Bernhard Eberhard

Bernhard Eberhard

Bernhard Eberhard , actually: Johann Bernhard Eberhard (born April 6, 1795 in Schlüchtern ; † February 29, 1860 in Hanau ) was Interior Minister of the Hesse State in the “ March Ministry ” and Lord Mayor of the city of Hanau.

family

Bernhard Eberhard was the son of the Schlüchtern pastor Andreas Ludwig Eberhard (born August 23, 1763 in Obereschbach , † December 19, 1813 in Schlüchtern). His mother was Marianne, b. Toussaint (born August 24, 1769 in Hanau; † September 30, 1845 there). Bernhard Eberhard married Maria Anna Karoline Collin (born January 3, 1792 in Hanau; † September 3, 1871 ibid).

education

Bernhard Eberhard went to school in Schlüchtern, received additional lessons from his father and finally attended the Ulrich von Hutten grammar school in the former Schlüchtern monastery . He then studied from 1811 jurisprudence at the Universities of Marburg and Giessen and at the school of law Wetzlar . In 1815 he became a member of the Corps Nassovia Giessen.

Career

In 1817 he began a career in civil service and became court attorney and procurator in the Principality of Hanau (from 1821: Province of Hanau), which belonged to the Electorate of Hesse . 1822 he became High Court lawyer and prosecutor , and from 1826 also notary . He founded the commercial law firm Ludwig Wollweber Bansch .

After an election in 1827 he was first mayor from 1828 and later mayor of Hanau. Politically he can be assigned to the liberal bourgeoisie.

Due to the highly conservative policies of Elector Wilhelm II and his family relationships, which were contrary to bourgeois morality, the revolution of 1830 broke out in Kurhessen with particular vehemence. Wilhelm II felt compelled to convene the state parliament. Bernhard Eberhard was also sent as a member of parliament , and he was also elected as a moderately liberal deputy to the subsequent state parliaments in 1831–1833 and 1846–1850 . In the Diet of 1830/1831 he was one of the committee that the text of the adopted on 5 January 1831 extremely advanced for its time constitution formulated. It provided for a unicameral parliament and the possibility of ministerial indictment , a forerunner of parliamentary responsibility for ministers appointed by the monarch. He was also a member of the parliamentary committee that brought about the treaty on the separation of state and household assets of the elector.

The electoral prince and later elector Friedrich Wilhelm I , who was promoted to regent through the revolutionary events, tried to slow down the liberal constitution. In 1848 there was again a strong revolutionary movement in the Electoral State, which initially addressed the sovereign with a petition from February 1848 - initially unsuccessful. In a meeting on the market square of Hanauer Neustadt on March 9, 1848, the citizens of Hanau then elected a 24-person “People's Commission”, which included August Schärttner , Christian Lautenschläger , Pedro Jung , August Rühl and Bernhard Eberhard, among others . The People's Commission traveled to Kassel and brought the elector the ultimate request to restore the constitution. Elector Friedrich Wilhelm gave in to the revolutionary mood and approved the demands for freedom of the press , religion and conscience , restored the right of petition, association and assembly and granted an amnesty for political offenses.

At the same time, on March 11, 1848, the elector also appointed a liberal March government , which Bernhard Eberhard formed and in which he became Minister of the Interior . In the meantime, he was temporarily in charge of the Ministry of Finance. The relationship between Eberhard and his colleagues and their sovereign was tense. The necessary "cooperation" between sovereigns and ministers was a catastrophe, as Friedrich Wilhelm I tried to boycott the work of the government, simply did not process files and left them lying around. Eberhard and his colleagues submitted several requests to resign. The March government therefore only existed as long as the revolutionary momentum lasted and was dismissed for the first time on August 10, 1849. Since the elector did not immediately find a successor for the dismissed ministers, Eberhard and his cabinet remained in office until February 22, 1850, when all ministers resigned as one. They were replaced by a government under the revisionist Ludwig Hassenpflug . After all, Eberhard was personally promoted to the Council of State after his first dismissal.

Since the new government left him in the dark about his situation - he was still a civil servant - Eberhard initially stayed in Kassel. He was even elected to the city council in 1850, but did not receive government approval to take up the mandate. The city of Kassel then made him an honorary citizen on June 10, 1850 . In July 1851 he moved back to Hanau. He continued to draw his salary (1,600 thalers ) without being used again.

In 1850 he was still a member of the Volkshaus of the Erfurt Union Parliaments .

Fonts

• Out of my life. Memories of the † Lord Mayor of Hanau and the State Councilor of Hesse , Hanau 1911.

literature

• Max Aschkewitz: Pastor history of the Hanau district ("Hanauer Union") until 1986 , part 2 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse , 33), Marburg 1984, p. 668.
• Erhard Bus , Bernd Kannowski and Michael Müller: The beginnings of the free law firm in Hanau using the example of the Eberhards. Ludwig Wollweber Bansch Partnership, Hanau 2017, ISBN 978-3-96049-008-1 .
• Ewald Grothe : Constitution and Constitutional Conflict. The Electorate of Hesse in the first era Hassenpflug 1830–1837 (= writings on constitutional history. Vol. 48). Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08509-4 .
• Ewald Grothe , Hellmut Seier (arrangement): Files and letters from the beginnings of the Hessian constitutional period 1830–1837 , ed. u. a. v. Hellmut Seier, Elwert, Marburg 1992 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse , 48.4; Prehistory and history of parliamentarism in Hesse , 8), ISBN 3-7708-0993-9 .
• Harald Höffner: Kurhessens Ministerialvorstand the constitutional period 1831–1866 , phil. Diss., Giessen 1981, p. 88 ff.
• Ulrich von Nathusius, Hellmut Seier (edit.): Files and documents on the history of the Hessian parliament and constitution 1848–1866 , ed. u. a. v. Hellmut Seier, Elwert, Marburg 1987 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse , 48.2; Prehistory and history of parliamentarism in Hesse , 4).
• Karl Siebert: Hanauer biographies from three centuries. Hanauer Geschichtsverein , Hanau 1919 (= Hanauer Geschichtsblätter , NF 3/4), pp. 44–46.
• Alfred Tapp: Hanau in the Vormärz and in the revolution from 1848–1849. A contribution to the history of the Electorate of Hesse , Hanau 1976 (= Hanauer Geschichtsblätter , 26).
• Karl Wippermann :  Eberhard, Bernhard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 564-566.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Aschkewitz.
2. ↑ Aschkewitz.
3. ↑ Kösener corps lists , 1910, 54 , 10.
4. ↑ Jochen Lengemann : The German Parliament (Erfurt Union Parliament) from 1850 , Urban and Fischer, Jena 2000, p. 129 f.