Nikolaus Hesse

Nikolaus Hesse

Nikolaus Hesse (born September 24, 1794 in Lichtenau , † December 30, 1868 in Brilon ) was a German civil servant (cantonal civil servant in Rösebeck in the former Warburg district ) before he emigrated to North America . After his return he was mayor and honorary citizen of Brilon and a member of the Prussian National Assembly .

Life

Little is known about his early life. He was the youngest of six children of the landowner Heinrich Hesse (born July 3, 1744 in Lichtenau; † after 1802) and his wife Elisabeth Krieger (born April 24, 1744 in Neuhaus Castle, † after 1802). He entered public administration when he was about fifteen . At the age of twenty he took part in the Battle of Waterloo and was appointed officer . He was a company commander in the 5th Westphalian Landwehr Regiment . Then he was an administrative officer and rentmaster in the Warburg office . Around 1820 he married Maria Ferdinandina Kiehnen, the daughter of the businessman Johann Georg Kiehne from Neuhaus Castle (* around 1730, † December 6, 1804 in Paderborn) and his wife Agnes Hertwig (* September 6, 1752 in Paderborn, † March 5, 1813 in Neuhaus Castle). This marriage resulted in nine children, seven of whom reached adulthood . Nikolaus Hesse made a living, but suffered from the pressing social hardship of the region. Apparently he made public statements and threatened state repression.

Emigration to the USA

Together with his large family he emigrated to America in 1835. In addition to Nikolaus Hesse and his wife Maria, the six daughters born between 1822 and 1832 and Hesse's 12 years older brother Joannes, who also came from Lichtenau, belonged to the group of emigrants. Their destination was the westernmost territory of the USA at the time , the state of Missouri . Together with six other families, Hesse took part in the purchase of log houses and properties that had been abandoned by their owners. He was one of the founders of Westphalia ( Osage County ). During the time of his stay in America he worked as a farmer and cattle breeder .

Later, after returning to Germany, he published an extensive book in which, as an advisor, he shared his observations on the economy , life , culture , religion , the press and behavior of Americans. This shows how foreign to him the way of life of the locals was in many ways. He was outraged by slavery . He painted a somewhat positive picture of the Indians . He spoke enthusiastically about the technical progress in the country. Since the book was also intended as a guide for emigrants , it contained precise information on how to build and maintain a farm. In a conclusion, intended for future immigrants, he warns against overly high expectations, but without advising against emigrating from Germany. A part of the edition of his book was drawn by Hesse and printed by P. Herle in Paderborn, “German sucked. Westphalia Settlement in the Missouri State at Osage ”is attached. It also shows Hesse's property on the "Maria Creek" (Maries River), a tributary of the Osage. The neighbors of the Hesse family who also emigrated from Germany included the doctor Dr. Bernhard Bruns (1798–1864) and his wife Henriette (“Jette”) Bruns (1813–1899). Nikolaus Hesse's guide was re-published on April 27, 2009 under the original title “Western North America in a special relationship to German immigrants in their agricultural, trade and industrial relationships” as a facsimile reprint at the University of Michigan Library.

In Missouri, Hesse's wife Maria suffered from separation from her familiar surroundings and went through severe depression. The death of their son Victor, born in 1834, three months before the emigration may have contributed to this. After only about two years, the family returned to Germany in 1837. On the way in the USA, both Hesse's brother Joannes (of malaria , called “cold fever”) and the youngest son, born in Westphalia, who was probably suffering from a febrile infection, Hesse said “teething”, died. Although the family had started their way back to Germany, Maria Hesse's homesickness turned into a life-threatening illness.

Presumably through the mediation of the Westphalian President Ludwig Freiherr von Vincke (1774-1844), who had appreciated Hesse's work as a cantonal civil servant, the returnees first became rent master of the Freiherr von Fürstenberg (Herdringen) in Dahlhausen near Menden in the Sauerland. On June 26, 1841, Hesse returned to the local authority as mayor of Brilon. He stayed in this office until 1865. On his return he also worked as an editor for the Briloner Wochenblatt. In 1844, Hesse was the rifle king in Brilon.

