Johann Christian Kestner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Georg Christian Kestner

Johann Georg Christian Kestner (born August 28, 1741 in Döhren near Hanover ; † May 24, 1800 in Lüneburg ) was a German lawyer and archivist , famous above all as the husband of "Werthers Lotte" Charlotte Buff .

Life

The family Kestner belonged in the 18th and 19th centuries to the Hanover " pretty family " and educated middle class . Johann Christian and Charlotte were the parents of Georg Kestner and August Kestner and grandparents of Georg and Hermann Kestner .

Johann Christian was a son of Johann Hermann Kestner, who worked as a secret chancellery until 1762 and later as a secret registrar in Hanover, and his second wife Dorothea Gertrud, who was married on April 26, 1736 in Wiebrechtshausen, daughter of the electoral Brunswick-Lüneburg magistrate in the Fredelsloh monastery, Johann Christian Tolle . Similar to his three older brothers before, including the later Chamber Secretary Otto Christian Kestner (* 1731), Johann Christian Kestner also studied law at the Georg-August University in Göttingen from October 23, 1762 . At the historical academy there he heard lectures by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, who was only ten months younger, in early 1765 . The literarily educated Kestner was in contact with various members of the Göttingen Hainbund during his studies . However, he broke off his studies for health reasons.

From 1767 to 1773 Kestner worked as secretary to the Electorate of Hanover, Johann Philipp Conrad Falcke . During a business stay in Wetzlar , he met Charlotte Buff, the daughter of the bailiff at the Teutonic Order there, and became engaged to her. The young Johann Wolfgang Goethe was an intern at the Imperial Court of Justice in Wetzlar in 1772 and became acquainted with both of them. He fell in love with the graceful and cheerful 19-year-old “Lotte” when she was already promised. This love and the suicide of a young lawyer colleague with Kestner's borrowed pistol because of an unhappy love formed the occasion and “raw material” for Goethe's famous novel The Sorrows of Young Werther , published in 1774. Lotte in the novel bears traits of the real Charlotte; for the readers, Albert in the novel was also a characterization of her husband Kestner.

After Johann Christian Kestner had received a permanent position at the Calenberg Archives on March 19, 1773 , shortly afterwards he married Charlotte Buff on April 4, 1773 in Wetzlar, with whom he would have twelve children. The eldest son Georg (* 1774) was Goethe's godchild. The son August , born in 1777 , became a diplomat and art collector, the two years later born Theodor became a medical doctor.

The house on Kestner's Große Wallstraße 14 , right next to it Charlotte's tomb in the garden cemetery ;
Artist postcard by Otto Pilzecker, around 1898

The family lived first on Aegidienstraße, last in Grosse Wallstraße, today's Georgswall, where a memorial plaque for Charlotte was later put up: Numerous well-known personalities frequented the Hanoverian house at the - today's - address Georgswall 3 . The guests included the writer Heinrich Christian Boie , the lawyer Ernst Brandes , the diplomat Basilius von Ramdohr , the statesman and philosopher August Wilhelm Rehberg and the physician and scholar Johann Georg Zimmermann .

The Kestner family's summer house in the Bult

In addition, the Kestners maintained their summer house with garden outside the city in front of the Aegidientor .

In the meantime, Kestner went through a continuous professional advancement in Hanover: In 1775 he was appointed archives secretary and "Lehnsfiskal". In 1784 he was promoted to the council, in 1795 to - due to the personal union between Great Britain and Hanover, both the Royal British and the Electorate of Hanover - appointed court and chancellery as well as vice archivist. In 1790, Kestner was sent to Frankfurt am Main as legation secretary for the emperor's election by Leopold II , and in 1792 again to elect Emperor Franz II.

Kestner died on a business trip in Lüneburg, his grave there has not been preserved.

Kestner's diary and his estate are together with that of his wife in the Hannover City Archives .

