Otto von Wenckstern

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otto Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig von Wenckstern (born April 25, 1819 in Rawitz , Province of Posen ; † August 5, 1869 in Trinidad , Lesser Antilles ) was a German journalist and Vormärzler who had to flee abroad due to political pressure.

parents

Wenckstern came from the Mecklenburg noble family of von Wenckstern . He was the son of the royal Prussian captain ( captain ) Carl von Wenckstern (1786–1822) from the Lawken estate in the Lötzen district ( East Prussia ) and the merchant's daughter Maria Anna (called Marianne), née. Comp from Eitorf . They met when the captain of the Russian-German Legion was stationed in Eitorf in 1814 and married there in 1817. It was here that the Wencksterns had their first child. Otto was born as the second child in the Rawitz garrison , where Marianne followed her husband in 1818. The father died as early as 1822.

childhood

The mother moved to her brother-in-law Johann Wilhelm Joseph Windscheid in Hennef- Geistingen, where she gave birth to another child, who soon died. Here she also made contact with the friend of her deceased husband, Ernst Moritz Arndt . From his mother's correspondence with Ernst Moritz Arndt it is known that Otto von Wenckstern was often sickly.

In 1823 the mother moved with her two children to their parents in Eitorf , but also had an apartment in Vilich . In 1825, the mother married in Bonn and Vilich the meantime by Müllenbach at Marienheide offset Leuscheider Pastor Friedrich Oelbermann. After that Otto von Wenckstern grew up with his strict stepfather in Müllenbach. His stepbrother was the poet Hugo Oelbermann .

education

He later attended an agricultural college in Wiesbaden , where he came into contact with English spa guests and learned English. At the age of 20 he did a year of military service. In 1840 he became a student at the philosophical faculty of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn . There he became a member of the Corps Rhenania in January 1840 . As a language teacher in English and Italian, he settled in Elberfeld in 1841 . Here he made friends with Otto Wecka von Czarnowski, who was 20 years his senior . He was an editor and had founded the Barmer Zeitung in Barmen . He had also translated numerous works from English and Italian into German, including works by Charles Dickens and Edward Bulwer Lytton .

Journalist, writer and translator

Wuppertal

Through Otto Wecka von Czarnowski , Otto von Wenckstern came to articles in various newspapers as a journalist and was involved in the Polish fight for freedom against Russia . The Prussian authorities then prevented Otto von Wenckstern from being employed as an editor in Elberfeld .

Wenckstern had meanwhile taken over the Barmer Zeitung, but was forced out again in 1844 for political reasons. He had published a book on the negotiations of the Seventh Rhenish Provincial Parliament and commented on it in a preface and an after- speech. The book was confiscated and only later - after a complaint before the Higher Censorship Court in Berlin - released again, but without the politically explosive preambles.

Bonn

Otto von Wenckstern then moved back to Bonn . Here he published the memorandum The German Industry and the Association for the Remedy of the Emergency of German Factory Workers . This association was supported by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. With 15,000 thalers, which prompted Otto von Wenckstern to criticize whether the association exerts a significant influence on people who have nothing to save .

Constancy

After further political persecution he moved to Wiesbaden and on to Constance on Lake Constance. During this time he also published his poems and songs. In 1845 an anthology of Wenkstern's poems was published, which was enthusiastically reviewed in the Blätter für Literary Entertainment . The poems were formally similar to those of Heinrich Heine and Ferdinand Freiligrath , whom he knew personally. With the latter and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff , he also participated in the Westphalian yearbook published by Mathilde Franzisca von Tabouillot in 1846 : Producte der Rothen Erde , to which he contributed a novella and two poems.

Zurich

On April 30, 1845 Otto von Wenckstern married Sarah Annie Hutchins (1824-1891) in Chelsea (London) . With her he fled to Zurich . Here he also met Gottfried Keller , who lived there, but who despised him. At the end of the year, the couple moved to London .

London

Here Wenckstern worked briefly as a journalist for the Times . The Prussian ambassador to London, Christian Karl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen , who he knew through Ernst Moritz Arndt , then hired him as a translator, e. B. for a memorandum on the constitutional rights of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . In 1848 von Wenckstern worked again for the Times . He also translated works into English, e.g. B. of General Klapka about the freedom struggle of Hungary 1848/49 and the novel The Village Notary by Joseph Freiherr von Eötvös and Max Schlesinger walks through London . He translated Elliot Warburton's novel The Settlers on Darien from English into German .

In 1854 von Wenckstern traveled to Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire on behalf of the Daily News on the occasion of the Crimean War as a war correspondent . Upon his return, he wrote articles for The Times , Daily News , Saturday Reviews and Frazer's . Between 1851 and 1856 he wrote numerous articles for the weekly literary newspaper Household Words , published by Charles Dickens . In 1859 he wrote as Otto Wenckstern - that of cars he no longer - even a book about the Hungarian uprising and a political treatise on Schleswig-Holstein. In 1861 he traveled to Königsberg as a correspondent for the coronation of Wilhelm I , taking the opportunity to visit his sister in Eitorf for the last time. In 1862 he wrote a pamphlet in which he advocated the division of Poland and praised Prussia for its wealth and culture.

