Wilhelm Arnold Eschenburg

Wilhelm Arnold Eschenburg

Wilhelm Arnold Eschenburg (born September 15, 1778 in Braunschweig ; † August 11, 1861 in Detmold ) was a German lawyer and head of government in the Principality of Lippe from 1832 to 1848 .

Eschenburg was the son of Johann Joachim Eschenburg . He attended grammar school and from 1792 the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig. He studied law in Göttingen from 1797 to 1800 and made friends with Carl Friedrich Gauß here . After completing his studies, he entered the civil service in Brunswick and was appointed personal secretary by Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand in 1805 . Eschenburg took part with the Duke in the Fourth Coalition War and was present when Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand died on November 10, 1806 as a result of the Battle of Auerstedt .

The Duchy of Brunswick fell to the Kingdom of Westphalia , and Eschenburg worked as general secretary of the prefecture of the Oker department . After the reestablishment of the duchy in 1814, he worked as a councilor and secretary in the ducal secret council college. When Charles II took over the business of government in 1823, Eschenburg became a secret councilor at the end of the year and as such advised the ducal state ministry. Despite his merits, he was transferred to the ducal chamber by the duke in 1827 and thus demoted.

When, in 1829, the call of Prince Leopold II of Lippe reached him to serve as his government and chamber director, Eschenburg moved to Detmold. In 1832 he was appointed regional president of the principality. Under his aegis, the principality received a constitution at the beginning of 1836 and at the turn of the year 1841/42 it joined the German Customs Union . Eschenburg retired in March 1848. His successor as head of government was Friedrich Simon Leopold Petri . Wilhelm Arnold Eschenburg died at the age of 82 on August 11, 1861 in Detmold.

Wilhelm Arnold Eschenburg was married to Elisabeth von Strombeck from Braunschweig from 1818. The marriage had ten children, three of whom died early. Two of his sons emigrated to America, two more stayed in Lippe: August Eschenburg was a lawyer and cabinet minister, Arnold Eschenburg was a doctor and medical advisor. Two of his daughters were married to lawyers from Lippe, the brothers Fritz and Otto Preuss .

literature

• Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr :  Eschenburg, Wilhelm Arnold . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 347 f.
• Max Staercke (ed.): People from the Lippe soil . Verlag der Meyerschen Hofbuchhandlung, Detmold 1936, p. 165-167 ( digitized version ).