Johann August Schlettwein

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Johann August Schlettwein - photograph of an oil painting in family ownership (destroyed by war events on August 25, 1944). Painter unknown

Johann August Schlettwein , actually August Schlettwein (born August 8, 1731 in Großobringen , † April 24, 1802 in Dahlen (Mecklenburg) ) was a national economist . He is considered the most important German representative of physiocratism .

Life

His father was a blacksmith and it is likely that he was only able to start studying law and camera science at the University of Jena with support from the sovereign, Ernst August I. (Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) , where he started on October 21 Was enrolled in 1749. As early as 1751 he began to publish scientific treatises on religious, ethical, metaphysical and scientific questions. He apparently also worked as a teacher at the University of Jena until he was appointed to the court of Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden-Durlach in Karlsruhe in 1763 . On June 6, 1763, he was appointed Chamber and Police Councilor and held this position until October 1773. In the literature, the opinion can be found that Margrave Karl Friedrich was introduced to the Physiocracy by Schlettwein .

However, there are indications that Karl Friedrich was familiar with the writings of French physiocrats before Schlettwein's appointment and that he founded an economic society on April 20, 1762, before his arrival at the Karlsruhe court, which Schlettwein then revived on November 10, 1764. The Margrave and Schlettwein probably became supporters of physiocratic ideas at about the same time because of their studies of French physiocrats - in particular Gabriel de Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau and Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours . Both endeavored to achieve practical improvements in agriculture based on these ideas. The world's only known attempt at a practical test of the physiocratic system was launched in three Baden villages ( Dietlingen , Bahlingen , Teningen ) and the "Einsteuer" (impôt unique) introduced there.

In Dietlingen (near Pforzheim; today the district of Keltern ) the experiment began in 1770 and was definitely stopped in 1801 after a modification (1795). The experiment began in Bahlingen and Teningen (at the Kaiserstuhl) in 1771 and ended in 1776.

Schlettwein rated the attempts as successful; his critics blamed him for an economic disaster. Schlettwein had many opponents at the court of Karlsruhe and in the margravial administration of the offices. After Schlettwein fell out with Du Pont, who was in close contact with the margrave, the margrave's support for Schlettwein waned. He asked for his release in October 1773.

In September 1774, Schlettwein went to Vienna to convince Emperor Joseph II of his physiocratic ideas. After this attempt was unsuccessful, he returned to Karlsruhe, where in 1775 he published a polemical work against Goethe and his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .

On the mediation of Isaak Iselin he came - after short stops in Emmendingen and Freiburg i. Br. - to the University of Basel . From November 1776 to April 1777 he held a few lectures on the principles of the state economy there , but could not get a proper position at the university.

Iselin recommended Schlettwein from the University of Giessen , where Landgrave Ludwig IX. (Hessen-Darmstadt) and his minister, Friedrich Karl von Moser , planned the establishment of an economic faculty. On April 23, 1777 Schlettwein was appointed dean of the first economics faculty at a German university. He exercised this function - despite differences of opinion with the sovereign, who did not pursue any physiocratic ideas at all - until June 1785. Because of his contacts in Giessen, he also worked for the German Encyclopedia .

The manor house in Beseritz

He retired to Gut Beseritz in Mecklenburg-Strelitz , where he now tried as a landowner to implement his ideas for improving agricultural methods. In 1789 he separated from his wife and in July 1790 took up lectures at the University of Greifswald in Swedish Pomerania .

In May and June 1797 Schlettwein tried to start an exchange of letters with Immanuel Kant about his critical philosophy and claimed that he could overthrow his whole system completely. However, Kant did not agree and said in a letter to Johann Friedrich Schultz , the court preacher at the Königsberg Castle Church : " Because I have a suspicion: that Schlettwein only aims to earn something through writing ... "

Schlettwein died a lonely man in Dahlen (today a district of Brunn , Mecklenburg Lake District ).

family

In 1776 he married Friederike von Geusau (1747–1802) in Karlsruhe . She was a daughter of Justus von Geusau (1700–1771), imperial major general of the Swabian district and margravial Durlach chief hunter and forest bailiff. The Baden general Karl von Geusau was his brother-in-law.

