Paulus Modestus Schücking

Oil painting by Paulus Modestus Schücking, ca.1811

Oil painting by Paulus Modestus Schücking, ca.1840

Paulus Modestus Schücking (Paul Nicolaus Bernhard Joseph Schücking, called Modestus , born June 16, 1787 in Münster , † June 16, 1867 in Bremen ) was a German judge , bailiff , philosopher and writer .

family

The Schückings are an old patrician family originally from Coesfeld, who have produced many outstanding personalities over the centuries, including writers, lawyers and medical professionals.

Schücking was a son of the Münster court president Christoph Bernhard Maria Schücking (1748-1826) and his wife Margarethe Hermine Schmitjan (1753-1813). He married the well-known poet Katharina Busch ( Katharina Sibylla Schücking ) on October 7, 1813 . The couple had six children: Christoph Bernhard Levin Matthias, known as Levin Schücking (1814–1883), Peter August Gerhard (1816–1817), Anton Matthias Franz Alfred (1818–1898), Ida Josephina Theophania Desideria (1821–1883), Modesta Paulina Nicolaia Roswitha (1825–1896) and Prosper Ludwig (1828–1887).

After the early death of his first wife Katharina, Schücking married Anna Gesina Sophia Ottilia Brück (1807-1850) from Osnabrück on October 25, 1832, from whom he separated again early. With her he had the three children Constantius Augustus Ludovicus Johann (1833–1877), Catharina Maria Josepha Ottilia (1834–1910) and Adalbert August Heinrich (1836–1838).

Four of his children (Anton Matthias Franz Alfred, Prosper Ludwig, Catharina Maria Josepha Ottilia and Constantius Augustus Ludovicus Johann) later emigrated to America.

Life

From 1799 Schücking attended the Paulinum grammar school in Münster and studied law at the university there from 1806 to 1809. In 1809 he was a lawyer at the Duke Arenberg Tribunal in Meppen, and from 1810 in Haselünne.

After the region was incorporated into the First German Empire , the lawyer acted as Imperial French Justice of the Peace of the Canton of Wesuwe and as District Councilor of Neuenhaus from March 1, 1811. With the renewed subordination of the northern Emsland to the Arenbergian class rule after the fall of the French Empire and the transition of the entire region under Hanoverian rule, Schücking was appointed judge of the Royal Hanoverian Justice Commission for the Hümmling in Sögel on January 1, 1815, where he has been since April 10, 1828 also worked as Duke Arenbergscher bailiff.

He lived there with his family in the stables of the Hunting Lodge Clemenswerth , later in the Ludmillenhof .

Schücking was highly committed to improving the living conditions of the Hümmling population, supported by his wife Catharina. The expansion of road and post connections as well as the construction of new church buildings were part of this.

This is what it says on the website of the Schücking Museum about his extraordinary commitment:

Exceptional for that time was his social commitment to the bog colonists who lived in deep poverty, whom he regularly visited in their huts and for whom he went to the ducal court chamber. The Schücking couple's social commitment became widely known. Petitioners from all over Hümmling were the rule in front of the official building in the Marstall Clemworth near Sögel.

On Schücking's initiative, not only mills were built on the Hümmling and roads with protective avenues, but also the official fountain in Sögel, for the construction of which he donated 20 Thais, and the Ludmillenhof in Sögel, which he himself designed. The design was realized by Haselünner architect Josef Niehaus (1802–1864), the building inspector of the Duke of Arenberg, with whom Schücking also worked on other projects.

Against considerable resistance, Schücking campaigned for good reasons - including from his own experience - for the approval of a second doctor in Sögel. A total of three children had died early, so that in several cases, shortly before the birth, he sent his wife to Coesfeld or Dülmen for better medical care. However, this commitment to better medical care for Sögels and the Hümmlings created a lot of bad blood and earned him some hostility. It was only shortly before his discharge from office in 1836 that the government decided in favor of the admission of the second doctor requested by Schücking.

