Document information
Physical location:
RB MSS 200b.45, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 63.11.10aPreferred Citation:
the Freies Deutsches Hochstift to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1863-11-10 [63.11.10a]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/63-11-10a>, accessed September 11, 2025
1
Document is a printed certificate with the date and signatures entered by hand. An
undated copy of the certificate is held at the Freies Deutsches Hochstift Frankfurter
Goethemuseum, Frankfurt am Main.
Jedermann!
Wer soll Geselle sein?
Wer was kann!
Wer soll Meister sein?
Wer was ersann!
(Goethe.)
Das Freie Deutsche Hochstift
für
Wissenschafften, Künste und allgemeine Bildung
in
Goethe's Vaterhause
zu
Frankfurt am Main,
gestiftet
in Namen der geistigen Einheit des Deutschen Volkes zur Jahrhundertfeier der Geburt
Schiller's
auf Grund seiner genehmigten Satzungen mit den Rechten einer Körpershaft bekleidet
durch Beschluss hohen Rathes der Freien Stadt Frankfurt vom 30. des Weinmonates 1863
hat auf den Antrag seiner Ehrenmitglieder und Meister in offener Sitzung ernannt und
erklärt zu seinem
Ehrenmitgliede und Meister
Dich
Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich Müller gen. Lechenault
in
Melbourne.
Durch diese Ernennung haben wir Dein Wirken und alle Deine Verdienste eintragen wollen
an geheiligter Stätte in das
Buch der Ehren unseres Volkes,
dessen höchster Stolz und Ruhm besteht in Thaten des Geistes, in der Veredlung der
Menschheit durch
Wissenschaften, durch Künste und allgemeine Bildung.
Gegeben im
Goethehause zu Frankfurt a. M.
den 10. Wintermonat, Nov. 1863
Namens der Verwaltung
|
G. H. Otto Volger Dr. gen Senckenberg.
d. Z Obmann.
|
Dr Eduard Heyden,
d. Z Verwaltungsschreiber.
|
Th. Schideck
Schriftführer.
Who shall be an apprentice?
Everyone!
Who shall be a journeyman?
He who knows!
Who shall be master?
He who creates!
(Goethe)
The Free German Academy for Science, the Arts and general Culture in Goethe's parental
home at Frankfurt on Main, founded in the name of the intellectual unity of the German
people on the hundredth celebration of the birth of Schiller, invested with the rights
of a corporation by the resolution of the high council of the Free City of Frankfurt
of 30 October 1863 on the basis of its authorised statutes, has on the petition of
its honorary members and masters in open session appointed and declared as its Honorary
Member and Master You Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich Mueller named Lechanault in Melbourne.
By this appointment we have wished to enter your works and all your service at the
sacred place in the book of honour of our people, whose greatest pride and glory exists
in deeds of the mind, in the ennobling of mankind through science, the arts and general
culture.
2
The archive at the Freies Deutsches Hochstift includes a one-page undated MS listing M's memberships
and positions held that seems to be based on the list published on the title page
of the first volume of his Fragmenta phytographiae australiae. It is not, however, identical to this. Various peculiarities and errors in the document
suggest that it was not drawn up by M or under his supervision; it may have been prepared
by a clerk in Frankfurt, most likely at the time M was elected to the Academy.
Goethe-house at Frankfurt on Main
10 Wintermonth, November 1863
In the name of the administration
|
G. H. Otto Volger Dr named Senckenberg
President at the time
|
Dr Eduard Heyden
Administrative clerk at the time
|
Th. Schideck
Secretary