John of Collas

John von Collas, Prussian scholar and builder

The coat of arms of
the von Collas family

John von Collas , also Johann von Collas (born November 11, 1678 as Jean de Collas in Sedan , France , † June 16, 1753 at Gut Weißenstein near Gutenfeld, Königsberg district , East Prussia ) was a Prussian scholar and master builder who came from a Huguenot family .

Life

Origin and family

Collas came from an old French Huguenot family that originated in Normandy in the 14th century . He was the son of Antoine de Collas († 1693) and Elisabeth de Vilain († 1681) from Flanders . He lost his mother at the age of three and after the Edict of Nantes was repealed by the Edict of Fontainebleau (October 18, 1685), he, his father and siblings had to flee to the Netherlands as persecuted Huguenots . His father was a close confidante of Prince William of Orange (1650-1702), who rose to King of England in the course of the Glorious Revolution in 1688.

Youth and studies in England

The Collas family followed William of Orange to London . Since John's father was a councilor in the retinue of William Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford , the boy grew up in his home in Covent Garden and on his estate at Woburn Abbey . As early as 1688 he was the page of the duke's granddaughter, Lady Mary Butler (1646-1707), who was married to William Cavendish, 4th Earl of Devonshire (1640-1707). Both Russel and Cavendish had helped William of Orange to the English throne, which is why he gave them the ducal dignity in 1694.

At the coronation of Wilhelm III. and his wife Maria II. (1662-1694) in Westminster Abbey on April 11, 1689, John Collas was the Queen's page and wore her train. After his father's death in December 1693, at the age of 15, Collas was placed under the tutelage of his cousin Daniel Poulce , a chamberlain of the Queen. At the age of 22, John von Collas was a recognized scientist, doctor of several faculties and a member of the Royal Society .

Life in East Prussia

In the autumn of 1701 John von Collas came to Königsberg at the age of 23 as part of a planned trip to Asia together with Count Heinrich XXIV. Von Reuss-Plauen . In the winter of 1701/1702 he was a guest of Lieutenant General Count Joachim Heinrich Truchseß von Waldburg in Langheim, district of Rastenburg , where he became acquainted with other representatives of the East Prussian aristocratic families. In 1703 he gave up the plan to travel to Asia and decided to stay in East Prussia permanently. He therefore initially acquired the Dommelkeim estate in Samland .

For the next 30 years, Collas worked as a scientist and builder. He made a career as a royal Prussian lieutenant colonel , royal Prussian director of geometers (appointed October 5, 1711) and councilor (1712–1735), chief engineer (patent from January 22, 1714) and versatile scholar (e.g. recognized mathematician, he wrote in Latin) and famous builder. He became a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences (mentioned in 1704). In the course of time he acquired other goods: goods Dommelkeim (later in the district of Bartenstein (East Pr.) ) (1703–1753), Naujeninken (1703–1731), Brandwehten (1703–1731), Perkuhnen (1717–1731) and Sauerwalde ( 1720–1731), all in Kr. Ragnit , Laugallen (1718–1731), Kraupischkehmen, Kr. Gumbinnen (1718–1731), Weißenstein bei Gutenfeld, Kr. Königsberg (inheritance 1721–1753), several houses and properties in Wehlau ( 1721–1753) near Königsberg and Borchersdorf (1724–1753) in the Neidenburg district . Collas owned a total of 165 Prussian Hufen (approx. 2,720 hectares ) of land.

Around 1734 he retired and spent his twilight years on Weißenstein managing his estates without giving up his scientific occupation.

Marriage and offspring

On April 30, 1716, John von Collas married Charlotte Pelet from the Weissenstein-Glaubitten house (* February 27, 1700 in Königsberg; † December 29, 1751) in Königsberg, the daughter of the court merchant Pierre Pelet in Königsberg, gentleman of the Weißenstein estate, and Maria Elisabeth Salomon from Hamburg . Colla's only daughter Charlotte Maria Rahel von Collas (1723–1794) married the royal Prussian major general Paul von Natalis (1720–1789) in 1750 . His son Johann Jakob von Collas (1721–1792) was interned by Frederick the Great for almost 27 years (1760–1786) at the Magdeburg fortress .

