Christian Magnus Falsen

Christian Magnus Falsen

Christian Magnus Falsen , (De Falsen) (born September 14, 1782 in Oslo (now the Gamlebyen district ) near Christiania , † January 13, 1830 in Christiania) was a civil servant and politician. He is considered to be the most controversial figure at the stage of the creation of the Norwegian constitution.

His parents were the upper court judge and later president of the collegiate higher court Envold de Falsen (1755-1808) and his wife Anna Henrike Petronelle Mathiesen (1762-1825).

Activities until the Peace of Kiel

When he was nine years old he came to Copenhagen with his father, where he also went to school. In 1798 he passed the admission examination with distinction and began to study law. In 1802 he became a cand. Jur. But he was interested in history. His oldest surviving manuscript is entitled Atheniensernes Historie (History of the Athenians). He was particularly interested in the democratic constitution of Athens. Reading Tyge Rothes Nordens Statsforfatning før Lehnstiden showed him that democracy had also shaped old Norway. He had inherited the belief in the freedom of the Norwegian peasant from his father. In the Danish-Norwegian Union, he was a dedicated Norwegian. He returned to Norway, and after two years as Procurator on probation (Prøveprokurator) at the Collegiate High Court of Akershus, he became Procurator at this court from 1804-1807.

On January 30, 1804 he married in Christiania Anna Birgitta Munch (1787 - November 24, 1810), daughter of the district judge ( Sorenskriver ) and judicial advisor Bartholomeus Fædder Munch (1746–1787) and his wife Anna Hammer Cudrio (1752–1796). On April 6, 1811 he married in Drøbak the widow of the merchant Brede Plade Stoltenberg Elisabeth Severine nee Bøckman, daughter of the captain Lars Bøckman and his wife Marthe (1745-1820).

In 1807 he was appointed attorney at the Supreme Court in Copenhagen. In the summer and autumn of 1807 he witnessed the British bombing of the city. He went back to Norway. There he became attorney general at the newly established Supreme Maritime Court (Overadmiralitetsretten) When Count Herman Wedel Jarlsberg had set up Bærum's voluntary hunter corps after the outbreak of war with Sweden in the spring of 1808 , Falsen was given command of the corps and went to battle. However, its use lasted no more than 14 days. Because then he was appointed district judge (Sorenskriver) in Follo .

After the "Selskap for Norges Vel" was founded in 1809, in 1811 he founded a regional association for Follo. In 1812 he published an article on the land register in which he demanded the equal taxation of all properties, a requirement that was adopted by Storting in 1818. For him, it wasn't about high property taxes. But he placed a special emphasis on high taxation of the merchants who "sucked the marrow of the land".

Until the Peace of Kiel, Falsen was loyal to the Danish king. In the spring of 1813, when the Norwegians were in dire straits and aroused great resentment towards the king and the circle around Count Wedel was conducting secret negotiations with Sweden about a Norwegian-Swedish union, Falsen acted as a counter-spy. His reports particularly concerned Count Wedel's plans. He remained loyal to the absolutist regime until the separation from Denmark was accomplished.

Falsen and the Eidsvoll constitution

Falsen was soon called "Father of the Eidsvoll constitution " because he worked with Johan Gunder Adler on a draft constitution that had the greatest influence on the final version. Today its importance for the constitution is seen more critically. At the meeting in Eidsvoll on February 16, 1814, where the fundamental decisions about the future constitution were made, he himself was not involved. The draft constitution was also not an independently developed draft, but rather a compilation of other constitutions from the Napoleonic and revolutionary times in the most important passages. It is even doubted that Falsen was the lead author of the draft. The co-author Adler confessed in old age that he himself wrote the first, the political and most important part, in addition to the introduction, and Falsen the second legal part. This is interpreted to mean that Adler wrote the first three chapters on the constitutional principles, electoral assemblies and the form of government, Falsen the rest. Adler's statement is also supported by other sources. Rather, it is his appearance in the imperial assembly in Eidsvoll, to which he was sent as one of the three delegates from Akershus, that justify this title. There he was the leading head of the independence party. He was also Chairman of the Constitutional Committee and President of the Assembly on the important days when the draft constitution was discussed in plenary.

