A letter from Line: the Flensburg antiquities and the Danish-Prussian/Austrian war of 1864.

A letter from Line: the Flensburg antiquities and the Danish-Prussian/Austrian war of 1864. The letter from LineWe may begin the extraordinary story of the Flensburg Collection,largest provincial museum in the United Monarchy The introduction to this article may be too long. Please help improve the introduction by moving some material from it into the body of the article according to the suggestions at of Denmark, with theletter from Line:(1)Flensburg, February the 20th [1864]'Dear Madam,'We are all very worried about our mutual friend, who has fallenill on Als.'One cannot know what could happen to him with the presenttribulation on this island, and he should receive more careful attentionon Funen or on Zealand. You would show me a great favour by asking yourhusband to talk to the right persons about having him removed carefullyand as soon as possible. My best regards to you and your husband.'Yours truly 'Line'The letter was sent from a Prussian occupied town during the warbetween Denmark and Prussia/Austria that began when Denmark in 1864decided on a joint democratic constitution between the Danish kingdomand the Duchies of 'Slesvig, Holsten and Lauenborg' which alsofell under the Danish monarchy [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED].Denmark was to lose the war and the Duchies.With two others, the letter from Line is now forgotten in its specialfile in a huge private archive (now in the Danish National Archive,Copenhagen). Who is 'Dear Madam'? Who is 'Line'? Onthe surface, the letter is about a wounded Danish soldier, who is to betransferred because of 'tribulation' on the island of Als.Only on the surface! 'Tribulation' is a strange word to useabout enemy troops. The letters are in the archives of the area'sprefect prefector praefect(both: prē`fĕkt), in ancient Rome, various military and civil officers. Under the empire some prefects were very important. The Praetorian prefects (first appointed 2 B.C. , August Regenburg (1815-1895), powerful director of the Ministryfor Schleswig until the Duchies were lost in 1864.Two other puzzling lettersAnother letter, dated the previous day, 19 February 1864, was writtenby Helveg Conrad Christian Engelhardt (1825-1881), who taught Englishand French at the grammar school in Flensburg [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 2OMITTED]. As part-time curator of the local museum, since 1852 he hadbeen in charge of the Flensburg Collection. The recipient, ChristianFrederik Herbst (1818-1911), was employed at the 'National Museumof Northern Antiquities',(2) in the Prince's Palais inCopenhagen, where he was right-hand man (and presumed successor) to theageing Director, Christian Jurgensen Thomsen. Engelhardt's letterexpressed gratitude to Herbst for attending to Engelhardt's privatebusiness in Copenhagen, concluding with greetings to mutualacquaintances and notice that he, Engelhardt, was unable to 'makeany further progress in that case'. The curious reader will ask,'Which case?'A third letter, of 26 February 1864, is from Herbst to Regenburg, whoseem on familiar terms. After attending the same school, they had bothstudied law at the University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (Danish: K?benhavns Universitet) is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. , and now lived on the samestreet, Norregade in Copenhagen, Herbst at number 37, Regenburg atnumber 15. Herbst begins by explaining he would rather have walked thefew steps to Regenburg's house; a 'flu kept him in bed, so hehad instead to write. What was more suited to the ear than the pen isset out:'Today, I received a cryptographic letter from Engelhardt, inwhich he requests me to ask you to move the artefacts as soon aspossible - [because of the present tribulation on Als, he quotes fromthe letter from Line] - and, of course, for more reasons than this, theyhave to be removed to Sealand or Funen. Ever since Hoyer-Moller becamearmy chaplain I have been wishing for the same thing to happen. . ..'The 'patient', it appears, is the collection of artefacts,not a wounded soldier. This caution - for fear the letter would get intothe wrong hands - is also a proof that Engelhardt, his superior theDirector Regenburg, and staff of the Museum of Northern Antiquities Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. wereinvolved in attempts to hide the Flensburg Collection during the 1864war. Why does Hoyer-Moller's becoming army chaplain affect theissue?The Flensburg Collection: a famous and royal museumEngelhardt's attempted rescue was a unique and very personal,almost private act, to save a collection he himself had made withassiduity as��si��du��i��ty?n. pl. as��si��du��i��ties1. Persistent application or diligence; unflagging effort.2. Constant personal attention and often obsequious solicitude. Often used in the plural.Noun 1. , hard work and talent into the largest outside the capital(DBH DBH - Denis Howe 