Otto von Axen

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Otto von Axen

Otto von Axen (born June 26, 1757 in Hamburg ; † December 7, 1831 ) was a German merchant, freemason and member of the civic college of the elderly .

family

Otto von Axen comes from a long-established Hamburg bourgeois family that has been documented since 1680. His father Jakob von Axen was a merchant and citizen captain . His sister Engel Christine Westphalen (née von Axen) made a name for herself as a poet.

Act as a citizen

Otto von Axen ran a story for art and industrial productions of all kinds. As an autodidact, he dealt with practical science, literature and philosophy. He was familiar with the constitution of Hamburg and took care of public affairs for the community and the church.

Otto von Axen, collective grave “Philanthropists”, Ohlsdorf cemetery

He gained special respect from Hamburg during the French period in Hamburg (1806–1814), when the Hanseatic city suffered from French occupation and integration into the French Empire. During the period of tyranny he took over the thankless post of Maire-Adjoint (1811-1813) and the management of all hospitals in the city. He rejected the order of the Legion of Honor , which was to be awarded to him by the occupying power in this context. During the siege of the city, he avoided the neighboring Altona . There he tried, as president of a relief association, to alleviate the plight of displaced and refugee Hamburgers. After the liberation of Hamburg in 1814, he returned to the city and was elected to the - first according to the constitution - civic college of the senior elders.

In the last years of his life he took on the troubled finances of the Hamburg city theater and helped to keep it from ruin.

In the Ohlsdorf cemetery , Otto von Axen, among others, is commemorated on the collective grave plate " Philanthropists " in the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery.

Von-Axen-Strasse in Barmbek-Süd is dedicated to his memory.

Working as a Freemason

Axen belonged to the Freemasons since 1784. From 1774 to 1804 he officiated as master of the chair of the Absalom Lodge . From 1816 to 1824 he was Deputy Grand Master of the Great Lodge of Hamburg . He earned services for the construction of a new lodge house and the establishment of a Masonic hospital.

Secondary literature

literature

  • Tilman Holger Stieve: The Hamburg patriots during the French era and the attempt at state reform in Hamburg (1813 - 1815) , Bielefeld 1986, ISBN 3-923-35650-1
  • Wilhelm Perthes, Agnes Perthes: From the French period in Hamburg , in: Hamburgische Hausbibliothek , Vol. 15, Janssen, Hamburg 1910
  • Otto Beneke :  Axen, Otto von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 706.

Remarks

  1. ^ Percy E. Schramm and Ascan W. Lutterooth : Directory of printed sources for the history of Hamburg families . Edited by the Central Office for Lower Saxony Family History, Hamburg 1921
  2. ↑ Max Mendheim :  Westphalen, Engel Christine . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 42, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, p. 217 f.
  3. ^ Johann Gustav Gallois : History of the City of Hamburg , Hamburg 1867, p. 510
  4. ↑ C. Linning: General Handbook of Freemasonry , 1863 Volume 1, p. 59
personal data
SURNAME Axen, Otto von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, member of the College of the Elderly, Freemason
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1831