Matthias Goswin Pelzer

Matthias Goswin Pelzer (born April 3, 1754 in Burtscheid ; † November 5, 1814 there ) was a legal scholar and syndic of the Free Imperial City of Aachen and president of the canton of Aix-la-Chapelle during the French occupation.

Live and act

The son of forester Anton Pelzer (1714–1790) and Maria Barbara Peters (* 1719) attended the Jesuit grammar school in Aachen and then joined the Jesuit order in Trier as a novice . After the dissolution of this institution, he moved to the University of Trier , where he completed his law studies and wrote his dissertation in 1777 .

On his return to Aachen he was elected to the city council in 1782 and appointed city syndic in 1785. At the same time the local feudal court appointed him as its president. In 1790 and 1792 he was the city's delegate at the coronation celebrations of Leopold II and Franz II in Frankfurt am Main .

After the French invasion in 1794 as part of the First Coalition War and their subsequent occupation of the left bank of the Rhine, as well as the subsequent takeover of municipalities for the new Arrondissement d'Aix-la-Chapelle , Pelzer initially withdrew from all political offices. At the urging of the population, he expressed interest in cooperating with the French occupying power and was elected a member of the “ conseil général du Département de la Roer ” and the “ corps legislatif ” and was elected President of the canton of Aix-la-Chapelle appointed. In this capacity he belonged to the delegation for the coronation celebrations of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1804 together with the incumbent Mayor Johann Wilhelm Gottfried von Lommessem from Aachen .

In addition, Pelzer was appointed a member of the " Société d'émulation pour l'agriculture, le commerce, les sciences et les arts " of the Aachen and Cologne section, which had been founded in 1802 by the Prefect Nikolaus Sebastian Simon.

After a long illness, Pelzer died on November 5th, 1814 and thus saw the withdrawal of the French troops from Aachen in January 1814.

family

Matthias Goswin Pelzer was married to Aloysia Johanna Gertrud Dauven (1761–1842), daughter of the multiple Aachen mayor Stephan Dominicus Dauven , who had played a major role during the time of the Aachen neglect on the part of the "old conservatives". With her he had seven sons and four daughters. Of his sons, Stefan Anton Dominikus (1791–1865) was judicial advisor in Aachen, Anton Aloys (1783–1832) alderman at Burtscheid and cotton merchant in Charleston (South Carolina) , Arnold Edmund (1801–1874) Lord Mayor of Aachen and member of the Prussian House of Representatives and Andreas (1804–1859) Appellate Judge in Cologne. Matthias Goswin's grandson Ludwig Pelzer descends from the latter , who was then also elected Lord Mayor of Aachen and was a member of the Prussian manor house .

Literature and Sources

• Hermann Friedrich Macco : History and genealogy of the Peltzer families, contributions to the genealogy of Rhenish noble and patrician families , Volume 3, p. 249 ff, Aachen, 1901.
• Hans-Joachim Ramm:  Peltzer, Aachen and Stolberg factory owner family. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , pp. 168-170 ( digitized version ).

Web links

• Short biography at "Assemblée nationale" (Frz.)