Theodor von Bernhardi

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Felix Theodor Bernhardi , from 1873 by Bernhardi (born November 6, 1802 in Berlin , † February 12, 1885 in Kunnersdorf bei Hirschberg, Lower Silesia) was a Prussian diplomat and historian.

youth

Bernhardi was the son of August Ferdinand Bernhardi and Sophie Tieck , the sister of Ludwig Tieck . He spent his childhood in Rome , Vienna and Munich , where his mother, divorced from his father, lived with his stepfather Karl Gregor von Knorring (1769–1837). After Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, he and his family moved to his estate in Estonia. For Bernhardi he had planned a diplomatic career in Russia, although he was more inclined to Germany and wanted to join the military. 1820–1823 he studied history, political science, mathematics and modern languages at the University of Heidelberg . According to his son, however, he was an autodidact who, as is customary in the circle of romantics, expanded his education on extensive trips. a. made the acquaintance of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and that of the Bavarian king at the court of Baden. In 1824 he studied in Paris and then went to Milan, where he studied Spanish and Italian literature and language as well as art history, and from where he did not return to Berlin until 1834. In the meantime his economic circumstances had deteriorated considerably and he had to look for a job. He lived with his uncle Friedrich Tieck, wrote a memorandum on Russia's relations with Poland and, on the advice of his father-in-law, went to Saint Petersburg in 1834 after his mother died in Reval in 1833.

Time in Saint Petersburg

He found employment in the tsar's chancellery and then in the imperial heraldry and wrote for the Journal de St.Petersburg and made connections with the local scholars. With a political science work ( attempt and criticism of the reasons ... ) he wanted to gain admission to the academy, but this was prevented by intrigue. He also wrote unpublished works on heraldry and German "prehistory". In 1846 he married the eldest daughter of Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern and moved to Germany in 1851 after the death of his in-laws.

Relocation to Germany

He bought an estate in Kunnersdorf, today in Schöpstal in Lower Silesia . There he wrote the story of the Russian General von Toll (a story of the Wars of Liberation) and a Russian story. He also began a political activity and established relationships with high military officials (Moltke, von Roon), scholars (Treitschke, Droysen) and in aristocratic circles up to the later Emperor Friedrich III. and on the later Wilhelm II. Memoranda on reforming the army strengthened the good impression he had made in military circles. In 1862/1864 he went to London for Duke Friedrich von Augustenburg, but then turned to Prussian politics and established relationships with Bismarck through Moltke and Roon. For Prussia, he went to the Prussian Legation Council in 1865 , during the war in 1866 as military plenipotentiary (and political reporter) to Italy, where he tried in vain to change Alfonso La Marmora to a more successful warfare that seriously served Prussian interests. Even after the war he stayed in Florence until 1868, and then went on to Spain and Portugal from 1869–1871. After the war in 1871 he devoted himself entirely to his scientific work. He wrote on his Russian history, a book Frederick the Great as a General , Travel Memories in Spain and essays published as Mixed Writings. On March 1, 1873, he was raised to the Prussian nobility in Berlin . After a short illness, the widower died on his estate in 1885.

As a historian, he was particularly influenced by Friedrich Christoph Schlosser .

The writer Wilhelm Bernhardi (1800–1878) was his brother, the general and military historian Friedrich von Bernhardi , who also published his memoirs and wrote the article in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie about him, was his son.

Fonts

  • Attempt to criticize the reasons given for large and small real estate (Petersburg 1849);
  • Editor: Memories from the life of the Russian general Karl Wilhelm von Toll (2nd edition, Leipzig 1865–66, 4 vols.);
  • History of Russia and European politics in the years 1814-31 (das. 1863-77, Vol. 1–3) (remained unfinished, it only goes until 1822);
  • Mixed writings (Berlin 1879, 2 vol.)
  • His diary entries from the life of Theodor von Bernhardis appeared posthumously.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume I, page 350, Volume 53 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1972, ISSN  0435-2408

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bernhardi, Theodor von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernhardi, Felix Theodor von (name from 1873); Bernhardi, Felix Theodor (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian diplomat and historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1802
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1885
Place of death Berlin