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handwritten, signed letter of the mountain rights activist and politician Hermann von Achenbach (1829-1899), President of the Province of Brandenburg and co-founder of the Free Conservative Party.
Aimed at an "Excellence", di Adelgunde von Dechend, b. Wilke (1823-1915), Widow of the first President of the Reichsbank Hermann von Dechend (1814-1890).
Condolence letter to the death of her husband.
DatedPotsdam, 2. May 1890.
Excerpts: “Ew. Your Excellency would like to accept the expression of my deepest sympathy for the severe, irreplaceable loss that you, your relatives and the entire country have suffered. Even though I have unfortunately had to forego any closer personal contact with the person who has gone home in recent years as a result of my residence and my own severe suffering, my loyal devotion and friendship remained the same as in days long past. Many shared memories, both serious and cheerful, connect our lives. Once I had the privilege of exerting a decisive influence on my friend's decision on the most important question. [...] How it touched me when you, dear wife and departed friend, appeared here every day, which was one of the most difficult for me, to comfort me and honor my beloved wife."
Note:Related to the death of Heinrich von Achenbach's wife Marina von Achenbach, b. Rollmann (* 29. April 1832 in Soest; † 6. June 1889 in Potsdam).
"It pains me deeply that I am unable to appear at the funeral home on Sunday, since at the same time I have been ordered to be officially present at the laying of the foundation stone of a church. [...] With the deepest respect, Yours. Your Excellency, most obedient Achenbach."
Note: At the laying of the foundation stone on Sunday (April 4th) May 1890) is that of the Church of the Redeemer in Rummelsburg, where the Empress Auguste Viktoria was also present. Rummelsburg, now part of Berlin, was then part of the Niederbarnim district in the province of Brandenburg.
Scope: four pages (17.7 x 11.5 cm); without envelope.
Condition: letter folded; Paper browned and slightly stained. Please bplease pay attention the pictures too!
Internal note: Althaus 2023-3 Folder Connor Autograph Autograph
About Heinrich von Achenbach and Hermann von Dechend (source: wikipedia):
Heinrich Karl Julius Achenbach, from Achenbach since 1888, (* 23. November 1829 in Saarbrücken; † 9. July 1899 in Potsdam) was a German mining rights activist, Prussian civil servant and politician of the Free Conservative Party. He was a member of the Prussian state parliament from 1867 to 1898, Prussian trade minister from 1873 to 1878, briefly a member of the Reichstag in 1874, senior president of the province of West Prussia in 1878 and senior president of the province of Brandenburg from 1879 to 1899.
Life: The Achenbach family came from Siegerland. Achenbach's grandfather Heinrich led the delegation that ensured that the Siegerland was awarded to Prussia in 1815. His father temporarily took over supervision of the miners' funds in Saarbrücken, where Heinrich Achenbach was born. Shortly afterwards, the family moved back to Siegen, where Heinrich and his older brother Adolf Achenbach (later a mining captain in Clausthal) grew up.
Achenbach attended the Archigymnasium in Soest. In the revolutionary year of 1848, the Primaner appeared as a speaker at a political rally. He studied law at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, and was appointed to the Corps Guestphalia Berlin (1849) and the Corps Rhenania Bonn (1850). After the legal traineeship and the doctorate as Dr. iur. In Bonn in 1855 he came to the Siegen district court as a court assessor in 1856.
From 1858, Achenbach worked at the Bonn Mining Authority, initially as an “unskilled worker”. His habilitation followed in 1859, and in the same year he was appointed district judge. He also taught as a private lecturer at the University of Bonn and the Poppelsdorf Agricultural Academy, and in 1862 he was appointed associate professor. Together with Hermann Brassert, Achenbach founded the Journal for Mining Law in 1860, which became the leading specialist journal in German-speaking countries and was also internationally recognized. In 1864 he took over the position of legal advisor at the Bonn Mining Office with the official title Oberbergrat.
In 1866, Achenbach was appointed Privy Mining Councilor and moved to Berlin as a lecturer in the mining department of the Prussian Ministry of Commerce. Achenbach was a co-founder of the Free Conservative Party in 1867 and a member of parliament for the Siegen constituency in the second chamber of the Prussian state parliament, of which he was a member until 1898. In 1870, Achenbach moved from the Prussian Ministry of Commerce to the Reich Chancellery, where he organized the expansion of voluntary nursing care under Bismarck during the 1871 war. He was also involved in the drafting of the liability law (to insure damage to life and limb in mines, by railways and similar dangerous companies) and in a draft law regarding the private law status of associations (which was particularly important for workers' rights). In 1872 he became undersecretary in the Prussian Ministry of Culture, where he headed the education and medical departments. However, his active participation in the Kulturkampf legislation had no influence on his long-standing friendships with August Reichensperger and the Limburg Bishop Klein.
At 13th. On May 18, 1873, Achenbach was appointed Prussian Minister for Trade, Industry and Public Works (from April 1878 without the Ministry of Public Works), where Achenbach's achievements included a new regulation of the patent system, fundamental measures of social legislation and an expansion of the German railways. Under his leadership, the relief fund law of 1876 was drawn up and the trade regulations were amended in 1878. Bismarck dropped him when Achenbach was unable to implement the plans to nationalize the railways, which his successor Albert von Maybach then carried out. After his resignation in 1878, he was appointed Supreme President of West Prussia, and of Brandenburg the following year. The ennobling took place on the 5th. May 1888.
