Paul Yorck von Wartenburg

This article deals with the lawyer and philosopher Paul Yorck von Wartenburg (1835–1897). For diplomats and resistance fighters (1902–2002) see Paul Graf Yorck von Wartenburg .

Paul Graf Yorck von Wartenburg (1835-1897)

Count Hans Ludwig David Paul Yorck von Wartenburg (born April 1, 1835 in Berlin ; † September 12, 1897 at Schloss Klein-Öls , district of Ohlau , Lower Silesia ) was a German lawyer and philosopher as well as majorate of the small oil estate.

family

→ Main article : Yorck von Wartenburg (noble family)

Paul Yorck was the son of Hans David Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg and grandson of the royal Prussian Field Marshal Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg . His mother, Bertha Countess Yorck (1809–1845), was the daughter of the Prussian Major General Johann Georg Emil von Brause , who was highly educated in philosophy, literature and music . On October 3, 1860, Paul Yorck married the granddaughter of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia , Luise von Wildenbruch (born April 28, 1838 in Berlin, † December 20, 1918 at Schloss Klein-Öls), the older sister of the writer Ernst von Wildenbruch (1845–1909) and daughter of the royal Prussian lieutenant general Louis von Wildenbruch (1803–1874), consul general in Beirut and his first wife Ernestine von Langen (1805–1858), lady-in-waiting to Princess Radziwill .

His grandchildren were the resistance fighters Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg (executed 1944) and Paul Graf Yorck von Wartenburg (1902-2002).

Life

Klein Oels Castle - Count Paul Yorck's study cabinet was in the tower room.

Mausoleum of Count Yorck in the park of Klein Oels

Paul Yorck's sarcophagus in the tomb of the mausoleum

After graduating from high school in 1854 at the Maria Magdalenen Gymnasium in Breslau, he began studying law and philosophy in Bonn in 1855 . But in the same year he moved to Breslau (Lower Silesia) to continue his studies there. In 1857 he made his first trip to Italy with his father Ludwig, to which he a. a. remembered in his Italian diary .

In March 1858 he passed his exam. After his legal clerkship in Breslau, he moved with his family to Potsdam in 1861 , where he prepared for the assessor exam. In 1865, after the death of his father, he took over the management of the Klein-Öls family estate and the hereditary seat of the family in the Prussian mansion .

In the late 1870s he met the philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey, who had been appointed to Breslau in 1871 . A close friendship and scientific discussion developed from this encounter. In 1891 Yorck traveled again to Italy.

Scientific work

The scientific texts that were published from his estate were mostly written in the last years of his life. Yorck's scientific work was inspired by an exchange of ideas with Dilthey, who in turn was influenced by him. After Yorck's death, Dilthey assured his son Heinrich: Yorck was the “greatest, most ingenious nature” that he had met alongside Hermann von Helmholtz . "What value should what I could still write have for me, since from now on I will never hear his agreement, his objections, his judgment again." In addition to his preoccupation with the Greek philosophers, Yorck developed a hermeneutical philosophy of history as the "psychology of." History ”and worked out the positions of consciousness of the epochs. In addition, he subjected the phenomenon of space and spatiality to a psychological analysis. His thinking was particularly important for the development of the concept of historicity and influenced Heidegger and Gadamer .

Works

• The catharsis of Aristotle and the Oedipus Coloneus des Sophocles , Berlin 1866 (examination paper for the higher Prussian administrative service)
• Correspondence between Wilhelm Dilthey and Count Paul Yorck von Wartenburg 1877 - 1897 , Halle 1923, Reprint Hildesheim 1995
• Italian diary , Darmstadt 1927, 2nd edition Leipzig 1939
• Awareness and History. A fragment from the Philosophical Legacy , Tübingen 1956, 2nd edition Hamburg 1991

literature

• Fritz Kaufmann: The philosophy of Count Paul Yorck von Wartenburg , in: Yearbook for Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , Volume 9, Halle 1928
• Friedrich Georg Jünger : Count Paul Yorck von Wartenburg , in: Ders .: Language and Thinking , Frankfurt / Main 1962, pages 162–212
• Karlfried Founder : On the philosophy of Count Paul Yorck von Wartenburg , Göttingen 1970
• Jerzy Krakowski (eds.): Dilthey and Yorck: Philosophy and the humanities under the sign of historicity and historicism , Wrocław 1996
• Francesco Donadio: L 'albero della filosofia e la radice della mistica: Lutero, Schelling, Yorck von Wartenburg , Bibliopolis, Naples 2002
• Francesco Donadio: Religion and History with Paul Yorck von Wartenburg, Würzburg 2013
• Frédérique Dantonel :  Yorck von Wartenburg, Count Paul von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 32, Bautz, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-615-5 , Sp. 1581-1585.

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Yorck von Wartenburg in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library
• Ingo Farin:  Count Paul Yorck von Wartenburg. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from FG Jünger, Frankfurt / Main 1962, page 212.