Early life and education Gustav was the son of the Frankfurt publisher, bookseller and art dealer Bernhard Körner (1776–1829) and his wife Maria Magdalena Kämpfe (1776–1847), daughter of another Frankfurt bookseller. He graduated with
Abitur from the
Gymnasium Francofurtanum. Then he studied law at the universities in
Jena,
Munich and
Heidelberg and graduated 1832 from the
University of Heidelberg as
Dr. iuris utriusque, doctor as well as German and Roman law.
Escape from Persecution in Germany On
Christmas Eve 1830 in Munich, Koerner was involved in a somewhat drunken snowball fight that led to a confrontation with the
Gendarmerie of that city in
royal Bavaria where an officer was knocked down and wounded. Because of his participation in these so-called "Christmas riots," he was taken into custody for four months, later recalling that during the time of his captivity he learned more about the law than during the whole of his two-years of study at the
University of Jena. Owing to this event the
University of Munich was temporarily closed and after his custody, Koerner changed to the university in Heidelberg. A warrant was out for him. He is counted as one of the
Dreissiger. The
Central Federal Bureau for Investigations () in Frankfurt was set up after the revolt against the reign of the
President of the German Confederation,
Francis I, Emperor of Austria, his chancellor
Prince Metternich and his other vassals including King
Frederick William III of Prussia. These authorities assigned him number 908 with the name Gustav Peter Philipp Koerner in their infamous "black book" of revolutionary suspects. The
Free City of Frankfurt was occupied by federal troops from Austria and
Prussia which meant a de facto total loss of its independence.
Rescued by "Angels" On 1 May 1833, Koerner boarded a ship in
Le Havre sailing to North America with a group of emigrants headed by the patriarch of the Engelmann family, whose son Theodor was an old friend of his from college. On the passage he became engaged to his future wife Sophie, a daughter of Engelmann's who was born in
Imsbach in the
Palatinate (), a historic region of Germany. In 1838 he received
American citizenship.
Elected Koerner was elected to the
Illinois House of Representatives in 1842, served on the
Illinois Supreme Court from 1845 to 1848, and as the
12th Lieutenant Governor of Illinois from 1853 to 1857. Originally a
Democrat, he became a member of the Republican Party after its formation, and helped develop its
anti-slavery platform. As a friend, he took over some of Abraham Lincoln's cases when Lincoln was elected president. Koerner was the first citizen of German extraction ever elected to the Illinois or Missouri legislatures. In 1851, in a clash with the editor of
Anzeiger des Westens Henry Boernstein, he called the
Forty-Eighters Greens in his
Belleviller Zeitung newspaper and Boernstein, in a published reply, insultingly called him
Gray Gustav.
Pallbearer After the
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln a special honour was granted him. Koerner was one of the pallbearers who carried the corpse of the president in the
state funeral. The other men, all of them Lincoln's friends from his time in
Springfield, Illinois, who conducted the coffin were: ,
Springfield, Illinois, 2006. •
Jesse K. Dubois •
Stephen T. Logan • James L. Lamb •
Samuel Hubbel Treat Jr. • John Williams • Erastus White • J. M. Brown •
Jacob Bunn • Charles Matheny • Elisha Iles •
John T. Stuart Last years In 1867 Koerner was appointed president of the board of trustees that organized the
Illinois Soldiers' Orphans' Home at
Bloomington, and in 1870 he became president of the first board of railroad commissioners of Illinois. A supporter of
Ulysses S. Grant's successful 1868 presidential election bid, in 1872 he became a supporter of the
Liberal Republican Party, belonging to the nominating committee which chose
Horace Greeley as its (unsuccessful)
US presidential candidate. In the same year Koerner ran for election (→
Illinois gubernatorial election, 1872) to the office of
Governor of Illinois, though the Republican
Richard James Oglesby (1824–1899) won the election. He then backed the Democratic candidate
Samuel J. Tilden for the U.S. presidency in a contentious
election of 1876 and remained with this party afterwards. established, with others, one of the first
kindergartens. She became the first president of the
Belleville Kindergarten Association which received $2,100 (~$ in ) in contributions from 70 shareholders and, supported by 150 other women, one year later was serving 201 pupils taught by three educators. This institute followed the
Julius Fröbel system of primary education for training children effortlessly. The building was finished in April 1875 for $5,000 but it was sold in 1892 to the
Belleville Philharmonic Society.
Reminiscences of the year 1833 for Gustav Peter Philipp Körner, exhibited by the Scrupulous Interrogation Office (). At the suggestion of farmer Dr. Anton Schott, a graduate in Theology and Philosophy, Koerner, together with other
Latin Farmers, in 1836 founded the
public library in Belleville, probably the first in Illinois. Although he had never pursued agriculture as a profession, he is counted among the group of
Latin farmers, which was a half-satirical, half-respectful designation for people like him,
German immigrants in the United States who had received an advanced academic education. Koerner was an active lawyer, and also wrote articles for several newspapers, among others the "Belleviller Zeitung" and the "
Anzeiger des Westens" (published in
St. Louis), American newspapers in the German language. He had great influence on the growing German community in North America in the second half of the 19th century. On the recommendation of his friend and biographer
Heinrich Rattermann (1832–1923), he began at the end of 1886 to record his memoirs. Koerner did not consider publicationhe wrote down the detailed retrospective of his life as a recollection for his numerous descendants. His memoirs were published in two volumes in 1909, 13 years after his death and in the year of his 100th birthday, in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Today Koerner's former home is registered in the
National Register of Historic Places. It was acquired in 2001 by the City of Belleville and is being restored by the historical society of St. Clair County, Illinois (St. Clair County Historical Society) as a museum dedicated to the well-known German-American. It will illuminate Koerner's friendship with Abraham Lincoln. In 2009, Belleville celebrated Koerner's 200th birthday with a festive dinner attended by Koerner and Engelmann descendants. The following day, they planted an American white oak tree (the state tree of Illinois) at Koerner's Walnut Hill grave and presented a valuable exhibit for the planned Koerner Museum: a heavy silver tablet, given by Queen Isabella II of Spain in 1864 to Gustav Koerner for his farewell as a US ambassador to Spain. == Do right and fear no one ==