Christoph Wilhelm von Koch

Christoph Wilhelm Koch (oil painting, today owned by the cathedral chapter of the St. Thomas Church in Strasbourg)

Christoph Wilhelm Koch , from 1777 Edler von Koch ( French Christophe Guillaume Koch , born May 9, 1737 in Buchsweiler (Upper Alsace) , † October 24, 1813 in Strasbourg ) was an Alsatian professor of constitutional law and history , writer, librarian, diplomat and politician . He and two brothers were raised to the nobility of Emperor Joseph II in 1777 .

origin

His parents were Chamber Councilor Johann Reinhard Koch (1697–1755) and his wife Susanna Dorothea Fleischmann (1698–1767).

academic career

Christoph Wilhelm Koch was initially assistant to the historian Johann Daniel Schöpflin from 1763 to 1771 , became professor and finally honorary rector of the University of Strasbourg in 1772 , one following Eberhard Weis and Jürgen Voss, at that time leading university in both France and Germany.

In 1779 he was offered a full chair at the University of Göttingen by the government of Hanover . His brother Conrad Reinhard then contacted the French ambassador to the Reichstag in Regensburg , Marquis de Bombelles , in order to obtain permission from the French Foreign Minister to be allowed to enter into foreign services while preserving his rights as a French subject. In the end, however, an increase in Koch's salary ensured that he stayed in Strasbourg. In 1782 he finally became a full professor there and after ten years was given a scheduled chair.

student

Koch's students in Strasbourg included (in the order of their studies) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who also mentions him in his work " Poetry and Truth ", Maximilian von Montgelas and Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich as well as his own nephew and later Bavarian Foreign Minister, Friedrich August Freiherr von Gise along with many other later diplomats and politicians from all over Europe. As a professor of the aforementioned, but also through his work as a constitutional expert and in various political offices, he had not insignificant political influence. While Weis does not consider his influence on Goethe and Metternich to be too great, he notes a lasting connection between Christoph Wilhelm von Koch and Montgelas and thus a lasting influence of Koch; For example, in the question of state church sovereignty , in which Montgelas Koch's "state sovereignty in the church area" even extends from the Protestant to the Catholic area, but also to the Bavarian constitution of 1808, through the constitution of the Kingdom of Westphalia co-written by Koch . Weis also attributes the way in which Montgelas later underpinned legal claims “by studying and interpreting older documents and files” to studying at Koch.

Diplomacy and politics

Tomb of Christoph Wilhelm Koch by Landolin Ohmacht in the St. Thomas Church in Strasbourg

Jean Richerateau dedicated the treatise “Le Rôle Politique du Professeur Koch” to Koch's political work, especially from 1790 to 1792 . Koch was already an expert on constitutional law under the Ancien Régime , as well as a member of the National Assembly during the Revolution and as a member of the State Council during Napoleon's reign , when he was probably also present at its coronation. The main focus of his own political activity was the representation of the interests of the Alsatian Protestants, especially during the revolution. Since he had gained some reputation in the process, he was elected to the Strasbourg district council in 1791, shortly afterwards to the district directorate and again soon afterwards as a member of the Lower Rhine department in the national assembly, where he became chairman of the diplomatic committee. During the reign of terror he was imprisoned in Strasbourg for ten months and after its fall became administrator of the domain office of the Lower Rhine department. However, he held these administrative offices for a very short time and soon turned back to science, writing, and diplomacy.

In the spring of 1797 he met his brother, the Reichstag envoy Conrad Reinhard, in Regensburg and thereupon sent a “report on the views of Regensburg diplomats on the relationship between the Empire and France” to Paris. At the Rastatt Congress for the implementation of the resolutions of the Peace of Campo Formio , he worked as a consultant. He was later appointed to Paris as a tribune , which he remained until the tribunate was dissolved in 1807. In 1804 he received the Cross of the Legion of Honor from Napoleon. He declined a position as Minister-State Secretary with the King of the new Kingdom of Westphalia , Jérôme Bonaparte , in Kassel , citing his old age.

End of life

After giving up his political office at the age of 70, Koch spent the last six years of his life exclusively in science. In the summer of 1813 he fell ill and died unmarried on October 24, 1813 at the age of 76 in Strasbourg , where a memorial was erected for him in the St. Thomas Church .

literature

• Friedrich Buech: Christoph Wilhelm Koch (1737-1813). The last law teacher at the old Strasbourg university. A picture from the Alsatian scholarly life. In: Writings of the Scientific Institute of the Alsace-Lorraine in the Reich at the University of Frankfurt. New series, Volume 17, Frankfurt 1936.
• Jakob Franck :  Koch, Christoph Wilhelm Edler from . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 371-373.
• Joseph Fuchs:  Koch, Christoph Wilhelm Edler von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 260 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Bernhard Koerner (Ed.): Genealogical handbook of middle-class families . Volume 9, Berlin 1902.
• Heinz Sproll: Christoph Wilhelm Koch (1737-1813): Lawyer and historian at the University of Strasbourg and at the Theological Seminary , in: B. Vogler, Jürgen Voss (ed.): Strasbourg, Schoepflin et l'Europe au XVIIIe siècle . (Paris Historical Studies, 42). Bouvier, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-416-02622-5 , p. 83 ff. ( Digitized version )
• Jürgen Voss: University, History and Diplomacy in the Age of Enlightenment: Johann Daniel Schöpflin (1694-1771) . (Publications of the Historical Institute of the University of Mannheim, Vol. 4), Munich 1979.
• Eberhard Weis: Montgelas. 1759-1799. Between revolution and reform. Munich 1971.