Ferdinand Geib

Georg Ferdinand Geib (born January 15, 1804 in Lambsheim , † November 1, 1834 in Pfeffingen ) was a German lawyer and author . As a co-founder of the German Press and Fatherland Association , he campaigned for freedom of the press and freedom of expression and was one of the co-organizers of the Hambach Festival of 1832 .

Live and act

At a young age he was a high school student in Grünstadt and Speyer . In 1821, at the age of 17, he moved to Heidelberg University and studied law , which he continued at the University of Erlangen . At the age of 23 he was appointed lawyer at the court in Zweibrücken .

With the onset of the French July Revolution in 1830, Geib was politicized by his trusted friend, the Palatinate lawyer and MP Friedrich Schüler . He was impressed by the work of Johann Georg August Wirth with his liberal magazine " Deutsche Tribüne ". The “Westbote”, published by Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer , had an equally strong influence . At that time he did not want to implement his political views through a violent overthrow, but through instruction and education in a free press. For this he wrote essays:

“ Public opinion should do everything; it should be generated and strengthened by the free press; Princes and governments are by no means excluded from this instruction; on the contrary, they are especially targeted. Our conviction should become theirs, if we all have a conviction, then there will be a change in the previous situation on the way to peaceful reform, it is a need, a desire of all, of the princes and governments as well as of the people among the people. If we are not able, through the power of instruction and the convictions brought about by it, to make a change to a general wish, to a general need, well, then it stays with the old, etc. "

In 1832 Geib co-founded the German Press and Fatherland Association . He became part of the provisional board with Friedrich Schüler and Joseph Savoye . He excelled in the association's central committee because the two co-directors had comparatively little time. The efforts that kept him busy at night in addition to his work as a lawyer were the alleged cause of his “ breast ” disease and early death. Since the beginning of the year he has been involved in the organization of the Hambach Festival . In the middle of 1832 he had to give up his position as a lawyer due to his illness. He returned to his parents' house that same year.

In 1833, marked by illness, he had to flee from his provisional arrest in connection with the Hambach Festival and came to France. Here he took up correspondence with the General Procurator to justify his escape due to illness and, as it were, to assert that he would appear at the trial because he was convinced of the justice of his cause. His doctors advised him not to go to the Assisengericht (jury court), which met in Landau in the Palatinate . In the judgment he was acquitted on August 29, 1833 in contumaciam ("in the absence of the accused"). The prosecutors went to cassation ( revision ), which was unsuccessful. In January 1834 he returned to his father's house. In the same year he died of consumption .

The lawyer Karl Gustav Geib was his younger brother.

Characteristics of Geibs

Ernst Ludwig Heim wrote in 1836 that Geib had acquired his unusual speaking talent because of his respect at the court and, according to his disinterestedness, enjoyed the trust of his clients. However, he did not feel happy, science left his mind unsatisfied and the feeling of a certain emptiness and superficiality of life formed the cause of his unusual retirement, which is why Geib “knew and understood so little and was later so often judged wrongly and wrongly [be]". The happiness of his fellow men was more important to him than his own in 1832 - “his soul was too big to be dominated by the usual feelings of love and friendship, he embraced all of humanity with equal warmth and the lowest of the people was his Friend".

literature

• Antje Gerlach: German literature in exile in Switzerland . Lostermann, Vittorio, unknown 1975, ISBN 978-3-465-01042-5 , p. 35 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Ernst Ludwig Heim : New Necrology of the Germans - Second Part . Twelfth year, 1834 edition. Printing and publishing by Bernh. Ms. Voigt, Weimar 1836, p. 920–924 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Edgar Süß: The Palatinate in the "Black Book". A personal historical contribution to the history of the Hambach Festival, early Palatinate and German liberalism . Heidelberg 1956, pp. 60f.

Web links

Wikisource: Ferdinand Geib  - Sources and full texts

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{A b} Ernst Ludwig Heim : New Nekrolog der Deutschen - Second Part . Twelfth year, 1834 edition. Printing and publishing by Bernh. Ms. Voigt, Weimar 1836, p. 920 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
2. ^ Ernst Ludwig Heim : New Nekrolog der Deutschen - Second Part . Twelfth year, 1834 edition. Printing and publishing by Bernh. Ms. Voigt, Weimar 1836, p. 920 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ^ ^{A b} Ernst Ludwig Heim : New Nekrolog der Deutschen - Second Part . Twelfth year, 1834 edition. Printing and publishing by Bernh. Ms. Voigt, Weimar 1836, p. 921 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
4. ^ ^{A b} Ernst Ludwig Heim : New Nekrolog der Deutschen - Second Part . Twelfth year, 1834 edition. Printing and publishing by Bernh. Ms. Voigt, Weimar 1836, p. 922 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
5. ^ Ernst Ludwig Heim : New Nekrolog der Deutschen - Second Part . Twelfth year, 1834 edition. Printing and publishing by Bernh. Ms. Voigt, Weimar 1836, p. 922 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
6. ^ Ernst Ludwig Heim : New Nekrolog der Deutschen - Second Part . Twelfth year, 1834 edition. Printing and publishing by Bernh. Ms. Voigt, Weimar 1836, p. 923 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
7. ↑ Antje Gerlach: German literature in exile in Switzerland . Lostermann, Vittorio, unknown 1975, ISBN 978-3-465-01042-5 , p. 35 ( limited preview in Google Book search).