Sigismund Wilhelm von Gähler

Sigismund Wilhelm von Gähler (born October 20, 1704 in The Hague , † December 28, 1788 in Altona ) was a Danish diplomat and President of Altona.

family

Sigismund Wilhelm von Gähler was a son of Caspar (von) Gähler (* around 1638 in Flensburg ; † December 19, 1759 in Schleswig ) and his wife Maria Gertrud, née Weber (* 1684; † end of August 1770 in Schleswig). The father was the eldest son of Feldschers Andreas Gähler (1640–1702). He worked from 1701 to 1714 as the secretary of the war commissioner of the Danish auxiliary corps for England in the Netherlands. In 1730 he became senior war councilor and in 1738 general war commissioner in Schleswig and Holstein. In 1749 he was raised to the nobility.

Von Gähler had a brother named Peter Elias von Gähler (1718–1783) who was a Danish officer. Caspar Siegfried Gähler was one of his cousins .

Training and first jobs with the Danish state

How von Gähler spent childhood and adolescence and whether he received an education is insufficiently documented. In December 1717 he enrolled as a law student at the University of Leiden. According to the register, he was a Dane from Copenhagen. After completing his studies, he tried to get a job with the Danish state, obviously without success for a long time. In 1733 he submitted an unsuccessful one for a position of legation secretary in Paris. At that time he lived in Schleswig, where his father lived and worked. Obviously he assumed that Friedrich Ernst von Brandenburg-Kulmbach , who was royal governor in the duchies, would support him. He received support from his niece Anna Sophie Schack (1703–1762), to whom he wrote letters in which he reported on closer contacts to Brandenburg-Kulmbach and who made money available to him.

From 1734 to 1736 von Gähler worked as a staff secretary in the Danish auxiliary corps in imperial services in Baden and the Rhineland. The corps was under the direction of Bernhard Joachim von Mörner . In 1734/35 the soldiers stayed in Herborn and in 1735/36 they moved into winter quarters in Liège . He then worked as secretary of a draft commission that planned the establishment of a land militia in the duchies. In 1738 von Gähler moved to the central administration. Chief War Secretary Poul Vendelbo Løvenørn (1686–1740) helped him get a position as chancellery in the war chancellery, where he held the title of "chancellery council". After the death of his protégé in 1740, he had to give up this preferred position.

In 1741 von Gähler moved as staff secretary to the auxiliary corps in the Hanoverian service, which was just being established. During the first half of the year he was in London negotiating his pay. He then traveled to Amsterdam , where he stayed for a few months due to payment processing.

In 1743 the General Commissariat of the Army set up its own field commissioner for troops that were to be formed for a campaign against Sweden. Von Gähler was appointed one of three delegates to the commissioner's office. The plans for the attack were stopped a little later, which led to the dissolution of the commissariat in 1744. Von Gähler then received a waiting allowance and became his father's employee in October of the following year. Caspar von Gähler should prepare his son to be able to represent him himself. For this reason, Sigismund von Gähler was appointed General War Commissioner in 1747.

While he was employed by his father, von Gähler probably lived mostly in Augustenborg . He was repeatedly active abroad, for example in 1748 and 1749 in the Netherlands and at the Prussian court in Berlin. In September 1751 he received the complicated assignment of establishing relations with the Ottoman Empire from Christian August von Berkentin , who temporarily headed the German law firm. This project was connected with efforts to initiate Danish trade by sea and to secure it through diplomatic contacts. Johann Sigismund von Schulin had started the project, his successor Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff continued it vigorously.

As a diplomat in Constantinople

Von Bernstorff gave von Gähler instructions with which he reached Turkey via Vienna in the spring of 1752 and Constantinople in June. The Danes feared that diplomats from other European countries with accreditation at the Sublime Porte wanted to disrupt von Gähler's plans. Therefore von Gähler pretended to be a stable master who was supposed to procure horses for the Danish royal family. He was only able to keep his real project secret for a short time. In December 1752 the Danish King appointed von Gähler as Minister-Resident in Constantinople. In the Turkish city he had problems for years. All the other diplomats on site, namely the French representative, only suggested their support, but actually took action against him. Despite numerous contacts with Turks, he was unable to convince the important people to sign a contract with the Danes.

