Georg Conrad Meyer

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Georg Conrad Meyer (born April 1, 1774 in Flensburg , † July 18, 1816 there ) was a publicist and one of the German Jacobins .

Life

Early years

The father was a customs clerk. Because he had a large family to support, Meyer grew up in poor circumstances. Nevertheless, he received a school education that enabled him to study law in Kiel since 1792 . There he apparently came into contact with the ideas of the French Revolution . With other students he protested against the removal of the democratic professor Carl Friedrich Cramer from his chair. Meyer was not expelled like others, but was considered the leader of the local sans-culottes, among others, for Barthold Georg Niebuhr, who also studied there . A few weeks later, in connection with a violent argument between students and craftsmen, the opportunity arose to expel Meyer from the university.

Editor of the magazine Der Neue Mensch

Meyer returned to his family in Flensburg. As a result, his views became more radical. In 1796 he began to publish the weekly Der neue Mensch . He oriented himself among other things on the magazine Revolutions de Paris published by Louis-Marie Prudhomme between 1789 and 1794 . Meyer was one of the few in German-speaking countries who carried out the execution of Louis XVI. defended. Although he was cautious about the Danish and Prussian monarchy, there is no doubt about his republican sentiments.

In addition, he called for the end of class differences and the introduction of freedom of trade. He also noticed the day laborers, factory workers and other groups no longer integrated into the corporate society. In this context he also called for the Jews to be legally equated. The state would also have to ensure a fair distribution of income and assets. The even distribution of assets should only take place insofar as it is possible without offending the property of others. Meyer pursued a pronounced ideal of equality and possibly based himself on François Noël Babeuf . However, Babeuf's collectivist ideas played no role in Meyer. With all his turn to the French Revolution, he also remained an admirer of Frederick the Great . He also rated the non-Jacobin directorate constitution in France positively.

In the expansive French politics he saw a way to overthrow the old order in Germany too. He was disappointed with the French Directory regarding the lack of effort to liberate other peoples. He hoped, however, that France would support the German Jacobins. He called for France to demand the guarantee of freedom of conscience and freedom of the press from the German states in the forthcoming peace treaties. Ludwig August Gülich wrote for Meyer's magazine and criticized the mild treatment that Napoleon gave the Pope after his victories in Italy. Meyer criticized the fact that class differences in the French army gained weight again. In the republic on the left bank of the Rhine planned by the French in 1797 , Meyer saw a basis for an all-German republic.

Meyer was in contact with other north German Jacobins such as Heinrich Christoph Albrecht , who published a poem in Meyer's magazine. Meyer's criticism of a conservative clergyman in Flensburg led to the latter suing him. The competent higher court in Gottorf instructed the Flensburg magistrate to summon Meyer. He advised against Meyer going to trial because he would enjoy a lot of popular support. In fact, there was no trial, but Meyer was banned from publishing his magazine for three months. After further complaints, he discontinued the magazine entirely.

Later years

With others he founded a theatrical society at the beginning of 1798 , which performed challenging pieces up to Schiller's Kabale und Liebe in the new theater . In the long run, the group was unable to assert itself and disbanded in 1799. With the change of government in Denmark, the censorship was tightened and a radical press removed the ground. The country also came into conflict with Great Britain. Meyer, who as a Jacobin was already an opponent of Pitt , began in 1801 with the publication of a magazine The Enemy of England. After the armistice, he called the paper The Enemy of England During the Armistice. A patriotic paper from the editor of the New Man. He even called on the residents of Dithmarschen, like the Levée en masse, to form a militia. With the peace agreement, he stopped the paper.

Meyer had suffered from tuberculosis since 1810 and spent most of the last years of his life in the hospital in Flensburg. He wrote short poems and shortly before his death gave a small volume with the title Experiment in grave inscriptions. In addition to an appendix of some poems from related genres .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth Fehrenbach : From the Ancien Régime to the Congress of Vienna. Munich, 2008 p. 65
  2. ^ Elisabeth Fehrenbach: Democratic upheaval and social movement. France and Germany in the 19th century Munich, 1997 p. 37

literature

personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Georg Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Publicist and German Jacobin
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Flensburg
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 1816
Place of death Flensburg