1884.] 
Friedrich Wohler. 
253 
leaving the university he not only possessed vast learning, 
but the compass of his understanding went far beyond his 
professional sphere. Almost immediately after the conclu- 
sion of his academical studies the young man was named, 
by the Landgrave of Hessia, Master of the Horse to his 
son and heir, who resided at Hanau. Their relations, how- 
ever, were destined to end in a peculiar manner, as will be 
told further on. Anton Wohler now entered, in the same 
capacity, the service of the Duke of Meiningen, at whose 
Court he soon gained an influential position by the numerous 
reforms which he introduced in rural economy. 
Court life, however, seems not to have agreed with his 
love for independence. In the year 1806 we find him the 
happy possessor of an estate in the neighbourhood of Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main. But a few years later the brilliant results 
of his farming method had attracted the attention of wider 
circles, and Wohler was induced by the “ Fiirst Primas 
Dalberg” to settle down as Master of the Horse at the 
Grand-Ducal Court. Here this excellent man entered upon 
the right field of aCtion, and henceforth devoted himself with 
extreme success to the furtherance of what was good and 
beautiful. There existed no society, working either for the 
intellectual or the moral welfare of the citizens, in which he 
did not eagerly participate. The Wohler School, founded 
twenty years after his death, and greatly prospering at the 
present moment, is the best proof that his work is held in 
grateful remembrance by a later generation. 
An interest similar to that evoked by the contemplation 
of this rich life is due to his wife, though as regards her we 
do not possess such extensive information. She was the 
daughter of the Head-master of the College at Hanau, — a 
tall, stately lady, who enjoyed up to her latest days the 
most perfect health. Those who knew her describe her as 
a clever woman, endowed with inexhaustible good humour, 
and with a gift of looking at life in a gay and highly original 
manner, — a woman who was never at a loss for a proper 
word at the right moment. 
This short glimpse of the home of Wohler’s parents is all 
the more certain to excite our sympathy as it shows us the 
favourable circumstances which attended his development. 
Friedrich Wohler was born on the 31st of July, at Es- 
chersheim, in the house of his mother’s brother-in-law, who 
was then the clergyman of the village. The reason why his 
mother was not at home on the eve of so momentous an 
event deserves to be recorded, as it characterises the state 
of affairs in Germany at that period. Her husband was 
