Adam Lux
Encyclopedia
Adam Lux was a German
revolutionary and sympathiser of the French Revolution
.
of the Holy Roman Empire
, nowadays in Rhineland-Palatinate
), where he became a Dr. phil.
with his Latin
dissertation on the notion of enthusiasm
.
As a destitute academic, he first worked as a tutor
for a merchant family in Mainz
, into which he married. His wife's dowry
made it possible for him to buy an estate in Kostheim
, where he followed the call of the French
philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
by getting back to nature, and became a farmer.
, about whether his homeland should enter the French First Republic
, on 2 November 1792 in Kostheim. Of the 223 men entitled to vote, 213 supported an accession to France; only 2 rejected the idea, the remaining 8 couldn't take part in the referendum. The result of poll was celebrated with a feast, whose climax was the planting of a liberty pole
.
Lux then moved to Mainz with his family, where the Rhenish-German National Convention, the parliament of the Republic of Mainz
, founded according to the French example and chaired by Andreas Joseph Hofmann
elected him to be a representative.
, the merchant André Potocki, and him to Paris
, to complete the planned accession to France. In Paris he met several German friends of freedom, such as Konrad Engelbert Oelsner and Johann Georg Kerner, who shared his disappointment with the development of the Revolution. They were disgusted by the eruption of the Terror
and the radicalization of the Sans-culottes
and the Jacobin Club
.
On 17 July 1793 Lux witnessed the execution of the Girondist
Charlotte Corday
, who had assassinated
the radical agitator Jean-Paul Marat
. With the publication of provoking pamphlet
s, in which he justified the killing as an act of liberation, he was apparently risking his life deliberately, although not all motives of his behavior at this time are comprehensible nowadays, especially those concerning his relation to Corday and her actions. The poet Justinus Kerner
, whose older brother Johann Georg Kerner witnessed the events in Paris, reported on these activities in his book Bilderbuch aus meiner Knabenzeit, which was based on his brother's records.
, in order to protest against the violence of revolutionary goals, he set out to be executed by his former political friends. According to eyewitnesses, Lux ascended the guillotine
's scaffold, as if it were a rostrum
.
Because of his mysterious fate, Lux drew the attention of his contemporaries. Jean Paul
wrote: "[Let] no German forget him!". According to the American
Germanist Thomas Saine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
even based the first husband of Dorothea in his epic
Hermann and Dorothea
(1798) on Lux. In contrast, the interest in Lux declined in later periods.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
revolutionary and sympathiser of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
Early life
Lux was born in Obernburg am Main, a village belonging to the Electorate of Mainz, as a farmer's son. However, his parents managed to finance his studies at the University of Mainz (in the Archbishopric of MainzArchbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, nowadays in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
), where he became a Dr. phil.
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
with his Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
dissertation on the notion of enthusiasm
Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm originally meant inspiration or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a god. Johnson's Dictionary, the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, defines enthusiasm as "a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or...
.
As a destitute academic, he first worked as a tutor
Tutor
A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...
for a merchant family in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, into which he married. His wife's dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
made it possible for him to buy an estate in Kostheim
Mainz-Kostheim
Mainz-Kostheim is a district administered by the city of Wiesbaden, Germany. Mainz-Kostheim was formerly a district of the city of Mainz, until the public administration by the city of Wiesbaden was decided on August 10, 1945...
, where he followed the call of the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
by getting back to nature, and became a farmer.
Republic of Mainz
His advocacy of the French Revolution was expressed through an odd political action: after a three-day-long informative meeting, Lux held a referendumReferendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
, about whether his homeland should enter the French First Republic
French First Republic
The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...
, on 2 November 1792 in Kostheim. Of the 223 men entitled to vote, 213 supported an accession to France; only 2 rejected the idea, the remaining 8 couldn't take part in the referendum. The result of poll was celebrated with a feast, whose climax was the planting of a liberty pole
Liberty pole
A liberty pole is a tall wooden pole, often used as a type of flagstaff, planted in the ground, which may be surmounted by an ensign or a liberty cap. They are associated with the Atlantic Revolutions of the late 18th century.-American Revolution:...
.
Lux then moved to Mainz with his family, where the Rhenish-German National Convention, the parliament of the Republic of Mainz
Republic of Mainz
The Republic of Mainz was the first democratic state on the current German territory and was centered in Mainz. A product of the French Revolutionary Wars, it lasted from March to July 1793.-Context:...
, founded according to the French example and chaired by Andreas Joseph Hofmann
Andreas Joseph Hofmann
Andreas Joseph Hofmann was a German philosopher and revolutionary active in the Republic of Mainz. As Chairman of the Rhenish-German National Convention, the earliest parliament in Germany based on the principle of popular sovereignty, he proclaimed the first republican state in Germany, the...
elected him to be a representative.
In France
On 21 March 1793, the convention sent the naturalist and writer Georg ForsterGeorg Forster
Johann Georg Adam Forster was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific...
, the merchant André Potocki, and him to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, to complete the planned accession to France. In Paris he met several German friends of freedom, such as Konrad Engelbert Oelsner and Johann Georg Kerner, who shared his disappointment with the development of the Revolution. They were disgusted by the eruption of the Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
and the radicalization of the Sans-culottes
Sans-culottes
In the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were the radical militants of the lower classes, typically urban laborers. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars...
and the Jacobin Club
Jacobin Club
The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
.
On 17 July 1793 Lux witnessed the execution of the Girondist
Girondist
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
Charlotte Corday
Charlotte Corday
Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont , known to history as Charlotte Corday, was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed under the guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who was in part responsible, through his role as a politician and...
, who had assassinated
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
the radical agitator Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...
. With the publication of provoking pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
s, in which he justified the killing as an act of liberation, he was apparently risking his life deliberately, although not all motives of his behavior at this time are comprehensible nowadays, especially those concerning his relation to Corday and her actions. The poet Justinus Kerner
Justinus Kerner
Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner was a German poet and medical writer.-Life:He was born at Ludwigsburg in Württemberg...
, whose older brother Johann Georg Kerner witnessed the events in Paris, reported on these activities in his book Bilderbuch aus meiner Knabenzeit, which was based on his brother's records.
Death and legacy
After giving up the intention of publicly killing himself in front of the National ConventionNational Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
, in order to protest against the violence of revolutionary goals, he set out to be executed by his former political friends. According to eyewitnesses, Lux ascended the guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
's scaffold, as if it were a rostrum
Rostra
The Rōstra was a large platform built in the city of Rome that stood during the republican and imperial periods. Speakers would stand on the rostra and face the north side of the comitium towards the senate house and deliver orations to those assembled in between...
.
Because of his mysterious fate, Lux drew the attention of his contemporaries. Jean Paul
Jean Paul
Jean Paul , born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.-Life and work:...
wrote: "[Let] no German forget him!". According to the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Germanist Thomas Saine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
even based the first husband of Dorothea in his epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
Hermann and Dorothea
Hermann and Dorothea
Hermann and Dorothea is an epic poem, an idyll, written by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe between 1796 and 1797, and was to some extent suggested by Johann Heinrich Voss's Luise, an idyll in hexameters, first published in 1782-84...
(1798) on Lux. In contrast, the interest in Lux declined in later periods.