1919). Extraordinary finds gave the collection an internationalimportance. Its bog finds had not before been seen in such quantities inEurope. During a period of 12 years, Engelhardt had to rearrange re��ar��range?tr.v. re��ar��ranged, re��ar��rang��ing, re��ar��rang��esTo change the arrangement of.re andreconstruct the exhibition, as the first bog-excavations in 1858 madethe collection grow so: the number of artefacts was five times thosecollected by Engelhardt during the first six years. The collection wasfavoured by the King, Frederik VII, as the only provincial museum in theUnited Monarchy designated 'Royal' - Den Kongelige Samling afNordiske Oldsager i Flensborg.The King maintained an interest in archaeology, with his own privatecollection of artefacts and with excavations initiated for the Museum ofNorthern Antiquities in Copenhagen; every year he enjoyed staying in theDuchy of Schleswig where he and Countess Danner usually would stay atthe castle of Glucksburg (conveniently far away from those people inCopenhagen who, given the opportunity and in no uncertain manner,manifested their dislike of the Countess). Frederik VII visitedEngelhardt's excavations several times and paid contributions outof his own pocket. This interest began in the first year (1854), whenthe collection was placed in two tiny rooms under the ceiling ofEngelhardt's school. In the fashionable collecting of the royalhouses This is a list of regnant and non-regnant Princely, Royal and Imperial Houses of the World. The names of reigning monarchs are in bold text. Names used if the individual were reigning are given if known, otherwise the name given is the name currently used for them. of Europe, classical artefacts from the ancient cultures of theMediterranean were generally dominant over those from the monarch'sown country. Gradually this situation reversed itself, with theprinces' cultivating of local prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to in reality expressing asearch for a 'local' identity. Frederik VII's owncollection, the biggest private collection of artefacts in the country,was well structured according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. modern principles, likeEngelhardt's museum in Flensburg and the museum in Copenhagen. TheKing's private guard, Jorgensen, acted as some sort of museumwarden and received professional assistance in registering artefactsfrom the archaeologist Worsaae.Events in late 1863The summer excavations in the bog of Nydam on Sundeved finished on 31August 1863. Engelhardt was to begin teaching at the school on Mondaymorning after the summer holidays, with only the Sunday off. TheSaturday night he finished the excavation, his last digging day thatyear - he thought. The climax had been the excavation and bringing homeof a sensational find, a long and huge oak rowing-boat of an age noarchaeologist in Europe had ever seen! The boat would be preserved andreconstructed during the winter. First, money had to be found for thiswork and for changing the six rooms at the museum - in the formergovernment buildings on Holm holm?n. Chiefly BritishAn island in a river.[Middle English, from Old Norse h in the city centre - to make space for anartefact See artifact. more than 30 m long. For the time being the parts of the boatwere being brought to the loft of the museum. Engelhardt intended themuseum at some stage to excavate another boat, smaller and built ofdeal, he had discovered next to the big oak boat. But then His Majesty For the royal style, see Majesty His Majesty, or, The Court of Vingolia is an English comic opera in two acts with dialogue by F. C. Burnand, lyrics by R. C. Lehmann, additional lyrics by Adrian Ross and music by Alexander Mackenzie. King Frederik VII and the Countess Dannor arrived at Glucksburg, andFrederik wanted to dig now - whatever the cost. Engelhardt was summonedto the castle and the date fixed for 27 October. The investigation onlylasted that one day. The deal boat, excavated in less than two hours,was placed in a near-by bog and covered with turf to survive theon-coming winter.The political situation in the Duchies was unstable. A liberal by wayof thinking and presumably pre��sum��a��ble?adj.That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. also a national-liberal by politicalconviction, Engelhardt was first of all a curator, following politicaldevelopments in order to safeguard his museum. When the King died andthe November 1863 constitution was proclaimed, war with Prussia andAustria was a real possibility, with the consequent occupation of thewhole Duchy. Engelhardt consulted his museum colleagues in Copenhagen.When Herbst on 30 November advised him to pack up the collection,(3) hedid.Immediately, Engelhardt started wrapping museum artefacts in woodwool and packing them into big wooden boxes: 32 boxes, numbered 1-31 and33, were sent off to the vicarage in Nordborg on Als. There was no boxnumbered 32 on the list. Harmless artefacts would be safer with thevicar, Hoyer-Moller, in the peaceful countryside than in the towns withtheir risk of bombardment and fire.