Schücking had already dealt with religious questions during his time in Sögel and was astute about the historical background, based on the philosophers Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) as well as the theologian Georg Hermes (1775–1831) , illuminated. His regular conversations with the Capuchin Fathers in the castle monastery have entered the literature through his son Levin. However, the judge and bailiff , who was influenced by Hermesian theology, was well ahead of his time. He argued in several writings for more tolerance with and between the two major denominations. He propagated the legalization of mixed denominational marriages and took to the field against some dogmas, which he called against moral reason. His thoughts and actions, shaped by the great German philosophers, had to - paired with his sense of justice - repeatedly meet with vehement resistance in his time. In connection with the memoirs of his father Levin Schücking, however, the grandson Levin Ludwig Schücking asserts that Schücking's overly arrogant administration may have encouraged resistance in his environment.

Although large parts of the population showed solidarity with him, Schücking was tried on January 26, 1836. The doctor, whom he had given a competitor to his side, played an essential role. The selection of witnesses and the vague reasons for the verdict lead to the conclusion that an uncomfortable mind should be silenced here.

Schücking was probably already worn down by the many intrigues himself, gave up and, after a short stopover in Munster, emigrated to the United States.

Here he worked, like his son Alfred, as a teacher and editor of magazines. For example, he published “Schückings Intelligence Journal” in Baltimore. He also reported on the social, political and religious conditions in the New World for several German newspapers. However, he could not adapt to the conditions in his new environment, returned to Germany in 1840 and stayed in Bremen, where he worked as a freelance writer and historian from then on. Numerous historical and religious-philosophical works were created here, which he published under the pseudonym Ludger von Darfeld .

His son Alfred, who emigrated with him, became a publicist, lawyer and congressman in the USA. The son Prosper, who only emigrated to the USA in 1847, became Undersecretary of State in the State Department in 1868. The daughter Catharina Maria Josepha Ottilia married Emil Sutro (1832–1906), the brother Adolph Sutros , and as Kathinka Sutro-Schücking became a somewhat well-known writer in the USA.

Fonts

• Crown and tiara. Peace vote from Munster by a Catholic. With regard to the Cologne and Poznan affair. Wundermann, Münster 1838.
• The Bremen cemetery. Bremen no year
• The consecration of the Messiah in the Jordan. Bremen no year
• Hussen's revenge. Bremen no year
• Abbot Joachim of Badia di Fiore. Bremen no year

Translations

• LA Seneca: On the steadfastness of the wise, or: That misfortune and insult do not strike the wise. Munster 1837.

literature

• Levin Schücking: Memoirs. Leipzig 1886.
• Schücking yearbook. Volume 1 and 2. 1997/1998 and 1999/2000.
• Klara Weber: Katharina Schücking. A picture of life and upbringing from the beginning of the 19th century. Dissertation 1918.
• Heinz Thien: Art. Schücking, Paulus Modestus, in: Study Society for Emsländische Regionalgeschichte (Ed.): Emsländische Geschichte 6, Dohren 1997, pp. 326–329.
• Heinz Thien: The eventful life of Catharina Busch. Ostenwalde 1993.
• Heinz Thien: Here I am in Meppen, at the goal of my wishes and hopes. In: Meppener Tagespost. January 19, 1996.
• Susanne Amrain : Looking for violets in October. Ceremonial lecture for the opening of the Schücking Museum on May 25, 1997.
• Heinz Thien: Catharina Busch did not fall silent in the desolate Emsland ... In: Schücking yearbook. Volume 2, 1999/2000.
• House chronicle of the Schücking family. 1862.
• Clemens Steinbicker: Schücking. A Westphalian gender in its social development. 1974.
• Levin Ludwig Schücking: Essays on Shakespeare, Pepys, Rossette, Shaw and others. Dieterich, Wiesbaden 1948.

Web links

• Paulus Modestus Schücking in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors
• House Schücking in Sassenberg, ancestral home of the family
• Official fountain in Sögel
• The story of the Marstall Clemworth. Archived from the original on March 6, 2005 ; accessed on January 10, 2016 .