Hugo Seemann (economist)

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Hugo Seemann 1908

Hugo Carl Friedrich Ludwig Seemann (born March 1, 1856 in his father's manor house in Spendin near Dobbertin , † February 9, 1932 in Rostock ) was a German activist of the Christian-socially oriented rural reform movement in Mecklenburg .

Life

Origin and family

Hugo Seemann was the son of Friedrich Christian Franz Seemann (1824–1892) and Louise Auguste Lisette Johanna Seemann, née Bade (1826–1879). He attended the cathedral school in Güstrow to obtain the secondary school leaving certificate and from 1869 switched to the grammar school in Waren (today Richard Wossidlo grammar school ). After school he did an apprenticeship with his father and worked as an economist on the leased property. In 1874/75 he did his military service as a one-year volunteer in Rostock. In the winter semester of 1875/76 he was enrolled in the field of "Economics" at the University of Rostock . He studied a. a. with Armin Graf zur Lippe-Weißenfeld , who had held the chair for crop production in Rostock since 1872 . During his studies he became a member of the Mecklenburgia Rostock Landsmannschaft .

In 1883 he married Caroline Friederike Alexandrine Henriette Kind (1859–1933), a daughter of the Real and Secret Upper Government Council and head of the Reichspostbauverwaltung August Kind , in Schöneberg near Berlin. At the same time he took over the paternal lease of the monastery estates Spendin and Kleesten .

The marriage resulted in 7 children, 5 boys and 2 girls.

Act

In 1884 he became a member of the German Agricultural Society , the establishment of which was initiated by Max Eyth at that time. After the lease expired in Spendin, Hugo Seemann applied for the newly advertised lease in Breesen on the border with Pomerania near Gnoien . On June 30, 1890, he took over the management of the lease in Breesen with the districts of Carlsthal and Eichenthal with a total area of ​​492.4 hectares. The estate was in a neglected condition. The residential buildings for the farm workers had to be renewed. In the Häuslerdorf Carlsthal with 62 people - originated from a former glassworks - the conditions were worst. The new tenant's focus was therefore initially on modernizing the existing building stock. First, the day laborers' cottages in Breesen were rebuilt, then the manor house was modernized and from 1908 ten new small business units, each one hectare in size (34 acres and 66 a meadows) were created in Carlsthal. For this purpose, the boggy Trebelwiesen were meliorated in coordination with the local administration and new residential buildings with stables were built on the basis of the building recommendations of the "Heimatbund". The landlord reported on this measure in the series "Landarbeit und Kleinbesitz" published by Richard Ehrenberg .

Ehrenberg, as a practitioner, increasingly included Hugo Seemann in his sociopolitical concept of "internal colonization" as a way of maintaining and retaining a local rural working class. Seemann published a number of articles on this topic and took an active part in related committees. In addition to the on-site improvements, the tenant - shaped by the current epidemic waves in the country - also introduced measures to protect the health of cattle (cattle insurance) and people (disinfection).

In 1906, the "Heimatbund", the first association for the protection of Mecklenburg culture and individuality, was founded, to which Hugo Seemann also belonged when it was founded (membership number 140). Within the framework of the "Heimatbund" (Heimatbund) there were increased efforts (Ehrenberg, Seemann and others) to orient it more broadly in the direction of practical welfare and homeland maintenance to reduce rural exodus. Inquiries to the Heimatbund in this regard were rejected with reference to the narrowing of "rural welfare", as the "Heimatbund", according to the statutes, aims to protect the homeland in town and country. So in the spring of 1908 a preparatory committee was formed, to which, in addition to Hugo Seemann, another twelve people belonged, in order to establish an independent "Mecklenburg State Association for Rural Welfare and Homeland Care" and to work out the call for founding. On May 6, 1908, the foundation of the association in Schwerin was completed, with Hugo Seemann being elected as a member of the entire board and then also as a member of the executive board consisting of six people. The first focus was on measures to promote settlement in order to counter the rural exodus. To this end, Hugo Seemann, together with his brother-in-law Alexander Kind and other people, founded a "Mecklenburg Construction and Settlement Cooperative" as a registered cooperative with limited liability and an office in Rostock. In addition, Hugo Seemann devoted himself to practical areas in the education and upbringing of the village youth, u. a. he promoted manual work (works) by specially trained teachers, as well as rural training in general.

Two events marked turning points in the tenant's work. On June 16, 1913, a fire on the estate destroyed most of the cattle and buildings. The fire had been started by a feeble shepherd servant who received his bread of grace in Breesen. This fire was then also the symbol of the approaching fire that was to devastate Europe. During the First World War, the personnel and material situation on the estates and villages deteriorated. Hugo Seemann devoted himself to everyday questions, for example which old means can be used to replace scarce goods and how the war-damaged and war widows can take over orphaned farms and manage them successfully. In this field he moved as a member of the State Committee for War Disabled Persons in Mecklenburg-Schwerin also at the national level in the Reich Committee of War Disabled Welfare in Berlin. During the war, the representatives of the Heimatbund ( Eugen Geinitz ), the State Association for Rural Welfare and Home Care (Hugo Seemann) and the Low German State Association Mecklenburg and Lübeck ( Richard Wossidlo ) send Low German home greetings to the front to mentally support the soldiers. From number 1 at Christmas 1916 to number 3 in the summer of 1917, Hugo Seemann had made larger notes in Platt about life in the local villages under the title "To Hus in Mecklenborg".

