Christian Thomsen Carl

Christian Thomsen Carl (1676 29 March 1713) was a Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy officer. He is known not only for his military career, but also for saving the town council's archives in Greifswald as well as the whole town of Anklam from being burned during the Great Northern War.

Biography

Family Christian Thomsen Carl was born in 1676 in Assens on the Danish isle of Funen as the son of Helvig Jensdatter (†1717) and Thomas Iversen, also spelled Iffversen. Carl's father was a wagoner Iffversen on 28 November 1667 received another privilege granting him the right to maintain an inn in Assens, where he became a member of the town's council on 25 November 1673 from 13 December 1682 to 1694.

Career After apprenticeship in Denmark, Christian Thomsen Carl on 17 January (Sander) or 28 February 1696 (Lützow) was allowed to serve in a foreign army, and began his military career in the navy of the Dutch Republic. He was promoted 2nd lieutenant on 31 December 1697. On 26 February 1698, he got permission to enter Russian service for three years, and was promoted 1st lieutenant on 30 January 1700. By then, a coalition of Denmark-Norway, Russia and Saxony had just started the Great Northern War against Sweden; Denmark dropped out in August 1700 and re-entered in June 1709.

Christian Thomsen Carl served on the Danish vessel Dronning Charlotte Amalie and on 26 April 1701 entered the new naval cadet company as a lieutenant. After serving on the yacht Kronen and the vessel Swærdfisken,

In 1709, Christian Thomsen Carl was sent to the Kattegat to monitor British naval maneuvers. ), a Frenchman in Saxon service. The Saxons had occupied Greifswald on 31 August 1711, and were joined by Russian forces in January 1712; tsar Peter the Great visited the town in August. Most of Swedish Pomerania was in the hand of the allies, who besieged the remaining Swedes at Stralsund.

Greifswald town fire

On 1 March at about 10:00 pm, a fire broke out in Greifswald's stables, which were used by the Saxon horse. The marquis de Saisan alleged a conspiracy of Greifswald's burghers against the occupation forces.

Christian Thomsen Carl decided to help, bringing with him his crewmen and fire fighting devices. Carl ordered his crew to approach Greifswald at a run from their quarters in Wieck, the fire was extinguished before it reached the basements containing the council's archive. The documents had been retrieved from the burning house by Carl's crewmen during the operations. This order was issued on 16 March to retaliate for the burning of Danish Altona by Swedish forces under Magnus Stenbock in January. Menshikov on his own authority revoked the tsar's order, However, since the courier from Friedrichstadt would only arrive in Greifswald on 3 April, Anklam was nevertheless scheduled for destruction, and the burning of Demmin was also announced.

Staff prepared to leave for Anklam to carry out the tsar's conflagration order, but first fought a duel with Christian Thomsen Carl on 29 March on the market square in Greifswald. In the course of the duel, Staff stabbed Carl to death, perforating the right ventricle of his heart. while Sander (1914) says that the primary sources retrieved by him, mostly from Denmark, do not reveal the reason for the duel - he nevertheless assumes that Carl already knew about his king's efforts in rescinding the tsar's order and that his argument with Staff was about that issue. On 24 March, Christen Thomesen Sehested actually ordered Carl to intervene - because of king Frederick IV's discontent - against the devastation of Swedish Pomerania by the Russians, but without alienating them; yet, this order arrived in Greifswald only on 30 March and was answered by the Danish captain Michael Gude, who informed Sehested about the duel and Carl's death. Lützow, who reports an "exchange of words" as the reason for the duel and also notes that Staff was the one who called Carl out, further says that the duel happened directly before Carl would have left for Denmark.

The marquis de Saisan reacted by arresting Staff, However, general major Bueck, a Mecklenburger in charge of the Russian forces in Pomerania, took over the responsibility for the burning of Anklam from Staff, rescheduling it for 3 April. The action was cancelled when Menshikov's courier arrived. Staff, who in 1710 participated in the successful siege of Riga, is in 1716 attested to have camped in Grevesmühlen as general major in Repnin's army. Saissan, the French mercenary who before had fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, remained in Saxon service and in 1718 led an unsuccessful attempt to abdicate Stanislaus Leszczynski; he died in Madrid in 1728

Burial

Christian Thomsen Carl's body was transferred to Denmark and buried at the Church of Holmen, Copenhagen, on 6 April 1713. and in the beforementioned article outlines Carl's family background and career in condensed form. The same name is used by William August Carstensen(da.wiki) and Otto George Lütken (1887), who mention Carl's role in the Danish advance to Pomerania and his death. However, Garde in his 1852 naval history of Denmark-Norway mentioned Carl as "C. T. Carl" when in command of the Delmenhorst, but as "C. T. Carlsen" when in command of the Ditmarsken and the Pomeranian fleet, and also when reporting the duel with Staff. Garde was nevertheless aware that Carl and Carlsen were the same person. Gustav Ludvig Baden,(da.wiki) mentioning him in passing, likewise refers to him as "Commandeur Carlsen." The mention by Baden (1833) is part of a cite in the biography of captain Friderich Lütken referenced to Address-Avis No. 21. Barfod (1997) mentions selected incidents from Carl's life in the context of the Danish naval history between 1660 and 1720, and retrieved his information from warship journals and other documents in the Danish archives. "Chr. Thomasen Carl" is also used by August Peder Tuxen(da.wiki) and Carl Ludvig With-Seidelin (1910).

