Ludwig von Vincke

After the Congress of Vienna Vincke became Supreme President of the Province of Westphalia, one of the new founded Western Provinces of the reorganized Kingdom of Prussia. Vincke modernized the provincial administration, supported agricultural reforms, industrial development and enlargement of traffic ways, and fostered the coexistence of the diverse Christian confessions in the multiconfessional province. He supported the idea of public self-government on local and regional level, but the restorative tendencies in the governmental policy laid down limits for his efforts.

Life and career Early life

Ludwig von Vincke was born in Minden (Minden-Ravensberg) on 23 December 1774 as member of the old Westphalian Vincke family, of the Ostenwalde line. He was the second son of Ernst Idel Jobst von Vincke (1738–1813), the dean of the Minden Cathedral chapter, and his wife Luise Sophie von Buttlar (1739–1806). He grew up with two brothers and three sisters.

From 1784 to 1787 Ludwig von Vincke visited the private school of Johann Lehzen in Hanover, father of Louise Lehzen, where he learned the English language. The next three years he was educated at the Pedagogium in Halle (Saale) under August Hermann Niemeyer, followed by university studies at the Hessian University of Marburg, the Prussian University of Erlangen, and the Hanoverian University of Göttingen from 1792 to 1795 in the matters of law, economy, agriculture, philosophy, and history.

Works Darstellung der innern Verwaltung Großbritanniens. Ed. by Barthold Georg Niebuhr, Berlin 1815 [Description of the internal administration of Great Britain] Die Tagebücher des Ludwig Freiherrn Vincke 1789–1844. 11 Volumes. Aschendorff, Münster 2009 ff. ISBN 3-402-15740-3 [Diaries]