There are two important lines that can be observed in this constitution in contrast to the other constitutions of this time: on the one hand the strong position of the king, on the other hand the anti-aristocratic tendency. The desire for a strong royal power is expressed in the provisions on the Council of State, the king's responsibility for foreign policy, the armed forces, the declaration of war and the conclusion of peace. The anti-aristocratic tendency is evident in the provisions on the right to vote and the bicameral order, which in reality was a veiled unicameral system.

Falsen was an aristocrat by nature, and he wanted to give the constitution an aristocratic character. In Adler-Falsen's draft constitution, a two-chamber system with severely restricted voting rights and the right to vote in the first chamber was proposed. The final version by no means corresponded to his ideas. The situation was different with the provisions on the position of the king. His unconditional loyalty to the Danish royal family continued in his loyalty to Crown Prince Christian Frederik, so that some saw him as his mouthpiece.

The political change of direction

The union with Sweden

After Christian Frederik was elected king, Falsen wrote a pamphlet for Norway's independence and against the union with Sweden. But he was not involved in the negotiations on the union with Sweden. He was only drawn back into the negotiations in Moss when the union was sealed. Here he advocated the continuation of the Norwegian-Swedish war and felt the union, which was nevertheless decided, a heavy defeat. 14 days later he took over the office of bailiff in Nordre Bergenhus Amt .

The glorification of the peasant class

On January 10, 1815, he published a political program called Norges Odelsret (Norwegian Odals Law). In it he declared the Odal Law for the "true palladium for the freedom of Norway" and, by its nature, opposed to the aristocratic or money aristocrats. He set himself the goal of restoring the Odal Law, as it existed before the decree of April 5, 1811. He wanted to work for a society of independent small farmers. He also believed that it was against fundamental principles that civil servants should have the right to vote, but also recognized that an enlightened class should be represented in the government of the state. But that citizens without a farm or property had the right to vote was "wrong under all circumstances" for him.

In the same year he was again a delegate in Storting and introduced a bill to reform the Odal Law, which had the aim of preventing the accumulation of property and lifting the monopoly of the sawmills. Falsen also passed the law on the distribution of tax revenues and conscription against considerable opposition.

The turn to the aristocracy

In the Reich Assembly of Eidsvoll he had still advocated general conscription. In 1815, on the other hand, in the committee for the elaboration of the details, he took the view that only the peasant sons should be used, in which his aristocratic attitude was asserted. This led to an estrangement from the peasant class.

In the period 1815/1816 he did not play the role in Storting that he had hoped for. Gradually he lost support. In 1817 he was re-elected with a relative majority of only 27 votes out of 63, and when he appeared at the Storting in 1818, his mandate was rejected by 37 votes to 32. The withdrawal of his election led to a change in his policy. The farmers' meetings of 1818 undermined his belief in the political insight of the farmers, and their refusal to take part in the constitutional struggle in 1821 only increased his skepticism.

When Nicolai Wergeland's book "Danmarks Forbrydelser mod Norge" (Denmark's crimes against Norway) appeared, he responded in 1817 with a font in which, as in 1814, he emphasized that the struggle for freedom was against Sweden and not against Denmark. In a weekly newspaper he co-founded, he took the view that the union with Sweden was limited to the common king and common defense, and even spoke out against the Norwegian king agreeing with Swedish people who had rendered services to Norway Medal.

From 1819 he devoted himself to historical studies, which in 1823/1824 ended in four volumes in Norges Historie under Kong Harald Haarfager og hans mandlige Descendenter (History of Norway under King Harald Hårfagre and his male descendants). In 1820 he was sent from Bergen as a delegate to Storting. There he campaigned for the presence of government members in the Storting in the constitutional struggle, which initially did not find a majority, but was later adopted along with various constitutional amendments. In these constitutional changes he initiated, however, he failed with his proposal that the Lagting should become a real aristocratic upper house to which no farmer could be elected, and to which Odelsting each district of the three delegates had to send one, but only one, farmer. The proposal was rejected in Storting in 1824 without a dissenting vote.

