Theodor Distel

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Ernst August Theodor Distel (born January 8, 1849 in Hainichen , † July 29, 1912 in Blasewitz ) was a German lawyer and archivist .

Life

Distel's final resting place in the Souchay family grave in the cemetery of the St. Jürgen Chapel in Lübeck

Theodor Distel studied law at the University of Leipzig and was awarded a Dr. jur. PhD. His fellow student Carl von Ledebur describes the study environment in Leipzig and Distel's personality in his diary

"In the evening after the theater, Prince Günther Schwarzburg , Hirschfeld and I met in Leipzig, mostly in the Restoration von Baarmann, where we were in a small circle, which was still the Hereditary Prince Bernhard von Meiningen , whose governor was Captain Freiherr von Schleinitz (whom I met from 2 . Guard Regiment knew where I stood as an ensign and young officer) *) and stud. jur. Theodor Distel joined them, who was valued by everyone as a student of the two princes and as a gracious and amusing companion. The hours we spent there were stimulating and the conversation revolved mainly around the theater, to which the Hereditary Prince of Mine, like his illustrious father, was devoted with all his heart and full understanding. With thistle, which later became Königl. Archivist in Dresden, I also made a close friendship, which has proven itself faithfully in all situations and is to last until our death "

- Carl von Ledebur

After completing his studies, he joined the archives service of the Kingdom of Saxony and was appointed archivist at the main state archive in Dresden in 1883 . He wrote numerous publications on the regional history of Saxony and, as a legal historian, had specialized in the old jury's courts . Distel was also the author of the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie . Due to illness, he retired from the service as state archivist in 1907 and was buried in the family grave of the Souchay family in Lübeck after his death . The classicist tomb is the work of the architect Joseph Christian Lillie , created around 1814, and is a listed building.

family

Villa Distelheim in Blasewitz

Theodor Distel married Theodora (Dora), b. Souchay (1857-1945). His wife came from the Lübeck branch of the successful Huguenot merchant dynasty Souchay. She was a daughter of Marc André Souchay (1824–1880) and his wife Mathilde, geb. Irsengarten (1829-1916). Theodor Souchay was her great-uncle. Theodor and Dora Distel had two daughters. Hilde Distel (1880–1917) was a singer and remained unmarried. Lilly Distel, who was two years younger than her, was a pianist and married early in Lübeck . Both sisters were unusually talented in music. They grew up together with the brothers Paul and Carl Ehrenberg , who lost their mother at an early age, in the Villa Distelheim in Blasewitz .

The Distels, the Ehrenbergs and the Mann family

House Regerstraße 27 in Blasewitz, Elisabeth Mann's apartment

Theodor Distel's eldest daughter Hilde was a childhood friend of Thomas Mann's sister Julia .

After her second divorce, Julia's aunt Elisabeth lived with her children Alice and Henry at Johannstrasse 15 in Dresden, today's Regerstrasse 27 . When Julia Mann paid a visit there, she got to know the Distel family, who were related by marriage and who lived nearby. Later she probably also mediated the acquaintance of the family of the state archivist Theodor Distel, in which the brothers Carl and Paul Ehrenberg also lived, with their brother Thomas.

As a result, Thomas Mann was able to ask Hilde Distel in 1902 about the details of the murder in the tram of the musician Gustav Adolf Gunkel (1901), which he then used decades later in Doctor Faustus ; Thomas Mann's correspondence with her sister Lilly also finds its place in this. Paul Ehrenberg had an intense friendship with Thomas Mann from 1899 to 1904. This friendship with its unfulfilled homoeroticism occupied Thomas Mann well into old age, in whose diary Ehrenberg is referred to as the "central heart experience of my 25 years". He is the model of Rudi Schwerdtfeger in the novel Doctor Faustus .

Die Distels and Wilhelm Furtwängler

The traditional correspondence between mother Dora in Dresden and daughter Lilly as Salonnière in Lübeck is an eloquent document of Wilhelm Furtwängler's early years and his first position as conductor in Lübeck.

Awards

literature

  • Anton Bettelheim : Biographical Yearbook and German Nekrolog. Volume 18 (1913), List of the Dead
  • Distel, Theodor. In: The German archivists 1500–1945. Biographisches Lexikon, Saur 1992, ISBN 978-3-59810606-4 , p. 122.
  • Carl von Ledebur : From my diary. A contribution to the history of the Schwerin court theater 1883–1897. Herberger, Schwerin 1897. ( digitized version )
  • Otto Döhner: The Huguenot family Souchay de la Duboissiere and their descendants. Neustadt ad Aisch 1961 ( digitized version )

Web links

Wikisource: Theodor Distel  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fischer's Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsrecht 4 (1883), p. 95
  2. ↑ Otto Döhner: The Huguenot family Souchay de la Duboissiere and his descendants , Neustadt ad Aisch 1961, p. 159.
  3. ^ Hartwig Beseler (ed.): Art Topography Schleswig-Holstein. Neumünster 1974, p. 159; Ilsabe von Bülow: Joseph Christian Lillie (1760-1827). Berlin 2008, p. 190
  4. ↑ Otto Döhner: The Huguenot family Souchay de la Duboissière and their descendants. Degener, Neustadt an der Aisch 1961 (German Family Archives 19) digitized , p. 159.
  5. ↑ Peter de Mendelssohn : The magician. The life of the writer Thomas Mann. Volume 1: 1875-1918. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-10-04940-2-4 , p. 377.
  6. ↑ Thomas Mann , Heinrich Detering , Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich , Thomas Mann Archive: Large commented on Frankfurt edition: Letters 1, 1889-1913, in: Volume 21 by Thomas Mann - Large commented on Frankfurt edition, S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 579; Helmut Keiber: "... that you are worthy and important to me": Thomas Mann and Paul Ehrenberg VPK, Verlag Pfälzer Kunst, Landau in der Pfalz 2005, pp. 18, 320, 321.
  7. ↑ Furtwängler in Lübeck 1911–1915. From letters from a music lover to her mother. In: Martin Hürlimann (ed.): Wilhelm Furtwängler: in the judgment of his time. Zurich; Freiburg i. Br .: Atlantis 1955, p. 131ff; Günter Zschacke : Furtwängler in Lübeck. The years 1911–1915 as reflected in the letters from Lilli Dieckmann to her mother in Dresden. Edited by "Orchesterfreunde - Verein Konzertaal der Hansestadt Lübeck e.V." , Lübeck 2000
  8. ^ Central literary sheet for Germany. 50 (1888), p. 1694
  9. ↑ State Handbook for Württemberg 1894, p. 125
personal data
SURNAME Distel, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Distel, Ernst August Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and archivist
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Hainichen
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 1912
Place of death Blowjoke