Camillo von Seebach

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Camillo von Seebach, 1867. Graphic by Hermann Scherenberg.

Camillo Richard Freiherr von Seebach (born July 9, 1808 in Donndorf ; † March 3, 1894 in Gotha ) was a German lawyer and Minister of State of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .

Life

Camillo von Seebach, who came from the old Thuringian noble family of those von Seebach , spent his youth in Langensalza , where his father Thilo von Seebach served as an officer in the royal Saxon hussar regiment, and later Grimma . He attended the Princely School in Grimma from 1820 to 1826 . After graduating from high school, he studied law at the University of Leipzig and the Georg-August University of Göttingen . He was a member of the Corps Saxonia Leipzig (1826) and Lunaburgia Göttingen (1827). In 1829 he was accepted into the Saxon civil service, in 1837 as an assessor at the appellate court and in 1842 to the appellate judge in Dresden .

On December 1, 1849, the capable lawyer was appointed Minister of State for the dual duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by Duke Ernst II and held this post until his retirement. During the entire time he lived in the attic of the Winter Palace, which had become vacant after the death of the Dowager Duchess Karoline Amalie . Duke Ernst II wrote to his brother Albert in 1850 : “At last I have now addressed to Mr. S. found a talented, even younger man who was respected everywhere for his straightforward but conciliatory character and who made the best impression here. He belongs to the conservative-liberal party, that is, the policy that we are taking here, and to which you are also devoted. "

Von Seebach drafted the Common Basic Law for the two countries, passed on May 3, 1852 , which was considered the most progressive and liberal constitution of all German states at the time, as it constituted a parliamentary democracy with the Duke as head of state. The state constitution described the duchies as "united, inseparable whole", but still allowed the two state parliaments to exist with their own budget and separate departments in the state ministry. The new joint state parliament of the duchies of Gotha and Coburg was responsible for foreign policy, military affairs, customs, post and justice. Under von Seebach's leadership, the first German elementary school law was also created in Gotha in 1863. Years later, the Duke of Seebach boasted unchanging loyalty and was lucky to have had him as minister. He wrote: “v. S. was, out of deep conviction, a supporter of the federal direction under Prussian leadership and intervened everywhere with great luck ”, a fact which earned the Federal Council member von Seebach the respect of Chancellor Bismarck . After 38 years as minister, Camillo von Seebach retired on March 27, 1888.

He was married to Eufemia Countess von Kalckreuth , but only eight of the 16 children they shared survived their father. Von Seebach was laid to rest next to his wife, who had died in 1862, in Gotha Cemetery IV . His tombstone disappeared when the cemetery was leveled in 1951.

Honors

On the occasion of his 25th ministerial jubilee on December 1, 1874, von Seebach was awarded the honorary citizenship of the cities of Gotha and Coburg . A street in Gotha was named after him on this occasion and the University of Jena awarded him an honorary doctorate in philosophy.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Kösener Korps-Lists 1910, 154, 167; 79, 84
  2. ^ Ulrich Hess: History of Thuringia 1866 to 1914 . Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Successor, Weimar 1991, ISBN 3-7400-0077-5 , p. 236
  3. Ernst II., From my life and from my time, Berlin 1888