Eduard Heinrich von Flottwell (23 July 1786 – 28 May 1865) was a Prussian

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

 Staatsminister. He served as the Oberpräsident of Brandenburg

Province of Brandenburg

The Province of Brandenburg was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:The first people who are known to have inhabited Brandenburg were the Suevi. They were succeeded by the Slavonians, whom Henry II conquered and converted to Christianity in...

, the Grand Duchy of Posen (1830-40), Westphalia

Province of Westphalia

The Province of Westphalia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946.-History:Napoleon Bonaparte founded the Kingdom of Westphalia, which was a client state of the First French Empire from 1807 to 1813...

, and Saxony

Province of Saxony

The Province of Saxony was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1945. Its capital was Magdeburg.-History:The province was created in 1816 out of the following territories:...

. He was also Prussian minister of finance (1844-1846) and the minister of interior (1850-1859).

Flottwell was born in Insterburg

Chernyakhovsk

Chernyakhovsk is a town and the administrative center of Chernyakhovsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Instruch and the Angrapa Rivers, forming the Pregolya...

 in East Prussia

Province of East Prussia

The Province of East Prussia was a province of Prussia from 1773–1829 and 1878-1945. Composed of the historical region East Prussia, the province's capital was Königsberg ....

. He was a strong supporter of Germanisation

Germanisation

Germanisation is both the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, and the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet...

 and standardised schooling policies, which by some was seen as directed against ethnic Polish Prussians in the region. In 1843 in "Anerkennung der Hilfe nach dem großen Hamburger Brand" (acknowledgment after the great Hamburg fire), he was named an honorary citizen of Hamburg.