Trinidad

In 1864 Otto Wenckstern emigrated with his wife to Trinidad and founded the newspaper The Trinidad Chronicle in the capital Port of Spain , in which he vehemently denounced grievances. Wenckstern died of yellow fever in 1869 and was buried here.

His wife died on November 15, 1891 in Birkdale / Lancaster.

swell

  • Karl Schröder: Eitorf under the Prussians 1815-1918, Heimatverein Eitorf 2002

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 13 : 276
  2. ↑ Boz [di Charles Dickens]: The posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club: containing a faithful report of the perceptions, dangers, journeys, adventures and cheerful experiences of the correspondent members of the Club. Translated from English by O. v. Czarnowski. Friedrich Vieweg & Son: Braunschweig (1839); ders .: Life and Adventure of Martin Chuzzlewit, translated by Otto von Czarnowski. Vieweg & Son: Braunschweig (1843)
  3. ↑ Bulwer Lytton, Edward: The Last Days of Pompeii. Translated from English by Otto von Czarnowski. Jacob Anton Mayer: Aachen & Leipzig (1834)
  4. ↑ Wenckstern, Otto von: Des Siebenten Rheinischen Provinzial-Landtag negotiations on the most important questions of our time, collected, edited and published by Otto von Wenckstern (on commission from W. Langewiesche! N Barmen) Barmen (1844), digitized
  5. ↑ Wenckstern, Otto von: The German industry and the association to remedy the distress of German factory workers. König: Bonn (1845) digitized
  6. ^ Wenckstern, Otto von: Seventeen Poland songs. O. Wigand: Leipzig (1843); Ders .: songs based on texts of Revelation. In: Hermann Püttmann: Rheinische yearbooks for social reform. Vol. 1 (1845), pp. 360-361, digital copy ; Ders .: night. In: C. Dräxler-Manfred: Rheinisches Taschenbuch on the year 1847. JD Sauerländer: Frankfurt / M. (1847), p. 231, digitized
  7. ↑ Wenckstern, Otto von: Gedichte. Johann David Sauerländer: Frankfurt / M. (1845). Digitized
  8. ↑ Anon .: Zeitgeichte. In: Leaves for literary entertainment. Vol. 1 (1847), pp. 438-439. Digitized
  9. ↑ Wenckstern, Otto von: Fragments from the life of an Englishman of status: Castle Boring. A novella. In: Westfälisches Jahrbuch: Products of the red earth. Collected by Mathilde Franziska who were married by Tabouillot born. Giesler. Coppenrath: Münster (1846), pp. 151-225, digitized ; Ders .: song and farewell . Ibid., Pp. 625-627, digitized
  10. ↑ London Metropolitan Archives; Reference Number: p74 / tri / 011
  11. ^ Bunsen, Christian Karl Josias Freiherr von: Memoir on the Constitutional Rights of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, presented to Viscount Palmerston by Chevalier Bunsen ... published ... by Otto von Wenckstern. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans: London (1848) digitized
  12. ^ Klapka, György: Memory of the war of Independence in Hungary. 2 vols. Charles Gilpin: London (1850). Digital copies Vol. 1 , Vol. 2
  13. ^ The Village Notary. A Romance of Hungarian Life. Translated from the Hungarian of Baron Eötvös by Otto Wenckstern. 3 Vols. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans: London (1850) - Digitalisate Vol. 1 , Vol. 2 , Vol. 3
  14. ↑ Max Schlesinger: Saunterings in and about London. Nathaniel Cooke: London (1853) - digitized
  15. ↑ Warburton, Elliot: The Settlers on Darien, or Patriots and Pirates. A novel. Edited and introduced by Otto von Wenckstern. 3 Vols. Hartleben: Pest & Leipzig (1852) - Digitalisate Vol. 1 , Vol. 2 , Vol. 3
  16. ^ A Short Trip into Bosnia. In: Charles Dickens: Household Words , Vol. 3 (1851), pp. 182-187; Lost in London. Ibid., Pp. 372-378; The Bohemian Schoolmaster. Ibid., Pp. 496-501; To the Austrian State Trial. Ibid., Vol. 4 (1851), pp. 18-22; The German Exile's New Year's Eve. Ibid. Pp. 325-329; When I Served in the Militia. Ibid., 6 (1852), pp. 245-250; Pass-Words through All the Russias. Ibid. (1853), pp. 381-384; Troops and Jobs in Malta. Ibid., Vol. 9 (1854), pp. 266-268; Heroes Afloat. Ibid., Pp. 593-596; English Cookery. Ibid., Vol. 13 (1856), p. 116 - see Dickens Journals Online
  17. ^ History of the War in Hungary in 1848 and 1849. By Otto Wenkstern (sic!). John W. Parker & Son: London (1859) - digitized
  18. ^ Wenckstern, Otto from: Ten Years of the Schleswig-Holstein Question. An Abstract and Commentary . Mann Nephews: London (1863) - digitized
  19. ^ Cave, Roderick: Early Printing and the Book Trade in the West Indies. In: The Library Quarterly. Vol. 28 (2), pp. 163-192 (1978)
  20. ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1891
personal data
SURNAME Wenckstern, Otto von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wenckstern, Otto Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, writer and Vormärzler
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Rawitz , Poznan Province
DATE OF DEATH August 5, 1869
Place of death Trinidad , Lesser Antilles