born at Drottningholm on the 16th of June 1858. He entered the army, and was, like his father, a great traveller. As crown prince he held the title of duke of Wärmland. He married in 1881 Victoria (b. 1862), daughter of Frederick William Louis, grand duke of Baden, and of Louise, princess of Prussia. The duchess of Baden was the granddaughter of Sophia, princess of Sweden, and the marriage of the crown prince thus effected a union between the Bernadotte dynasty and the ancient Swedish royal house of Vasa. During the absence or illness of his father Gustavus repeatedly acted as regent, and was therefore already thoroughly versed in public affairs when he succeeded to the Swedish throne on the 8th of December 1907, the crown of Norway having been separated from that of Sweden in 1905. He took as his motto “With the people for the Fatherland.”
The crown prince, Oscar Frederick William Gustavus Adolphus, duke of Scania (b. 1882), married in 1905 Princess Margaret of Connaught (b. 1882), niece of King Edward VII. A son was born to them at Stockholm on the 22nd of April 1906, and another son in the following year. The king’s two younger sons were William, duke of Sudermania (b. 1884), and Eric, duke of Westmanland (b. 1889).
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS UNION (Gustav-Adolf-Stiftung, Gustav-Adolf-Verein, Evangelischer Verein der Gustav-Adolf-Stiftung), a society formed of members of the Evangelical Protestant churches of Germany, which has for its object the aid of feeble sister churches, especially in Roman Catholic countries. The project of forming such a society was first broached in connexion with the bicentennial celebration of the battle of Lützen on the 6th of November 1832; a proposal to collect funds for a monument to Gustavus Adolphus having been agreed to, it was suggested by Superintendent Grossmann that the best memorial to the great champion of Protestantism would be the formation of a union for propagating his ideas. For some years the society was limited in its area and its operations, being practically confined to Leipzig and Dresden, but at the Reformation festival in 1841 it received a new impulse through the energy and eloquence of Karl Zimmermann (1803–1877), court preacher at Darmstadt, and in 1843 a general meeting was held at Frankfort-on-the-Main, where no fewer than twenty-nine branch associations belonging to all parts of Germany except Bavaria and Austria were represented. The want of a positive creed tended to make many of the stricter Protestant churchmen doubtful of the usefulness of the union, and the stricter Lutherans have always held aloof from it. On the other hand, its negative attitude in relation to Roman Catholicism secured for it the sympathy of the masses. At a general convention held in Berlin in September 1846 a keen dispute arose about the admission of the Königsberg delegate, Julius Rupp (1809–1884), who in 1845 had been deprived for publicly repudiating the Athanasian Creed and became one of the founders of the “Free Congregations”; and at one time it seemed likely that the society would be completely broken up. Amid the political revolutions of the year 1848 the whole movement fell into stagnation; but in 1849 another general convention (the seventh), held at Breslau, showed that, although the society had lost both in membership and income, it was still possessed of considerable vitality. From that date the Gustav-Adolf-Verein has been more definitely “evangelical” in its tone than formerly; and under the direction of Karl Zimmermann it greatly increased both in numbers and in wealth. It has built over 2000 churches and assisted with some two million pounds over 5000 different communities. Apart from its influence in maintaining Protestantism in hostile areas, there can be no doubt that the union has had a great effect in helping the various Protestant churches of Germany to realize the number and importance of their common interests.
See K. Zimmermann, Geschichte des Gustav-Adolf-Vereins (Darmstadt, 1877).
GÜSTROW, a town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on the Nebel and the railway from Lübeck to Stettin, 20 m. S. of Rostock. Pop. (1875), 10,923; (1905) 17,163. The principal buildings are the castle, erected in the middle of the 16th century and now used as a workhouse; the cathedral, dating from the 13th century and restored in 1868, containing many fine monuments and possessing a square tower 100 ft. high; the Pfarrkirche, with fine altar-paintings; the town hall (Rathaus), dating from the 16th century; the music hall, and the theatre. Among the educational establishments are the ducal gymnasium, which possesses a library of 15,000 volumes, a modern and a commercial school. The town is one of the most prosperous in the duchy, and has machine works, foundries, tanneries, sawmills, breweries, distilleries, and manufactories of tobacco, glue, candles and soap. There is also a considerable trade in wool, corn, wood, butter and cattle, and an annual cattle show and horse races are held.
Güstrow, capital of the Mecklenburg duchy of that name, or of the Wend district, was a place of some importance as early as the 12th century, and in 1219 it became the residence of Henry Borwin II., prince of Mecklenburg, from whom it received Schwerin privileges. From 1316 to 1436 the town was the residence of the princes of the Wends, and from 1556 to 1695 of the dukes of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. In 1628 it was occupied by the imperial troops, and Wallenstein resided in it during part of the years 1628 and 1629.
