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A heretical look at the Benzolfest*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
Extract
The Benzolfest of 1890 in honour of August Kekulé fell into that economically prosperous, politically peaceful period of European imperialism which is characterized by the splendour of the courts of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India; Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, King of Hungary; and the German Emperor Wilhelm II, King of Prussia. Whoever could afford it (and even some of those who could not) tried to imitate these models and to participate at least to a modest extent in the glamour of the imperial courts. Merits were honoured by the bestowal of titles, orders and medals, and many an effort to the benefit of the common weal in deeds and money was induced by the prospect of becoming a Privy Councillor (Geheimrat) or a Councillor of Commerce (Kommerzienrat), of being awarded the Order of the Red Eagle [of Prussia] (the fourth class being almost automatically given to a major of the Prussian army who in this peaceful time had never had a chance to distinguish himself, and not so automatically to a distinguished professor on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday), or even of being raised to hereditary nobility, the epithet von added to the name being the permanently visible sign of particular excellence.
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References
1 Typical is Victor Meyer's situation in 1888. At the inauguration of the new chemical institute at Göttingen, Meyer, forty years old, was awarded the title of Geheimrat by the Prussian government. At that time, he received a call from the government of Baden to succeed Bunsen at Heidelberg. The offer included the title of Geheimrat II. Klasse, which was superior to Geheimer Hofrat and next to Wirklicher Geheimer Rat. The husband of Victor's cousin Marie congratulated him on the bestowal of the Geheimrat title with a somewhat joking hint of even higher honours: ‘Und wenn sie Dich auch noch “von”-en / Und machen zum “Wirklichen” Dich, / Wir bleiben in Treu Dir gesonnen / Und lieben Dich inniglich!’ Meyer replied ‘Nicht wünsch ich, dass sie mich “von”-en, / Noch zum “Wirklichen” machen mich. / Ach! Ein andrer Traum ist zerronnen! / In Göttingen bleibe ich!…Gold, Ruhmsucht, Titel und Ehren, / Sie halten zurücke mich nicht! / Nichts habe ich hier zu begehren. / Ich tu nur die bittere Pflicht!’ Meyer preferred to be addressed as ‘professor’ rather than with his new title of Geheimrat. Meyer, R., Victor Meyer. Leben und Wirken eines deutschen Chemikers und Naturforschers 1848–1897 (= Ostwald, W. (ed.), Grosse Männer. Studien zur Biologie des Genies, iv), Leipzig, 1917, 227–30.Google Scholar
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