Christian Krohg (State Councilor)

State Councilor Christian Krohg

Christian Krohg , originally Krogh (born January 15, 1777 in Gjerdrum , Akershus , † November 10, 1828 in Christiania ) was a Norwegian lawyer and politician.

Life

His parents were the general route master for "Sønnafjelske Norge", Lieutenant Colonel Georg Anton Krogh (1734–1797) and his wife Maren Hofgaard (1751–1821). On September 11, 1800 he married his cousin Stine (Stinchen) Meincke Krohg (July 1, 1781– October 23, 1841), daughter of the general route master of "Nordafjelske Norge", Colonel Nicolai Frederik Krogh (1732–1801) and his wife Anna Meincke (1743-1823). After 1803 he changed his name to Krohg to differentiate himself from the noble family "von Krogh". The name is taken from the old farming family from Krog Manor in Høland ( Romerike ).

Christian Krohg was an important lawyer and one of the central politicians in Norway immediately after 1814. He was a councilor, member of parliament and also president of the Storting. He is considered a national hero who in 1824 saved the Norwegian constitution from King Karl Johan's efforts to expand royal power.

Christian Krohg passed the legal state examination in Copenhagen in 1797. In 1780 he became an assistant at the law faculty, and in 1801 he taught at the sea cadet academy. There he wrote a textbook on international maritime law. In 1803 he became an associate professor at the university. But in 1804 he preferred to become an assessor at the Abbey High Court in Trondheim. In Trondheim he worked for many years in several commissions of the city for social and school reforms, was part of the management of the middle-class secondary school and from 1805 was also a member of " Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab ", which he even chaired in 1820. In 1814 he was envisaged as a member of Christian Friedrich's government. He became a member of the committee that the Imperial Assembly of Eidsvoll set up with the task of drafting a new criminal and civil code.

In the autumn of 1814 he was delegated from the Søndre-Trondheim (South Trondheim) office to extraordinary storting. He also became a professor at the Law Faculty of Christiania University, but did not take the position. Shortly afterwards he was appointed to the State Council, but at the same time reset to the position of extraordinary member of the Legal Committee. From January 1815 he became a State Councilor in Stockholm, where he did not feel comfortable. So he asked to say goodbye, but did not get it. From 1816 he headed various departments in Christiania. It was not until 1819 that he was able to leave the government. As early as 1818 he had taken on the task of reorganizing the Legal Affairs Committee as chairman and drafting a penal code and code of criminal procedure, on condition that the work from the model farm of his uncle and later father-in-law Munkvoll near Trondheim , where he lived, was carried out to be allowed. Far from the other committee members, he worked mostly alone and was also very busy with his duties as a member of the Stortings. He was elected to all the Storting assemblies between 1821 and 1828. In 1821 and 1822 he was Chairman of the Lagting and in 1824 and 1827 he was President of the Stortings. But with his ponderous manner he was not suitable as a spokesman or discussant. on the other hand, he was in his element when it came to writing. Many of the Storting's petitions to the king were written by him. He belonged to the moderate opposition to civil servants, whose merit it was in large part that the Storting in 1821 accepted the regulation of the financial consequences of the separation from Denmark.

The delegates from Trøndelag gained their special importance through an expert opinion of May 17, 1824, in which they, as members of the constitutional committee, rejected all requests for changes made by the king to the constitution with detailed reasons. In it he wanted to expand his powers in Norway. As chairman of the committee, Krohg received the most honor. By stating that the constitution should remain unchanged, the committee ushered in the constitutional conservatism that would shape Norwegian politics for the next 50 years. In 1826, Krohg was proposed as legal counsel at the Stiftsobergericht in Trondheim, but the king refused the appointment. He couldn't finish his work on the bills and kept asking for an extension, which undermined confidence in him. The position at the Stiftsobergericht in Trondheim was advertised again. The Department of Justice gave him a final deadline for completing the draft of the penal code on September 30, 1828. But he did not keep this date either, so the government proposed to set up a completely new commission. This affected Krohg so deeply that he put an end to his life even before the draft was presented to the king.

