Heinrich Christian von Senckenberg

Heinrich Christian Freiherr von Senckenberg on a portrait from 1767

Heinrich Christian Reichsfreiherr von Senckenberg (born October 19, 1704 in Frankfurt am Main , † May 30, 1768 in Vienna ) was a German lawyer and political scientist.

life and work

Heinrich Christian Senckenberg was the eldest son of the Frankfurt city physician Johann Hartmann Senckenberg (1655–1730) and his second wife Anna Margaretha nee. Raumburger (1682-1740). He was born in his parents' home, Zu den Drei Hasen, on the corner of Hasengasse and Töngesgasse . His parents' marriage was considered unhappy. His mother is portrayed by the biographers Georg Ludwig Kriegk and Rudolf Jung as a fury and megarist who exerted an unfavorable influence on her sons - in addition to Heinrich Christian, his younger brothers Johann Christian , Conrad Hieronymus (1709–1739) and Johann Erasmus , see above that all three developed into eccentricities.

Heinrich Christian grew up mainly in Giessen with relatives. 1719-1724 he studied law and received his doctorate there in 1729 to Dr. jur. In 1729 he settled as a lawyer in Frankfurt, in 1730 he entered the service of the Wild and Rhine Count Karl von Dhaun . In 1736 he received a call to the newly founded University of Göttingen as a professor of law, where he was also awarded a Dr. phil. PhD.

In 1744 he acquired the citizenship of his hometown, where he was appointed Reichshofrat in 1745 on the occasion of the imperial coronation of Franz I. He was the only Frankfurt resident who was ever appointed to this office.

Senckenberg moved to Vienna, where he was made an imperial baron in 1751 and was the closest collaborator of the imperial vice-chancellor until his death in 1768. In later years he only returned to Frankfurt twice for short visits, in 1754 on the occasion of a cure in Schwalbach and in 1764 for the coronation of Emperor Joseph II , but continued to take part in urban politics. In 1746 he campaigned for the election of his youngest brother Johann Erasmus to the council, which was dominated by the town patriciate . When Johann Erasmus was later expelled from the council for fraud, forgery and the rape of his housekeeper and was to be brought to justice, he saved him from conviction through his influence at the imperial court, since the council of the Free Imperial City had no conflict with the trial wanted to risk the emperor. Johann Erasmus was arrested only after Heinrich Christian's death.

Senckenberg wrote numerous writings and collections of sources on legal history, including The Monarchical-Democratic Form of the Roman Empire (1724), Selecta iuris et historiarum (several volumes, 1734 to 1742), Corpus iuris feudalis Germanici (1740), collection of unprinted and rare writings on Explanation of the state (4 volumes 1745 to 1751) and the collection of the imperial farewells since Conrad II , published in 1747 .

In 1752 he was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . From 1760 he was also a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Senckenberg was married twice. From his second marriage with Sophie Elisabeth von Palm in 1746 , he had two sons, Renatus Karl von Senckenberg (1751–1800) and Carl Christian Heinrich von Senckenberg (1760–1842). Both sons left no children behind, so that with the death of the younger son in 1842 the male line of the Senckenbergs became extinct.

literature

Constantin von Wurzbach : Senkenberg, Heinrich Christian Freiherr . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 34th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1877, pp. 115–117 ( digitized version ).
Rudolf Jung : Senckenberg, Heinrich Christian von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, p. 1 f.
Barbara Dölemeyer: Heinrich Christian Senckenberg - Frankfurt lawyer and Reichshofrat (1704–1768) . In: Fürstenhof and scholarly republic. Hessian résumés of the 18th century = Small writings on Hessian cultural studies 5th ed .: Hessian State Center for Political Education , pp. 103–111.
Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . Second volume. M – Z (= publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 2 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-7829-0459-1 .

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Christian von Senckenberg - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Heinrich Christian von Senckenberg in the catalog of the German National Library
Works by and about Heinrich Christian von Senckenberg in the German Digital Library
Senckenberg, Heinrich Christian von. Hessian biography. (As of June 23, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
Senckenberg, Heinrich Christian (von) in the Frankfurt dictionary of persons

Individual evidence

↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 224.

personal data
SURNAME	Senckenberg, Heinrich Christian von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Senckenberg, Heinrich Christian Reichsfreiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German lawyer and political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH	October 19, 1704
PLACE OF BIRTH	Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH	May 30, 1768
Place of death	Vienna

[1] Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 224.