Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Younger

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Theodor Gottlieb Hippel, from 1790 von Hippel (13 December 1775, in Gerdauen [now Zheleznodorozhny] – 10 June 1843, in Bromberg) was a Prussian statesman, the friend of E. T. A. Hoffmann, and the author of Frederick William III's proclamation An Mein Volk (1813). He belonged to the circle of Prussian reformers, and supported many liberal policies, including bilingual education in Silesia.

Life

Hippel was the son of Gotthard Friedrich Hippel (1743–1809), a pastor, and Henriette Stogler (1750–1779). After his mother's death the boy was sent to the Burgschule at Königsberg, and remained in the care of his uncle, the satirist Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Elder. In 1790 the family was ennobled.

On finishing school, Hippel studied law at the Albertina in Königsberg. At the age of nineteen, he was Auskultator, at twenty an articled clerk (Referendar), and at twenty-four King's Counsel (Justizrat) at Marienwerder (Kwidzyn). In 1810 he became an employee of the State Chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg, and the next year joined the State Council, where he wrote the famous proclamation An Mein Volk, in which for the first time a Prussian monarch directly addressed his subjects to explain his policies.

In 1814 Hippel resigned from the ministry and returned to Marienwerder, where he was first vice-president and then president of the West Prussian administration of that city. In 1823 he became governor of Oppeln (Opole).

Hippel retired from public life in 1837 and donated a collection to the Königsberg Public Library. Having been obliged to sell his uncle's estate of Gut Leistenau two years earlier, he moved first to Berlin, and then to Bromberg (Bydgoszcz), where he died in 1843.

Family

In 1798 Hippel married Jeanette Gruszczyńska (1783–1840). Their children were Theodor (1799–1881), Wilhelmina (1800–1835), Georg (1802–1878), who was to become a privy councillor at Gumbinnen (Gusev), and Jeanette (1804–1850).

Friendship with E. T. A. Hoffmann

The young Hippel first met

Meister Floh
affair, Hippel used his influence to defend Hoffmann, and was a frequent visitor during his final illness. His memoir, Erinnerungen an Hoffmann, was published in 1822.

Freemasonry

Hippel joined the

Worshipful Master
.

References

External links

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