Jacob Mauvillon

Jacob Mauvillon

Jakob Eléazar (de) Mauvillon (born March 8, 1743 in Leipzig , † January 11, 1794 in Braunschweig ) was a German enlightener (supporter of the French Revolution ), writer , constitutional lawyer , economist (representative of Physiocratism ), historian , translator , officer and engineer .

Life

Origin and youth

Mauvillon comes from the French nobility . His grandfather was the country nobleman Esprit Guillaume de Mauvillon, born around 1670 from a village near Tarascon in Provence in the south of France . With his wife Anne de Farges he had a son named Eléazar, who was urged to leave his home because of his Protestant attitude. He settled in Leipzig , Saxony , and married the French Marie Bonne Le Jeune de Montant in 1740. In 1743 their only child, Jakob Eléazar, was born.

Jakob grew up in a middle-class family. His father was the private secretary of Elector Friedrich August I and worked as a successful writer and translator. Jacob was brought up strictly and prepared to study theology. To this end, he was first taught by the Protestant theologian Johann August Ernesti and then attended the clerical St. Thomas School in Leipzig . From 1758 the father taught French in Braunschweig and the son was accepted at the Collegium Carolinum under Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem . His teachers also included the writers Johann Arnold Ebert and Karl Christian Gärtner .

Studies and military service

After leaving school, he began to study law , probably a compromise between father and son. However, he was more interested in drawing , languages and mathematics .

Despite congenital scoliosis , he applied to the Electorate of Hanover under Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1760 . He became the private engineer of Count Colonel Johann Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn . In 1762 he became a conductor and in 1765 an ensign in the engineering corps . Mauvillon fought in three battles of the Seven Years' War and was awarded the officer's license. In 1765 he was released from active service at his own request.

He resumed law studies in Leipzig and attended lectures in mathematics and literature at the same time . After just a few months, he finally shelved the studies.

writer

As early as 1764 he was working with his father on the Dictionnaire raisonne francois et allemand contenant toutes les expressions du bels usage . In the following years he worked independently as a writer . He wrote Esprit des lois , Entretiens entre un Pere de famille et le gouverneur de sons fils and sur les Caracteres de Mr. de La Bruyere . In 1772 he published his psychological work Meditations sur la nature humaine . He also translated letters from Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné . Throughout his life he had a close friendship with the poet Ludwig August Unzer . With him he stood in the correspondence published in 1771 on the worth of some German poets . From 1766 he taught French and Italian at the Royal Pedagogy in Ilfeld .

army

In 1771, on the recommendation of Rudolf Erich Raspe , State Secretary General Martin Ernst von Schlieffen made him a professor of road and bridge construction and war architecture at the Collegium Carolinum in Kassel. Mauvillon lost his officer's license and was only reinstated in the Electorate of Hanover in 1778. To date, he has held the title of Ingénieur des ponts et chaussées . He secured further income through private lectures with Prince Karl von Hessen-Philippsthal. In 1778 he was appointed captain after setting up a cadet corps .

In 1784 he entered the service of Brunswick under the liberal Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand . He became a professor for war science and architecture at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig and a major in the engineering corps. He was finally promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1790 .

Mauvillon worked as a military science specialist writer. Provided with the necessary material by Gabriel de Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau , who was then in Berlin , he wrote the paper about Prussia , which Mirabeau, his friend and colleague, later published under his own name in Paris , in his description of the Prussian state under Friedrich II. (Leipzig 1793 to 1795, 4 volumes). After Leopold Alois Hoffmann accused Mauvillon of inciting revolution, he called for political reforms for Germany .

Freemasonry

In 1775 Mauvillon became a Freemason as a member of the Kassel Lodge Zum crowned Lion . From 1779 to 1793 he was in the Friedrich zur Freund's Lodge and from 1782 its speaker. In 1784 he founded the Lodge at the Temple of True Unity in Kassel ( Eclectic League ). In 1780 he became Illuminat under the order name Arcesilaus and head of the Kassel order branch.

family

In 1773 he married Marie Luise Scipio from Arolsen in Waldeck . Their son Friedrich Wilhelm , born in 1774, was a military writer and colonel in the Prussian army .