He was unable to assert himself on two other important points: in 1816 and 1818 a law to abolish the nobility had been adopted, but had not received the necessary approval from the king. Now it was back on the agenda in 1821, and Falsen wanted to postpone the discussion to the next session. It failed, and the law has now been finally passed. The other case concerned the financial consequences of the separation of Denmark and the Union. The Peace of Kiel stipulated that Norway would have to bear its part of the national debt of Denmark-Norway. After long negotiations, King Karl Johan agreed in 1819 to pay three million Reichsthaler from the Norwegian budget. In his constitutional commentary of 1817, Falsen had stated that Norway had nothing to pay to Denmark because the provisions of the Peace of Kiel were not binding on Norway. He stuck to that opinion. The king's agreement of 1819 was made without Norway's consent. Falsen became chairman of the committee concerned. He voted that Norway only had to pay the debts that had already expired, Sweden the rest. This vote was rejected by Storting, who referred the matter back to the committee. Falsen now wrote a contrary vote on all points, stating that Norway had to pay its share of the debt, on the grounds that he did not want to provoke the Swedes. He kept coming towards the Swedes. In 1824 he demanded in an anonymous pamphlet that the Swedish king must have an absolute right of veto. Because he could possibly enforce his will militarily anyway. The newspaper Norske Nationalblad described him as the unstoppable errand boy of the king.

From Sweden's opponent to Karl Johans' follower

When the king came to Christiania in August 1821, he offered Falsen the office of general procurator to be created. In his draft constitution of 1814, Falsen had already proposed this office, which was supposed to look after and supervise the civil servants. He took over the office from the king without consulting the government in Christiania. In the three years in which he held this office, he exercised extensive control activities. He denounced negligence and abuse of power and received complaints. The officials were reluctant to be strictly controlled. The magistrates and magistrates (Sorenskriver) sabotaged the reform proposals he had drawn up as far as possible, and in individual cases even violent clashes occurred. The officials see in him a royal grand inquisitor, agents and royal informers. The flaw in how he had received the office not only led to rejection by the opposition, but also to the hostility of the entire civil service. In 1825, the Storting asked the king, with a vote against, to abolish the office of general procurator as soon as possible. That moved Falsen to resign.

At the beginning of 1825 he took over the office of canon bailiff in Bergen. In May 1828 he returned to Christiania and became president of the Supreme Court against the will of the government. The Storting had refused the official remuneration awarded by the King in 1827 for him as a canon. However, he did not hold office for long because he suffered a stroke in June. In November he became a member of the Committee on a New Criminal Law. In the summer of 1829 he fell ill and planned to leave. But he died before he could send his resignation letter.

Works

• "Et Par Ordom de Grundsætninger und Regulator, as formal to follow ved en ny Matriculs Indretning for Norge". In Topographisk-Statistiske Samlinger , ed. by Det Kongelige Selskab for Norges Vel, part 1, volume 2. 1812, pp. 159-174.
• Hvad har Norge at haabe, hvad har det at frygte af en Forbindelse med Sverrig, og under hvilken Betingelse kan denne Forening ene være ønskelig? 1814.
• Udkast til en Constitution for Kongeriget Norge (together with JG Adler), 1814 (First published in Journal for Rigsforfatning, Lovgivning og Politie , Volume 1, Issue 2 1814).
• Einar Thambeskjelver, Nordens Helt . Bergen 1815.
• Forslag til en Lov stated Odels- and Aasædesretten . 1815.
• Norges Odelsret med Hensyn paa Rigets Constitution . Bergen 1815.
• Bemærkninger over Skriftet: “En sandfærdig Beretning om Danmarks politiske Forbrydelser imod Kongeriget Norge [etc.]” . 1817.
• Norges Grundlov, gjennemgaaet in Spørgsmaal and Svar . Bergen 1817.
• Udtog af Fortiden's geography . 1819.
• Geographisk Deskrivelse over Kongeriget Norge, og Udsigt over dette Lands ældste Historie og Forfatning . 1821.
• Bemærkninger i Anledning af Constitutions-Forslaget om Kongens Veto (anonymous), 1824.
• Norges Historie under Kong Harald Haarfager og hans mandlige Descendenter , 4 volumes, 1823-1824
• General procureurens Stockholm trip. Christian Magnus Falsens ferd til kronprins Oscars formæling. Dagbok runs from May 26th to May 19th. july 1823 . Published by R. Tank, 1945.