He had two children with Frederike:

  • Carl Wilhelm Friedrich August (1778–1803), manor owner, councilor
  • Eleonore ∞ Johann Christoph Rodbertus , Counselor, Professor in Greifswald

The economist Johann Karl Rodbertus was Schlettwein's grandson. Schlettwein's sister was married to the Baden agricultural master builder and aviation pioneer Carl Friedrich Meerwein . August Schlettwein - a member of the Frankfurt preliminary parliament - was also a grandson.

Afterlife

In Dietlingen there is the Physiokrat winery, which creates a "Cuvée Physiokrat".

Fonts

Title Grundfeste Schlettwein.JPG
  • The path to truth shown in the shortest possible way. Marggraf, Jena 1757. ( digitized in the digital library Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
  • The most important matter for the whole public: or the natural order in politics in general . 2 parts. Macklot, Carlsruhe 1772–1773. Part 1 (Göttingen Digitization Center) ; Part 2 (University and City Library Cologne)
  • Young Werther's call from eternity to the people still living on earth . M. Maklott, Karlsruhe 1775 ( online )
  • Foundations of states or political economy. Giessen 1779. ( Digitized in the Google book search)
  • The rights of mankind or the only true ground of all laws, orders and constitutions. Giessen 1784. ( digitized in the google book search)
  • Complete and documented news of the introduction of the physiocratic state economy system in the Baden-Durlach town of Dietlingen in 1770 and of the effects of these political and economic reformations . In: Neues Archiv für den Menschen und Bürger , Vol. 3 (1786), pp. 480–508, and Vol. 5 (1788), pp. 34–54.

bibliography

  • Carl Schlettwein : Johann August Schlettwein - a German physiocrat, 1731–1802. Directory of his writings . Basel 1981.

literature

biography

  • Robert Zuckerkandl:  Schlettwein, Johann August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, pp. 467-471.
  • Alfred Krebs: JA Schlettwein, the "German main physiocrat". A contribution to the history of the physiocracy in Germany . Inaugural dissertation from the University of Bern, Verlag Wilhelm Fugmann, Leipzig 1909. ( Digitalized at Internet Archive.org)
  • Arnold Hermann Specht: The life and the economic theories of Johann August Schlettwein. 1929
  • Diethelm Klippel, Ulrike Andersch:  Schlettwein, Johann August. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 66-68 ( digitized version ).
  • Klaus Gerteis : Short biography - Johann August Schlettwein (1731-1802). In: Aufklerung, Volume 4 (1990), No. 1, pp. 105-107 by JSTOR
  • Wolfgang Rother : Johann August Schlettwein . In: Helmut Holzhey, Vilem Mudroch (ed.): The philosophy of the 18th century. Vol. 5: Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Switzerland, Northern and Eastern Europe. Schwabe, Basel 2014. ISBN 978-3-7965-2631-2 , pp. 698–701.

To the physiocratic experiments

Web links

Commons : Johann August Schlettwein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Johann August Schlettwein  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diethelm Klippel: Johann August Schlettwein and the economic faculty at the University of Giessen , abstract at philpapers.org, accessed on August 28, 2014.
  2. ↑ Immanuel Kant: Collected Works , published by the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences , 2nd Dept .: Correspondence , Vol. 3, p. 229f.
  3. ↑ s. Krebs, p. 21.
  4. ↑ Cuvée Physiokrat , accessed on November 10, 2017.
  5. ↑ The main economic work of the so-called German "main physiocrats". Detlev Auvermann publishing catalog 1974/75, p. 88.
personal data
SURNAME Schlettwein, Johann August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schlettwein, August (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist, representative of physiocratism
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1731
PLACE OF BIRTH Grossobringen
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1802
Place of death Dahlen (Mecklenburg)