Rudolf Anton Ludwig von Qualen

Rudolf Anton Ludwig von Qualen , also Rudolph , Ludvig (born June 19, 1778 in Westensee ; † February 21, 1830 in Eutin ) was a German officer and diplomat in the Danish service and the victim of an unresolved murder case.

Life

Rudolf von Qualen was the younger of two sons from the first marriage of Friedrich August von Qualen (1747–1805) with Magdalena, nee. from Rumohr . Johann Detlev (1775-1824), who was lieutenant colonel and chief of the 1st Danish Battalion and was married to Friedrich Seestern-Pauly's younger sister , Juliane Auguste von Seestern-Pauly (1793-1880), was his older brother.

At the time of his father's death in 1805 he was a prime lieutenant in the Danish army. He was chief adjutant of the Danish King Friedrich VI. and accompanied him when he traveled to the Congress of Vienna in 1814 . However, he came back sick and had to undergo a serious operation in Kiel , which made him unfit for further military service. The king then took him on September 21, 1814 as chamberlain in his service.

After the death of the Danish ambassador to the court of the Principality of Lübeck in Eutin , Jobst Konrad von Römeling / Rømeling (1750-1819), he was appointed in 1819 with the character of a colonel and as a Danish minister as his successor.

murder

Late in the evening of February 21, 1830, he was found dead in the garden behind his home in Eutin. An autopsy revealed that he had been killed , presumably with a hatchet . The investigation was delayed because of the extraterritoriality of the Legation House, which von Qualen always maintained . Various servants of his household were arrested and charged, but in the end, after several instances and an expert opinion by the Göttingen Faculty of Law, they were acquitted by the Oldenburg Higher Appeal Court on February 28, 1837 . The perpetrator was never identified. The investigation files are now in the Oldenburg State Archives . As a member of the government, Theodor Erdmann was involved in the process. In the Schleswig-Holstein State Archives in Schleswig there are 35 volumes of files from the judicial office on the process. Anton Bauer recorded the case in Volume 2 of his criminal cases .

family

Rudolf von Qualen was married to Caroline Sophie Emerenze (1787–1870), born on April 30, 1819. Countess von Ahlefeldt , the eldest daughter of the Danish general Friedrich Carl von Ahlefeldt (1742–1825) and his wife Detlefine nee. von Rantzau (1767-1851). The couple had three daughters and three sons. After the murder, the widow and the children moved to Itzehoe .

Awards

• January 28, 1812: Dannebrogorden , knight
• September 21, 1814: Chamberlain
• May 25, 1826: Dannebrogorden, Commander

literature

• W. Wibel : Actual presentation of the facts raised by the investigation because of the murder of the K. Danish Minister, Chamberlain von Qualen zu Eutin, as well as the judgments and reasons for decisions of the Juristcnfacultät zu Göttingen and the Grossh. Oldenburg. Higher Appeal Court in Oldenburg. 2 volumes, Hofbuchdrucker Struve, Eutin 1837
• Hans Schröder : History and biographical news of the family v. Torments. In: North Albingian Studies. 3 (1846) ( digitized version), pp. 103–145, here p. 139f (§ 30)
• Hans Hellmuth Qualen: Die von Qualen, history of a Schleswig-Holstein noble family, Kiel 1987, pp. 179–191.
• Erich Maletzke : The death of the chamberlain. Kiel: New Malik Verlag 1991

Web links

• Series "Murder in the North": Homicide in Eutin: Death of a tyrant. , Article of the SHZ from January 11, 2015, accessed on December 20, 2015

Individual evidence

1. ↑ StAO, Best. 30-11-31 No. 86. There is also a plan of the envoy's house and garden (p. 73)
2. ↑ According to archived copy ( memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.