Wilhelm Friedrich Groos

District Administrator Wilhelm Friedrich Groos (1801–1874)

Wilhelm Friedrich Groos (* 28. June 1801 in Saßmannshausen , Sayn-Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein , Westphalia ; † 20th May 1874 in Northeim , Province of Hanover ) was District Administrator of the district Wittgenstein and Prussian politician.

family

Wilhelm Friedrich Groos came from a Nassau-Orange family and was the son of the Wittgenstein-Hohenstein Chamber Director Johann Daniel Karl Henrich Groos and Anna Friederike Schaffner .

Groos married on December 26, 1832 in Erndtebrück (Wittgenstein district) Christine Amalie Martin (born June 18, 1812 in Erndtebrück; † January 6, 1894 in Düsseldorf ), widely related to him and daughter of the powder manufacturer Nikolaus Martin (1780-1869) and the Hedwig Sinner (1783-1834). The couple had five sons, including the son of the same name, Wilhelm Friedrich Groos (* 1844), and two daughters.

Life

Groos attended high school in Gießen until 1817 and graduated from the University of Marburg at Easter 1818 . There he also studied law and camera studies until 1820 . He continued his studies from April 25, 1820 to 1821 at the University of Bonn .

On May 3, 1822, he resigned as Auskultator on Hofgericht in Arnsberg on, was appointed court clerk on 12 May 1824 to the Court of Appeal Münster shifted and came on June 20, 1825 as Hofgerichts- advocate for Laasphe .

In 1826 he began his service at the higher regional court in Münster, later went to the court court in Arnsberg, became provisional assessor at the judicial office in Siegen on April 1, 1828, and received his final appointment there on January 28, 1829.

As early as August 7, 1830, he was elected with three out of eight votes as the third candidate for the post of district administrator of the Wittgenstein district. The election was initially unsuccessful, however, because the candidates did not meet the requirements of Section 4 of the regulations of March 17, 1828. The government in Arnsberg was then asked to make proposals of its own accord. The government proposed Groos to be appointed district administrator - despite the opposition of Prince Friedrich Carl zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1766-1837). On January 25, 1831, Groos was finally appointed district administrator.

From May 18 to August 19, 1832, Groos initially took over the administration of Freusburg , today a district of Kirchen (Sieg) in the Altenkirchen district (Westerwald) , and was then officially introduced to his office on August 19, 1832 after passing the statutory examination . On October 11, 1847 he was appointed a secret councilor.

At his own request, Groos was transferred to Wetzlar as district administrator on September 28, 1850 , where he received his final appointment on April 1, 1851. On November 1, 1859, he was released from civil service with a pension because of his blindness.

Groos was politically active for the Wittgenstein district as a member of the Prussian National Assembly .

Act

Groos founded the Agricultural and Horticultural Association to improve the poor yields of the barren soils. In this context, he imparted knowledge of meadow cultivation and cattle breeding to the farmers and, over the years, replaced the civil duties. By building artificial roads, he managed to improve the connection with the neighboring districts. In gratitude for his services to the district , a memorial was erected on the Stünzel , a plateau near Bad Berleburg , after his death .

The March riots of 1848 fell during his term of office . The Wittgenstein counties were not spared. For a long time the people had tried to enforce their old rights to the forests again. At the beginning of March 1848, riots broke out, reinforced by the anger against unpopular judicial and forestry officials, which could only be ended with concessions and negotiating skills from Prince Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenlohe and District Administrator Groos. Soon after, Groos was elected a member of the Prussian National Assembly in Berlin and worked on several committees. There were many reasons that prompted him to voluntarily resign his mandate and return to his district office in Berleburg in October 1848.

Personal

Groos is described as a person who was sincere, conscientious and tireless in his work, but not sociable. If he encountered circumstances that aroused his displeasure, he could become very uncomfortable. Therefore, so it is said, the farmers said of him: “E klen Männche, aver e bies Männche.” However, his integrity and his work performance were very well recognized and earned him the trust of the people. The following example illustrates his work ethic: After the civil duties were redeemed, the district administrator received a large cash gift in addition to a medal. He made this money available to his authority because, in his opinion, he was not entitled to it. It was a noble attitude in itself, but he had rejected a gift from the king, which as an official he should not have allowed himself, and he received the only rebuke of his tenure as district administrator.

Acknowledgment of the two Laaspher doctors Emil and Eduard Groos for the inauguration of the monument of the Agricultural and Trade Association for the Wittgenstein district in 1878 on the Stünzel.

honors and awards

• Red Eagle Order 4th Class (January 18, 1840)
• Order of the Red Eagle 3rd Class with Ribbon (April 13, 1843)
• Monument of the agricultural district association on the Stünzel in Bad Berleburg

Literature and Sources

• G. Bauer: The political activity of District Administrator Wilhelm Friedrich Groos in the Prussian National Assembly of 1848 , in: Wittgenstein, Volume 21, page 62f., 1957
• Walther Hubatsch (ed.): Outline of German administrative history 1815-1945 , Volume 8: Westphalia, page 329, Marburg 1980
• Horst Romeyk : The leading state and municipal administrative officials of the Rhine Province 1816–1945 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 69 ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-7585-4 , p. 481 .
• Dietrich Wegmann: The leading state administrative officials of the province of Westphalia 1815-1918 , page 277, Münster 1969
• LAV Münster, District Findbuch Wittgenstein, page 12
• Thomas Jungbluth: The "old Prussian" senior government officials and district administrators in the administrative districts of Koblenz and Trier 1850 to 1914 in the context of Prussian personnel policy , dissertation, University of Mainz (ed.), Mainz 1989
• Martin Breitscheid u. a .: Groos family history. News about the Groos families , Sachs printing works, Darmstadt 1937
• Ms. Otto Groos: When grandfather took grandmother. History of the Nassau-Orange family Groos , Marburg 1895

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} District Archive Siegen-Wittgenstein: Information from November 26, 2015
2. ↑ Ancestral list of the wife
3. ^ Hans-Bernd Spies: The first Wittgensteiner students at the University of Bonn. In: Zeitschrift Wittgenstein, year 62, June 1974, vol. 38, volume 2., p. 76: matriculation no. 298: Wilhelm Friedrich Groos from Laasphe, 18 years, son of the chamber council, University of Marburg, law.
4. ↑ Ulf Lückel, Andreas Kroh: Das Fürstliches Haus Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein , Werl 2004
5. ↑ G. Bauer: The political activity of the District Administrator Wilhelm Friedrich Groos in the Prussian National Assembly of 1848. In: Wittgenstein, Volume 21 (1957), page 63

predecessor	Office	successor
Friedrich August Jost	District Administrator of the Wittgenstein District 1831–1850	Bruno von Schrötter