(4)The month of December was busy at Flensburg museum. Before packingup, the new finds from the excavation of that summer and autumn had tobe preserved, registered, recorded, drawn. Herbst had advised Engelhardtto have 'Flensburg-Petersen' (Ludvig Rudolph Petersen, artteacher at Engelhardt's school) draw the important woodenartefacts. Engelhardt gave attention to the written descriptions[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 3 OMITTED]; should the artefacts disappear inthese troubled times, he would have records and drawings for publishinghis bog finds. In 1863, he had published a book on the bog-find ofThorsbjerg (1863) near Sonderbrarup, in a distinguished edition withbeautiful illustrations, ambitiously sub-titled Sonderjyske Mosefund,bd. 1 [Bog finds of south Jutland South Jutland (Danish: S?nderjylland) is the name for the region south of the Konge? in Jutland. The region north of the Konge? is called N?rrejylland (Northern Jutland). , Volume 1]. The English translation of1866 (including volume 2, the Nydam bog finds) was entitled Denmark inthe Early Iron Age on the cover.At the end of 1863, J. Magnus Petersen, illustrator at the Museum ofNorthern Antiquities in Copenhagen, took Christmas leave from theAcademy of Art and went to Flensburg to draw for Engelhardt[ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 4 OMITTED]. The drawings went straight into therecords of the Flensburg Collection. 'The days passed with hardwork for both of us, and cold it was in the rooms', wrote Petersen(1909: 91) in his memoirs. In January 1864, Engelhardt received anunexpected visit from a young carpenter, V.F. Steffensen, who previouslyhad helped with preserving wood in the Flensburg Collection. OnEngelhardt's application, Steffensen was exempted from militaryservice to assist at Flensburg.(5)In June 1863, Engelhardt had been granted his usual money for runningthe museum, all in all 900 Rdlr (Danish rix-dollars). Museum expenseswere much increased, with the need to rebuild it to accommodate the bigboat,(6) and a further 3000 Rdlr was granted on 27 January 1864 by theState Council.(7) (This sum was twice the running expenses of the Museumof Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen for the 1862/63 financial year,(8)and five times Engelhardt's salary as a senior school-teacher.)1864: the war, the peace and the Flensburg CollectionWar broke out on 1 February 1864.Besides the boxes taken to Nordborg, Engelhardt shipped a box - themissing number 32? - on 2 February 1864 to Regenburg in Copenhagen.(9)These artefacts were secretly incorporated into Frederik VII'sprivate collection following his death, when it became clear thatCountess Danner would convey the King's private collections intopublic ownership. In the King's collection about 250 artefacts areidentified as if they originated from the Nydam excavation of 27 October1863 - although the excavation record mentions only 4 artefacts broughtin then. And around 300 artefacts are described as if excavated inThorsbjerg in 1862. But no finds had been made in Thorsbjerg bog thatsummer. So to say: more than 550 artefacts were in this manner illegally'given' to the royal collection (Lonstrup & Ilkjaer 1984)!The following week, the enemy troops were in Flensburg. The town wasoccupied. Engelhardt worried about his collection. Hoyer-Moller had beenappointed army chaplain; no longer in his vicarage or able to look afterthe boxes, he was either in the field or at the military headquarters inSonderborg. One day Hoyer-Moller received an anonymous telegram fromCopenhagen: 'Have you not got something in your custody that youwould wish to be relieved of under the current circumstances?' Hereplied briefly: 'Send a trustworthy man.' The trustworthy manarrived - the young joiner join��er?n.1. A carpenter, especially a cabinetmaker.2. Informal A person given to joining groups, organizations, or causes. Steffensen, who saw to it that the 32 boxeswith the artefacts were sent off. They went first to Sonderborg port,then to Korsor, where they were stored in a council building under theresponsibility of the town's Lord Mayor, the Chief Constable Noun 1. Chief Constable - the head of the police force in a county (or similar area)Britain, Great Britain, U.K., UK, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; of themilitary gendarmerie gen��dar��me��rie?n.1. A body of French gendarmes.2. Slang A group of police officers.