David Mevius

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David Mevius (contemporary image)
Seated figure by David Mevius at the Rubenow monument in Greifswald

David Mevius (born December 6, 1609 in Greifswald ; † August 14, 1670 ibid) was a legal practitioner and one of the most important jurists of the usus modernus .

life and work

David Mevius was the second son of Greifswald law professor Friedrich Mevius and his wife Elisabeth Rhaw. He received a first training at the Latin school in Greifswald and took at the local university first study of theology in. However, he soon turned to law and began studying at the University of Rostock from August 1629 . He later traveled extensively, also because the Thirty Years' War in Pomerania caused hardship. In 1635 he came to Greifswald, where a position was vacant at the law faculty. At the end of 1636 he received the chair from Friedrich Gerschow , who died on September 6, 1635.

Mevius became famous for his many years of work as a syndic of the city of Stralsund , as the author of the commentarius in ius lubecense (commentary on Lübsche law ) (1641/42) and several German-language publications on leases, serfdom and the legal status and tax exemption of the nobility . As a trained lawyer and doctor of both rights , Mevius was primarily a legal practitioner. In the context of the questions and disputes frequently encountered in the 17th and 18th centuries on the integration of Roman law into the older common law , he took the view that local law should always be given priority, if it could be derived from customary law. Relevant common law in Greifswald was that from Lübeck.

After the Swedish occupation of Pomerania , Mevius entered the diplomatic service of the Swedish crown. In 1653 he became Vice-President of the newly founded Higher Appeal Court for the Swedish Fiefs in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in Wismar and thus a leader in the jurisdiction of the court . He published a collection of decisions by the Wismar Tribunal (Decisiones) in six volumes. The progressive judicial system also comes from his pen. Still active in a diplomatic mission, Mevius managed to settle the Electoral Mainz-Palatinate wild- catching dispute . He remained Vice President of the Wismar Tribunal until his death in 1670.

family

David Mevius was married three times. His son Friedrich became the Swedish major general and chief hunter in Pomerania, the daughter Elisabeth was married to the Greifswald lawyer Georg Engelbrecht , the daughter Barbara was married to the lawyer and diplomat Friedrich Klinckow , the daughter Maria married the lawyer and chancellor Georg Bernhard von Engelbrecht and the Daughter Margaretha (1655–1684) married the Rostock professor of law Jacob Lembke .

Aftermath

Epitaph for David Mevius

The collection of decisions of the Wismar Tribunal founded by Mevius - the Decisiones - was continued after his death and experienced ten new editions until 1794. She had gained great authority in theory and practice. In addition, he wrote a codification of the Mecklenburg land law , which is already heavily based on natural law principles. In particular, his practical judicial activity was to shape the jurisdiction in Pomerania until well beyond the 18th century.

The splendid baroque wooden epitaph by Mevius hung in the north aisle of Wismar's Marienkirche until after the Second World War . The church was badly damaged in an air raid shortly before the end of the war in 1945 and blown up in August 1960. The epitaph was transferred to the Nikolaikirche in Wismar , where it was extensively restored.

At the Rubenow monument in Greifswald , a statue of Mevius symbolizes the Faculty of Law.

Fonts (selection)

  • There is a legal concern about different questions between landlords and pensioners. Stralsund 1640.
  • Commentarius in Ius Lubecense. 1642.
  • A brief thought about the questions, such as the state, demands and receding sequence of the Bawrs people to which someone avoids having to come up and occur at the present time. Stralsund 1645 ( digitized version of the Wismar 1685 edition )
  • Delineatio of the Pomeranian country = constitution according to the country's old statutes and customs. Autore David Mevio, Mense Octbr. On. 1650 which Königl. Gentlemen's commissarians presented in Stettin, In: Amoenitates Historico-Juridicae or all kinds of the histories of the German Empire, as well as the dissertations, obeservationes, consilia and opuscula etc. so partly produced by others, but never before printed, partly worked out in an unusual way by Wilhelm Friedrich Pistorius, Hoch = Graeflich = Erbachischer Hof = Rath, Vierdter Theil, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1734, XIII. Stück, pp. 935-1062.
  • Decisiones super causis praecipuis ad summum tribunal regium Vismariense delatis. Frankfurt am Main 1698.

literature

  • Dirk Alvermann , Birgit Dahlenburg : Greifswald heads. Scholar portraits and life pictures from the 16th to 18th centuries Century from the Pomeranian State University. Hinstorff, Rostock 2006, ISBN 3-356-01139-1 , pp. 138f.
  • Werner Buchholz :  Mevius, David von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 281-283 ( digitized version ).
  • Ernst Holthöfer: Mevius, David . In: Sabine Pettke (ed.): Biographical Lexicon for Mecklenburg. Volume 2, Rostock 1999, pp. 173-180.
  • Nils Jörn (Ed.): David Mevius (1609-1670). Life and work of a Pomeranian lawyer of European standing. Publishing house Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8300-2782-9 .
  • Richard Kleinheyer and Jan Schröder (eds.): German lawyers from five centuries. A Biographical Introduction to the History of Law. Heidelberg 1989.
  • Hans-Georg Knothe : On the development of the right of manorial rule in the German Baltic Sea region in the mirror of Mevius' treatise on the "peasant people". In: Jörn Eckert and Kjell A. Modéer (eds.): History and perspectives of the law in the Baltic Sea region. (Legal history series 251), Frankfurt a. M. [u. a.] 2002, pp. 237-274.
  • Hans-Georg Knothe: David Mevius (1609 - 1670): - An outstanding jurist of the Usus modernus Pandectarum. In: ZEuP . 18th vol., H. 3, 2010, pp. 536-561.
  • Roderich von Stintzing :  Mevius, David von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 544-547.
  • Marion Wiese: Serf farmers and Roman law in the 17th century. An opinion by David Mevius. (Writings on European legal and constitutional history 52), Berlin 2006.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ See the entry of David Mevius' matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ^ A b Johann Friedrich Jugler: Königl. Great Britain Council . Contributions to the legal biography, volume 4.1, Leipzig 1778. p. 233.
  3. ↑ Uwe Wesel : History of the law. From the early forms to the present . 3rd revised and expanded edition, Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-47543-4 . Marg. 247.
  4. ↑ Detlef Witt: The epitaph for David Mevius from the St. Marienkirche in Wismar and some related works. In: Nils Jörn (ed.): David Mevius (1609-1670). Life and work of a Pomeranian lawyer of European standing (series of the David-Mevius-Gesellschaft 1) Hamburg 2007, pp. 255–291. ISBN 9783830027829
  5. ↑ 50 years ago the SED had the Marienkirche in Wismar blown up | DOMRADIO.DE. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .
  6. ↑ The epitaph for David Mevius in the Nikolaikirche in Wismar (photos and text by Detlef Witt)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kirche-mv.de  

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Commons : David Mevius  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Mevius, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1609
PLACE OF BIRTH Greifswald
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1670
Place of death Greifswald