Krohg left a general report and an extensive collection of material on the criminal code. Neither for civil law nor for legal principles he had worked out much, most of which were of little use. But no one else succeeded either. The task of redrafting such a body of law is beyond the strength of a single person, so that his awareness of not being up to the task is understandable, but was devastating for him.

The many mourning poems and obituaries show that he was remembered by the population for his commitment in 1824. Money was raised for a memorial and Henrik Wergeland gave a poignant speech when it was unveiled on May 17, 1833. The Krohg Monument was the first public honorary monument in modern Norway and was the focus of May 17 celebrations in Christiania until the 1860s .

Krog received the Swedish North Star Order in 1815 and became its commander in 1818.

Works

• Forsøg til en Ledetraad ved Forelæsninger about Folke-Retten . Copenhagen 1803. (An attempt at a guide to lectures in international law).
• Constitution-Committeens Betænkninger og Indstillinger anaaende de paa 3 The ordinary Storthing fremsatte Constitution-Forslag, the vare udsatte til Afgjørelse paa det 4de Ordentlige Storthing 1824. (Opinion and recommendations of the Constitutional Committee regarding the constitutional proposal submitted to the 3rd ordinary Storting was exposed on the 4th ordinary storting.)
• "Basic principles and regulators, which are formulated at the follow-up to Udarbeidelsen af ​​the nye almindelige Kriminallov". In: Juridiske Samlinger , Volume 4, Issue 2, 1830, pp. 1-40. (Principles and rules expected to be followed in drafting the new general criminal code.)

literature

• Odd Arvid Storsveen: Christian Krohg . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon ; Retrieved October 11, 2010.
• OA Øverland, Edvard Bull: Krogh, Christian . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 14 : Kirkeskov – Kvadratrix . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1923, p. 726-727 (Danish, runeberg.org ).

Individual evidence

The article is essentially based on the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Other information is shown separately.

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} OA Øverland, Edvard Bull: Krogh, Christian . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 14 : Kirkeskov – Kvadratrix . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1923, p. 726 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
2. ^ OA Øverland, Edvard Bull: Krogh, Christian . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 14 : Kirkeskov – Kvadratrix . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1923, p. 727 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
3. ↑ avsløringen Tale ved af Christian Krohgs Minde 17de May 1833 . In: Henrik Wergelands samlede Skrifter . IV. Avhandlinger, Opplysingsskrifter . Volume 1. Kristiania 1923, pp. 327–337, urn : nbn: no-nb_digibok_2007080102001 (only accessible with an IP address from Norway).

Remarks

1. ↑ In 1665 the office of general road master was set up in Norway, one for northern Norway and one for southern Norway. He was responsible for the road system, especially for the fortress roads and the main roads between town and country, the so-called royal roads. The office lasted until 1824. thereafter the road supervision was transferred to the bailiff for his district.
2. ↑ The administrative division of Norway into "Sønnafjelske Norge" and "Nordafjelske Norge" has been known since the Middle Ages and lasted until the end of the 18th century. In the time of absolutism "Sønnafjelske Norge" consisted of the area south of Dovre and east of Langfjell. The southern border to the "Nordafjellske Norge" is not exactly known. Around 1500 Lindesnes was mostly mentioned as a border area, later Åna-Sira .
3. ↑ As "Nordafjellske Norge" one considers today essentially the area of ​​Agder (today divided into Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder )
4. ^ "Council of State" was the name for a minister.
5. ^ "Assessor" was an associate judge at a collegiate court. The judicial districts of the higher courts were linked to the boundaries of the dioceses (pen), from where they got their name.
6. ↑ "Department" was the name for a ministry.
7. ↑ The Peace of Kiel stipulated that Norway would have to bear its share of the national debt of Denmark-Norway. After long negotiations, King Karl Johan agreed in 1819 to pay three million Rigsdaler from the Norwegian treasury.
8. ↑ During this time the "Justitiarius" was the chairman of the panel.