In 1918 - in poor health - he let his second eldest son Karl take over the lease as a manager, before he managed the estate himself from 1925 to 1943 as a tenant. In 1919 Hugo Seemann moved to the seaside town of Rostock in order to devote himself entirely to club work and scientific work in the circle around Richard Ehrenberg. His main work were the eight bound lectures on rural welfare, which he had given as part of a series of lectures by Ehrenberg at the Rostock women's school. In it he summarized his practical experience and theoretical considerations in the sense of the rural social reformers around Heinrich Sohnrey . On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Rostock University, he received an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty “for his services to bridging social differences in our country through rural welfare and homeland care, as well as for valuable intellectual work in the service of love for the homeland and the Mecklenburg people "

After the November Revolution and the state reorganization in the Weimar Republic, Hugo Seemann himself became chairman of the state association for rural welfare and homeland care. His endeavor was to deepen the effect of the association, which turned out to be difficult in view of the post-war situation. Nevertheless, the number of members, v. a. that of the corporate members, too. In addition, the contact between the regional association and new government agencies (welfare offices) was intensified. Finally, with the establishment of a farmer's college, a new form of advanced training for farmer's children was found. On his initiative, a land nursing school was set up to cover the need for nursing nurses. Hugo Seemann, on behalf of the state association, prepared a number of statements for legislative initiatives at the national and state levels.

In 1922 and 1923 he set the course for the future of the club-based homeland security as the club's chairman and its managing director. Hugo Seemann's aim was to bring together all the forces active in this field. Above all, the union with the "Heimatbund" was his declared will. But the differences in terms of both personnel and content could not be eliminated. Geinitz for the "Heimatbund" and Seemann for the regional association set out the positions in issue 4 of the association magazine "Die Heimat". Finally, in the next issue, the final rejection of the merger of the two associations was sealed but the prospect of closer cooperation on the matter. Presumably this was one of the reasons why Hugo Seemann resigned as chairman of the regional association at the board meeting on December 28, 1923. His successor was Burmeister from Schwerin, who was also the managing director of the Raiffeisen Association in Mecklenburg.

In 1926/27 Hugo Seemann turned to Freemasonry, possibly as a reaction to increasing militant nationalism. This turn goes hand in hand with the turning away from the regional association and above all from the farmers' college association, which fell more and more under the spell of the Aryan blood and soil propaganda of the ethnic wing about the new chairman priest. The date Hugo Seemann was accepted as a brother of the “United Lodge in Rostock” is not known. But as early as 1928 he appeared as the author of articles in the Logenblatt. He devoted himself in particular to the history of the Rostock Lodge, the history of which he presented as a monograph in 1930.

On the occasion of his death in 1932, he was honored as a long-time member of the " Low German Association for Rostock and Surroundings" by the obituary of Chairman Maaß as follows:

“The 'Plattdütsch Verein för Rostock and Umgebung' has chosen a few of their mates. - Well, we’re gonna go. With sien Hart is hei bet tauletzt bi us wäst. Dat süh'n ut dit lütt his poem, what we will print out here. Quite kort vör sinen Dod hett he dat schräwen un fastsett`, dat dat bis sinen Dod are sent in to the editors of 'Uns' plattdütsch Heimat'. - We print the poem here giern af, we are happy, dat dei oll Mr. vör sinen Dod to sin flat German Frünn` thought hett un promised, our Dr. Sailors and their work for the Meckelbörger Heimat never dew forgive. "

The family grave is located in the New Cemetery (Gräberfeld Ea) in Rostock, where his wife was buried a year after him and later their two daughters.

Awards

Fonts (selection)

  • Rural welfare in Mecklenburg. Lecture Berlin 1898.
  • Experience building a cottage industry. (= Agricultural work and small property, volume 7), Berlin 1909, pp. 27–32.
  • The war widows and war invalids in the country. From Ökonomierat Seemann in Breesen. Berlin 1916, 15 pp.
  • Social work in the country. 8 lectures held at the social women's school in Rostock. Berlin 1919, 110 pp.
  • Us Meckelborg, the country and the people. In: The home. Communications of the Mecklenburg State Association for Rural Welfare and Home Care 1 (1922), No. 3 v. October 1922, pp. 34-38.
  • On the psychology of the Mecklenburg day laborer. In: Kirche und Volkstum 1/3 (1924/25), pp. 43–44.
  • History of the "United Lodge Irene to the 3 Stars, Temple of Truth and Prometheus" in Rostock and its 3 regular lodges. According to the files in the archive, edited by OBr. H. Seemann, Verlag C. Buhr, Bützow 1930.