GUTENBERG, JOHANN (c. 1398–1468), German printer, is
supposed to have been born c. 1398–1399 at Mainz of well-to-do
parents, his father being Friele zum Gensfleisch and his mother
Elsgen Wyrich (or, from her birthplace, zu Gutenberg, the name
he adopted). He is assumed to be mentioned under the name of
“Henchen” in a copy of a document of 1420, and again in a
document of c. 1427–1428, but it is not stated where he then
resided. On January 16, 1430, his mother arranged with the
city of Mainz about an annuity belonging to him; but when, in
the same year, some families who had been expelled a few years
before were permitted to return to Mainz, Gutenberg appears not
to have availed himself of the privilege, as he is described in the
act of reconciliation (dated March 28) as “not being in Mainz.”
It is therefore assumed that the family had taken refuge in
Strassburg, where Gutenberg was residing later. There he is
said to have been in 1434, and to have seized and imprisoned the
town clerk of Mainz for a debt due to him by the corporation of
that city, releasing him, however, at the representations of the
mayor and councillors of Strassburg, and relinquishing at the
same time all claims to the money (310 Rhenish guilders = about
2400 mark).[1] Between 1436 and 1439 certain documents
- ↑ It is difficult to know which of the Gutenberg documents can be trusted and which not. Schorbach, in his recent biography of Gutenberg, accepts and describes 27 of them (Festschrift, 1900, p. 163 sqq.), 17 of which are known only from (not always accurate) copies or transcripts. Under ordinary circumstances history might be based on them. But it is certain that some so-called Gutenberg documents, not included in the above 27, are forgeries. Fr. J. Bodmann (1754–1820), for many years professor and librarian at Mainz, forged at least two; one (dated July 20, 1459) he even provided with four forged seals; the other (dated Strassburg, March 24, 1424) purported to be an autograph letter of Gutenberg to a fictitious sister of his named Bertha. Of these two documents French and German texts were published about 1800–1802; the forger lived for twenty years afterwards but never undeceived the public. He enriched the Gutenberg literature with other fabrications. In fact Bodmann had trained himself for counterfeiting MSS. and documents; he openly boasted of his abilities in this respect, and used them, sometimes to amuse his friends who were searching for Gutenberg documents, sometimes for himself to fill up gaps in Gutenberg’s life. (For two or three more specimens of his capacities see A. Wyss in Zeitschr. für Altert. u. Gesch. Schlesiens, xv. 9 sqq.) To one of his friends (Professor Gotthelf Fischer, who preceded him as librarian of Mainz) one or two other fabrications may be ascribed. There are, moreover, serious misgivings as to documents said to have been discovered about 1740 (when the citizens of Strassburg claimed the honour of the invention for their city) by Jacob Wencker (the then archivist of Strassburg) and J. D. Schoepflin (professor and canon of St Thomas’s at Strassburg). For instance, of the above document of 1434 no original has ever come to light; while the draft of the transaction, alleged to have been written at the time in a register of contracts, and to have been found about 1740 by Wencker, has also disappeared with the register itself. The document (now only known from a copy said to have been taken by Wencker from the draft) is upheld as genuine by Schorbach, who favours an invention of printing at Strassburg, but Bockenheimer, though supporting Gutenberg and Mainz, declares it to be a fiction (Gutenberg-Feier, Mainz, 1900, pp. 24-33). Again, suspicions are justified with respect to the documents recording Gutenberg’s lawsuit of 1439 at Strassburg. Bockenheimer explains at great length (l.c. pp. 41-72) that they are forgeries. He even explains (ibid. pp. 97-107) that the so-called Helmasperger document of November 6, 1455, may be a fabrication of the Faust von Aschaffenburg family, who endeavoured to claim Johann Fust as their ancestor. There are also (1) a fragment of a fictitious “press,” said to have been constructed by Gutenberg in 1441, and to have been discovered (!) at Mainz in 1856; (2) a forged imprint with the date 1458 in a copy of Pope Gregory’s Dialogues, really printed at Strassburg about 1470; (3) a forged rubric in a copy of the Tractatus de celebratione missarum, from which it would appear that Johann Gutenberg and Johann Nummeister had presented it on June 19, 1463, to the Carthusian monastery near Mainz: (4) four forged copies of the Indulgence of 1455, in the Culemann Collection in the Kästner Museum at Hanover, &c. (see further, Hessels, “The so-called Gutenberg Documents,” in The Library, 1909).