Politics 1848/49

During the revolution of 1848/49 he played an important role in the Brilon area. Based on his experiences in the USA, in the weekly newspaper he repeatedly compared the liberal property relations in the USA with the still strongly manorial conditions in the Sauerland . At the beginning of the revolution, he tried to analyze the reasons for the sometimes violent unrest in Brilon and among the rural population. As mayor, he identified a number of points of conflict. The first complex then concerned the landlord's duties and inclines , the second the right to graze and graze in landlord and communal forests, the third the demand for the old rights and to eliminate all "better facilities offered by the progress of the time;" briefly to restore the old, like 100 years ago, and to stand still, like the pagan Chinese still stand today, like 2000 years ago ”. The fourth point related to local government staff and costs. As a fifth point he named the lack of work and earnings, as the sixth the newer municipal constitution, which was often opposed to the old self-government law of the Electoral Cologne era.

Hesse saw the overarching cause of the unrest in a structural conflict between modernizers and traditionalists. In Brilon, the traditionalists then insisted on driving their cattle into the woods in a disorderly manner. Due to the increase in population, the forests could not bear the associated additional pollution. Therefore, heathland and wasteland developed around the city. He saw himself as a representative of progress, who particularly appreciated the modernization efforts of the Prussian administration. “Everything is moving forward at a better time; it is the struggle of our present age; but those want to drift across and backwards. "

The weekly newspaper edited by him printed on April 22, 1848 recommendations for the selection of the “right-wing men” who would be eligible for a member of parliament

1. The deputy must not turn back the wheel of history and must want the constitution and the unity of the fatherland,

2. he must be a man of the people,

3. be an honest and truthful person,

4. Must know things in the circle and in the world.

The recommendations certainly has not Hesse without self-respect formulated. He ran successfully for the Prussian National Assembly in Berlin. He saw himself in the political spectrum in the camp of the moderate liberals. On the occasion of his departure as a member of parliament for Berlin, he declared: “I do not belong to rooters and radicals, but neither am I attached to reactionary endeavors that inhibit progress.” He also continued to write from Berlin for the local press in Brilon. When the counter-revolution gained strength in the fall of 1848 and the National Assembly launched the tax refusal campaign, Hesse described the democrats in a leaflet he published as enemies of the people who " preached riot, insubordination and anarchy ."

Activity as mayor

During his long tenure as mayor (1841 to 1865) he was largely responsible for changes in the city of Brilon. During his time the roads were expanded, a hospital and an orphanage were built. The previous Progymnasium Petrinum was converted into a full-fledged grammar school. A new church and pastorate were also built.

Aftermath, memories

Hesse left several printed reports on his office . He also wrote a chronicle of Brilons for modern times. He organized and listed the city ​​archives as early as the 1840s .

The city of Brilon honored him during his lifetime by granting him honorary citizenship . Today, Nikolaus-Hesse-Strasse also commemorates the famous mayor, who directed the fortunes of the city for almost 25 years.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Past times by Gerhard Brökel, stories from Brilon Volume 1, ISBN 3-86133-341-4
2. ↑ Wolfgang Stüken: Why the residents of Westphalia, Missouri, had problems with the “moonlight”  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Schützenbruderschaft St. Hubertus Brilon 1417–1967 , Ed. Schützenbruderschaft Brilon, Weyersdruck Brilon, 1967, page 102
4. ↑ weekly paper for the circle Brilon 18/1848 (29 April 1848)
5. ↑ weekly paper for the circle Brilon 17/1848 (April 22 1848)
6. ↑ Weekly newspaper for the district of Brilon 45/1848 (November 4, 1848)
7. ↑ A copy is in: State Archives Münster District Meschede 2348
8. ↑ Printed in: Geschichtliche Aufschriften über Brilon. Brilon, 2000. ISBN 3-86133-259-0
9. ↑ Archives in German-speaking countries. 2nd edition Walter de Gruyter, 1974 p. 149

Fonts

• Western North America in special relation to the German immigrants in their agricultural, commercial and industrial relations . Paderborn, 1838. Printed in the Friedländer Offizin in Brilon

literature

• Erika Richter: Nikolaus Hesse: The Missouri Adventure 1835 to 1837 . In: Yearbook Hochsauerlandkreis. 2005. pp. 32-38
• Wolfgang Stüken: "The almost forgotten pioneer of Westphalia - Nicolaus Hesse from Lichtenau is one of the founders of a small town in the US state of Missouri". In: The waiting. Home magazine for the Paderborn and Höxter districts. 68. Vol. 135 / Autumn 2007. pp. 23-30.
• Nikolaus Hesse: “Western North America in a special relationship to German immigrants in their agricultural, trade and industrial relationships”, facsimile reprint, April 27, 2009, University of Michigan Library.