Christian Wilhelm von Dohm

Christian Konrad Wilhelm Dohm ( Dohm since 1786 ) (* December 11, 1751 in Lemgo, † May 29 1820 in Pustleben near Nordhausen ) was a lawyer, a Prussian diplomat and political and historical writer. As the author of the seminal work On the Civic Improvement of the Jews in 1781, he joined in the spirit of the Enlightenment for Jewish emancipation and encouraged them all over Europe.

• 2.1 works

Life

Dohm was the son of the pastor of St. Mary Dohm Wolrad in Lemgo and his wife Anna Elisabeth, born Topp. His mother was the daughter of the former mayor Lemgoer. Both parents died before the end of his seventh year of life, so that he grew up under the tutelage of his relatives and spent his childhood in various pastor, teacher and cantor households Lemgo.

As a high school student he fell on by intense and varied literature studies in the private libraries of his relatives, including of Meyer's Hofbuchdruckerei connected bookstore by Christian Friedrich Helwing (1725-1781), his future father in law. Through his classmate Lorenz Benzlers he won lifelong friendship of the poet Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim from Halberstadt.

Attending a university, he had to recite the Lemgoer magistrate explained. He studied philosophy and theology in Leipzig, then law at Göttingen and Kassel. He learned the Constitution know well. In studies in Göttingen, he published geographical works. 1774/75 he was editor of the encyclopedic journal. 1776 to 1779 he was a professor at the Carolinum Kameral and Finance in Kassel. He was co-editor of the Deutsches Museum, which existed from 1776 to 1791. The editorial in question divides responsibility Dohm with Heinrich Christian Boie. Boie is responsible for the literary and literary critical part of the journal, Dohm for the historical and political. While Boie itself began more and more to literary newspaper supplement, the spotter Dohm insisted on political contributions. The temporary attempt to discharge the imbalance by each sole responsibility for an issue, led to very different folders. Dohm retired in 1778 from the editorial board of.

His admiration for Frederick II were Dohm seeking a position in the Prussian civil service. In 1779 he was appointed archivist in Berlin. Then (1783? ) He was privy council of war in the Prussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and secretary of the Secret Chancellery in Berlin. 1786 Dohm was knighted by King Friedrich Wilhelm II to the peerage. 1786 to 1794 he was Minister and Minister Plenipotentiary in Cologne and Aachen. Dohm played a significant role as a defender of Liege Revolution 1789-1791. In Halberstadt he lived since in 1794. During Congress of Rastatt he was in the years 1798/99 present. Eichsfeld- erfurtischer War and Domain Chamber president he was in 1804; In 1807 he was royal Westphalian State. In the years 1808-1810 he has been royally Westphalian Minister in Dresden and since 1810 a private person and a writer.

Dohm was a Masonic member of the lodge to crowned lion in Kassel. He was a member of Berlin's " Wednesday Club ". He married Anna Elisabeth Henriette, born Helwing (* 1762 in Lemgo - † after 1808). With them was, for example, Johann Gottfried Herder and his wife exchanged letters. His relationships with major figures of his time as Gleim, Johann Caspar Lavater, Christian Garve, Johann Jacob Engel, Johann Georg Sulzer, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Freiherr vom Stein and Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling impressed Dohm's life.

Honors

• Dohm 1797 Honorary Citizen of the City of Bremen, as he used to be a Prussian envoy in various negotiations for Bremen's neutrality and the preservation of independence.

Work

Dohm was mainly through his writing for Jewish emancipation " On the Civic Improvement of the Jews" (1781 ) - known as an enlightened representatives of civil rights for Jews in Europe - the first writing of this kind. The idea he received from Moses Mendelssohn, who was trying in this way to forward a request for help oppressed Alsatian Jews. Dohm led the Jews at that time widely ascribed negative characteristics back to the legal restrictions under which they suffered, not on alleged peculiarities as a people or as a religious community. The existing orders Jews force the Jews to a way of life, the cause of anti-Judaism, the Jews are received with hostility and contempt should be given. He wanted to free them by equal rights from their professional discrimination and so educate them useful citizens. He influenced representatives of human rights such as Mirabeau, through their commitment, the French National Assembly in 1791 decided the equality of French Jews.

Works

• Christian Conrad Wilhelm von Dohm: On the Civic Improvement of the Jews. Zweyter part. Nicolai, Berlin and Stettin, 1783. ( Digitized and full text in German Text Archive )
• Christian Conrad Wilhelm von Dohm: On the Civic Improvement of the Jews. 2 parts in 1 vol Berlin and Stettin 1781-83 and Kaiserslautern 1891 reprint. Hildesheim [ ua]: Olms 1973.
• As Translator: Frederick II ( Prussia): About the German literature. The flaws that you can blame her, their causes and the means of their improvement. Translated from the French ( Translator's [ Christian Conrad Wilhelm von Dohm ] ). Decker, Berlin 1780 ( digitized and full text in German Text Archive )