Ferdinand Beneke

Ferdinand Beneke , also Ferdinand Benecke , (born August 1, 1774 in Bremen , † March 1, 1848 in Hamburg ) was a German lawyer and politician.

Live and act

Ferdinand Beneke came from a merchant family based in Bremen, whose fortunes were consumed by speculation in the American trade. He attended high school in Bremen and then studied law and camera studies at the University of Rinteln and the University of Halle . After his studies he was a trainee lawyer in the provincial government in the Principality of Minden in the Prussian service from 1793 to 1795 .

After receiving his doctorate in Göttingen as Dr. jur. Beneke started working as a lawyer in Hamburg . In 1797 he became a Hamburg citizen and in 1798 a judge at the lower court. Through his professional activity as a lawyer and judge, as well as through his involvement in the Patriotic Society and in the field of poor and school care, he gained reputation and was also discussed as a senator.

In the course of the fight against Napoleon's troops, Beneke took part in the liberation of Hamburg with the vigilante group in March 1813. He worked closely with Friedrich Christoph Perthes . In the course of the temporary reconquest of Hamburg by the French troops, he, Perthes and the Lübeck Syndicus Carl Georg Curtius formed the Hanseatic Directorium as the Hamburg government in exile. In 1813 he was involved in reform plans for the Hamburg constitution .

In 1816 Beneke rose to senior senior secretary (a kind of syndicus) and consultant (roughly managing director) in the Hamburg city council . Through the office, which he held until 1848, he had considerable influence in politics.

Beneke and the Bremen Senator and Mayor (from 1822) Johann Smidt (1773–1857) maintained close personal and professional contacts as school friends, which are documented by 433 letters. Their common endeavors were aimed at maintaining the independence of the two cities, not only as free cities during the French claims to power and in the German Confederation , but also as Free Hanseatic Cities . Hamburg emphasized its status as a “free city” in comparison to Frankfurt am Main at that time with the addition “and Hanseatic city”. Beneke was an avid fan of the Hanseatic League . However, neither of them succeeded in creating a kind of new "HansaBund"; He could not overcome the resistance in Hamburg and so he wrote resignedly to Smidt in 1816 about Hamburg's "addiction to isolation" and about the "big Hanseatic behavior" without reviving the Hanseatic League of the three cities as a legitimation of their independence:

Ferdinand Beneke on the collective grave Secretair Ehrb. Oberalten

“Hamburgers will hardly be more aware of the German Confederation until it itself reminds them of its existence in a sensitive way and wakes them from their sinful sleep. I hardly believe that any ex-comrade of the Rhenish Confederation, not even the King of Württemberg, has shown as little sense of a German community as the Hamburg Senate. "

Beneke was a typical representative of the North German honest man and cosmopolitan of the 18th century with national tendencies. He was also active in literature. From 1792 until his death in 1848 he wrote a diary, which is in the Hamburg State Archives and is an important testimony to the political, social and literary development as well as everyday life in Germany from the Napoleonic period to the pre- March period .

Beneke had six children. His son Otto Beneke (1812-1891) was head of the Senate Archives in Hamburg .

On the collective grave Secretair Ehrb. Oberaltenburg in the area of Althamburgischen Memorial Cemetery , Cemetery Ohlsdorf , is reminiscent of Ferdinand Beneke.

Fonts

• Theses inaugurales, loco dissertationis inauguralis cum orbe eruditio mox communicandae. Gottingae: Grape 1795 (Diss.)
• A few words about the newly built school in front of the Dammthor: To the residents and garden owners of the Dammthor area, from some of their fellow citizens in Hamburg. Hamburg: Schniebes 1799
• Renewed church and community constitution of the Portuguese Jews in Hamburg. Hamburg: Nestler 1812
• The voice of a Hanseatic to the powers united for Europe’s calm and for Germany’s salvation. [Sl], 1813
• Army equipment for the Hanseatic Legion. 1813
• Maiden niece letter to Mademoselle Marie Ziemssen to hand in to Mr. Matthias Puttfarken in Oßwarder , Hamburg, 1927, Society of Bibliophiles, with a foreword by Otto Beneke (1847) Hamburg, 1927
• Maiden nieces letters from Hamburg. Collected by Ferdinand Beneke , 1805, Hamburg, Christians 1974

Diaries

• The diaries. Edited by Frank Hatje ...