[French, from Old French, calvary, from gent d'armes, gendarme, and himself at the headquarters on Als when theartefacts were dispatched.After the brief war, a peace, with the loss of the Duchies toPrussia/Austria. The Flensburg Collection achieved the unflatteringhonour of special mention in the Vienna peace treaty of 30 October 1864as an independent paragraph, number 14. By it, the Flensburg artefactswere officially claimed for returned to the country they came from. Butno one knew where the Flensburg Collection was: it could no longer befound in the barns of the Nordborg vicarage. So the artefacts were notphysically taken away until more than four years later, on 11 February1868, following an extended diplomatic tug-of-war. The boxes were dulyfound in the council building at Korsor, a former merchant's house,and it was from there they were shipped off to Kiel.Officially, Engelhardt would always deny any knowledge of the destinyof the Flensburg Collection, after he had seen it sent to the securityof the vicarage at Nordborg. During the following investigation, thatsame attitude was taken by the Museum of Northern Antiquities inCopenhagen, by the Ministry for Schleswig and by the Minister forSchleswig. But the letter from Herbst of 30 November 1863 and the threeletters in Regenburg's private archive show how deeply involvedwere all Danes, high and low. To the Ministry it was a costly collectionof artefacts. To the national museum, its scientific value wasconsiderable. To Engelhardt, it represented 12 years' toil togetherwith dreams of an archaeological career. He almost saw the collection asone of his many children. Engelhardt and his family chose to disappearfrom Flensburg when it was discovered the museum was half-empty, and hewas to be questioned about this. The whole family travelled via Lubeckto Copenhagen, and later Engelhardt appeared at the Museum of NorthernAntiquities in Copenhagen. The records of the Flensburg Collection werenot handed over to Germany. The Museum in Copenhagen knew nothing oftheir existence. (Not officially, anyway.) Much later, his eldestdaughter but one, Laura Engelhardt, brought to the museum a sealedpackage, handed over with the proviso A condition, stipulation, or limitation inserted in a document.A condition or a provision in a deed, lease, mortgage, or contract, the performance or non-performance of which affects the validity of the instrument. It generally begins with the word provided. it not be opened before her death.That promise was kept. It was not until 1948 that the red seal wasbroken. Inside were Engelhardt's records of the FlensburgCollection.AfterwardsThe Flensburg Collection ended up in Kiel, and was amalgamated a��mal��ga��mate?v. a��mal��ga��mat��ed, a��mal��ga��mat��ing, a��mal��ga��matesv.tr.1. To combine into a unified or integrated whole; unite. See Synonyms at mix.2. in1874 with the Collection there (Museum fur vaterlandische Altertumer).In 1877 the (large) oak boat came this Museum from Flensburg. The littleboat was not brought from Nydam to Flensburg in 1864 and was notconserved. It is lost. After World War 2 the Museum at Kiel no longerexisted and the archaeological finds from the Kiel and the Flensburgcollections came to Schleswig, along with later finds. Here a new museumwas founded in the town of Schleswig, the Archaeologisches Landesmuseumfor Schleswig-Holstein, in the castle of Gottorp.The attempt to conceal the Flensburg Collection had no consequencesfor the later careers of those involved. That was the way it was.Engelhardt soon published the English edition of his book on thebog-finds of Schleswig (1866), and became assistant extraordinary at theMuseum of Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen. He re-organized the museumcatalogue, re-made the displays, and integrated King Frederik'sprivate collection and the finds from his own excavations in Funen. Hiscatalogue of the collections (1868 onwards), for sale to museumvisitors, was revised almost every year as changes took places in theexhibits. He had a busy professional life, secretary to the RoyalAntiquities Society, editor of the annual Aarboger for NordiskOldkyndighed og Historie, an organizer of the 1869 Copenhagen Congressof Archaeology, titular tit��u��lar?adj.1. Relating to, having the nature of, or constituting a title.2. a. Existing in name only; nominal: the titular head of the family.b. professor and honorary doctor at the Universityof Copenhagen - a colleague of high and international reputation. Aswell as the four volumes on the Iron Age bog-finds (Engelhardt 1863;1865; 1867; 1869), he published on contemporary grave finds (1877; 1880;1881) and on Classical artefacts (1875; 1876). He still enjoys acclaimin Denmark and abroad - even in the country he tried to cheat sothoroughly.And who wrote the letter - who was 'Line'? Once ConradEngelhardt wrote a letter to the Director of the national museum,Christian Jurgensen Thomsen. In a hurry leaving for England, where hewas to study the spoken language and visit museums, he forgot to sendthe letter. His wife Laura (nee Petersen; they married in 1852) found iton his desk when he had gone, and posted it to Thomsen with a note ofexplanation. That note, today in Thomsen's archive in the museum,shows us Laura Engelhardt's hand-writing. It is the same hand aswrote our letter from Line.Note. A fuller account with more illustrations is published inDanish: STINE WIELL, Brevet BREVET. In France, a brevet is a warrant granted by the government to authorize an individual to do something for his own benefit, as a brevet d'invention, is a patent to secure a man a right as inventor. 