Anton Sebastian Struve (born April 2, 1729 in Kiel, † April 7, 1802 in Greiz) was the son of the Holstein Justice Councilor and professor of law at the University of Kiel Friedrich Gottlieb Struve (* 1676; † 1752). His mother was Johanna Dorothea Werner († June 19, 1742) and he was the brother of The Three Loeck Sisters Nth great grandmother Christina Regina Struve (1721 – 1776). His grandfather was Georg Adam Struve.
In 1744, his father supervised his dissertation: Dissertatio Academica De Commodis Et Incommodis Transmissionis Actorum … [below]. It also contained a commentary by his cousin Freidrich Christian Struve (right).
After studying at the University of Kiel for a year and a half, he left his hometown around Michaelis in 1745, to which he was never to return, and he enrolled at the University of Jena. At the age of 19 he successfully completed his studies.
After studying at the University of Kiel for a year and a half, he left his hometown (Kiel) around Michaelis in 1745, to which he was never to return, to enroll at the University of Jena. At the age of 19 he successfully completed his studies.
In 1747 he stayed in Regensburg, where he was welcomed in the house of a relative, the Holstein state councilor Schwers. Before he turned to his new sphere of activity in Regensburg, he spent a year in Erlangen and Bamberg for educational purposes. In 1749 he was back in Regensburg.
There, he initially worked as the preceptor of the youngest son of Franz Heinrich von Schönburg. In the same year (1749) Struve accompanied his young pupil (Albert Heinrich von Schönburg) to Erlangen. From 1750 to 1752 both were in Dresden and Leipzig. Anton Sebastian Struve then became the private secretary of the Count, Franz Heinrich, who had established himself in Dresden as the Saxonian representative in the German Reichstag.
In 1755 Struve entered the service of Duke Peter of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf and later the service of the Russian Empire, when Peter became Tsar Peter III of Russia. Peter appointed Anton Struve as Holstein legation secretary to the Reichstag in Regensburg and on September 19, 1755, Struve traveled from Dresden to Regensburg to take up hisappointment.
There he met Dorothea Reimers (1735–1795), the daughter of his predecessor, the Holstein Legation Secretary, Claus Reimers. The marriage took place on May 11, 1756. As many as twelve children are said to have been born to the couple, six boys and six girls, three of the children died in early childhood, but only his oldest son Johann Gustav (1763 – 1828), his youngest son, Heinrich Christian Gottfried (born January 10, 1772 in Regensburg , † January 9, 1851 in Hamburg), and youngest daughter Philippine had children. With regard to the oldest, his name was either Johann Christian Gustav or Johann Christoph Gustav. The records are not clear but we lean here toward Christian.
- Catherina Elisabetha (* 1759; † 1838); married to Christoph von Selpert, councilor of several imperial cities. No children;
- Johann Christoph Gustav (* 1763; † 1828); Diplomat in the service of the Russian Empire; Councilor at the Russian Legation in Munich; married to Friderika Sybilla, daughter of the ducal Württemberg church council director Johann Amandus Andreas von Hochstetter;
- Johann Georg (* 1766; † 1831); Diplomat; was considered to be “a man of deep thoughts” who went to China with Earl Golofkin on a diplomatic mission. He may have been responsible for the pamphlet: Die russische Gesandtschaft nach China im Jahr 1805. Nebst einer Nachricht von der letzten Christen Verfolgung in Peking.
- Johann Christian (* 1768; † 1812); College Assessor at the College of Foreign Affairs in Saint Petersburg;
- August Wilhelm (* 1770; † 1838); Collegiate Assessor at the St. Petersburg Post Office; was said to have had an artistic flare and liked to draw caricatures and sometimes when his ludicrous exaggerations were about important personages, he was forced by his father to apologize for the sometimes too pointed wit.
