Gustav Schlabrendorf

Gustav, Count of Schlabrendorf (22 March 1750 – 21 August 1824), described in various sources as a "citizen of the world" ("Weltbürger"), was a political author and an enlightenment thinker. During or shortly before the first part of 1789 he relocated to Paris from where he enjoyed a ringside seat for the unfolding phases of the French Revolution, which, initially, he enthusiastically supported. He backed the revolutionary precepts of "Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood". He soon had reason to become mistrustful of the revolution's radicalisation, however, and during the "Terror" ("Terreur") period spent more than 17 months in prison, avoiding a terminal rendezvous with the guillotine only through an administrative oversight. He subsequently wrote several critical works about Napoléon Bonaparte. It was a reflection of his increasingly idiosyncratic lifestyle that by the 1820s he was becoming known as "The Hermit of Paris" (or, in certain more scholarly contemporary sources, "Eremita Parisiensis"): he was happy to endorse the soubriquet, on occasion using it to describe himself.

Travels His father's death at the end of 1769 left Gustav von Schlabrendorf well provided for. Since 1766 he had also been receiving income from a benefice in Magdeburg which his father had set up for him back in 1753. He could therefore afford to broaden his education with a succession of lengthy trips across the German lands, the Swiss Confederacy, France and England. In the end he based himself in England for six years. He was, in particular, intrigued and impressed by the uniqueness of the country, by its constitutional structure, its highly developed industries and, not least by its philanthropic institutions based around its national church For some of his time in England he was accompanied by the distinguished anglophile aristocrat, Baron vom Stein. During this period he also established what would become a long-lasting friendships with the enlightenment philosopher, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi.

Victim of the revolution Gustav von Schlabrendorf greeted the outbreak of the French Revolution as "die Erlöserin des rein Menschlichen" (loosely "the salvation of all humanity"). In prison he found that the inmates divided into "two classes of men: men of rank and foreigners". Determined to keep a low profile, he "shunned the former and associated wholly with the latter", attempting to be identified as a sort of transnational member of the revolutionary "Sans-culottes" faction. According to the anecdote that later emerged, on account of this difficulty his jailor agreed that it was unreasonable that he should be executed without his boots on his feet, and he was accordingly left off that day's cart, in order to be taken with the next day's batch for execution instead. She quickly came into contact with von Schlabrendorf's circle of mainly foreign-born intellectuals during the period of more than two years that she spent in Paris. According to one of Wollstonecraft's biographers "the rich Silesian Count von Schlabrendorff ... was living 'on almost nothing' in order to avoid adverse comment on his wealth".

Long war He was constantly troubled by the erosion of his hopes, and those of his friends, in the positive power of the revolution, and devoted much energy and resource to charitable and humanitarian ventures. A devout protestant, he backed a bible society and the protestant minority more generally, committing resources to the education and welfare of the poor. urged von Schlabrendorf to lose no time in visiting his homeland, even if he would only stay for four weeks, in order to demonstrate his respect for The king's wishes.

More eccentric yet

"There was also the famous Paris expatriate, Count Schlabrendorf, in whose sepulchral room the great social earthquake was left to unfold in a vast global tragedy; uncontested, contemplated, evaluated and not infrequently tweaked. Intellectually he stood so high above everyone else that he could at any time clearly see through the significance and direction of the intellectual battle, without being touched by all their muddying noise. This magisterial prophet arrived on the wider stage when he was still a young man, and the catastrophe had barely played out by the time his raddled beard had reached down to his belt." "So auch der berühmte Pariser Einsiedler Graf Schlabrendorf, der in seiner Klause die ganze soziale Umwälzung wie eine große Welttragödie unangefochten, betrachtend, richtend und häufig lenkend, an sich vorübergehen ließ. Denn er stand so hoch über allen Parteien, daß er Sinn und Gang der Geisterschlacht jederzeit klar überschauen konnte, ohne von ihrem wirren Lärm erreicht zu werden. Dieser prophetische Magier trat noch jugendlich vor die große Bühne, und als kaum die Katastrophe abgelaufen, war ihm der greise Bart bis an den Gürtel gewachsen." He frequently renewed his assurances that he intended to come "home" to Prussia, but that never happened. Inertia prevailed.

In the aftermath of the war, with his Silesian estates restored to him, von Schlabrendorf was able to resume his generous giving to friends in need, prisoners of war rendered destitute and other good causes, but it is not clear that his fortune held out for as long as he did. During his final few years he set out to try and crystallise his ideas on paper: the focus was increasingly on his writing. He engaged intensively on creating a "general languages" teaching theory and on etymological studies more broadly.

During the summer of 1824 Gustav von Schlabrendorf fell seriously ill. With great difficulty his doctor succeeded in prising him away from his hotel room and he moved to Batignolles, which at that time was a country village to the north of the city. The purpose of the move was to enable his health to benefit from the clean country air. However, the move came late in the day, and on 21 August 1824 he died at Batignolles. His final big project had involved collating his writings concerning the French Revolution. He intended to bequeath this to a Prussian university. A will setting forth his intentions had been prepared but, not for the first time in the life of Gustav von Schlabrendorf, stated intentions had not been followed through: the legal requirements for validation of the document had not been completed. When he died his most recent valid will dated from 1785, and his death was followed by disputatious exchanges between his relatives even though, apart from his books and papers, he had managed to die bereft of worldly assets. The Prussian embassy had to pay most of the costs associated with his funeral. His papers were sold off: the whereabouts of most of them is unknown.

Afterlife His body was buried at the "Père Lachaise Cemetery" (as Paris's largest cemetery has subsequently become known). Some time later the remains were moved to the "Chemin Bohm" cemetery and reinterred close to the tomb of the Prussian soldier-ambassador Heinrich von der Goltz (1775 – 1822). There (in 2019) they remain. The main tombstone was removed sometime around 1900 but parts of the grave's stone surround can still be seen and the grave plot has not yet been recycled.