Jonas Ludwig von Hess

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Jonas Ludwig von Heß (born July 8, 1756 in Stralsund , † February 20, 1823 in Hamburg ) was a German writer, topographer , enlightener and politician.

Life

Gravestone open-air museum Heckengarten Friedhof Ohlsdorf
Gravestone plaque Althamburg Memorial Cemetery Ohlsdorf

The landowner's son, who came from Pomerania , came to Hamburg for the first time in 1780 and quickly made contact with enlightened circles. He frequented the Sieveking and Reimarus families , at times published a literary journal and published a three-volume Hamburg topography that described not only the natural, but also the structural and social conditions in the city and is still considered one of the most important contemporary testimonies to this day. Initially an ardent supporter of the French Revolution , he criticized the reign of terror as well as the fanatical reactionaries and pleaded for " turning into the simple, unadorned path of law and reason".

In 1800 Hess went to Königsberg , wrote a medical doctoral thesis at the university there in a few weeks and also came into contact with Immanuel Kant . In 1801 he returned to Hamburg, acquired citizenship and in 1805 married the daughter of Senator Johann Michael Hudtwalcker . In the expanded new edition of his Hamburg Topography, published in 1810/11, he devoted himself above all to the city's social institutions and criticized the conditions in the factory and prison as well as in the hospital .

After the French occupation came to an end in 1813, Hess was one of the founders of the Citizens Guard and was appointed its commanders. In May 1813, however, he had to surrender to the overwhelming force of the advancing French and flee the city. He went via Gothenburg to London , where he successfully raised aid for the Hanseatic Legion fighting against France . In England he also wrote two memoranda in which he advocated both preserving Hamburg's political independence and internal democratic reforms. From 1815 he lived in Paris for four years to represent claims for compensation from Hamburg merchants against the French tax authorities. After his return, at the suggestion of the Chamber of Commerce, he held public lectures on the history and geography of trade, shipping and the law of exchange .

Hess last lived on ABC Strasse and was buried in one of the Dammtor cemeteries; his tombstone is now in the Heckengarten open-air tomb museum in the Ohlsdorf cemetery . In the area of ​​the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery there is also a tomb (“Freedom Fighters 1813 1814 1815”) in honor of Jonas Ludwig von Hess and others.

In 1928 the Von-Heß-Weg in Hamburg-Hamm was named after him.

Works

  • Hamburg topographically, politically and historically described , 3 vols. (1787–92) ( Volume 1 , (1810), Volume 2 , (1811) and Volume 3 , (1811), SUB Hamburg)
  • Passages through Germany, the Netherlands and France , 7 vols. (1789–97), ( 1st vol. ), ( 2nd vol. ), ( 3rd vol. ), ( 4th vol. ), ( 5th vol . ), ( 6th volume ) and ( 7th volume )
  • Attempts to see , 2 vols. (1797, 1800), 1st vol. ( Digitized ), 2nd vol. ( Digitized )
  • On the value and importance of the freedom of the Hanseatic cities (1814)
  • Agonies of the Republic in the spring of 1813 (1815), ( digitized version )
  • What can and shouldn't happen in Hamburg? , Hamburg, 1799, ( digitized version )

literature

Web links

Commons : Jonas Ludwig von Heß  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Grolle, Hamburgische Biografie, p. 133.
  2. ↑ last residential address: von Hess, Dr. JL ABC-Straße no 141 , 1822, in: Hamburg address book at the Hamburg State Library
personal data
SURNAME Hess, Jonas Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hess, Jonas Ludwig von; Hess, JL from; Hess, Jonas L. von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH Stralsund
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1823
Place of death Hamburg