Carl Eduard Vehse Collection

Vehse was born 18 December 1802 in Freiberg and died on 18 June 1870 in Striesen near Dresden. He was educated at the Bergakademie Freiberg and studied law at Leipzig and Goettingen. In 1825 he took a position with the Staatsarchiv in Dresden. He participated in the Saxon immigration with Martin Stephan in 1838/1839 but soon returned to Germany after Stephan was deposed. After extensive travels he settled in Berlin as a historian. He was briefly imprisoned for democratic activities and moved to Switzerland, then from 1857 to 1862 he lived in Italy. He returned to Saxony in 1869 and died on 18 June 1870 in Striesen near Dresden. His chief historical work was a 48-volume history of German nobility since the Reformation, published between 1851 and 1858 in Hamburg. The work was filled with scandalous anecdotes and was forbidden in Saxony. He also published an account of the Stephanite immigration in Dresden in 1840.