oa De biografie als instrument: patriotse idealen worden morele standpunten

The biography as instrument: patriotic ideals becoming moral positions. C.J. Wenckebach on the ‘murder’ of Leiden’s rector magnificus H.A. Schultens (1749-1793)

In the first half of the nineteenth century, it was policy to remain silent about the revolutionary period in the Netherlands that had led to major political changes in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Around 1850, at the end of his life, political administrator C.J. Wenckebach gently tried to break open this culture of silence. In a biography that has never been published, he shows that his teacher, professor H.A. Schultens, had been a man of high values and moral standards, that his political adversaries incorrectly interpreted as political opinions. In line with this lay the accusations of political activism, but according to Wenckebach those accusations were completely out of thin air. In this article I show that Wenckebach is bending the truth with this defense and with what purposes he does so.