Dietrich Christian von Buttel

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Dietrich Christian von Buttel (1801–1878)

Dietrich (also: Diedrich) Christian von Buttel (Christian was the nickname) (* December 5, 1801 in Jever ; † February 1, 1878 in Oldenburg (Oldb) ) was a German lawyer, most recently President of the Higher Appeal Court and, as a politician, Prime Minister of Oldenburg, as well as member of the Frankfurt National Assembly .

Life

Studies and first activities

Born as the youngest son of the businessman Christian Dietrich von Buttel (1766–1810), Buttel attended high school in Jever and studied law in Heidelberg , Göttingen and Berlin from 1819 to 1824 , where, in addition to his specialist studies, he dealt intensively with Hegel's philosophy . In Göttingen he was a member of the Frisia there . In 1824 Buttel entered the Oldenburg judicial service and worked for several years as a secretary and depositary at the regional court in Jever and from 1829 as a regional court assessor in Ovelgönne . In 1835 he was transferred to the judicial office in Oldenburg, appointed court counselor in 1841 and promoted to provisional chairman of the Oldenburg City and Regional Court in 1847.

Political commitment

Due to his diverse interests, Buttel quickly made contact with the leadership class in the royal seat that shaped intellectual life . In 1839 he was a co-founder of the literary society , whose first president he became. Together with Maximilian Heinrich Rüder , Carl Franz Nikolaus Bucholtz and Adolf Stahr , he published the Neue Blätter für Stadt und Land in 1843 , the first liberal newspaper that wanted to educate the population to participate in public life and advocated the introduction of a constitution . Just a year later, Buttel, like Bucholtz and Stahr, withdrew from the editorial board, presumably because as a civil servant he could not and did not want to take on a leading role in the gradually emerging democratic opposition movement . In the following years he advocated a reform of criminal law , advocated the primacy of German over Roman law and called for the introduction of jury courts .

The German Revolution of 1848 and the Frankfurt National Assembly

In 1848/49 Buttel was a city councilor in Oldenburg. After the outbreak of the revolution of 1848 he quickly secured a leading position, which he used to steer the spontaneous popular movement in a moderate direction. In April he was a member of the Assembly of 34 to discuss a draft constitution and, together with Rüder, was a member of the Oldenburg pre-parliament and, from May 18, 1848, of the Frankfurt National Assembly, where he joined the right-wing center in the Landsberg parliamentary group. Later he belonged to the Weidenbusch Club . In the parliamentary work he belonged to the committee for the priorities of the petitions and motions and the committee for the appraisal and reporting on the submission of the Reich Ministry on the Austrian relationship to the formation of a federal state of the German states . As part of the emperor's deputation , he elected Friedrich Wilhelm IV as Emperor of the Germans. After the left had prevailed in Frankfurt with the imperial constitution campaign , Buttel and Rüder left the National Assembly on May 26, 1849 and returned to Oldenburg. In June 1849 he joined the Gotha post-parliament , in which 150 members of the former hereditary imperial group of the Paulskirchenparlament spoke out in a widespread declaration for the Prussian union policy and thus for the small German solution . Buttel also advocated Oldenburg's accession to the Three Kings Alliance between Prussia, Hanover and Saxony and supported the Oldenburg March government Schloifer in the dispute with the majority of the state parliament consisting of a coalition of Catholic and democratic members of the state parliament, which decidedly refused to join Prussia for various reasons. When Schloifer resigned after a defeat in the vote, Buttel was appointed Ministerialrat as Prime Minister on December 13, 1849, Chairman of the Ministry of State and took over the two departments of the Churches and Schools as well as the Justice.