John's grandson, Friedrich von Collas (1760–1836), left the drawings and writings on the Kingdom of Prussia from his grandfather's possession to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II in 1796 , and received “ an expectance from him by handwriting on November 25, 1796 to the monastery of our dear women in Halberstadt confirmiret “and was, after he was still from King Friedrich Wilhelm III. on February 3, 1801 had been put off until the next vacancy, finally entrusted with a canon position .

Works

Finckenstein Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

Friedrichstein Castle

Dönhoffstädt Castle

Carhaben Castle around 1860, Alexander Duncker collection

science

John von Collas is the author of extensive specialist literature on architecture and mathematics, shipbuilding and navigation in German, Latin, English and French. However, many of his writings remained manuscripts that were never printed.

Examples of his writings:

• Complete use of civil architecture, or a complete instruction on civil architecture.
• Specification of their offices and Officials in the Isenburg office. Königsberg 1714 (State Archives Königsberg EM 4a71).
• True description of the Kingdom of Prussia and its interests, both in economic, foreign and domestic commerce, as politic in war and peacetime. - with 32 cards of all main offices in Prussia and " Demolitions of the most distinguished cities, fortresses, palaces and pleasure houses ".
• Map of Prussia. drawn with a pen on four sheets.

Buildings

Collas built u. a. the East Prussian castles of Jäskendorf in the district of Mohrungen (East Prussia), Finckenstein Castle in the Rosenberg district (West Prussia), Friedrichstein (1709–1714 for Count Otto Magnus von Dönhoff based on plans by the Berlin armory architect Jean de Bodt ) and the Dönhoffstädt Palace in the East Prussian district of Rastenburg (1710 –1716 for Count Bogislav Friedrich von Dönhoff based on Friedrichstein). In addition, he rebuilt the Carwind Castle around 1720.

Honors

• In the town of Schippenbeil , Kr. Bartenstein, the Collas-Platz was named after him.

See also

• Collas family

literature

(chronologically)

• Georg Christoph Pisanski: Draft of a Prussian literary history in four books . Hartung, Königsberg 1886, pp. 677, 692 and 698.
• Wilhelm Tesdorpf: John von Collas, a Prussian engineer and builder of the 18th century and his drawings of castles of the Teutonic Order in the Samlande . Wilhelm Koch Publishing House, Königsberg 1892.
• Bogislav von Archenholz: The abandoned castles . Ullstein-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1967, p. 191.
• Udo von Alvensleben : Visits before the sinking. Aristocratic residences between Altmark and Masuria. From Udo von Alvensleben's diary entries . Compiled and edited by Harald von Koenigswald . Ullstein-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin 1968, pp. 35 and 46f.
• Carl von Lorck : New research on the country castles and manor houses in East and West Prussia . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main 1969, pp. 26-29.
• Christian Krollmann (Ed.): Old Prussian Biography . Published on behalf of the Historical Commission for East and West Prussian State Research. Volume 1: Abegg - Malten . Elwert, Marburg 1974, p. 108.
• Erich Weise (Hrsg.): Handbook of historical places . Volume: East and West Prussia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 317). Unchanged reprint of the 1st edition 1966. Kröner, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-520-31701-X , S. IL.
• Sigismund von Dobschütz: The Huguenot Family von Collas - A list of tribe over more than 600 years and 20 generations from 1390 to today. In: Genealogy. Publishing house Degener & Co, Neustadt (Aisch) ISSN  0016-6383 . Issue 3-4 / 1998, p. 465f. and No. 5-6 / 1999, pp. 542f.

Web links

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