Reinhold Solger
Encyclopedia
Reinhold Ernst Friedrich Karl Solger (5 July 1817 Stettin - 11 January 1866 Washington, D. C.) was a historian, novelist, poet, political activist and lecturer. He was educated in Europe
and emigrated to the United States
where he was a noted lecturer
in history and other scholarly topics.
n educated and civil service class in that city. His uncle was a noted philosopher and professor in Berlin
. His father died when Solger was nine years old. This left the family financially dependent on the benevolence of relatives. He finished his preparatory schooling in Züllichau.
In 1837, he entered the University of Halle and joined the Arnold Ruge
's intellectual circle, the Young Hegelians
. He took full advantage of student life and the intellectual company. His studies first focussed on philosophy
, laying the groundwork for his extensive education in the classics
. He tried his hand at lyrical poetry, some of which was published in 1840 in Ruge's Musenalmanach.
By 1840, he had moved his studies to the University of Greifswald where he graduated in May 1842 with a historical dissertation on the Sicambri
. His plan was to prepare himself to be a professor in the agricultural school in Eldena
. The minister of culture for Prussia at that time was Eichhorn
, who was a friend of his father's, took an interest in the career of the talented young man and found him a place in the civil service at Potsdam
where Solger worked as an intern. Solger didn't find the bureaucratic life there satisfying. Under pressure from his creditors, and finding his relatives unhelpful, he decided to try his luck abroad.
, but he only made it as far as Liverpool
, having given his last funds in exchange for a forged ticket which wasn't accepted for passage to America. Fortunately, he found a position as a tutor for a country gentleman in whose family he remained for almost four years. In these carefree and luxurious circumstances, he had time not only to master the English language
, but also to resume his historical and philosophical studies and devote himself to writing poetry more than his previous circumstances had permitted.
Among other works, the first two cantos of his comic epic Hans von Katzenfingen date from this time. It was a satire of the Prussian gentry, and never got beyond those two cantos. Its protagonist, Hans, showed how a young man could break through the superficial culture which surrounded him to successfully pursue his ideals. The two cantos were published anonymously in 1845 and 1846 in the Deutsches Taschenbuch aus der Schweiz and were much praised. Solger later explained much of the epic was rooted in the contrast between the stifling social atmosphere of Potsdam and the freer atmosphere he found in England.
, where he associated with personalities such as Mikhail Bakunin
, Alexander Herzen
, Georg Herwegh
and Bernays, and then returned to Germany, settling in Heidelberg
, where he shared his adventures in English and French culture with Friedrich Kapp
. From there Solger left for Bruckberg
to pay his respects to Ludwig Feuerbach. This meeting marked the start of an enduring intellectual exchange.
Solger continued on to Berlin where he hoped to found an independent literary or scholarly life. These plans didn't work out, and toward the end of 1847 he went back to Paris. The February-March Revolution
in Paris surprised him a few days after his February 19 marriage to a young Parisian, Adèle Marie Bémere, in 1848. These February days he depicted compellingly in an article for a supplementary volume of Wigand's Konversations-Lexikon. He returned to Berlin in April 1848 and became a zealous member of a democratic club, though more as a spectator than as an agitator. Despite this, some officials saw in his direct arrival from Paris an importer of revolution.
Solger directed his political and literary efforts to the far left, and found himself in the Baden uprising
. His skill in languages found him a role as interpreter for the chief of the Baden revolutionaries, Ludwig Mieroslawski. After two months, he fled with this army to Switzerland
and involved himself in journalism with contributions critically analyzing the defeated revolutionaries. He also produced a one-act burlesque called Der Reichstagsprofessor (The Professor in the Parliament) which drew on his experiences in the revolution. It provided much entertainment for the refugees in Switzerland who read it at their evening gatherings.
, Thomas Carlyle
and Henry Bulwer
, who had gotten to know him during his first visit to England, provided recommendations. A series of lectures in conjunction with Dickens wasn't successful. The pressure of the unusual number of refugees in London at that time presented significant difficulties, and Solger decided to emigrate to the United States in the spring of 1853.
