theodor von Schön and his "beloved Litthauen" . In: Annaberger Annalen über Lithuania and German-Lithuanian Relations 12 (2004), pp. 123–132, here p. 123.
personal data
SURNAME All right, Theodor von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schön, Heinrich Theodor von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1773
PLACE OF BIRTH Schreitlaugken , Tilsit district
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1856
Place of death Gut Arnau near Königsberg , East Prussia