August von Haxthausen: Difference between revisions

August was the last of eight sons of Werner Adolf, [[Freiherr]] von Haxthausen (1744-1823), "a typical prosperous backwater planter,"<ref>S. Frederick Starr, "Introduction," August von Haxthausen, ''Studies On the Interior of Russia'' (University of Chicago Press, 1972: {{ISBN|0-226-32022-7}}), p. viii.</ref> and the Baroness Luise ''Marianne'' von Westphalen zu Heidelbeck (d. 1793), who also had nine daughters. Born on the family estate in Abbenburg, Haxthausen was sent to the [[Warburg]] estate of his uncle, Baron von Kalenberg, to be reared; there he received a Traditional Catholic Liberals Arts education while living in rural surroundings. Haxthausen studied in [[University of Halle-Wittenberg|University of Halle]], where he joined the [[Corps Guestphalia Halle]] in 1810. He completed his studies under the Bökendorf priest and at the mining school at [[Clausthal-Zellerfeld|Clausthal]], where he studied until 1812. In that same year, the Haxthausen estates were affected by the peasant uprising against the Bonapartist [[client state]], the [[Kingdom of Westphalia]]. While this revolt has since been alleged to have been, "in some measure a rebuke to the dominant landed class", the Haxthausen family chose to support the rebellion, which they admired, "as an act of defiance by true Germans against conditions created by the foreign domination".<ref>Starr, "Introduction," p. ix.</ref> This view strongly influenced the young August and inspired his participation in what are now known in the [[Germanosphere]] as the [[War of the Sixth Coalition|Wars of Liberation]] against the [[First French Empire]]. His literary activities as part of the poets and writers devoted to [[German Romanticism]] who met at Schloss Bökerhoff at this time are recorded by his closest friends, the [[Brothers Grimm]], with whom he shared a passion in [[German folklore]], [[German mythology|mythology]], and [[fairy tale]]s, which he collected from his fellow soldiers and hoped to publish (some selections from his planned collection were published posthumously).

 

 

In 1819 he returned to inherit one of his family's estates at Bökendorf, near Abbenburg. He never married and continued collecting folklore and publishing folk songs. His niece, "Germany's greatest poetess"<ref>[https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Annette_Elisabeth,_Baroness_von_Hülshoff Anna Elisabeth, Baroness von Hülshoff], [[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]</ref> [[Annette von Droste-Hülshoff]] frequently stayed with the family and came to work closely with August. In particular, family documents he provided her gave her the impetus for writing her well-known novella ''[[Die Judenbuche]]'' (The Jew's beech, 1842), based on accounts of a real 18th-century murder upon the Haxtausen estates.