- Heinrich Christian Gottfried (* 1772; † 1851); Diplomat and mineralogist; College assessor at the Russian Legation in Stuttgart; married to Elisabetha Wilhelmina Zidonia Countess of Friedenburg;
- Susanna Maria (*1772 ; † 1789) married to Johann Ludwig Dörfeld (1744 –1829);
- Albrecht (* 1774; † 1794); and
- Philippine Rosina Elisabetha (* 1775; † 1819); married to Franz von Grün, Princely Reuss-Plauischer President and Chancellor.
In the 1780s, Struve was promoted to the chancellery and at this time, the Russian Tsarina (and at the same time Duchess of Holstein-Gottorf) Catherine II knighted him and awarded him the newly established Order of St. Vladimir 4th class, with which the hereditary title of nobility “von” was associated. In Paris on May 20, 1785 he invited Thomas Jefferson to dinner:
On May 21, 1795, Struve’s wife Dorothea died. In the summer of 1796 Napoleonic troops (First Coalition War 1792/97) stood at the gates of Regensburg. Like most members of the Perpetual Reichstag, von Struve also left the city and embarked with his family on the Danube to Krems. He found a new place to stay in nearby Stein, now part of Krems.
At the Moscow coronation celebrations in 1797, the new Tsar Paul I, son of Peter, re-appointed him resident at the Reichstag in Regensburg. This was appointment was published as Registries about the renewed legitimation of the Imperial Russian Minister Resident of Struve …
Once during the years in Regensburg there was a near famine. A lottery seller visited the family offering a raffle ticket. The father, Anton Sebastian, refused to buy a ticket but the very young daughter, Philippine, had taken the ticket and did not want to give it back, forcing the father to purchase the ticket. The lottery had been forgotten when the seller returned bringing bags of money. They had won 2,000 Taler. The family was then able to obtain food from distant places and were able to survive the hard times.
Anton Sebastian’s wife, Sophie, was described as the “soul of the house.” She was a woman of energy and she encouraged him to participate in business opportunities which he had at first refused and which proved to be quite profitable.
When Dorothea died a sermon books was published titled: Rede bey dem Grabe der verewigten Frau Staatsräthin Sophia Dorothea von Struve gebohrnen Reimers : den 24. May 1795 gehalten [Speech at the grave of the immortalized woman State Councilor Sophia Dorothea von Struve born Reimers held on May 24, 1795]
On his death in 1802 a biography on Sebastian was published – Hauptzüge aus dem Leben unsers unvergeßlichen Vaters des weyland …
A Russian website claims that Anton Sebastian died as the result of fleeing from a fire. It says that after the theater of war moved to the borders of Bavaria, Struve with his sons Johann Christoph Gustav and Johann Georg moved to Greiz. In the same year he fell seriously ill. When on April 6, 1802, a strong fire destroyed a significant part of Greitz, Struve fled the city with his youngest daughter and took refuge in the neighboring Schönfeld estate, where he died a few hours later. He is buried in the cemetery in Rheinsdorf.
When Anton Sebastian Struve, lost his beloved wife in 1795, he began to write down for himself moral and philosophical discourses in Latin, which he had mastered from his youth, being a passionate admirer of ancient authors. In a book about him, compiled by his sons, some of these sayings are given:
The sage finds nothing terrible in death, which can happen on any day due to everyday accidents, and which, due to the shortness of our life, will not have to wait long. I realized that I had never been particularly attached to life.
The most desirable thing is to reunite with the departed, whom we loved in this life, and to rejoice with them in the eternal existence prepared for us if we lived gloriously and died willingly. Oh truly blissful life, about the desired death, which opens the gates for us to the happiest life!
Franz Christian Ferdinand von Grun (* Hachenburg June 24th, 1758, † Greiz May 5th, 1841), Fstl. Reuss. Government President and Chancellor in Greiz married Philippine Rosina Elisabetha Struve (* 1775; † 1819). They had the following children: Victor Ferdinand Von Gruen and Adolph Goswin von Grün (died aged 81 in September 1896), although neither appears to have had children. Franz’s half-sister was Albertine von Grun (died aged 81 in .
Anton’s activities as ambasador for the Imperial Russsian court were occiasionally reported by the British press and what follows are some examples of such reportage:
