Lorenz Karsten

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F. C. L. Karsten, Grand Ducal Privy Councilor and Professor of Rostock Economics

Franz Christian Lorenz Karsten (born April 3, 1751 in Pohnstorf ; † February 28, 1829 in Rostock ) was a German economist and agricultural scientist .

Live and act

Lorenz Karsten [No. 7 of the gender census ], youngest son of the former Neubrandenburg pharmacist Johann Christopher Karsten (1704–1779) and the Güstrow pharmacist's daughter Magdalena Sophia, born. Thiel († 1754), was born in 1751 in Pohnstorf near Teterow (parish Jördenstorf), where his father was temporarily estate manager, and was baptized on April 25, 1751 in Güstrow .

Bützow Castle was the seat of the Friedrichs University

Karsten attended the pedagogy in Bützow in 1762 and the cathedral school in Güstrow from 1763 to 1767 . From November 5, 1771 he studied mathematics, natural sciences and languages ​​at the still young University of Bützow , where his oldest brother Wenceslaus Johann Gustav Karsten (1732–1787) was already a professor at the time. His graduation to master's degree finally took place on March 10, 1778. In 1783 Lorenz was transferred to the chair of camera sciences in Bützow . His teaching duties included lectures on finance, economics, and agriculture. During the Bützow years Lorenz Karsten was elected rector of the university twice (1784/85 and 1788/89). When it was dissolved in 1789, he was transferred to the University of Rostock.

In Rostock, Karsten's scientific interest was mainly in agriculture. With a paper published in 1789 on the theoretical study of economics, he promoted the establishment of an agricultural institute, at which farmers should also receive theoretical training. Since the city magistrate, the University of Rostock and the ducal government refused him the money he needed, he leased a mill plot of his own at the gates of Rostock, which he called Neuenwerder. At considerable personal sacrifice, he built an agricultural research institute here in 1793 and later a teaching institute connected to a boarding school. In this laboratory and teaching facility, Karsten took on young farmers in order to familiarize them with new farming methods and to train them in scientific thinking. The agricultural training center, which existed until 1829, was the first institution of its kind in Germany.

Neuenwerder

Together with Count von Schlitz auf Karstorff, he founded the “ Mecklenburgische Landwirthschafts-Gesellschaft ” in 1798 , which was continued in 1817 as the “ Mecklenburg Patriotic Association ” with expanded goals . In 1811 Karsten became the company's main secretary and held this position until the end of his life. At the same time he was editor of the association's own “Annalen”, whereby he succeeded in winning progressive, thinking farmers as employees for this magazine. In numerous of his own contributions, Karsten addressed all the important agricultural problems of his time. With the publication of the plant cultivation test results from his research institute and training institute, he gave the farmers recommendations on how to improve the cultivation methods of agricultural crops and how to increase the harvest yield. A textbook primarily intended for agricultural practitioners served the same purpose. Karsten maintained scientific contacts with numerous agricultural scientists, including Albrecht Daniel Thaer and Johann Heinrich von Thünen .

The Patriotic Association honored its founding member Lorenz Karsten on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the association in 1848 with the creation of a portrait bust by the sculptor Heinrich Kaehler . The bust is now in the collection of the University of Rostock and was last seen on loan in the city history exhibition of the Rostock Cultural History Museum.

The mathematician Wenceslaus Johann Gustav Karsten (1732–1787) was his older brother. Karsten himself was married to the pastor's daughter Lisette Engel (1757–1834) since 1780 and was the father of 15 children, of whom three daughters and eight sons survived their father, including the metallurgist Carl Karsten (1782–1853) and the lawyer and later Rostock Mayor Detloff Karsten (1787–1879).

Fonts (selection)

  • Editor and editor of the German first edition of the (fictional) letters by Thomas Nugent and T. "Travels through Germany and especially through Mecklenburg." Berlin: Nicolai, 1781/82. [Annotated new printer: Schwerin: Thomas Helms Verl., 1998. ISBN 3-931185-22-2 ].
  • About the theoretical study of economics . Rostock 1789. Reprinted in: Neue Annalen der Mecklenburgische Landwirthschafts-Gesellschaft, vol. 16, 1829, pp. 107–122.
  • The first reasons for agriculture, provided that it is applicable in Germany and especially in Mecklenburg . Berlin and Leipzig 1795, 2nd edition Leipzig 1805 (textbook).
  • Are economic institutes and academies useful? In addition to the history of an economic system built here since 1793 . Stiller, Rostock 1795.
  • History of the attempts at planting on the dunes of Warnemünde since 1797, along with other suggestions on how this could be most safely promoted to companies in the future . Müller, Rostock, 1801.

literature

  • Heinrich Klenz :  Karsten, Lorenz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 69-71.
  • Rudolf Karsten (Ed.): Neuenwerder: Family letters from the years 1808-1818. Hagenow 1911.
  • Hermann von Wenckstern : The Neuenwerder experimental and educational institute near Rostock 1793–1829 and the status of agricultural experimentation and research in Mecklenburg in the first half of the 19th century . In: Journal for agricultural testing and investigation, Vol. 2, 1956, pp. 524-536 (with picture).
  • Ingeborg Klein and Gertrud Schröder-Lembke: Lorenz Karsten and Mecklenburg Agriculture . In: Journal of Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology. Vol. 22, 1974, pp. 89-94.
  • Klaus Havemann and Willi Friedrichs: On the work of Franz Christian Lorenz Karsten at the University of Rostock . In: Conference reports of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR. Vol. 173 (5), 1979, pp. 87-92.
  • Gertrud Schröder-Lembke:  Karsten, Lorenz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 307 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Willi Friedrichs and Klaus Havemann: Franz Christian Lorenz Karsten - a pioneer of agricultural science in Mecklenburg . In: Scientific journal of the Wilhelm Pieck University Rostock. Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe vol. 33, 1984, pp. 103-105.
  • Gerhard Heitz : Karsten, Franz Christian Lorenz . In: Biographical Lexicon for Mecklenburg. Vol. 3. Rostock: Schmidt-Römhild Verl., 2001. pp. 114–118.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Church registers of the time in question have not been preserved for Jördenstorf , where Pohnstorf [20 km northwest of Malchin] was parish in 17168; in 17166 Pohnstorf, Ksp. Hohen Mistorf [9 km northwest of Malchin] his birth entry cannot be found! The statement frequently made in older literature that he was born in Güstrow is incorrect.
  2. ^ Entry by Lorenz Karsten in the Rostock matriculation portal
  3. ↑ Entry on Lorenz Karsten's doctorate in the Rostock matriculation portal
personal data
SURNAME Karsten, Lorenz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karsten, Franz Christian Lorenz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and agricultural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1751
PLACE OF BIRTH Pohnstorf
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1829
Place of death Rostock