Samuel Gottfried Kerst

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Samuel Gottfried Kerst (born December 12, 1804 in Neuheide near Elbing , † January 29, 1875 in Berlin ) was a German soldier, politician and civil servant.

Early years

As the son of a landowner, Kerst studied mathematics and natural sciences in Königsberg from 1822 to 1824. On the side he did military service from 1822. In 1824 Kerst became a teacher in Danzig. In 1825 he became an active soldier in the rank of prime lieutenant with the Chief of the General Staff in order to switch to Brazilian services in the same year . As captain of the engineer corps and adjutant general, he took part in the La Plata war for the independence of Uruguay from 1825 to 1828 . In 1830 he participated in a conspiracy of German immigrants to overthrow the Brazilian monarchy ( uprising of 1830 ) and had to return to Germany.

After his return he was teacher and head of the community school from 1832 to 1834, then director of the secondary school in Meseritz in the Prussian province of Posen .

Role during the revolution of 1848/49

At the beginning of the revolution of 1848 Kerst became the commander of the vigilante group in Meseritz. Shortly afterwards he was elected member of the Frankfurt National Assembly for the constituency of Birnbaum-Meseritz . During his membership from May 18, 1848 to May 20, 1849, he initially belonged to the casino faction , later its spin-off, the Landsberg faction . After the failure of the National Assembly, he took part in the assembly of the Gotha post-parliament in June 1849 .

At the same time, Kerst joined the government of the provisional central authority as a civil servant and was initially provisional ministerial advisor 2nd class in the naval department of the Reich Ministry of Commerce under Minister Arnold Duckwitz . In April 1849 he was briefly interim general secretary of the Navy Department in order to become general secretary of the new Reich Ministry of the Navy under Minister August Giacomo Jochmus in May 1849 . In September 1849 he resigned from the service of the provisional central authority.

Later activities

After the end of the revolution, Kerst joined the Prussian Navy as a civil servant and initially worked as a Prussian observer in the German North Sea fleet from October 1849 . In 1850 he became a secret admiralty in the naval department of the Prussian War Ministry under ministers Stockhausen , Bonin and Waldersee . After Prussia had acquired land for a naval base on the North Sea and the future city of Wilhelmshaven from the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg in the jade contract he had signed as negotiator in 1853 , Kerst was head of the Prussian admiralty commission for the administration of this jade area in Oldenburg from 1854 to 1855 . In 1855 he came into opposition to Prussian naval policy, was put up for discussion and retired.

From 1862 to 1866 and from 1871 to 1875 he was a member of the House of Representatives of the Prussian State Parliament for the German Progressive Party . From 1866 to 1872, Kerst also worked as an editor for the Gerberzeitung in Berlin, thus following on from earlier writing. He wrote several travelogues about his time in Brazil and numerous political articles. Among other things, he turned against German emigration to Brazil.

Kerst remained unmarried and died on January 29, 1875 in Berlin.

Works

  • The countries in the La Plata river basin with consideration for German trade and German emigration. Lecture given on May 12, 1852 at the public meeting of the Central Association for German Emigration and Colonization Matters , self-published by the association, Berlin 1852
  • About the Brazilian conditions of the present, with reference to the German emigration to Brazil and the system of the Brazilian planters to replace the lack of African slaves with German proletarians, at the same time to clear the writing of the Kaiserl. brasil. Prof. Dr. Gade: Report on the German colonies on the Rio Preto , published by Veit & Comp., Berlin 1853
  • The plateau states and the importance of the province of Otuquis and the Rio Bermejo since the adoption of the principle of free navigation on the tributaries of the Rio de la Plata , Verlag von Veit & Comp., Berlin 1854

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kerst, S. Gottfried: About Brazilian conditions of the present, with reference to the German emigration to Brazil and the system of the Brazilian planters to replace the lack of African slaves with German proletarians, at the same time to the processing of the writing of the Kaiserl. brasil. Prof. Dr. Gade: Report on the German colonies on the Rio Preto . Berlin: Veit & Comp. 1853. 97 p. Digital texts from the library of the Seminar for Economic and Social History, accessed on July 18, 2017.

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to the article in the Portuguese Wikipedia about this uprising, he was even intended as president of the republic to be created.
personal data
SURNAME Kerst, Samuel Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician and civil servant
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuheide near Elbing
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1875
Place of death Berlin