2. fra Line, Nordslesvigske Museer: Arbog formuseerne i Sonderjyllands Amt 18 (1993): 14-22. A few corrections aremade in this shorter version.Acknowledgements. The translation is by Eva Bjerregaard stud. mag.,University of Copenhagen. I am grateful to Dr Marie Louise Marie Louise,1791–1847, empress of the French (1810–15) as consort of Napoleon I and duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla (1816–47), daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (later Emperor of Austria as Francis I. Stig-Sorensen. University of Cambridge. She gave me the idea ofpublishing in a bigger world than Denmark.1 The letter was found with the two letters below in the privatearchive of August Regenburg, 6194. Matters concerning the war of 1864,Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen.2 The museum's name in Danish is Der Kongelige Museum forNordiske Oldsager. In English-language accounts, it is variously calledthe 'National Musum' (Daniel 1981: 59-60), the 'NationalMuseum of Danish Antiquities' (Daniel 1967: 99) and the'Museum of National Antiquities' (Graslund 1987: 20). That themuseum was national, and that its antiquities were Northern and Nordic(rather than from the classical world) are essential to its spirit, asthe story makes clear which is the subject of this article.3 The letter from Herbst is in the manuscript collection, Ny KongeligSamling no. 2631, fol. I, Det kongelige bibliotek.4 The small collection in Aalborg was also packed up and shipped offto the Museum of Northern Antiquities in Copenhagen (pers. comm. TorbenWitt, curator of Aalborg Historical Museum).5 Letter from Engelhardt to Regenburg, 21 January 1864, Ministry ofSchleswig, 3, dept, School and Education, Misc. Rigsarkivet.6 Drafts from Winstrup, 12 October 1863 and 23 February 1864, to theMinistry of Schleswig. Royal Surveyor L.A. Winstrup's officialpapers, archive for maps and illustrations, 1. Dept. fol. reg. 2888, I.The correspondence, Rigsarkivet.7 Most Humble Presentations, J. no. 28/64, The Ministry for the Duchyof Schleswig 1852-1863/64. Rigsarkivet.8 The financial year 1862/63, a total of 1355 Rdlr. Museum ofNorthern Antiquities in Copenhagen, accounts, archive for museum historybefore 1892. Nationalmuseet.9 Regenburg's private archive 6194, letters. No list of contentsof the 'missing' box is found there.ReferencesDANIEL, G.E. 1967. The origins and growth of archaeology.Harmondsworth: Penguin.1981. A short history of archaeology The history of archaeology has been one of increasing professionalisation, and the use of an increasing range of techniques, to obtain as much data on the site being examined as possible. OriginsThe exact origins of archaeology as a discipline are uncertain. . London: Thames & Hudson.DBH [DANSK BIBLIOGBAFlSK HAANDLEKSIKON]. 1919. [Entry on ConradEngelhardt]. Copenhagen.ENGELHARDT, C. 1863. Thorsbjerg Mosefund: Beskrivelse af de Oldsagersom (1) (System Object Model) An object architecture from IBM that provides a full implementation of the CORBA standard. SOM is language independent and is supported by a variety of large compiler and application development vendors. i Aarene 1858-61 ere udgravede af Thorsbjerg Mose ved Sonder-Brarupi Angel; et samlet Fund, henhorende til den aeldre Jernalder og bevareti Den Kongelige Samling af Nordiske Oldsager i Flensborg. Copenhagen.Sonderjyske Mosefund 1.1865. Nydam Mosefund, 1859-1863. Copenhagen. Sonderjyske Mosefund 2.1866. Denmark in the Early Iron Age. [English edition of Engelhardt1863]. London.1867. Kragehul Mosefund, 1751-1865: et Overgangsfund mellem denaeldre Jernalder og Mellem-Jernalderen. Copenhagen. Fynske Mosefund 1.1868. Museet for de Nordiske Oldsager: en kort Ledetraad for debesogende. Copenhagen: Museum of Northern Antiquities.1869. Vimose Funder. Copenhagen. Fynske Mosefund 2.1875. Klassisk Industri og Kulturs Betydning for Norden i Oldtiden,Aarboger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie (1875): 1-94.Graslund, B. 1987. The birth of prehistoric pre��his��tor��ic? also pre��his��tor��i��caladj.1. Of, relating to, or belonging to the era before recorded history.2. Of or relating to a language before it is first recorded in writing. chronology chronology,n the arrangement of events in a time sequence, usually from the beginning to the end of an event. . Cambridge:Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). .LONSTRUP, J. & J. ILKJAER. 1984. Flensborgsamlingens skaebne,Hikuin 10: 330.PETERSEN, J.M. 1909. Erindringer fra mit liv fra 1845 til 1908.Copenhagen.WORSAAE, J.J.A. 1849. The Primeval pri��me��val?adj.Belonging to the first or earliest age or ages; original or ancient: a primeval forest.[From Latin pr Antiquities of Denmark. London:John Henry Parker Henry Parker can refer to: Henry Parker (English politician) (? - 1552), member of the House of Commons Henry Parker (writer) (1604 - 1652), political writer during the English Civil War .