literature

  • Carl Friedrich Maaß: Hugo Seemann. Nekrolog in: Us Plattdütsch Heimat. News bulletin from the Plattdütschen Landesverband Meckelborg 7 (1932), p. 29.
  • Karl Moll: Hugo Seemann. A picture of life. In: Mecklenburgische Monatshefte 8 (1932), pp. 364–366.
  • Constantine Simon: Social relations in the estate villages of Mecklenburg c. 1880-1924. Ashgate, Hampshire, Burlington 2007, ISBN 978-0-7546-5503-9 , pp. 15, 56 and passim; limited preview in Google Book search
  • Mechthild Hempe: Rural Society in Crisis. Mecklenburg in the Weimar Republic. Cologne-Weimar-Vienna 2002, pp. 60, 161ff, 310.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hugo Seemann , ancestry.de.
  2. ↑ Hugo sailor , myheritage.de.
  3. ^ Enrollment of Hugo Seemann , University of Rostock.
  4. ^ Berthold Ohm and Alfred Philipp (eds.): Directory of addresses of the old men of the German Landsmannschaft. Part 1. Hamburg 1932, p. 306.
  5. ↑ Landeshauptarchiv, Schwerin, 03.02-03 / 1 Landeskloster / Klosteramt Dobbertin, lease contract for the monastery property, no. 4548 (1876–1890, 1883) and transfer of the lease Spendin and Kleesten to the leaseholder Hugo Seemann, no. 4556 (1883–1890 ).
  6. ^ List of members of the DLG, in: Yearbook of the German Agricultural Society, 1 (1886) Berlin 1887, p. 348.
  7. ↑ Experiences in building a cottage industry, Issue 7, Berlin 1909, pp. 27–32.
  8. ↑ Heimatthanken and Siedlungswunsch, in: Die Heimat, 2 (1908/1909), No. 11–13 and No. 15–17.
  9. ^ Seemann, H., The rural welfare in relation to physical health, in: Soziale Arbeit auf dem Lande, Berlin 1919, pp. 50f.
  10. ^ The founding of the Heimatbund Mecklenburg, in: Mecklenburg 1 (1906) issue 1 v. April 1906, pp. 1ff.
  11. ^ Seemann, H., The rural welfare and home care, in: Mecklenburg. Journal of the Heimatbund Mecklenburg 2 (1907) Issue 4, pp. 107-114.
  12. ^ Call for the establishment of a Mecklenburg State Association for Rural Welfare and Home Care, in: Die Heimat, 1 (1907/1908), No. 33 v. May 17, 1908, pp. 233-235.
  13. ↑ Seemann, H., The War Widows and War Disabled in the Country, special print from “Das Land” No. 20 of July 15, 1916, Berlin 1916.
  14. ↑ Heimatgrüß 'to us' Meckelbörger in'n Fell'n von'n Heimatbund Meckelborg, the association for rural welfare and Heimatspleg and the Plattdütschen Landesverband Meckelborg and Lübeck, Schwerin 1916–1917
  15. ↑ Seemann, H., The foundation of small agricultural property, in: Die Heimat, 5 (1912), No. 38, No. 40 and 41. In 1912 he also became a member of the "Study Commission for the Preservation of the Peasant Class, for Small Settlements and Agricultural Work" .
  16. ^ Social work in the country. 8 lectures given at the social women's school in Rostock, Berlin 1919, 110 pp.
  17. ^ The 500th anniversary of the University of Rostock 1419–1919. Official report on behalf of the teaching staff by Gustav Herbig and Hermann Reincke-Bloch, Rostock 1920.
  18. ↑ Hermann Priest: To mark the 10th anniversary of the Bauer College Wiligrad. In: Die Mecklenburgische Heimat, 11 (1932), No. 6/7 v. June / July 1932, p. 33.
  19. ↑ Annual report for 1921, in: Die Heimat 1 (1922), No. 1 v. April 1922, p. 7f.
  20. ↑ Geinitz, E., A few words on the union of the Heimatbund with the regional association for rural welfare and home care, in: Die Heimat, 2nd year (1923), No. 4, p. 63f.
  21. ↑ Seemann, H., Mecklenburg Regional Association for Rural Welfare and Home Care and Heimatbund, in: Die Heimat, 2nd year (1923), No. 4, pp. 62f.
  22. ↑ Seemann, H., Heimatbund and Landesverein, in: Die Heimat, Vol. 2 (1923), 5, pp. 78–79.
  23. ^ Seemann, H., Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Nettelbladt, Von Obr H. Seemann, Rostock, in: Mecklenburgisches Logenblatt, ed. vd Mecklenburgischen Provinzialloge, 57 (1928), issue 7, pp. 117-120 and issue 10, pp. 182-184.
  24. ^ History of the "United Lodge Irene to the 3 Stars, Temple of Truth and Prometheus" in Rostock and its 3 regular lodges. According to the files in the archive, edited by OBr. H. Seemann, Verlag C. Buhr, Bützow 1930
personal data
SURNAME Sailor, Hugo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seaman, Hugo Carl Friedrich Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German activist of the Christian-social rural reform movement in Mecklenburg
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Spendin manor near Dobbertin
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1932
Place of death Seestadt Rostock, Mecklenburg