Timotheus Eberhard von Bock

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Timotheus Eberhard von Bock (* 13 November July / 24 November  1787 greg. In Tartu ; † 11 April July / 23 April  1836 greg. In Võisiku , today the rural community of Põltsamaa / Estonia ) was a Baltic German nobleman and dissident. He spent nine years in prison because of his criticism of the tsarist system of rule.

Life

Timotheus Eberhard von Bock was born as the son of the later Land Marshal of Pärnu , Georg Carl Heinrich von Bock (1759-1812), and his wife Katharina Berens von Rentenfeld (Rautenfeld) († 1795).

Timothy was first brought up by the private tutor Aron Lehrberg († 1813). He probably studied history at least for a time at the University of Tartu from 1810 to 1812 .

Timotheus Eberhard von Bock embarked on a military career like his father. Between 1805 and 1812 he took part in numerous campaigns on the Russian side , especially against the Ottoman Empire , and from 1812 also in the so-called Patriotic War against Napoléon Bonaparte . In 1809 he became a member of the tsar's body regiment of the hussars , in 1812 Rittmeister of the Russian Guard Hussars and in 1813 a colonel . He came back from the wars highly decorated. As the tsar's wing adjutant , he was friends with the Russian ruler.

From 1816 he settled on the farm Võisiku ( German Woiseck ) in Livonia . In 1818 he approached Tsar Alexander I with a 54-point text and a constitutional project . As early as 1810 he had written to the Tsar with his first memorandum . Von Bocks Mémoire from 1818 denounced in an impressive form the monarchical absolutism and serfdom in Russia at the time.

Von Bock was then arrested on charges of lese majesty . He spent the years up to 1827 in custody in the Schlüsselburg before he was able to return to Livonia under Tsar Nicholas I. In April 1836 he died - emotionally broken - on his farm by his own hand .

Private life

Timotheus Eberhard von Bock was married to Ewa Catharina Mättik, a coachman's daughter of Estonian origin. The inappropriate wedding of the two on October 12, 1817 in the Uspenski Cathedral in Tartu turned into a scandal. Both are buried today in the Kundrussaare cemetery near Võisiku.

The couple had the son Georg von Bock (1818–1876), who became Vice Admiral in the Russian Navy .

Works

  • Mémoire qui doit étre reunis et lu à la diète de la noblesse de Livonie en 1818. Võisiku 1818

Literary

Timotheus Eberhard von Bock is the main character in the 1978 historical novel Der Verrückte des Zaren ( Estonian Keisri hull ) by the writer Jaan Kross .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bock, Timotheus Eberhard von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baltic German nobleman and dissident
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1787
PLACE OF BIRTH Tartu
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1836
Place of death Võisiku, today a rural municipality of Põltsamaa , Estonia