Family and offspring

  1. Georg Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Kestner (born May 1, 1774 in Hanover ; † October 25, 1867 there ), archivist in Hanover; ⚭ Henriette Partz (born April 8, 1784 in Syke ; † October 30, 1867 in Hanover).
    1. Wilhelmine Charlotte Sophie Elisabeth Kestner (born May 20, 1803 in Hanover ; † October 18, 1880 there ).
    2. Georg Wilhelm Eduard Kestner (born July 9, 1805 in Hanover , † February 9, 1892 in Dresden ), Chief Inspector.
    3. Theodor Karl Wilhelm Georg Kestner (born September 26, 1806 in Hanover ; † January 4, 1831 ibid), auditor at the law firm in Hanover.
    4. Auguste Marie Sophie Amalie Kestner (born December 21, 1807 in Hanover , † February 24, 1900 in Freiburg im Breisgau ).
    5. Hermann August Kestner (born July 30, 1810 in Hanover ; † June 27, 1890 there ).
  2. Wilhelm Georg Konrad Arnold Kestner (born May 2, 1775 in Hanover , † November 22, 1848 in Bremen ), judge in Osterode am Harz, royal hann. Bailiff based in Hagen Castle in Bremen (Kr. Cuxhaven); ⚭ Johanna Dorothea Friederike Sophie Luise Iffland (born July 29, 1784 in Hanover; † April 8, 1871 )
    1. Sophie Louise ( December 18, 1813 - November 14, 1861 ).
    2. Luise Clara Amalia Friederike (born June 3, 1817 in Hanover , † September 17, 1904 in Osterholz-Scharmbeck ).
  1. Philipp Karl Kestner (born October 23, 1776 in Hanover ; † June 4, 1846 in Thann ), manufacturer in Thann; ⚭ Marie Salomé Françoise Vaultrin de Saint Urbain (* 1784 in Strasbourg ; † December 10, 1804 ibid).
    1. Françoise Aimée Caroline Kestner (born June 30, 1802 in Strasbourg , † August 20, 1872 in Basel ).
    2. George Marie Joseph Charles Kestner ( June 30, 1803 in Strasbourg ; † August 12, 1870 in Thann ), manufacturer in Thann.
    3. Aimée Kestner (* 1804 in Strasbourg ; † 1805 there )
  2. Georg August Christian Kestner (born November 28, 1777 in Hanover , † March 5, 1853 in Rome ), diplomat, collector in Rome; unmarried.
  3. Theodor Friedrich Arnold Kestner (born May 15, 1779 in Hanover ; † May 28, 1847 in Frankfurt am Main ), doctor in Frankfurt am Main; ⚭ Marie Christine Lippert (born December 15, 1789 in Frankfurt am Main; † September 12, 1839 ibid); childless.
  4. Friederica Dorothea Albertina Charlotte Kestner (born March 20, 1783 in Hanover ; † June 22, 1785 ibid).
  5. Georg Carl Eduard Christian Kestner (born June 21, 1784 in Hanover , † June 11, 1823 in Thann ), manufacturer in Thann; ⚭ Fanny Martin (born August 4, 1793 in Morges (Canton of Vaud / Switzerland); † December 21, 1867 in Basel ).
    1. Eduard Kestner (born February 22, 1821 in Thann ; † April 7, 1906 in La Chaux-de-Fonds / Switzerland), factory owner in Neuchâtel .
    2. Caroline Kestner (born June 23, 1823 in Thann ; † 1871 ).
  6. Hans Ernst Hermann Septimus Kestner (born August 11, 1786 in Hanover ; † January 31, 1871 there ), Privy Councilor in Hanover; ⚭ Maria Katharina Regina Lippert (* December 12, 1796 in Frankfurt am Main ; † February 9, 1871 in Hanover).
    1. Hedwig Charlotte Kestner (born July 3, 1819 - † March 23, 1829 ).
    2. Charlotte Henriette Kestner ( February 12, 1821 - May 1, 1827 ).
    3. Hermann August Paul Kestner-Köchlin (born October 8, 1823 in Hanover , † October 17, 1905 in Mulhouse , Alsace ), doctor, go. Medical Council in Mühlhausen (Alsace).
    4. Maria Clara Kestner (born May 25, 1826 in Hanover ; † September 28, 1903 ).
  7. Dorothee Sophie Elise Charlotte Kestner (born September 17, 1788 in Hanover , † May 22, 1877 in Basel ), unmarried.
  8. Louise Amalie Henriette Antoinette Kestner (born August 1, 1791 in Hanover , † April 18, 1804 in Wetzlar ).
  9. Clara Johanne Sophie Friederike Kestner (born February 16, 1793 in Hanover ; † June 9, 1866 in Marienwerder ), conventual of the Marienwerder monastery near Hanover; unmarried.
  10. Friedrich Kestner (born April 16, 1795 in Hanover , † January 5, 1872 in Le Havre ), merchant, consul general in Le Havre; ⚭ Mathilde Doormann (* 1800 in Hamburg ; † 1855 ); childless.

Works

  • Alfred Schröcker (ed.): The true freedom of the fountain. Johann Christian Kestner's diary from July 9th to 30th, 1765 in Bad Rehburg. Wehrhahn, Laatzen 2005, ISBN 3-86525-023-8 .
  • Alfred Schröcker (Ed.): “You are a mortal!”. Poems by the young Johann Christian Kestner (1760/61). Wehrhahn, Laatzen 2006, ISBN 3-86525-044-0 .
  • Alfred Schröcker (Ed.): "Journey to the Harz". Diary from December 24, 1763 to January 3, 1764. With an afterword by Alfred Schröcker. Wehrhahn, Hannover 2013, ISBN 978-3-86525-336-1 .
  • Johann Christian Kestner: The Brocken Journey. Diary from August 10th to 16th, 1789. Edited and commented by Alfred Schröcker. Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter NF 69 (2015), pp. 162–177.

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Christian Kestner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Hugo Thielen: Kestner, (6), Johann Georg Christian and Kestner, (1) Charlotte Sophie Henriette , in: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , pp. 196, 197
  2. ↑ Klaus Mlynek : Pretty families. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 310.
  3. ^ A b Alfred Schröcker: Johann Christian Kestner experiences Lichtenberg's lecture at the Historical Academy in Göttingen , in: Lichtenberg-Jahrbuch , published on behalf of the Lichtenberg Society; undated, p. 165ff .: as a PDF document on the Darmstadt University and State Library website
  4. ↑ Helmut Zimmermann : Hannoversche Gräber on the Protestant Cemetery in Rome , in: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter , New Series Volume 9 (1956), pp. 131–161; here: p. 141; Preview over google books
  5. ^ Hugo Thielen: Kestner (1), Charlotte Sophia Henriette. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover . P. 344; limited preview in Google Book search
  6. ↑ Kestner, Johann Chr. (1741–1800). In: Central database of bequests , 2004/2005.
personal data
SURNAME Kestner, Johann Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kestner, Johann Georg Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and archivist, husband of Charlotte Buff
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1800
Place of death Luneburg