.
Solger's lectures were seldom attended by more than 60-100 listeners, but these were usually the most prominent intellectuals of wherever he was speaking. For example, when he spoke in Cambridge
, professors from Harvard
with their president were among the attendees. He had the rare privilege of giving two courses of lectures for the Lowell Institute
: in the 1857-58 season he gave a series of 12 lectures on “History of the Reformation,” and in the 1859-60 season he gave a series of 12 lectures on “Rome, Christianity, and the Rise of Modern Civilization.” Solger's last public appearance in the lecture pulpit came in early 1861 when he spoke at Theodore Parker
's church to Parker's congregation. His lecture contrasted the Revolutionary War
uprising with that of Prussia in 1813.
Solger wrote little in the United States
. His most significant work was a series of letters he wrote to the New York Independent on the Crimean War in 1855. He adapted his earlier piece, Der Reichstagprofessor, to the United States
under the title The Hon. Anodyne Humdrum, or the Union shall and must be preserved. The Bell-Everett man and the Douglas democrat appeared prominently in this piece. Solger thought it could be useful in the presidential campaigns, but theater directors rejected it because it presented blacks and whites together on the stage.
Solger became a United States
citizen in 1859. In politics, he joined the ranks of the Republican Party
. He was actively involved in the presidential campaigns of 1856 and 1860, speaking in various states. He spoke throughout Indiana for Abraham Lincoln
, receiving no reimbursement for his expenses. In Kapp's opinion, he was relatively ineffective in this role though. He was too much the aristocratic lecturer, and had a rather condescending effect. His speeches were too abstract and provided no inspiration to his listeners. However, in a 29 November 1865 letter to Ohio
Senator John Sherman
, Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew
praised Solger as being as effective in the East as Carl Schurz
was in the West in bringing German immigrants over to the side of the Republican Party.
Solger became known to his fellow German immigrants during the celebrations of Friedrich Schiller
's 100th birthday. A New York committee awarded top prize to a poem he wrote for this occasion, “Erinnerung.” Also notable were a speech he gave for Boston's Schiller celebration on 10 November 1859, and his 1862 novel Anton in Amerika which the owner of the Belletristisches Journal termed the best novel taken from German-American life.
, and Friedrich Kapp recalls many interesting discussions on evening walks through Central Park the two friends carried on during this time. At this time, Solger had many plans for significant literary works which however never were realized. His efforts to present the German point of view on the Schleswig-Holstein Question
were much appreciated by his fellow immigrants. In 1861 he prepared a memorandum on this subject for the new U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Bradford R. Wood
. Several months before he had written two articles for the New York World
on “The Sleswick Holstein Question.” He spent a year in New York before moving to Washington, D. C., where he had obtained an appointment as assistant registrar in the Treasury Department.
[ Concord
] on Geography, to Sanborn
's scholars, for several months past, at 5 p.m. Emerson
and Alcott have been to hear him.” Thoreau himself didn't go to Solger's lectures however since he preferred to be outdoors during the daylight hours.
His obituary in the 18 January 1866 Roxbury City Gazette reads “Dr. Reinhold Solger, who resided for a number of years at Roxbury, and delivered several lectures before the Lowell Institute, died recently at Washington. He was a Prussian of democratic tendencies, and having incurred the displeasure of the government, came to the United States. Few among our educated men wrote better English.”
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where he was a noted lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
in history and other scholarly topics.
Early life and schooling
His father was a privy councilor in Stettin, and his family belonged to the upper echelons of the PrussiaPrussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n educated and civil service class in that city. His uncle was a noted philosopher and professor in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. His father died when Solger was nine years old. This left the family financially dependent on the benevolence of relatives. He finished his preparatory schooling in Züllichau.
