Stein
Stein names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Stein stin, Baron (1757-1831)
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
stin, Baron (1757-1831), a Prussian statesman. He was educated at Gottingen, and became the manager of the mining department of the Prussian government. In 1804 he was made minister of state, a position he held with a short intermission until the overthrow of Napoleon had been accomplished. He was the center of an illustrious trio of men. He held the relation to them afterward held by Bismarck to Von Roon and Moltke. He revolutionized taxation, abolished a sort of semi-serfdom, made all classes of men subject to military service, abolished the rule of guilds, leaving every man free to pursue the occupation he might prefer. Remnants of feudalism were abolished, and the peasants were given two-thirds of the lands they occupied. The stand taken by the Prussians at Leipsic and at Waterloo may be credited largely to Stein. The upbuilding of the German army, the success of the Franco-German War, and the creation of the German Empire have their origin in the farseeing plans of Baron Stein. In his later days he was excluded from office by jealousy and criticism. Though little known except by scholars, Stein merits recognition as one of the great men of Germany. See Bismarck
Stein HEINRICH FRIEDRICH KARL, BARON VON
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HEINRICH FRIEDRICH KARL, BARON VON, a Prussian statesman; born in Nassau, Germany, Oct. 26, 1757. After being educated at Göttingen and studying public law at Wetzlar, he entered the Prussian civil service, service, and after filling several important offices, was, in 1786, appointed president of the Westphalian Chambers, which post he held till 1804, in which year he became Minister of Finance and Trade. In this capacity he laid the foundation of important social reforms; but, exciting the jealousy of Napoleon, he was exiled to Prague. In 1812 he went to St. Petersburg, where he rendered great services to the Russian Government during the French invasion. Subsequently returning to his own country, he was placed at the head of administrative affairs, from which position he retired in 1827. He died in Kappenberg, Prussia, June 29, 1831.
Stein CHARLOTTE VON, the intimate friend of Goethe
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHARLOTTE VON, the intimate friend of Goethe; born in Weimar, Germany, Dec. 25, 1742; married in 1764 to the duke's master of the horse. Her friendship with Goethe was broken suddenly after the poet's return from Italy (1788). They were, however, in some measure reconciled before Frau von Stein died. Goethe's "Letters" to her were first published in 1848-1851, and again, with additions, in 1883-1885; and another final collection was issued by the German Goethe Society in 1886. The lady's letters to Goethe were destroyed by her shortly before her death. She wrote a tragedy, "Dido." She died in Weimar Jan. 6, 1827.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's in 1910 read Baron vom Stein backwards from Bismarck, crediting him with "the upbuilding of the German army, the success of the Franco-German War, and the creation of the German Empire." Historians since have largely undone that lineage: Stein's Prussian reforms of 1807-08, paired with Hardenberg's, are now read as the work of a conservative Rhenish nobleman who wanted self-governing estates and corporations rather than a centralised national state, and the nationalist cult of Stein reached its peak under the Nazis before being dismantled after 1945. Aiton's remark that he was "little known except by scholars" no longer holds in Germany, where the Stein-Hardenberg reforms are standard school history and his name is on schools and a large foundation; the Prussia in which he served was itself formally abolished in 1947. The note on Charlotte von Stein stands almost untouched, including the hard fact that she burned her own letters to Goethe, leaving only his side of one of literature's most studied friendships.
Written for this edition, 2026.