Carl Ploug

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carl Ploug

Carl Parmo Ploug (born October 29, 1813 in Kolding ; † October 27, 1894 ) was a Danish poet, journalist and politician .

Youth and Studies

He was the son of the assistant teacher and later senior teacher at the Latin school Christian Frederik Ploug and his wife Caroline Parmone Petersen. On June 6, 1854, he married Elisabeth Frederikke Michelsen, the daughter of the catechist and later provost Marcus Michelsen and his wife Frederikke Vilhelmine Faber, stepdaughter of the businessman and politician Alfred Anton Hage.

He attended the Kolding Latin School and in 1829 went to the University of Copenhagen. He studied classical philology. In 1833 he got a free place in Regensen . The students there were gripped by Hegelianism, ideas of freedom, and the July Revolution of 1830 , and Ploug began to give these ideas poetic expression. He had an attentive audience among the Regensen students and became director of “Regensens Læseforening”. But the free place ended in 1836 before he finished his studies. The following years were tough. The father died in 1837. He had to earn a living as a tutor and also send money home. He changed the subject and now studied history. In April 1839 he founded "Den akademiske Læseforening" (Academicum) with some like-minded people.

journalism

After the death of Frederick VI. in December 1839 he worked on the newspaper Fædrelandet . The newspaper work became his life profession. The development of the "Academicum" due to the rejection of the finer "student forum" gave him an opinion leadership among the students, and his work in Fædrelandet , whose editor he became in 1841, connected him with the opposition. His ideals were political freedom, the national in Denmark and Scandinavian unity. This is also what his poems aimed at. In 1843 he was the spokesman for the Danish students at the student meeting in Uppsala. On the way there, he gave a speech in Kalmar for a union of the three northern kingdoms, which brought him an indictment, from which he was acquitted. In Uppsala he then gave a commemorative speech about Gustav Vasa . At the student meeting in Copenhagen in 1845, he again advocated Scandinavianism . At this meeting, “Academicum” and “Student Forum” were merged and Ploug became the chairman. In Fædrelandet he wrote articles in which he advocated better safeguarding civil liberties, the replacement of the advisory classes by a constitutional constitution and about the relationship between the parts of the country, the preservation of Danish culture in Sønderjylland (Schleswig) against a neglected government and the Attack of Schleswig-Holsteinism and finally Scandinavianism wrote. That brought him into conflict with the press law of the time. He has been sentenced several times. His polished prose was often hurtful and made him many enemies, which eventually led to the end of his newspaper Fædrelandet . He took part in the student meetings in 1851, 1856 and 1862, where Scandinavianism was particularly strong. The Copenhagen Student Meeting in 1862 was at the height of its popularity with the students when a defense alliance of the Nordic countries was expected. During this time he was also productive as a poet of patriotic poems. The students later split into Ploug's supporters and opponents.

In addition to his newspaper prose, his lyrical skills developed. In 1847 his collection of poems Poul Rytters Viser og Vers was published .

Political career

He became a member of the Legislative Assembly. At the casino meeting of March 20, 1848, he called for a free constitutional constitution for his party. When the March Ministry was set up under the direction of Count Adam Wilhelm Moltke , and Ploug's closest political friends who followed the program decided on at the casino assembly moved in, Fædrelandet could no longer be an oppositional paper. But Ploug did not want to provide a mouthpiece for the government either. He wanted to demonstrate demonstratively to preserve his independence, therefore turned down an offered chair and also turned down the offer of the government Carl Christian Hall to head the Berlinske Tidende . But he took part in the legislative assembly and participated in the drafting of a new constitution. From 1854 to 1857 he was a member of the Folketing . In 1859 he became Landstings delegate for Funen . Politically, he belonged to the left wing of the National Liberals and had sympathy for the Grundtvigians . But his greatest influence was through his newspaper Fædrelandet . He dealt particularly with the Schleswig question. He resolutely opposed the national program of the ministries of Christian Albrecht Bluhme and Anders Sandøe Ørsted . This led to a ban on Fædrelandet (and also Dagbladet ) in Schleswig. When, after the fall of Ørsted, the new government stuck to the general state program, he bowed to the pressure and finally voted on October 2, 1855 for the general state constitution. Ploug and the older part of his party were in favor of the Eider program , while the younger ones preferred the state program. In 1864 all efforts were ruined by the loss of Schleswig.

The time after 1864

After the peace agreement with the loss of the duchies, a constitutional revision began. During this time until 1866 Ploug fought for a national-liberal constitution and against the Bluhme Ministry and against "Augustforeningen". After the new constitution was passed in 1866, he became a member of the Landsting and became chairman of the "Mellemparti" (Center Party), which consists of national Liberals and other people closer to the "Højre" existed. For a long time, “Højre” was the government. He considered the special role of landowners in politics to be important and fought against the "Venstre". He brought the Højre sympathizers together with the "Højre", eventually becoming a member of the "Højre" and temporarily its chairman. So from 1884 he was also deputy president of the Landsting. In 1890 he waived re-election for reasons of age.

His political agitation against the Venstre made him many enemies, including Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson with his 1872 article "Idé og Virkelighed". There were many press feuds that led to the decline in subscriptions for Fædrelandet , so that in 1881 he was forced to give up the editorial office.

Honors

In 1877 Ploug received an honorary doctorate in philosophy from Lund University. In 1888 he received from Christian IX. the Commander's Cross of the Dannebrog Order . After his death, the Danish academics set up a foundation under his name and two years later placed a bust in front of the student association building.

Remarks

The article essentially follows the Dansk biografisk lexicon . Other information is shown separately.

  1. ↑ The casino meeting (Casinomøtet) of March 20, 1848 is one of three political meetings in the great hall of the casino in Copenhagen with around 2,300 participants. The minister Laurits Nicolai Hvidt, the theologian and politician Henrik Nicolai Clausen and other leaders of the liberal opposition had called for the meeting on the occasion of the threatened unrest in Schleswig-Holstein to work towards a constitutional unification of Denmark and Schleswig. Carl Ploug . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 4 : Bridge-Cikader . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1916, p. 619 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  2. ↑ In the 19th century, the Landsting was a parliament that differed from the Folketing only in the electoral mode, but otherwise had basically the same powers. The electoral modes made it kind of like a House of Lords. Both together formed the "Rigsdag" (Reichstag).
  3. ↑ It was about the program to enact a joint state constitution for Denmark, Schleswig and Holstein.
  4. ↑ "Augustforeningen" was a political group of landlords and conservative merchants founded on August 23, 1864, who jointly opposed the national-liberal policy that made them responsible for the war with Prussia and Austria that had just ended. They published the Danske Rigstidende , which campaigned for the strengthening of the royal power. It was the home of the large farmers in the "Højre". They formed the government with Jacob Brønnum Scavenius Estrup in the following decades. It dissolved on March 30, 1869 after the new constitution of 1866 had secured the landowners a majority in the Landsting.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Ploug, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ploug, Carl Parmo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish poet, journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolding
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1894