In 1837, he entered the University of Halle and joined the Arnold Ruge
Arnold Ruge
Arnold Ruge was a German philosopher and political writer.-Studies in university and prison:Born in Bergen auf Rügen, he studied in Halle, Jena and Heidelberg. As an advocate of a free and united Germany he was jailed for five years in 1825 in the fortress of Kolberg, where he studied Plato and...
's intellectual circle, the Young Hegelians
Young Hegelians
The Young Hegelians, or Left Hegelians, were a group of Prussian intellectuals who in the decade or so after the death of Hegel in 1831, wrote and responded to his ambiguous legacy...
. He took full advantage of student life and the intellectual company. His studies first focussed on philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, laying the groundwork for his extensive education in the classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
. He tried his hand at lyrical poetry, some of which was published in 1840 in Ruge's Musenalmanach.
By 1840, he had moved his studies to the University of Greifswald where he graduated in May 1842 with a historical dissertation on the Sicambri
Sicambri
The Sicambri were a Germanic people living on the right bank of the Rhine river, near where it passes out of Germany and enters what is now called the Netherlands at the turn of the first millennium....
. His plan was to prepare himself to be a professor in the agricultural school in Eldena
Eldena
Eldena is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany....
. The minister of culture for Prussia at that time was Eichhorn
Karl Friedrich Eichhorn
Karl Friedrich Eichhorn was a German jurist.Eichhorn was born in Jena as the son of Johann Gottfried Eichhorn. He entered the University of Göttingen in 1797. In 1805 he obtained the professorship of law at Frankfurt , holding it till 1811, when he accepted the same chair at the new Friedrich...
, who was a friend of his father's, took an interest in the career of the talented young man and found him a place in the civil service at Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
where Solger worked as an intern. Solger didn't find the bureaucratic life there satisfying. Under pressure from his creditors, and finding his relatives unhelpful, he decided to try his luck abroad.
England
His first plan was to go to America via EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, but he only made it as far as Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, having given his last funds in exchange for a forged ticket which wasn't accepted for passage to America. Fortunately, he found a position as a tutor for a country gentleman in whose family he remained for almost four years. In these carefree and luxurious circumstances, he had time not only to master the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, but also to resume his historical and philosophical studies and devote himself to writing poetry more than his previous circumstances had permitted.
Among other works, the first two cantos of his comic epic Hans von Katzenfingen date from this time. It was a satire of the Prussian gentry, and never got beyond those two cantos. Its protagonist, Hans, showed how a young man could break through the superficial culture which surrounded him to successfully pursue his ideals. The two cantos were published anonymously in 1845 and 1846 in the Deutsches Taschenbuch aus der Schweiz and were much praised. Solger later explained much of the epic was rooted in the contrast between the stifling social atmosphere of Potsdam and the freer atmosphere he found in England.
Germany and France
Solger left England in early 1847. He spent a few months in ParisParis
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...
, where he associated with personalities such as Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
, Alexander Herzen
Alexander Herzen
Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism...
, Georg Herwegh
Georg Herwegh
Georg Friedrich Rudolph Theodor Herwegh was a German revolutionary poet.-Biography:He was born in Stuttgart on 31 May 1817, the son of an innkeeper...
and Bernays, and then returned to Germany, settling in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, where he shared his adventures in English and French culture with Friedrich Kapp
Friedrich Kapp
Friedrich Kapp was a German-American lawyer, writer, and politician. He was an outspoken opponent of Germany's colonization fervor during his time as a National Liberal Reichstag deputy. This was exemplified in his speech to the annual Congress of German Economists...
. From there Solger left for Bruckberg
Bruckberg, Middle Franconia
Bruckberg is a municipality in the district of Ansbach in Bavaria in Germany....
to pay his respects to Ludwig Feuerbach. This meeting marked the start of an enduring intellectual exchange.