Works

• Attempt to translate the letters of the Marquisess of Sevigne . Schrödersche Buchhandlung, Braunschweig and Hildesheim, 1765
• Of the maintenance of numerous troops and the resulting consequences, especially with regard to the princes of the German Empire . In: Magazine of Government Art , State and Agriculture , 1st piece, Leipzig 1775, pp. 183–242 (2nd piece, Leipzig 1778, pp. 215–44).
• Physiocratic letters to Prof. Dohm or the defense and explanation of the true political science laws, which are known under the name of the physiocratic system . Scriptor-Verlag, Königstein / T. 1979, ISBN 3-589-15215-X (reprint of the Braunschweig 1780 edition).
• Introduction to all military sciences . Orphanage bookshop, Braunschweig 1783.
• Dramatic proverbs. A contribution to social enjoyment in Germany . Leipzig 1785 (reprint of the Braunschweig 1978 edition).
• Essai historique sur l'art de la guerre pendant la guerre de trente ans . Kassel 1784, 1789.
• The only true system of the Christian religion . Berlin 1787.
• Court interrogations and statements of the Duke of Braunschweig's lieutenant engineer, Mauvillon . Brunswick 1791.
• Man and woman portrayed according to their mutual relationships . Leipzig 1791.
• From the Prussian monarchy under Frederick the Great . Braunschweig / Leipzig 1793–1795.
• History of Ferdinand, Duke of Braunschweig . Braunschweig 1794 (2 volumes).
• Outline of the General War of the Spanish Succession . In: Historical calendar to the year 1794 , Section II, Leipzig 1794.
• Mauvillon's correspondence or letters from various scholars to Lieutenant Colonel Mauvillon, who died in the service of Duke Braunschweig . Published by his son Friedrich Wilhelm Mauvillon, Braunschweig 1801.
• Jakob von Mauvillon, Johann August Unzer: On the value of some German poets and on other subjects relating to taste and beautiful literature. An exchange of letters . Published by Heinrich Blume. In: 38th annual report of the Kaiser Franz Josef State High School in Freistadt in Upper Austria for the school year 1908 , pp. 3-36.

literature

• Kurt Braunreuther: On the importance of the physiocratic movement in Germany in the second half of the 18th century . In: Scientific journal of the Humboldt University of Berlin , Social and Linguistic Series, Volume 5, Berlin 1955/56, pp. 15–65. Also published in: Kurt Braunreuther: Studies on the history of political economy and sociology. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1978, pp. 1–104.
• Luitgard Camerer: Mauvillon, Jacob. In: Luitgard Camerer, Manfred RW Garzmann and Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (eds.) With special assistance from Norman-Mathias Pingel: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon. Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 , pages 155-156.
• Oscar Heinz Gsedl: Mauvillon and his economic views . Dissertation at the University of Frankfurt, Patfenholz, Cologne 1926.
• Rubin Herz: Jakob Mauvillon and his position in the history of the national economy Golde-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1908 (also dissertation, University of Bern 1907).
• Jochen Hoffmann: Jakob Mauvillon. An officer and writer in the age of the bourgeois emancipation movement . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-428-04945-4 .
• Jochen Hoffmann:  Mauvillon, Jacob. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , pp. 455-457 ( digitized version ).
• Emanuel readers :  Mauvillon, Jacob . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, p. 715 f.
• Hanns Reissner: Mirabeau and his Prussienne monarchy . Berlin / Leipzig 1926.
• Karl Georg Wilhelm Schiller : Braunschweig's beautiful literature in the years 1745 to 1800, the age of the dawn of German beautiful literature . Holle, Wolfenbüttel 1845 ( digitized version ).
• Friedrich Schlichtegroll: Nekrolog for the year 1794 . 5th year, 1st volume, Verlag Justus Perthes, Gotha 1796, pp. 163–245.
• Alfred Stern : Jakob Mauvillon as a poet and publicist . In: Prussian year books 230 , Verlag Stilke, Berlin 1932, pp. 239–52.
• Gisela Winkler: Jakob Mauvillon's philosophy of religion in his main work “The only true system of the Christian religion” . MultiLingua-Verlag, Bochum 2000, ISBN 3-932329-11-2 ( plus dissertation, University of Bochum 1999).

Web links

• Literature by and about Jakob Mauvillon in the catalog of the German National Library