Carl Friedrich Petersen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carl Petersen as Senator, lithograph by Heinrich Aschenbrenner
Carl Friedrich Petersen
Petersen monument on Neuer Wall

Carl Friedrich Petersen (born July 6, 1809 in Hamburg ; † November 14, 1892 there ) was a lawyer and First Mayor of Hamburg.

Life

Petersen's father, Marcus Hermann Petersen (born February 12, 1784 in Hamburg; † February 9, 1860 there) was a city registry clerk in Hamburg, a kind of land and mortgage registry clerk. Petersen spent his school days at the Johanneum from 1819 to Easter 1826 , after which he successfully attended the Academic Gymnasium until Easter 1827 .

From Easter 1827 studied Petersen at the University of Goettingen law . For the winter semester of the same year he moved to Heidelberg , where he completed his studies on May 21, 1830 with a doctorate. He was a member of the Corps Hansea Göttingen, Hansea Heidelberg and Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg . In Heidelberg, Petersen met Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer , who later also belonged to the Hamburg Senate, and became friends with him.

In 1831, after a long stay in Paris , Petersen obtained Hamburg citizenship in order to settle as a lawyer in Hamburg. He was enrolled as a lawyer in Hamburg on July 22, 1831. Petersen then worked as a lawyer and married Kathinka Hasche on September 23, 1837 (born March 19, 1813 in Hamburg; † September 4, 1863 there). He held numerous honorary posts, including caring for the poor , and he worked on the publication of all Hamburg laws and statutes. During the Hamburg fire in 1842, he and his father saved the land registers from the town hall from the flames. After the fire, Petersen was heavily involved in the reconstruction, among other things, he advocated the employment of William Lindley and the execution of his plans for the sewerage system. From 1844 to 1855 he was Syndicus of the Berlin-Hamburg Railway Company .

Petersen joined the Patriotic Society in 1848 and later became its president. When the question of a new constitution was being discussed in Hamburg from 1849, Petersen was a member of the Neuner Commission , which had been given the task by the Senate of examining the draft constitution proposed by the Hamburg Constituent Assembly . During this time Petersen also advocated an alliance with Prussia . On February 7, 1855, Petersen was appointed senator. He was mainly active in the judiciary.

From 1858 Petersen was responsible for constitutional issues in place of Kirchenpauer, he also negotiated with the first Hamburg citizenship elected in 1860 about the new Hamburg constitution, which was passed in 1861 after a compromise. After the reorganization and the resignation of some older senate members, Petersen became the chief police officer and head of the internal administration from 1861 . Petersen also achieved the establishment of the Eppendorf General Hospital , which was inaugurated in 1889.

In 1866, Petersen made sure that the Hamburg citizens put a troop contingent on the side of Prussia during the German War . Hamburg had thus become a permanent ally of Prussia, which emerged victorious from the dispute.

Petersen was elected First Mayor for the first time in 1876 and again in the following year (→ Hamburg Senate 1861-1919 ). In the years 1879/80, 1882/83, 1885/86, 1888/89 and 1891/92 he was second and first mayor. He died in office in 1892 after a long and serious illness.

Cushion tombstone in the family grave complex of Mayor Petersen , Ohlsdorf cemetery

Petersen has also made an outstanding contribution to the Hamburg theater industry. After his wife Kathinka died in 1863, his household was run by his daughter Antonie (born March 23, 1840 in Hamburg; † September 20, 1909 there). On her initiative, Johannes Brahms was granted honorary citizenship of Hamburg in 1889 .

His youngest son Rudolph (1848–1915) was co-owner and director of the Norddeutsche Bank . Petersen's eldest son Gustav (born October 19, 1838 in Hamburg; † April 30, 1911 there) was married to Anna Maria (1842–1909), a daughter of the banker Leopold Wilhelm Behrens ( L. Behrens & Sons ). The mayors Carl Wilhelm Petersen and Rudolf Petersen emerged from this marriage .

Alongside Kirchenpauer and Johannes Versmann, Petersen was one of the most important Hamburg politicians of the 19th century. Hardly anyone has held the post of First Mayor for so many years as he.

Honors

Petersen was honored with a memorial on Neuer Wall shortly after his death, and his bust adorns the facade of Hamburg's town hall .

More recently, the Petersenkai in the HafenCity district was named after Carl Friedrich Petersen. In August 2017, the Hamburg Senate decided to provide some existing street signs with an information sign in order to additionally honor the female relatives, this also applies to Petersen's daughter, the art patron and benefactor Toni Petersen .

literature

Web links

Commons : Carl Friedrich Petersen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerrit Schmidt: The history of the Hamburg lawyers from 1815 to 1879, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3923725175 , p. 333
personal data
SURNAME Petersen, Carl Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Petersen, Karl Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and First Mayor of Hamburg
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1892
Place of death Hamburg