I: The diaries 1792 to 1795. Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-0878-7 .

[Dept.] 1, 1; Diaries 1792 to 1795

[Dept.] 1, 2; Diaries 1796 to 1798

[Dept.] 1, 3; Diaries 1799 to 1801

[Dept.] 1, 4; Supplements 1792 to 1801

Dept. 1, accompanying volume ; "Citizens and Revolutions"

III: The diaries from 1811 to 1816. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2016, ISBN 978-3-8353-0912-8 .

II: The diaries 1802 to 1810, Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2019, ISBN 978-3-8353-0911-1 .

literature

• Otto Beneke:  Beneke, Ferdinand . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 327.
• Joist Grolle : Beneke, Ferdinand . In: Hamburgische Biografie Vol. 1, ed. by Franklin Kopitzsch and Dirk Brietzke , Hamburg 2001, pp. 41–42, ISBN 3-7672-1364-8 .
• Joist Grolle: Under the spell of Jean Paul and Napoleon. The diary writer Ferdinand Beneke. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History , Vol. 89 (2003), pp. 41–78. ( Digitized version )
• Frank Hatje: Secondly. Ferdinand Beneke, Johann Smidt and the relations between Hamburg and Bremen. In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 87 (2008), pp. 49–70.
• Frank Hatje: Ferdinand Beneke (1774–1848). Diaries, correspondence, writings (project report). In: Informations zur modern Stadtgeschichte (2004), 2, pp. 107–110.
• Stephen Pielhoff: Religiosity and common sense. About the ideal and practice of poor relief in Ferdinand Beneke (1822–1832) . In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History, Vol. 92 (2006), pp. 33–51. ( Digitized version )
• Frank Hatje, Ariane Kuth u. a. (Ed.): Ferdinand Beneke. Die Tagebücher I (1792-1801) , five volumes, 2802 pages, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-0878-7 .
• Frank Hatje et al. (Ed.): Ferdinand Beneke. Die Tagebücher III (1811-1816) , seven volumes, 3876 pages, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8353-0912-8 .
• Frank Hatje et al. (Ed.): Ferdinand Beneke. Die Tagebücher II (1802-1810) , eight volumes, 3904 pages, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-8353-0911-1 .

Web links

• Beneke edition from the Hamburg State Archives
• The story of my life , broadcast by Ariane Smith and Frank Hatje in the series Lange Nacht des Deutschlandfunk / Deutschlandradios Kultur on January 14, 2017 (broadcast manuscript as PDF)

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Kapern: 20,000 world-rich days , review of his diaries published in 2012 in the series Andruck des Deutschlandfunk on October 8, 2012
2. ↑ Frank Hatje: In the second line. Ferdinand Beneke, Johann Smidt and the relations between Hamburg and Bremen. In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 87 (2008), pp. 49–70, here: pp. 49 ff.
3. ↑ Stephen Pielhoff: Religiosity and common sense. About the ideal and practice of poor relief in Ferdinand Beneke (1822–1832). In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History , Vol. 92 (2006), pp. 33–51. ( Digitized version )
4. ↑ Frank Hatje: In the second line. Ferdinand Beneke, Johann Smidt and the relations between Hamburg and Bremen. In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 87 (2008), pp. 49–70, here: p. 54.
5. ↑ Frank Hatje: In the second line. Ferdinand Beneke, Johann Smidt and the relations between Hamburg and Bremen. In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Vol. 87 (2008), pp. 49–70, here: p. 64.
6. ↑ Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture
7. ↑ Ferdinand Beneke Diary Edition , Wallstein Verlag , accessed August 10, 2019
8. ↑ Benedikt Erenz: Heroes and lobster souls. Ferdinand Beneke's diaries tell the story of the German bourgeoisie. In: Die Zeit from September 6, 2012, pages 19 and 20.

predecessor	Office	successor
Eduard Rentzel	Senior Secretary to Hamburg 1816–1848	Nicolaus Adolf Westphalen