Remarks

The term explanations are taken from Salmonsen's Konversationsleksikon .

1. ↑ The Court of Appeal was the court of appeal for the Lagting. From there an appeal could be made to the Supreme Court in Copenhagen. It was built in Akershus in 1666 and replaced in 1797 by the Collegiate Higher Court and the Rådstue Court, originally (1607) a lower court, later (1662) an intermediate court in commercial towns.
2. ↑ The Stifts-Obergericht was established in 1797 as an intermediate instance between the Lower Court and the Supreme Court in Copenhagen and replaced the Oberhofgericht. Such a court was established in each of the four dioceses.
3. ^ Procurator was a lawyer who was admitted to the lower and higher courts. He was appointed by the king and the number was limited. The waiting position until this appointment was the "Procurator".
4. ↑ Overadmiralitetsretten was a special court of highest instance. It consisted of the heads of the Navy Department, the Attorney General and two judges from the Supreme Court. It dealt with prize cases . Before private ships provided with letters of war were able to sell the ships they had hijacked, they had to be approved by a prize court as a “good prize”.
5. ↑ His espionage reports are in the archives of the governor Friedrich von Hessen.
6. ↑ This was not a party in the parliamentary sense. Such parties have never existed. Rather, it was a group of delegates with identical interests who gathered around a spokesman.
7. ↑ "Council of State" has two meanings: On the one hand, it is about the government, i.e. what is otherwise called "Cabinet", on the other hand it is the head of a ministry, which in Norway is called "Department", i.e. the minister.
8. ^ "Palladium" was a sacred inalienable thing or facility that is of particular importance for the common good.
9. ↑ Mardal
10. ↑ The king's veto could be overruled with three identical resolutions.
11. ↑ In 1819 the king had the following contract ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. closed: “Convention between His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway on the one hand and His Majesty the King of Denmark on the other, concluded in Stockholm on September 1st, ratified in the same place on the 2nd and at Fredriksborg Castle on September 13, 1819. Art. 1: His Majesty, the King of Sweden and Norway, in his capacity as King of the Norwegian Empire, recognizes with this Convention on behalf of that kingdom and by virtue of its constitution that Norway's share of the national debt the former Danish-Norwegian Empire, which can now be laid down in the separation of the two kingdoms, with a round sum of three million Rigsdaler Hamburger Banco (or Speciestaler to 9 ¹ / ₄ are settled pcs. fine Kölnisches weight), and because its Majesty , the King of Denmark in turn accedes to the above-mentioned determination of the Norwegian share of the Danish national debt, so obl As a result, his Majesty, the King of Sweden and Norway, establishes himself, both for himself and for his heirs and successors, from Norway to his Majesty, the King of Denmark or his heirs and successors, the aforementioned sum of three million Rigsdaler hamburgers Banco with 4% annual interest, and this on the dates and conditions that are specified below. Art. 2: The amount mentioned, three million Hamburger Banco, is to be paid by the Royal Norwegian Finance Department to the competent authority that the King of Denmark will designate over a period of 10 years in constant annual amounts of three hundred thousand Reichstaler Hamburger Banco, The first of which is to be due on July 1, 1820, the following on July 1 of each subsequent year up to and including July 1, 1829, which is the date on which the entire above sum is paid. His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway reserves the right for the latter kingdom to be able to repay the annual installments with higher amounts more quickly if Norwegian finances permit this in the future. ”The initially bypassed storting was changed in 1821 by a royal rescript ( Memento des Originals from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of June 28, 1821 forced to agree to this agreement on July 3, 1821, but managed to extend the repayment period to 30 years. 
    
    
     
12. ↑ Mardal.

literature

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

• Knut Mykland: Christian Magnus Falsen . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon
• Magnus A. Mardal: Christian Magnus Falsen . In: Store norske leksikon

Web links

Commons : Christian Magnus Falsen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files