Hamburg Jacobin Club
The Hamburg Jacobin Club was founded in Hamburg in 1792 under the more inconspicuous name “Societé de lecture” (German: Reading Society).
history
Leading members were Georg Heinrich Sieveking , Caspar Voght and Johann Reimarus . Sieveking became president and the French envoy Lehoc , who drafted the statutes, became vice-president.
When the French stormed the Bastille in 1789, Georg Heinrich Sieveking had already taken this as an opportunity to celebrate a freedom festival in Harvestehude with 80 people in 1790 . It was initiated "for an early successor in Germany, abolition of the despotism of princes".
“Representatives of all nations were present, including two negroes; they all fell around their necks, kissed each other and cheered. "
The French Chargé d'Affaires Sauveur Joseph Gandolphe, who reported the event to the Paris authorities on July 16, insinuated that Voght and Sieveking had only planned the event so that they would be commissioned when France needed grain. Basically it was just like many social gatherings among the Reimarus-Sieveking family and friends. These revolutionary activities in no way prevented Voght from being elevated to the rank of Reich Baron at the beginning of the 19th century.
According to the statutes, the club was something between a reading association and a political club. But many offices showed a certain resemblance to the Mainz Jacobin Club .
The Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg was opposed to the association, but did nothing to avoid endangering the uninterrupted trade with France . The Prussian and Austrian ambassadors reported on republican agitation and overturn plans in Hamburg.
On July 14, 1792, the club commemorated the storm on the Bastille in a "patriotic coffee house". Friedrich Wilhelm von Schütz published the revolutionary Lower Saxony Mercury from July 1792 in Hamburg, which was banned in December of the same year. To avoid Prussian stalking, he was employed by the French envoy as secretary in November. After a defeat by the French revolutionary troops, he was expelled from Hamburg in 1793.
After the Lower Saxon Mercury was banned, Sieveking dissolved the reading society. The French envoy Lehoc was persuaded to leave Hamburg voluntarily in 1793. In the same year Sieveking distanced himself from the increasingly bloody revolution.
Sieveking acquired a country house in Neumühlen in 1793 and from the circle of the club the "Neumühlen Circle" was formed, which came to an end with the bankruptcy of Sieveking and Voght's trading house in 1811.
Quotes
“Mr. Sieveking may be a rich and bright man. But he has come so far to see that the song 'Allons Enfants de la Bastille' is not available in any language for wealthy people, but is only written and composed for the comfort and encouragement of the poor devils! "
literature
- Michael Bergeest, Education between Commerz and Emancipation: Adult Education in the Hamburg Region of the 18th and 19th Centuries , 1995, p. 131f
- Ulrike von Goetz, Arne Cornelius Wasmuth: Revolutionary Hanseatics. In: Welt Online. dated October 21, 2001.
- Hans-Werner Engels : Freye Germans! The hour sings ... On July 14th, 1790 Hamburg's elite celebrates a festival of freedom. A contribution to the North German Enlightenment. Full text version online (PDF; 281 kB).
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from Klencke, From an old box. Original letters, manuscripts and documents from the estate of a well-known man. (Recovered additions to the appreciation of past times and people.) , Leipzig 1853, SS 220 ff.
- ^ History of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , Hamburg 1885, p. 378
- ↑ Cf. Gandolphe à Montmorin, 16 juillet 1790 (Archives des affaire étrangère) Correspondance politique. Hambourg, vol. 106, fol. 371-372.
- ^ Ernst Christian Schütt: Citizens celebrate revolution. In: Chronicle Hamburg. 2nd updated edition. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1997, ISBN 3-577-14443-2 , p. 172.
- ↑ Franklin Kopitzsch: A song for poor devils. Georg Heinrich Sieveking, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and the French Revolution. In: Jörgen Bracker (ed.): Peace for the world theater. Goethe - a participant, observer and mediator between world and theater, politics and history. Museum for Hamburg History 1982, pp. 88–98.