Solger continued on to Berlin where he hoped to found an independent literary or scholarly life. These plans didn't work out, and toward the end of 1847 he went back to Paris. The February-March Revolution
French Revolution of 1848
The 1848 Revolution in France was one of a wave of revolutions in 1848 in Europe. In France, the February revolution ended the Orleans monarchy and led to the creation of the French Second Republic. The February Revolution was really the belated second phase of the Revolution of 1830...
in Paris surprised him a few days after his February 19 marriage to a young Parisian, Adèle Marie Bémere, in 1848. These February days he depicted compellingly in an article for a supplementary volume of Wigand's Konversations-Lexikon. He returned to Berlin in April 1848 and became a zealous member of a democratic club, though more as a spectator than as an agitator. Despite this, some officials saw in his direct arrival from Paris an importer of revolution.
Solger directed his political and literary efforts to the far left, and found himself in the Baden uprising
History of Baden
The history of Baden as a state began in the 12th century, as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire. A fairly inconsequential margraviate that was divided between various branches of its ruling family for much of its history, it gained both status and territory during the Napoleonic era, when it was...
. His skill in languages found him a role as interpreter for the chief of the Baden revolutionaries, Ludwig Mieroslawski. After two months, he fled with this army to Switzerland
Switzerland
He first went to Bern where he gave a series of lectures on English literature in the winter of 1849-50. From there he went to ZurichZürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
and involved himself in journalism with contributions critically analyzing the defeated revolutionaries. He also produced a one-act burlesque called Der Reichstagsprofessor (The Professor in the Parliament) which drew on his experiences in the revolution. It provided much entertainment for the refugees in Switzerland who read it at their evening gatherings.
London
Solger left Zurich for London via Paris in Summer 1852. In London, acquaintances such as Charles DickensCharles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
and Henry Bulwer
Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer
Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer GCB, PC was a British Liberal politician, diplomat and writer.-Background and education:...
, who had gotten to know him during his first visit to England, provided recommendations. A series of lectures in conjunction with Dickens wasn't successful. The pressure of the unusual number of refugees in London at that time presented significant difficulties, and Solger decided to emigrate to the United States in the spring of 1853.
Boston
He arrived in Philadelphia and moved to the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in Fall 1853. His fluent English skills gave him a decided advantage over the other refugees from Germany. A prominent New England poet noted “He uses the English language with an idiomatic correctness, power and elegance, unusual even among those born and bred to it.” He devoted himself to lecturing. Educated Americans found him an effective speaker who could present German philosophy and historical research and criticism in a compelling way. He also spoke on ethnography and current events, for example the Crimean WarCrimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
.
Solger's lectures were seldom attended by more than 60-100 listeners, but these were usually the most prominent intellectuals of wherever he was speaking. For example, when he spoke in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, professors from Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
with their president were among the attendees. He had the rare privilege of giving two courses of lectures for the Lowell Institute
Lowell Institute
The Lowell Institute is an educational foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836. Under the terms of his will 10% of the net income was to be added to the principal, which in...
: in the 1857-58 season he gave a series of 12 lectures on “History of the Reformation,” and in the 1859-60 season he gave a series of 12 lectures on “Rome, Christianity, and the Rise of Modern Civilization.” Solger's last public appearance in the lecture pulpit came in early 1861 when he spoke at Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church...
's church to Parker's congregation. His lecture contrasted the Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
uprising with that of Prussia in 1813.
Solger wrote little in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. His most significant work was a series of letters he wrote to the New York Independent on the Crimean War in 1855. He adapted his earlier piece, Der Reichstagprofessor, to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
under the title The Hon. Anodyne Humdrum, or the Union shall and must be preserved. The Bell-Everett man and the Douglas democrat appeared prominently in this piece. Solger thought it could be useful in the presidential campaigns, but theater directors rejected it because it presented blacks and whites together on the stage.
Solger became a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
citizen in 1859. In politics, he joined the ranks of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. He was actively involved in the presidential campaigns of 1856 and 1860, speaking in various states. He spoke throughout Indiana for Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, receiving no reimbursement for his expenses. In Kapp's opinion, he was relatively ineffective in this role though. He was too much the aristocratic lecturer, and had a rather condescending effect. His speeches were too abstract and provided no inspiration to his listeners. However, in a 29 November 1865 letter to Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
Senator John Sherman
John Sherman (politician)
John Sherman, nicknamed "The Ohio Icicle" , was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Ohio during the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. He served as both Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State and was the principal author of the Sherman Antitrust Act...
, Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew
John Albion Andrew
John Albion Andrew was a U.S. political figure. He served as the 25th Governor of Massachusetts between 1861 and 1866 during the American Civil War. He was a guiding force behind the creation of some of the first U.S. Army units of black men—including the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry.-Early...
praised Solger as being as effective in the East as Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz
Carl Christian Schurz was a German revolutionary, American statesman and reformer, and Union Army General in the American Civil War. He was also an accomplished journalist, newspaper editor and orator, who in 1869 became the first German-born American elected to the United States Senate.His wife,...
was in the West in bringing German immigrants over to the side of the Republican Party.
Solger became known to his fellow German immigrants during the celebrations of Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
's 100th birthday. A New York committee awarded top prize to a poem he wrote for this occasion, “Erinnerung.” Also notable were a speech he gave for Boston's Schiller celebration on 10 November 1859, and his 1862 novel Anton in Amerika which the owner of the Belletristisches Journal termed the best novel taken from German-American life.
New York
In the spring of 1861, he moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and Friedrich Kapp recalls many interesting discussions on evening walks through Central Park the two friends carried on during this time. At this time, Solger had many plans for significant literary works which however never were realized. His efforts to present the German point of view on the Schleswig-Holstein Question
Schleswig-Holstein Question
The Schleswig-Holstein Question was a complex of diplomatic and other issues arising in the 19th century from the relations of two duchies, Schleswig and Holstein , to the Danish crown and to the German Confederation....
were much appreciated by his fellow immigrants. In 1861 he prepared a memorandum on this subject for the new U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Bradford R. Wood
Bradford R. Wood
Bradford Ripley Wood was a U.S. Representative from New York.-Early life and legal career:Born in Westport, Connecticut, Wood attended the common schools and was graduated from Union College at Schenectady, New York, in 1824. He was engaged in teaching and lecturing. He studied law at the...
. Several months before he had written two articles for the New York World
New York World
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers...
on “The Sleswick Holstein Question.” He spent a year in New York before moving to Washington, D. C., where he had obtained an appointment as assistant registrar in the Treasury Department.
Washington, D.C.
Solger arrived in Washington in the winter of 1862-63. His signature validated millions of dollars of government debt certificates. In the middle of April 1864 he suffered a stroke which left his entire right side paralyzed. His fluency in English and French disappeared, and he was only able to speak simple phrases in German. He undertook rehabilitation in Boston January to June 1865 but this was not helpful. He recovered somewhat, but died after another stroke on 11 January 1866. He was buried in Washington.Miscellaneous
In a letter to H. G. O. Blake of November 16, 1857, Henry Thoreau reports that “Dr. Solger has been lecturing in the vestry in this townConcord, Massachusetts
Concord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 17,668. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature.-History:...
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn was an American journalist, author, and reformer. Sanborn was a social scientist, and a memorialist of American transcendentalism who wrote early biographies of many of the movement's key figures...
's scholars, for several months past, at 5 p.m. Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
and Alcott have been to hear him.” Thoreau himself didn't go to Solger's lectures however since he preferred to be outdoors during the daylight hours.
His obituary in the 18 January 1866 Roxbury City Gazette reads “Dr. Reinhold Solger, who resided for a number of years at Roxbury, and delivered several lectures before the Lowell Institute, died recently at Washington. He was a Prussian of democratic tendencies, and having incurred the displeasure of the government, came to the United States. Few among our educated men wrote better English.”
Further reading
- Milton Allan Dickie, Reinhold Solger, Ph.D.Ph.D.A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
dissertation, University of PittsburghUniversity of PittsburghThe University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, 1930. - “Reinhold Solger,” Deutsch-Amerikanische-Monatshefte, February 1866.
- Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, D. C., January 13, 1866.