Hermann of midnight

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Hermann von Mittnacht on a picture from his time as Minister of Justice in Württemberg
Grave of Hermann von Mittnacht in the old cemetery in Friedrichshafen

Hermann Carl Friedrich von Mittnacht , from 1887 Freiherr von Mittnacht (born March 17, 1825 in Stuttgart , † May 2, 1909 in Friedrichshafen ) was a German lawyer . He was the first Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Württemberg .

Life

Midnight was the son of the Oberfinanzrat and surveying director Franz Jakob (von) Mittnacht (1781-1849), a Württemberg civil servant from the New Württemberg regions, and Magdalene von Sulzbeck (1791-1829).

After attending grammar school in Stuttgart, Mittnacht studied law in Tübingen and Heidelberg from 1842 to 1848 . During his studies he became a member of the Corps Suevia Tübingen (1843) and the Corps Guestphalia Heidelberg (1844). After joining the Wuerttemberg judicial service in 1849 and working as an assistant at various court locations, he became senior judicial assessor in 1854 and public prosecutor in Ellwangen in 1857 .

Herrmann von Mittnacht married Angelika Bucher (1835–1910) in 1854, the daughter of the Württemberg state parliament member Franz Xaver Bucher (1798–1859). The couple had four children.

Political career

From 1861 to 1900 Mittnacht was a member of the upper office of Mergentheim in the second chamber of the Württemberg state parliament . He was conservative, but did not belong to any party. In 1862 he became city judge in Stuttgart, since 1864 with the title of senior judicial councilor and in 1865 promoted to senior tribunal councilor. In 1867 Mittnacht became Minister of Justice under the "leading minister" Karl von Varnbuler . He was much more committed than Varnbuler in the negotiations on the accession of the Kingdom of Württemberg to the newly emerging German Empire . From 1868 to 1870 he was a member of the customs parliament as a member of the constituency of Württemberg 8 ( Gerabronn , Crailsheim , Mergentheim ) . After Varnbüler's resignation in autumn 1870, Mittnacht became the de facto head of the Württemberg government (President of the Privy Council and Chairman of the Council of Ministers).

In 1873 he became Foreign Minister as successor to Freiherr von Wächter and in 1876 first Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Württemberg (official title: President of the State Ministry). This successful creation of an independent state ministry in 1876 marked the actual independence of the Württemberg government from the king . The Ministry of Justice handed over to Eduard von Faber 's successor to the ministry midnight in 1878 .

Mittnacht - who at the beginning of his political career was more of a Greater German - has always been loyal to the German Reich since 1871. However, in the interests of the royal couple Karl and Olga , he ensured that the federal structure of the empire was maintained, in particular by adhering to important reservation rights for the Kingdom of Württemberg (e.g. Württemberg Foreign Ministry, embassies abroad, own army, own taxes as well as own postal and railway system). Nevertheless, he became a confidante of Bismarck , with whom he did not break ties even after his resignation as Chancellor in 1890.

In the Bundesrat in Berlin Wed night was a respected authority. At home in Stuttgart, Mittnacht succeeded in a very pragmatic way between the politically disinterested King Karl and the state parliament to be the real strong man of the kingdom during his entire reign and thus to bring it on the path of a parliamentary monarchy. He based his policy on the government-loyal "state party" and the national liberal German party . It is noteworthy that he succeeded in all of this in a predominantly Protestant-Swabian country, although he himself was Catholic and also of Franconian descent.

In 1900, Mittnacht resigned from all his government offices and the state parliament mandate for reasons of age. He spent his retirement in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.

Honors

In Stuttgart an office building ( midnight building ) as well as a street and a tram stop (midnight street) are named after him. A new S-Bahn station, which is being built as part of the Stuttgart 21 rail project , will also be named after him.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 197 , 254; 112 , 543

See also

literature

  • Hermann Hengst: The Knights of the Black Eagle Order. Duncker, Berlin 1901
  • Anton Bettelheim (Hrsg.): Biographisches Jahrbuch and German Nekrolog. Volume 14, 1909, Reimer, Berlin 1912
  • Wilhelm Kosch : Catholic Germany. Volume 2, Haas & Grabherr, Augsburg 1937
  • Wilhelm Kosch, continued by Eugen Kuri: Biographisches Staats Handbuch. Francke, Bern [et al.] 1963.
  • Georg H. Kleine: The Prime Minister of Württemberg, Frhr Hermann von Mittnacht (1825-1909). W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1969
  • Hellmuth Rössler and Günther Franz (founders); Karl Bosl , Günther Franz and Hanns Hubert Hofmann (editor): Biographical dictionary on German history. 2nd edition, Volume 2, Francke, Munich 1974
  • Kurt GA Jeserich and Helmut Neuhaus (ed.): Personalities of the administration. W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart [et al.] 1991
  • Klaus-Jürgen Matz:  Midnight, Hermann Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 589 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Walther Killy, Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . Volume 7, Saur, Munich [et al.] 1998.
  • Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 .
  • The Kingdom of Württemberg 1806–1918 Monarchy and modernity . Exhibition catalog Landesmuseum Württemberg, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-7995-0221-1

Web links

Commons : Hermann von Mittnacht  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
August von Wächter Württemberg Foreign Minister
1873–1900 		Julius von Soden
personal data
SURNAME Midnight, Hermann von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Midnight, Hermann Carl Friedrich Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician, first Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Württemberg
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1909
Place of death Friedrichshafen