Karl Ludwig von Woltmann

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Karl Ludwig Woltmann , from 1805 von Woltmann , (born February 9, 1770 in Oldenburg , † June 19, 1817 in Prague ) was a German historian, author and diplomat. His wife Karoline von Woltmann (née Stosch, 1782–1847) was also active as a writer.

Life

Woltmann was the son of Johann Woltmann (1727–1809) and Karoline Dorothea geb. Ambrust († 1776). He grew up in Oldenburg, where his father was tutor and private secretary of the Danish governor Count Lynar , and attended grammar school there from 1781 . At that time friendships existed with the almost equally old Gerhard Anton Hermann Gramberg and Albrecht Ludwig von Berger . Woltmann had further contact with Gerhard Anton von Halem and Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg .

From 1788 he studied law and history at the University of Göttingen , where he met Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel , Alexander von Humboldt and Gottfried August Bürger . In Göttingen he began to write historical writings. In spring 1792 he returned to Oldenburg without a degree and gave lectures on German history at the local high school. In the same year he was accepted into the Literary Society of Oldenburg. In the spring of 1793 he went back to Göttingen and gave private lessons there, lectures for high school students and was also active in literature. During this time he laid the foundation stone for his development into a “poet historian” with his work on “historical fiction”.

In 1794 he followed a call as associate professor at the philosophical faculty of the University of Jena . His lectures in Jena met with a great response. He also continued his journalistic work and was in contact with Friedrich Schiller , Wilhelm von Humboldt , Johann Gottlieb Fichte , Christian Gottfried Schütz and Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland . With Johann Wolfgang von Goethe there was a "kind of sociable rivalry". He was also in contact with Johann Friedrich Herbart from Oldenburg and briefly got to know Friedrich Hölderlin . Woltmann was brought in by Schiller to collaborate on the hearing . Woltmann was also active as an author of historiographical and poetic works, as well as a reviewer for the “Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung”. He was involved in the work suggested by Schiller on the "General Collection of Historical Memories from the 12th Century to the Latest Times". For a plan for a scientifically edited edition series of historical documents to German history of the Middle Ages , which, however, until 1819 Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein as " Monumenta Germaniae Historica could be realized," Woltmann applies at least as co-authors.

“Woltmann was a very handsome, very well-behaved, very fine man, a hero of women, a very popular speaker, whose clean, northern German accent - he came from Hanover - was received with great fondness in Saxony. It may be that, in addition to all of this, some ornamentation had thrust itself into his being, in short Göthe often felt compelled to tease him, to nudge him.
[...]
Woltmann collided with Schiller in his historical lectures , was not given special support, and left Jena "

- Heinrich Laube

At the end of May 1797, Woltmann temporarily returned to Oldenburg and then finally went to Berlin in 1799 , where he entered the diplomatic service of the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg as a resident at the Prussian court in 1800 . A short time later took over Woltmann as chargé this function for the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen . In 1804 the representation of the imperial city of Nuremberg and the Kurerzkanzler Karl Theodor von Dalberg was added. From 1805 to 1810 Woltmann took on the role of chargé d'affaires for the three free Hanseatic cities of Hamburg , Lübeck and Bremen at the Prussian court. Also in 1805 he was raised to the Prussian nobility.

Woltmann was also active in literary terms in Berlin, starting in 1800 the magazine “Geschichte und Politik” and from 1813 the “Deutsche Blätter”.

When the Wars of Liberation began in 1813 and Berlin was threatened by the French army during the spring campaign , Woltmann lost his diplomatic positions and moved to Breslau . When the French continued to advance, he also left Breslau in the summer of 1813 and went on to Prague. There he published other literary works, including historical works, memoirs and biographies, but did not find another job in the Prussian or Austrian civil service. He died in Prague in 1817. Woltmann was a member of the Unitist order .

Rating

Woltmann was considered a sociable, creative person, who is important as a novelist and writer of prose as well as the author of an extensive historical work. In his work he is one of the representatives of the transition from the Enlightenment to Romanticism . He felt sympathy for the French Revolution and for the young Napoleon Bonaparte . As a historian, however, he did not meet the expectations placed on him; Schiller in particular criticized his historical work harshly.

progeny

His marriage to the writer Karoline geb. Stosch divorced Müchlers did not come from children.

Fonts (selection)

  • Small historical writings. 2 parts, Jena 1797.
  • History of france. Berlin, 1797 f.
  • History of Great Britain. Berlin, 1799
  • Mathilde von Merveld. A novel. 2 parts, Altenburg 1799.
  • Historical representations. 3 vol., Altona 1800–1805.
  • The Brandenburg house. Berlin 1801.
  • Biographies. Berlin 1806.
  • History of the Peace of Westphalia. 2 volumes, Berlin, 1808–1809.
  • Memoirs of the Baron von S-a . 2 volumes. Vol. 2: Prague / Leipzig: In the German Museum, 1815 [as a Google book online].

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Karl Ludwig von Woltmann  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Woltmann  1). In: Heinrich August Pierer , Julius Löbe (Hrsg.): Universal Lexicon of the Present and the Past . 4th edition. tape 19 . Altenburg 1865, p. 350 ( zeno.org ).
  2. ↑ Max Mendheim :  Woltmann, Karl Ludwig von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 188-190.
  3. ↑ Heinrich Laube: Modern Characteristics . First volume. Mannheim: Löwenthal 1835, p. 365 f.
  4. ^ Johann Martin Lappenberg : Journal of the Association for Hamburg History . Volume 3, Association for Hamburg History , Hamburg 1851, p. 521
  5. ^ Siegrid Westphal: Telling the peace in times of war. Karl Ludwig Woltmann's "History of the Peace of Westphalia" (1808/09) . In: Holger Böning u. a. (Ed.): Media - Communication - Public. From the late Middle Ages to the present. Festschrift for Werner Greiling on his 65th birthday . Böhlau, Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-412-51669-7 , pp. 275-288 .
predecessor Office successor
Johann Gottfried Misler Hanseatic chargé d'affaires in Prussia
1805–1810 		Johann Martin Lappenberg (from 1819)
personal data
SURNAME Woltmann, Karl Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woltmann, Karl Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1770
PLACE OF BIRTH Oldenburg
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1817
Place of death Prague