In 1874, Achenbach was elected a member of the Reichstag for the Arnsberg 1 constituency (Wittgenstein – Siegen – Biedenkopf). He was not a member of the parliamentary group, but sat in on the German Reich Party faction. He was only a member of the Reichstag for a very short time, as his Reichstag mandate expired in September 1874 when he was appointed Federal Council Plenipotentiary. In 1882 he was entrusted with introducing the then Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (later Kaiser Wilhelm II) into the civil administration.
He published numerous articles on the city history of Siegen and Siegerland history: his doctoral thesis in 1854 compared Siegen and Soest city law. In 1887 he became an honorary citizen of the city of Siegen.
Family: Heinrich von Achenbach was the son of the mountain councilor Heinrich Moritz Achenbach (* 10. April 1797 in Siegen; † 4. July 1865 there) and his wife Juliane née Achenbach (* 30. October 1793 in Siegen; † 18. October 1883 in Potsdam).
Heinrich von Achenbach married on August 8th. August 1859 in Soest Marina Rollmann (* 29. April 1832 in Soest; † 6. June 1889 in Potsdam), the daughter of the cadastral and tax inspector Karl Friedrich Moritz Rollmann and his wife Henriette Luise Dorothea Helene née Vörster. The marriage resulted in sons Heinrich and Adolf.
Honors: On the 8th In February 1887, the city of Siegen awarded Heinrich von Achenbach honorary citizenship; Several buildings and streets in Berlin are named after him:
Achenbach Bridge, Berlin-Moabit - destroyed in the Second World War, replaced by the Wullenwebersteg
Achenbachstraße (Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district)
Achenbachstrasse (Berlin-Spandau)
Achenbachpromenade (Tempelhof-Schöneberg district)
The former Minister Achenbach colliery and Achenbachstrasse in Brambauer (today a business park) were linked to his name in 1897.
Fonts
The common German mining law in conjunction with the Prussian mining law, taking into account the mining laws of Bavaria, Saxony, Austria and other German countries. 1871. (digital copy)
A contribution to the presentation of the German rural and agricultural constitution. 1863.
French mining law. 1869.
Journal for mining law. Greetings in 1860 by Hermann Brassert and Heinrich v. Achenbach; today ed. on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics
The Haubergs cooperatives of the Siegerland. 1863. New ed. from D. City of Siegen, Siegerland Research Center 1963.
History of the city of Siegen. 1894. Reprinted in 1983 by Die Wielandschmiede / Kreuztal.
From the Siegerland past. 1898. Reprinted in 1982 by Die Wielandschmiede / Kreuztal.
Hermann Friedrich Alexander Dechend, from Dechend from 1865 (*2. April 1814 in Marienwerder, West Prussia; † 30. April 1890 in Berlin) was a German lawyer in the Prussian financial administration. He was the first president of the Reichsbank and sat on the Prussian State Council.
Life: Dechend was the son of the lawyer Theodor Dechend in Marienwerder. He married Adelgunde Wilke (* 20. November 1823 in Berlin; † 1915). His daughter Susanne (1859–1929) married Hugo von Kathen, who later became General of the Infantry, in Berlin in 1884.
Dechend attended the Marienwerder high school and graduated on the 17th. October 1834 the Abitur exam. He studied law and camera studies at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. In 1835 he became a member, later an honorary member, of the Borussia Bonn Corps. After the exams, he first went to the regional and city courts, then to the higher regional court in Marienwerder. He moved to Prussia's internal administration and was a government trainee from 1837. He became a government assessor in 1841 and completed technical and commercial training in Berlin in 1844/45. In the province of Westphalia he worked for the government in Arnsberg in 1846 and in Münster in 1847. In 1848 he came to the main bank, but soon afterwards he was put in charge of the Prussian Loan Fund. In 1849 he became a government councilor in the Ministry of Commerce. From 1851 onwards he was a member of the main bank management board of the Prussian Bank. In 1853 he became Privy Chief Financial Officer. In 1863 he was promoted to vice president and finally to president of the Prussian Bank in 1864. He held the office of president until 1875. After the founding of the German Empire, Dechend was the first president of the newly founded German Reichsbank from 1876 to 1890, which took over the organization of the Prussian Bank to create a central bank.
The Prussian Bank essentially owed its development from a simple central bank to one of Europe's leading central banks to Dechend. Herrmann von Dechend was therefore significantly involved in creating the organizational requirements for the Reichsbank, which later emerged from the Prussian Bank. The banknotes of the Preußische Bank from 1867 to 1874 and the German Reichsbanknotes from 1876 to 1884 bear Dechend's signature.
From 1867 to 1869, Dechend was a member of the Prussian House of Representatives as a member of the Reich and Free Conservative Party (RFKP), and from 1872 until his death (1890) he was a member of the Prussian House of Representatives. In 1884 he became a member of the State Council. Since 1877 he was the Imperial Privy Councilor. Because of his achievements, Dechend was appointed on the 12th. Raised to the Prussian nobility in June 1865.
Hermann von Dechend died in Berlin in 1890 at the age of 76 and was buried in Cemetery I of the Jerusalem and New Church in front of the Halle Gate. The grave has not been preserved.