Ernst Ferdinand Klein

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Ernst Ferdinand Klein

Ernst Ferdinand Klein (born September 3, 1744 in Breslau ; † March 18, 1810 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer and prominent representative of the Berlin Enlightenment . He was a member of the Berlin Wednesday Society , a secret society that called itself the Society of Friends of the Enlightenment .

Life

Klein attended school in his hometown of Breslau and from 1763 studied law at the University of Halle under Daniel Nettelbladt . After completing his studies, he initially worked as a lawyer in Wroclaw. There the Enlightenment made proposals for changes in civil procedural law and published some work on legislative procedures. As a result, the Prussian State Minister Carmer became aware of him, who in 1781 appointed him to a commission for the creation of a general land law for the Prussian states (ALR). In the ALR, the sections on matrimonial law and criminal law, in particular, were largely due to Klein. In addition, he wrote other works on criminal law.

From 1788 to 1807, Klein published the annals of legislation and legal scholarship in the Prussian states as the “Royal Prussian Chamber Judge” , which was published by his friend Friedrich Nicolai . They contained the sections: "Strange Legal Cases", "Decisions of the Law Commission", "Decisions of the Jurisdictions Commission", "Articles and News". Some processes were commented on. Klein's contributions related in particular to matrimonial and criminal law.

From 1789 he belonged to the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences . From 1791 to 1800 he taught as a full professor in the law faculty at the University of Halle, of which he was temporarily director. Here he developed the idea of ​​a preventive punishment with the so-called "security measures", with which repeat offenders should be prevented from committing further crimes. After 1800 he was again a member of the Legislative Commission and the Upper Tribunal in Berlin .

Klein was one of the teachers of the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt . He was a Freemason in the Berlin lodge L'amitié and from 1801 to 1809 Grand Master of the Great Lodge Royal York .

Works

  • (Ed.) Annals of Legislation and Legal Scholarship in the Prussian States , 24 volumes, Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin and Stettin 1788–1807
  • Freedom and property, dealt with in eight conversations on the resolutions of the French National Assembly (1790) (Reprint: Scriptor Verlag 1977)
  • Principles of natural jurisprudence along with a history of the same. Scriptor Reprints, 1979
  • On the nature of civil society (1797)
  • About the nature and purpose of punishment , in: Archiv des Criminalrechts (ArchCrR) 2 (1800), first piece (1799), pp. 60–93.
  • Principles of common German and Prussian embarrassing law. Hall 1796 (2nd edition Hall 1799).
  • Professor Carl Grolman , in: ArchCrR 1 (1799), 4th piece (1799), pp. 128-151.
  • Is the difference between loss of liberty for punishment and the future security of the state compatible with the opinion that the purpose of punishment is to prevent future crimes? , in: ArchCrR 1 (1799), 2nd piece (1798), pp. 41-43.

literature

  • Klaus Berndl: Ernst Ferdinand Klein: A time picture from the second half of the eighteenth century. Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-6562-2 .
  • Horst Brünker: The criminalist Ernst Ferdinand Klein (1744-1810): practitioner and philosopher of enlightened absolutism. Dissertation, University of Bonn, 1972.
  • Ulrich Hoffmann: Ernst Ferdinand Klein's theory of the relationship between punishments and protective measures. Dissertation, University of Wroclaw, 1938.
  • Michael Kleensang: The concept of civil society in Ernst Ferdinand Klein. Attitudes to natural law, property, the state and legislation in Prussia 1780–1810 (= studies on European legal history. Vol. 108). Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-465-02903-8 .
  • Gerd Kleinheyer:  Ernst Ferdinand Klein. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 734 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Helmut Mumme: Ernst Ferdinand Klein's conception of punishment and protective measures (= Hamburg criminal law studies. Vol. 28). Friederichsen / de Gruyter, Hamburg 1936.
  • Albert Teichmann :  Ernst Ferdinand Klein . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 88-90.
  • Sabine Wöller: "modestly only offer help where there is a lack of lawful laws and contracts". On Ernst Ferdinand Klein's natural law. In: Dominik Recknagel, Sabine Wöller (ed.): "Reason, you alone know what my duties are!" Natural law teaching in Halle. Catalog for the exhibition in the Interdisciplinary Center for Research into the European Enlightenment, Halle (Saale), October 10, 2013 to January 6, 2014. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-95462-124-8 , pp. 48-62.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Annals of Legislation and Legal Scholarship in the Prussian States. Retrieved July 29, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Klein, Ernst Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, co-author of the Prussian general land law and representative of the Berlin Enlightenment
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1744
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1810
Place of death Berlin