Norwegian tradition During Christian Thomsen Carl's lifespan, the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway were combined under the rule of the absolutist monarchs residing in Copenhagen and had a common fleet. Thus, the career of Christian Thomesen Carl is part of the Danish as well as the Norwegian naval history, and is noted e.g. in Olav Bergersen's(no.wiki) 1956 history of the Dano-Norwegian navy. Bergersen refers to him as "Christen Thomesen Carl."

German tradition In German literature, where Carl is only known by his last name, he is referred to most often as "Carlson," sometimes his name is spelled "Karlson," rarely "Carlsen." The focus of the German records is exclusively on Carl's role in the Greifswald town fire and/or, more prominently, on the events preventing the burning of Anklam.

A contemporary record is included in the chronicle of Christoph Helwig the Younger.(de.wiki) Helwig (*1679, †1714) was a Greifswald resident who between 1709 and 1714 wrote a Latin chronicle of the medical faculty of the university of Greifswald which included events up to 1713. An annotated edition and German translation was published by Hans Georg Thümmel(de.wiki) in 2001; it includes a mention of the Greifswald town fire without making a reference to Carl, but prominently identifies the "commandator navium Danicarum, dominus Carlson" as the one who prevented Anklam from being burned, and has the same details about his death as the sources used by Barfod.

Another nearly contemporary account of the role of "Carlson, the commander of the Danish warships" in preventing the burning of Anklam was published on 26 March 1754 by Joachim Friedrich Sprengel, rector in Anklam and later pastor in Boldekow. This account was republished in 1773 by the historian and secretary of the town of Anklam, Carl Friedrich Stavenhagen.(de.wiki)

The role of "Carlson" in the Greifswald town fire was reported in 1827 by Carl Gesterding(de.wiki) and in 1860 in Johann Carl Hahn's history of Greifswald, though without revealing his sources; Carl's role has also recently been emphasized by the historians Rudolf Biederstedt(de.wiki) (1962, when he was in charge of the Greifswald town's archives) and Martin Meier (2007).

Some German sources address Carl as "admiral Carlson," e.g. Demmin's chronicler Wilhelm Karl Stolle(de.wiki) (*1704, †1779), or Anklam's chronicler Heinz Bemowsky (*1921, †2003). Sander retrieved and published from the university of Greifswald's archive a handwritten piece titled "Kurtze Relation von der erbärmlichen Einäscherung der pommerschen Städte Gartz und Wolgast, als dieselbe respektive am 10. und 27. Martii anno 1713 von den barbarischen Moskowitern kläglich in die Asche gelegt worden [Short notice of the disgraceful burning of the Pomeranian towns of Gartz and Wolgast, as these were laid in ashes by the barbarian Moscovites on 10 resp. 27 March 1713]." This notice, in the accusative case, speaks of "commandeur Carln." Sander asserts that this is the most correct spelling variant, as he had found a respective handwritten signature of Carl, which he also published. a letter written by the Danish captain M. Gude on 31 March 1713 reporting to the Danish admiralty a detailed description of Carl's death, using the variants "Carl" and "Carlsen," Biedenstedt (1962) also connected the Danish and German traditions, addressing Carl as "Christian Thomsen Carl (also called Carlson),"

In public memory

Regarding Anklam, consensus has formed in the German tradition of the events that the delay caused by the interception of Staff by Carl(son) was the decisive factor for the town's rescue. From 1715 to 1939, and again since 1992, an annual "Judica commemoration" is held where Carl ("Carlson") is remembered as playing the key role in the rescue of Anklam.

A wooden bust, supposedly showing Carl(son), was put on public display in Anklam. The bust was a gift from Swinemünde's consul Krause, who had retrieved it in 1841 from the damaged Swedish vessel Carlsson in Kristiansund and mistook it for a bust of Carl, whom he thought of as a Swede and namesake of the vessel. the poem Anklams Erlösung [Anklam's salvation] by Wilhelm Meinhold; the essay Judica by Julius Mühlfeld, published in 1869; the play Anklam im nordischen Krieg [Anklam during the Northern War] by Karl Biesendahl, published in 1897.