Nicholas of Béguelin

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Nikolaus von Béguelin (also Nicolas von Lichterfelde) (born June 25, 1714 in Courtelary near Biel in Switzerland; † February 3, 1789 in Berlin ) was educator of the Prussian heir to the throne and later King Friedrich Wilhelm II and director of the Philosophical Class of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin.

Live and act

family

Nicholas of Béguelin; Silhouette by Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Unger (1753–1804), Vienna, Austrian National Library, picture archive and graphic collection

Nikolaus von Béguelin was the son of Pierre Béguelin, the lawyer and Meier von Courtelary , and his wife Susanne Laider. In 1761 he married Marie-Catharine Pelloutier (1733–1794), the daughter of the merchant Jean-Barthélémy Pelloutier, a nephew of the pastor of the French Reformed Church in Berlin, Simon Pelloutier, and his wife Charlotte Jassoy (1700–1773), a daughter the jeweler Pierre Jassoy (1658–1714), who immigrated from Metz to Berlin as a result of the persecution of the Huguenots in France. The marriage resulted in the following children:

  • Henriette-Louise-Charlotte von Béguelin (1763-1810), who married the later Lieutenant General Karl Ludwig von Phull in 1800 .
  • Heinrich Huldreich Peter von Béguelin (1765–1818), Privy Chief Finance Officer, second marriage to the Salonnière Amalie Cramer (1778–1848)
  • Friedrich Wilhelm von Béguelin (1768–1828), secret accountant, first married to Marie Honig († 1810), in 1812 second marriage to Henriette Honig (1776–1848)
  • Wilhelm Heinrich Franz von Béguelin (1769–1840), secret tax and war council, 1799 indigenous man of the knighthood of the Duchy of Silesia, married since 1807 to Johanne Sophie Hesse (1787–1844)

Life and meaning

Family coat of arms of the von Béguelin family above the entrance to the Lichterfelde village church in Berlin, photo: Klaus Böse, Berlin

From 1729 he studied law and mathematics in Basel and graduated in 1735 with the Dr. iur from. From 1743 he was legation secretary at the Prussian embassy in Dresden, where he met the Prussian King Frederick the Great . In 1745 he appointed him professor of mathematics at the Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium in Berlin and, from 1747, tutor of the Prussian heir to the throne and later King Friedrich Wilhelm II. Béguelin taught the prince the subject in a playful and excessively informal manner.

Since that time he was also a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences , from 1786 to 1789 as director of the section for philosophy, and wrote treatises on mathematics and experimental philosophy, especially on optical and meteorological questions.

After falling out of favor with Frederick the Great in 1764, on the occasion of his accession to the throne, Friedrich Wilhelm II , who admired him very much and described him as a righteous teacher in a personal letter, gave him the Lichterfelde manor and raised him to the hereditary nobility . In 1761 he became an honorary member of the Great Council of Biel .

The king visited him on his deathbed and stayed with him for a long time. Daniel Chodowiecki recorded this visit in one engraving. Béguelin was buried in a newly built crypt annex to the Lichterfelde village church . After the church was rebuilt between 1938 and 1939, this annex was converted into the anteroom of the village church. The family's coffins, including his son Heinrich von Béguelin , are now under the anteroom of the church.

Works (selection)

  • Ewald Christian Kleist, Nikolaus Beguelin: Le Printems: Poëme De Feu M. De Kleist . Berlin 1781, 64 pages, 11693266 in VD 18 .
  • Nikolaus von Béguelin: Mémoire Sur Les Premiers Principes Métaphysiques . Premiere game. In: magazine Choix des mémoires et abrégé de l'histoire de l'Académie de Berlin . Berlin 1761, VD18 digital - Göttingen State and University Library, pp. 335 ff., Vd18.de
  • Nikolaus von Béguelin: Mémoire Sur Les Premiers Principes Métaphysiques . Seconde part. In: magazine Choix des mémoires et abrégé de l'histoire de l'Académie de Berlin . Berlin 1761, VD18 digital - Goettingen State and University Library, p. 371 ff., Vd18.de
  • Nikolaus von Béguelin: Mémoire Sur L'Art De Connoitre Les Pensées D'Autrui à l'aide de la métaphysique . In: magazine Choix des mémoires et abrégé de l'histoire de l'Académie de Berlin . Berlin 1761, VD18 digital - Lower Saxony State and University Library Göttingen, p. 419 ff., Vd18.de

literature

  • René Sigrist: Béguelin, Nicolas von (von Lichterfelde). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland , accessed on May 18, 2019 .
  • Genealogy-Béguelin . In: Neil Jeffares: pastels & pastellists, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800 . pastellists.com (PDF)
  • Genealogy Jassoy . In: Neil Jeffares: pastels & pastellists, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800 . pastellists.com (PDF) Note: René Sigrist and Neil Jeffares (Beguelin) state that Charlotte Pelloutier is the daughter of the pastor of the Protestant Church, Simon Pelloutier. The information on the keyword "Jassoy" that the pastor Simon Pelloutier was an uncle of the merchant Jean-Barthélémy Pelloutier is probably correct. Under the keyword “Jassoy” and the keyword “Hainchelin” onlineedition: pastellists.com (PDF) you will find further information about the family.
  • Leopold Zedlitz-Neukirch: New Preussisches Adels-Lexicon or genealogical and diplomatic news from the ... noble houses residing in the Prussian monarchy or related to the same ... Leipzig 1836, p. 196 f., Books.google
  • Rolf Straubel : Biographical manual of the Prussian administrative and judicial officials 1740–1806 / 15 . In: Historical Commission to Berlin (Ed.): Individual publications . 85. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-23229-9 , pp. 53 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Johann Georg Meusel: Fourth addendum to the fourth edition of the Scholars Teutschland . Volume 8. Lemgo 1791, p. 36 (catalog of works) books.google.de
  • Ulrich Muhs: Lichterfelde then and now. A home book . Berlin 1919, p. 63 f. and 151, partial imprint in the “Fotokeller der Ev. Paulusgemeinde ”, historical pictures page 3“ The Lichterfelder Dorfkirche ”, fotokeller.org accessed on October 7, 2014
  • Marcelli Janecki : Handbook of the Prussian Nobility . Volume 2. 1893, p. 48

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ portrait collection, inventory no. PORT_00094296_01 bildarchiv.at
  2. ↑ Hans Hartmut Sieg, State Service, State Thinking and Service Mindset in Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th Century (1713–1806): Studies for Understanding Absolutism, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-11-017719-6 , p. 336 fn. 537 with others Evidence, partly online: books.google.de
  3. ^ Members of the previous academies. Nicolas de Béguelin. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on February 19, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Holger Helbig: Natural order: Representation and method in Goethe's theory of colors . Cologne / Weimar 2004, especially p. 83 ff., Books.google.de
personal data
SURNAME Béguelin, Nicholas of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lichtenfelde, Nicolas von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Director of the Philosophical Class of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1714
PLACE OF BIRTH Courtelary , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1789
Place of death Berlin