Georg Jacob Friedrich master

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Georg Jacob Friedrich master

Georg Jacob Friedrich Meister (born October 11, 1755 in Göttingen ; † December 25, 1832 there ) was a German professor of law and a secret councilor who was instrumental in advocating more modern and humane criminal law.

Live and act

The son of the Göttingen law professor and court counselor Christian Friedrich Georg Meister (1718–1782) and a daughter of the Göttingen professor of the Faculty of Law Johann Friedrich Wahl was taught by selected private teachers and was granted so-called academic citizenship at Christmas 1765 at the age of 10. This entitled him to attend academic lectures as a teenager and he proved his talent in the legal field with his first treatise " de conditione: si sine liberis successerit " in 1775 . As a result, Meister studied law at the University of Göttingen and completed this course in 1778 with his doctorate.

The university then took him on, initially as a private lecturer in civil and criminal law, and from 1782, a few weeks before his father's death, as an associate professor for criminal law. At the same time, together with his two brothers-in-law, Justus Ludwig Bechtold and Johann Friedrich Eberhard Böhmer, he was appointed assessor in the university's panel of judgments, which he also chaired in later years. In 1784 the University of Göttingen gave him the position of full professor for criminal and criminal law, elected him in 1801 as prorector and first magistrate of the university and in 1807 appointed him professor of the law faculty, a position which he held until his death. Prior to that, he was promoted to court counselor in 1792 and to the secret council of justice in 1816.

In his main field, the area of ​​criminal law, Meister advocated a clear humanization of criminal law , especially influenced by the Boehmer family of lawyers , into which he married. While Johann Samuel Friedrich von Böhmer , brother of Master's father-in-law Georg Ludwig Böhmer , argued that the then common torture as a means of proving a crime punishable by the death penalty could be retained, though by defining fixed principles it would be arbitrary for the If practice should be avoided, in his textbook for criminal law " Principia iuris criminalis Germaniae communis " , Meister advocated significantly reducing or even abolishing the motives for a death penalty and also replacing the associated possibility of torture with more humane methods. With the help of this work, which has been supplemented, revised and reissued several times, it is easy to understand in the respective editions how Meister had developed from his original role of mediator between traditional understanding of criminal law and renewal into an energetic advocate for humanity and civilization in the spirit of the Enlightenment . In doing so, he took the state into its commitment by pleading for sensible prevention to prevent criminal machinations and for avoiding sources of violence. He also vehemently advocated these reformist ideas in his other publications and numerous lectures.

In the meantime, the government of the Kingdom of Hanover could no longer avoid these references and regularly consulted Meister in its legislative process. In 1824 he was commissioned by her to work with Friedrich Johann Ludwig Göschen to draft a new criminal code. In addition to his own publications, Meister was also the editor of some of his father's and father-in-law's completed works, which they could no longer complete before their respective deaths.

Master's most important students at the university at that time included Karl August Tittmann , Heinrich Eduard Siegfried von Schrader, Christian Friedrich Mühlenbruch and Ernst Peter Johann Spangenberg . For his services to teaching and jurisprudence, Meister was honored with the Knight's Cross of the Guelph Order , with which he was also raised to the personal, non-hereditary nobility.

family

Georg Jakob Friedrich Meister was married to Justina Dorothea Louise Boehmer (1769–1823), daughter of the Göttingen law professor and Privy Councilor Georg Ludwig Böhmer , with whom he had seven children, of which, however, two sons and daughters did not survive their father. Through this family constellation, Meister benefited from the regular meetings and the intellectual exchange of ideas in the house of his father-in-law, most of which were his children as well as most of the brothers-in-law by marriage such as Karl Wilhelm Hoppenstedt , Georg Heinrich Nieper , Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer and Meister himself Others attended. This tradition of discussion groups was continued even after the death of his father-in-law in the Meister's house and was also extended to new guests. In addition to the family members already mentioned, the brothers Adolphus Frederick, 1st Duke of Cambridge , and Ernst August I of Hanover frequented this house as well as the anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach , the historian August Ludwig von Schlözer , and the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .

After Georg Meister's death, his brother-in-law Georg Wilhelm Böhmer , co-founder of the Mainz Republic , later justice of the peace and finally private lecturer in Göttingen, wrote a remarkable biography about him.

Fonts (selection)

  • De evangelica religionis qualitate voti curiati collegii comitum Franconicorum in comitiis imperii universalibus. Dissertation. Dieterich, Göttingen 1778.
  • Attempt to determine the principles according to which the religious quality of the German Reichstag votes can be judged most correctly. Dieterich, Göttingen 1780.
  • Treatise on the influence which the criminal's class has on the penalties and the procedure in criminal matters. Bossiegel, Göttingen 1784.
  • Principia iuris criminalis Germaniae communis. Dieterich, Göttingen 1789.
  • Treatise on the religious situation of the Reichstag votes against Georg Jakob Friedrich Meister's attempt to determine the principles according to which the religious quality of the German Reichstag votes is to be judged Freiburg im Breisgau, 1789.
  • Practical remarks from criminal and civil law, explained through judgments and reports of the Göttingen Jurists Faculty. 2 vol. Dieterich, Göttingen 1791–1795.
  • Legal knowledge and expert opinions in embarrassing cases, mostly prepared in the name of the Göttingische Juristen-Facultät. together with Christian Friedrich Georg Meister. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1799.

Literature and Sources

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Master, Georg Jacob Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal scholar and university professor and advocate of a more humane criminal law
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1755
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1832
Place of death Goettingen