In the summer of 1756 the Seven Years' War was brewing; the French allied themselves with Austria and Russia, who were the Turks' greatest enemies. The Turks then intensified negotiations with Denmark. In October 1756, von Gähler made a treaty that regulated friendship, shipping and trade. In February 1757 he was appointed envoy extraordinary. He then organized networked consulates in the most important trading centers of the Ottoman Empire.

In addition to his work as a diplomat, von Gähler also acted as General War Commissioner. After the death of his father in late 1759, von Bernstorff offered him the successor in office in early 1760. Von Gähler preferred to continue the work in Turkey and to finish building the consulate in the following years. When the Danish king financed an expedition to Yemen and von Bernstorff prepared it, von Gähler welcomed the participants. He then made most of the contacts for the expedition to Copenhagen. He gave advice on the planned onward journey to Cairo and the trip across the Red Sea and took care of the finances. He built a special relationship of trust with Carsten Niebuhr , who in Constantinople was almost exclusively in the diplomat's house due to illness.

Since the Danes' business with the Levant did not develop successfully, von Bernstorff said in early 1764 that he would be recalled by Gähler. For reasons of foreign policy, however, he did so only in 1766. In September of the same year von Gähler left and reached Copenhagen in March 1767. Shortly afterwards Henning von Qualen appointed him Oberpräsident von Altona. He held this office until the end of his life. During his tenure, the city's economy flourished due to political circumstances.

President of Altona

As senior president, von Gähler maintained very good contacts with Carl von Hessen and treasurer Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann . With von Schimmelmann, he tried to provide economic support for the city. Together with von Schimmelmann and Peter Matthiesen , he was a member of the management of a royal fishing and trading institute, which he himself had promoted. In 1771 he had a coin and a number lottery set up. The most important initiative was the Altonaer Giro- und Leihbank, founded in 1776, which was not under the government. In 1788 this resulted in the Schleswig-Holstein Species Bank . In 1785 he supported two carpenters who wanted to be exempted from compulsory guilds, which was an example of his economic attitude.

In 1770/71 Johann Friedrich Struensee ruled illegitimately over the entire Danish state for a short time. Gähler knew Struensee because of his short stay in Altona, Gähler's brother Peter Elias played a major role in the reform of the army. Gähler showed appreciation to Struensee and wrote many letters to his brother in which he was loyal to the government and supported many reforms. He himself took part in the reform of the Christianeum in 1771 and the "Altonaic Gymnasium Regulations" that followed two years later, which codified them.

Von Gähler rejected the ruthless approach of the new rulers with the previous rulers. He kept his contacts with von Bernstorff, who lived in Hamburg from 1772 after his fall, and thus angered the politicians in Copenhagen. While his brother lost his office with the fall of Struensees, von Gähler himself remained in office. In the summer of 1787 he received a visit from Friedrich VI. As crown prince, he traveled through Denmark and the duchies for the first time and had a meal at von Gähler.

family

Von Gähler married Jeanne Antoinette de la Mare in 1728 (* around 1710; † July 20, 1780 in Altona). Her father Hieronymus de la Mare († October 21, 1797 in Randers ) was a Danish cavalry officer and served for Russia from 1769 to 1773. Her mother was Lucie Emerenita, née von Brockdorff († 1736).

Honors

In 1760 von Gähler was appointed a conference councilor eight years later a secret council. In 1767 he became a knight of the Dannebrog. In 1770 he received the Order de l'union parfaite.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier: Gähler, Sigismund Wilhelm von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 175–179.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dieter Lohmeier: Gähler, Sigismund Wilhelm von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 175.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Dieter Lohmeier: Gähler, Sigismund Wilhelm von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 176.
3. ^ Dieter Lohmeier: Gähler, Sigismund Wilhelm von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 175–176.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Dieter Lohmeier: Gähler, Sigismund Wilhelm von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 177.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Dieter Lohmeier: Gähler, Sigismund Wilhelm von . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 178.