Wilhelm von Merckel

Wilhelm von Merckel, drawing by Adolph von Menzel

Traugott Wilhelm von Merckel (born August 6, 1803 in Schlesisch Friedland , † December 27, 1861 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer and writer .

His parents were the Breslau merchant Georg Wilhelm Merckel (* August 16, 1772 - November 19, 1835) and his wife Frederike Juliane Sophie Lange (October 13, 1876 - October 22, 1811).

The nephew of the President of Silesia, Friedrich Theodor von Merckel, attended the Maria Magdalena High School in Breslau . From 1824 he studied law at the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelms University and at the University of Heidelberg . He came to Berlin in 1839 and was appointed to the chamber judge in 1850. He was a member of the literary society Tunnel over the Spree and befriended Theodor Fontane .

Merckel is the author of a democratic song that mocked the “fifth guild” of the democrats and their “field cry” for freedom and was anonymously distributed on a leaflet in Berlin in the autumn of 1848 during the revolution. The closing verses "Against Democrats / Help only soldiers" became the title of a brochure, also anonymously published at the end of November 1848, which praised the loyalty of the Prussian Army and Landwehr to their king and was attributed to Major General Gustav von Griesheim , head of the General War Department in the Prussian War Ministry .

Merckel married Henriette Wilhelmine von Mühler on May 19, 1836 (* October 9, 1811 - † November 7, 1889). The marriage remained childless.

Selection of works

See also Library of German Literature . Bibliography and index. Second, completely revised and expanded edition. An edition of the Kulturstiftung der Länder. Modifications made by Axel Frey. Munich Leipzig 1999. ( limited preview in the Google book search)

• The king's last course. New Years Eve poem . Bechtold, Berlin 1840.
• Poetic attempts . (3 volumes, printed as a manuscript.) Berlin 1840. ( limited preview in the Google book search)
• Aphorisms on the Constitution . Berlin 1849. BSB MDZ
• The constitutional question . Berlin 1849.
• Can the army be sworn in to the constitution? [Berlin 1849] bokks.google
• The reaction of democracy . Starcke, Berlin 1849.
• A Prussian word to all Prussians . JF Starcke, Berlin 1849.
• On the Landwehr question . Schlesinger'sche book and music store, Berlin 1851.
• Old and new conservatism . By W. von Merckel, Member of the First Chamber. Berlin 1852. books.google
• Sigelind. A normal comedy . Verlag von Heinrich Schindler, Berlin 1854. ( limited preview in Google book search)
• A neutral word about Prussia's neutrality . Published by Heinrich Schindler, Berlin 1854. books.google
• Maria from the blossoming thorn bush. A legend . Schroeder, Berlin 1854.
• Obituary to Franz Kugler (Lessing) . In the Sunday Literary Society in Berlin on March 21, 1858, it was spoken of by its early head . (Printed as a manuscript.) Berlin 1858.
• Two questions and a program . Berlin 1861.
• Small studies. Novellas and Sketches. In addition to e. Foreword by Theodor Fontane . Enslin, Berlin 1863.
• Poems . Enslin, Berlin 1866.
• Rest in: German poetry of the present since 1850, edited by Ferdinand Avenarius . Pp. 273-277 archive.org

Democrat song

1. As the Lord according to his plan everything created everything seems to do him good: Angels - people - monkeys. Anything of its kind was revealed according to wisdom, and even the devil He had no doubt. 2. But it didn't stop there whoever thinks that is wrong! A variety came to light forty-eight . Nature gave birth and gave birth to the fifth guild, although very badly that of the Democrats! 3. There is something about them of any raçe: Outwardly they are people, according to face and mass, Monkeys depending on their costume and beard, inside it's the devil's way and with angel tongues, come sing. 4. Without a home, without a passport, nowhere, anyway, they wander without ceasing, on secret piers.

Like the goblin, always close quickly on the witch's mark there, always ready, always ready. 5. "Freedom" is the field cry, "Freedom" the watchword behind tyranny, creeps on a soft sole. She lurks around the corner, "Freedom!" Is the fresh bacon, Coups and riots are the mouse trap. 6. Everything for the salvation of the world, People by God's grace! Every crook becomes a hero on the barricades. Always on, the princes away God's reward for fire and murder! Yours are the deeds ours is the roast! 7. So live through the country the unclean spirits until the cross with a firm hand the master beats over it. At the first drum sound drive away with stink. Against democrats Only help - soldiers!

literature

• The Fontanes and the Merckels. An exchange of family letters 1850–1870. (2 volumes), ed. V. Gotthard Erler , Aufbau Verlag, Berlin a. Weimar 1987, ISBN 3-351-00069-3
• Theodor Fontane: From twenty to thirty. The tunnel over the Spree. Ninth chapter: Wilhelm von Merckel . zeno.org
• Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses, 1910, fourth year, p.582

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franz Brümmer: Lexicon of German poets and prose writers from the beginning of the 19th century to the present , Volume 4, Leipzig 1913, p. 432 archive.org .
2. ↑ Merckel, Wilhelm von: Democrats' song: (Mel .: My Mr. Painter, he probably wants.): When the Lord created everything according to His plan. In: edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de. November 9, 2006, accessed January 20, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Griesheim, Carl Gustav Julius von (presumably): Only soldiers can help against democrats: End of November 1848 / Griesheim, Gust. v.? In: edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de. November 9, 2006, accessed January 20, 2015 .