Johann Robert von Capitain

Johann Robert von Capitain

Johann Robert von Capitain (born May 2, 1824 in Frankfurt am Main ; † April 22, 1881 in Palermo ) was a trained tanner, officer in the Ottoman army , personal adjutant of Damad Prince Ibrahim Ilhami Pasha, holder of the Medjidie order of Sultan Abdülmecid I. , bearer of the Commander's Cross of the Knightly Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus , knights of the Commander's Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown , house owners in Constantinople, Alexandria, Frankfurt am Main and owner of the “White Castle” on the Grauberg in Miltenberg .

Life

Capitain was the son of the craftsman Carl Philipp Capitain (October 31, 1785 in Frankfurt am Main - November 18, 1835 ibid) and Katharina Mons (April 10, 1785 in Oberursel - May 3, 1837 in Frankfurt am Main). He had eight siblings, including the opera singer Elise Capitain . Through her marriage to the actor Friedrich Haase , he became related by marriage to the latter.

Capitain had a very adventurous life. He made two long journeys that took him to India. He wrote 15 diaries and a notebook about the adventurous experiences on these trips. Many letters and documents have also survived from his life. In the book “Johann Robert von Capitain; his adventures, his life in the Orient, Citizens of Miltenberg ”includes his 15 diaries and his further life based on his own letters and descriptions of the lives of his four daughters.

After graduating from school in 1838, Captain did an apprenticeship as a tanner. In 1844 he set off on his first trip to the Balkans and the Middle East. He returned in 1846 and prepared for the next trip, which he would take in March 1847. Again it goes to the Middle East. He was in Constantinople as early as May 1847 and was co-founder of an association called Teutonia. The Teutonia is an association of German craftsmen who live in Constantinople ( Bosporus Germans ). The club still exists today. In October 1849 he continued his journey via Samsun , Diarbekir (today Diyarbakir ), from there by raft on the Tigris via Baghdad to Basra . He wants to continue by ship via Bushehr to Bombay ( Mumbai ). In July 1850 his ship was seized by pirates in the Persian Gulf. All sailors and passengers are killed, except for the captain. He is mistaken for a doctor who is supposed to save the life of the pirate leader's son. The pirates hold him prisoner until the English warship Euphrates under Cpt. Tronson freed. After a long stay in Bushehr, Shiraz and Tehran , he came to Bombay in 1852. He stayed in India for two years. He wants to join the Indian or English army, but he does not succeed. Via Solapur , Hyderabad he travels with ox wagons to the Kingdom of Mysore to Ootacamund (today Udagamandalam ) in the Nilgiri Mountains . There he makes studies on the indigenous peoples (Thodawurs, Buddagurs, Kothurs, Koorumhurs). His diaries also contain extensive statistical tables on the composition of the British East India Company, its fleet and armament.

Disappointed that his professional goals could not be achieved, he returned home to Frankfurt am Main in 1854. But in the autumn of 1854 he was back in Constantinople. He rescues the son-in-law of the Ottoman Sultan ( Damad ) Ilhami Pasha from drowning from the Bosporus, whereupon Ilhami makes him his personal adjutant and is responsible for the administration of his entire seraglio . He quickly advanced to major in the Ottoman Army . In 1857 he gets at the instigation of Ilhami by the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I the Medjidie Medal . In September 1857 he married the German-Greek Rosalie Seefelder (born November 29, 1840 in Constantinople, † July 10, 1909 in Munich), with whom he would have 10 children. Rosalie's father is Michael Seefelder (born September 17, 1804 in Boos / Allgäu; † July 15, 1870 after the great fire of Pera ), a master carpenter who is known in the German colony as the "father of the Germans".

"Weißes Schlösschen" on the Grauberg in Miltenberg (around 1870)

On behalf of Ilhami, Capitain (until 1860) made several diplomatic trips to Austria, Italy, France and Great Britain, mostly bringing Arab horses as gifts. On his diplomatic trip to Italy in the summer of 1860, he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Knightly Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus awarded. In Stuttgart he is raised to the personal nobility with the honor of the commentary cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown . During this trip in the summer / autumn of 1860, Ilhami died unexpectedly at the age of 24 of a "stroke" (in the Capitain family it is believed that he was poisoned). Now Capitain sees no more future for himself and his family in Constantinople. In June 1861 he and his family moved to one of his houses in Frankfurt am Main.

In 1866 he bought the "White Castle" on the Grauberg in Miltenberg from Baron Ernst von Woldeck (from the Gnewikow family in the Mark Brandenburg region). He wants to leave Frankfurt am Main because the city became Prussian after the civil war ( German War ) of 1866. In Miltenberg, the family is very involved in the community, with donations and social engagement. In 1870, Capitain took part in the German-French War at Sedan ( Battle of Sedan ) and in Belgium as a medic with the Red Cross .

During a trip to Italy and Constantinople, on June 14, 1874, he took part in the laying of the foundation stone for a new Teutonia clubhouse in Constantinople. Back from this trip, the family met a difficult fate. In August and November 1874, three of his children (ages 11, 13, and 15) died of diphtheria and scarlet fever epidemics. Capitain throws himself into work, and supervises and supports the construction of the institute chapel in Miltenberg.

In the winter of 1878, Captain fell ill with lungs and pleura. He takes several cures in Palermo, Bad Reichenhall, Gries near Bozen. In December 1880 he went back to Palermo for a cure to the house of his brother-in-law Georg Seefelder (railway director of Sicily). Capitain died in Palermo on April 22, 1881, in the presence of his wife Rosalie. His body is transferred by ship (to Hamburg) and by train to Miltenberg. On May 19, 1881, Capitain was buried in the Laurentiusfriedhof with a large participation of the Miltenberg population. The family lived on the Grauberg until 1900.

coat of arms

Coat of arms of Johann Robert von Capitain

The coat of arms shows a lion with a Turkish scimitar ( Kilidsch ) at the top left ; underneath a ribbon with three stars with the Turkish crescent; in the lower right corner of the field an arm holding a hammer. Above the coat of arms is a richly decorated armor, crowned by a star with a crescent moon. Under the coat of arms runs a banner with his motto, which he entered as a motto in his first diary in 1847: “Deo ducet - nil nocet” (whoever has God as a leader - nothing will hurt him); below in the middle a cross.

progeny

His numerous offspring include: his grandson Luitpold Steidle , his great-grandson Gerhard M. Hotop , and his great-great-grandson Rainald Goetz .

Works

• Johann Robert von Capitain; his adventures, his life in the Orient, citizens of Miltenberg ; Editors: Klaus Hench, Herbert Hotop, Michael Söller; Editor: Förderkreis “Historisches Miltenberg” eV [1] , Miltenberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-034912-6 .

literature

• Barbara Radt: History of Teutonia. German club life in Istanbul 1847–2000 German Orient Institute, Istanbul 2001 ISBN 3-935556-97-7

Web links

Main network [2] [3]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann Robert von Capitain ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at GedBas