Activity as Minister of State in Oldenburg

Buttel saw his government only as a transitional ministry to solve the current difficulties. In terms of foreign policy, he continued to try to promote national unification by supporting the Prussian union policy; domestically, he wanted to stabilize the constitutional system and tried on the one hand to push back the radical liberal and democratic forces and, on the other hand, a possible relapse into the reaction given the anti-constitutional tendencies of the Grand Duke August I. and prevent the suspension of the Constitution. For the entire duration of its existence, his government was exposed to a two-front battle against the state parliament and the sovereign. The focus was initially on the conflict with the state parliament over Oldenburg's accession to the Epiphany, to which Buttel held fast. The attempt to weaken the opposition by dissolving the state parliament and changing the electoral law was unsuccessful, as the Greater German- minded Catholics and left-liberal-democratic MPs continued to hold the parliamentary majority and refused to join Prussia. Buttel then adjourned the state parliament to buy time. This approach proved to be successful, as the dispute in the autumn of 1850 became irrelevant due to the gradual collapse of the Epiphany and Austria's forced renunciation of its union policy. Before this decision was made, there was a serious conflict with the Grand Duke. In May 1850, Denmark and Russia offered the Hereditary Grand Duke Nikolaus Friedrich Peter the succession to the Danish throne in order to defuse the Schleswig-Holstein question by enthroning a German prince and to ensure that the two duchies remained with Denmark. The legitimistically thinking August I, blinded by the royal crown waving at his house, agreed prematurely and thus triggered an internal government crisis that lasted into autumn 1850. For national and national political reasons, Buttel immediately turned against the Danish-Russian proposal and threatened to resign several times. When the Hereditary Grand Duke rejected the candidacy in clauses in September 1850, the Grand Duke had to renounce the plan. The differences between him and the government did not end there. In order to enable an understanding with the parliament, Buttel turned against the aim of the Grand Duke to enlarge the Oldenburg troop contingent. With a renewed threat of resignation, he was able to persuade August I to give in and to reduce the military budget. The newly elected state parliament, however, also rejected the reduced military budget and insisted on further deletions. Buttel saw in it a motion of no confidence in his person and declared his resignation, which the Grand Duke reluctantly accepted on May 1, 1851.

Further professional activity

After his resignation Buttel was not politically active again, but quickly made a professional career. In May 1851 he was finally appointed chairman of the Oldenburg City and Regional Court and in February 1853 he was also chairman of the military college. In addition, he was Land Vogt in Oldenburg in 1851/52 . After the court reorganization of 1858 he was appointed President of the High Court on December 31, 1858. On July 7, 1865, Friedrich Wilhelm Anton Roemer's successor was appointed President of the Oldenburg Court of Appeal. Buttel took this office on November 1st and also took over the chairmanship of the senior audit council, the law commission and the state court. In 1873 he received the title of Excellence and one year later the Law Faculty of the University of Berlin awarded him an honorary doctorate on his 50th anniversary with the company . On January 1, 1878, he was given retirement at his own request and died a month later.

evaluation

Buttel was considered an excellent representative of the official liberalism characteristic of Oldenburg. Strongly influenced by the Hegelian philosophy, he belonged in the Vormärz to the small reform group within the bureaucracy that wanted to modernize the absolutist state and considered it necessary for the citizens to participate in state life. As a moderate liberal and a supporter of “prudent progress”, he welcomed the aspirations for national unity and the liberal reforms brought about by the revolution of 1848. However, he rejected the demands of the more pressing democratic forces. Through his ministerial presidency, he contributed to consolidating the constitutional system of government in Oldenburg.

family

Buttel married Caecilie Friederike von Harten on August 6, 1828 (May 8, 1809 - September 23, 1831), the daughter of the Oberappellationsrat Johann Heinrich von Harten. After her untimely death, on April 4, 1834, he married Helene Caroline Catharina von Thünen (December 11, 1806 - May 3, 1878), the daughter of his step-brother, the economist Johann Heinrich von Thünen . From this marriage two daughters came Astra (1835-1878) and Minna (1838-1931) and Alexander von Buttel (1836-1923), who later became President of the Government in Eutin was.

Works

  • Ahlrich Eilers, the insidious murderer of his pregnant mistress, executed at Friesoythe on August 5th, 1842 , Oldenburg, 1842.
  • HW Hayen , KD von Buttel: The judge as a juror? Or a jury, with oral, public and indictment? , Schulzesche bookstore, Oldenburg, 1843. ( digitized )
  • About the validity of Roman law and the demand for a freer court system. Oldenburg, 1846.
  • About the validity of the ordinance of 3./4. August 1849, regarding the constitution of the Evangelical Church of the Duchy of Oldenburg . Published in the Oldenburg Yearbooks. 20th year. 1912. pp. 102-127.

literature

Web links

  • Known people from Jever , accessed October 9, 2017.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Kaupp: Fraternity members in the Paulskirche
personal data
SURNAME Buttel, Dietrich Christian von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buttel, Christian Diedrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Jever
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1878
Place of death Oldenburg (Oldb)