Jón Sigurðsson
Jón Sigurðsson (born June 17, 1811 on Hrafnseyri in Arnarfjörður , † December 7, 1879 in Copenhagen ) was an Icelandic politician, historian and philologist.
He became the champion for Iceland's independence from Denmark . On June 17th, his birthday, Iceland celebrates the national holiday .
Life
His parents were the pastor Sigurður Jónsson and the pastor's daughter Þórdís Jónsdóttir.
In his youth he was home schooled while participating in his parents' farming and fishing industry. After 1829 he worked for a year for a merchant in Copenhagen, then for three years as an office clerk with Bishop Steingrímur Jónsson, in whose archive he got his first insight into Icelandic history. In 1833 he studied history and philology in Copenhagen. From 1835 he was a scholarship holder of the Arnamagnæan Foundation and in 1837 was able to take over the editing of the Skírnir magazine for one year together with Magnús Hákonarson . In 1841 he undertook a three-year trip to Sweden on behalf of the foundation, where he researched Old Norse manuscript collections in Stockholm and Uppsala together with Ólafur Pálsson. In 1845 an archaeological-historical archive was set up under “ Det kongelige nordiske oldskriftselskab ” (royal society for old Nordic scripts). For their Icelandic department he was first archivist and from 1847 archivist. However, the archive was dissolved again in 1849. However, he remained associated with this company until it was reorganized in 1865. He also became secretary of the Arnamagnæan Commission in 1848, which he remained until his death. He continued to live as a private scholar and for his political activities. 1848–1849 he took part in the constituent assembly for the Danish Empire as royal commissioner.
In 1845 he married his relative Ingibjörg, daughter of the Icelandic businessman Einar Jónsson. The marriage remained childless.
In 1859 Jón Sigurðsson was sent to Iceland with Professor Tscherning to fight an impending sheep disease. He advocated a spa treatment while the Icelandic farmers passionately demanded the cull . This meant that he did not step on Icelandic soil for five years (1860–1864).
In 1861 Jón Sigurðsson became a member of a government commission for the financial affairs of Iceland. He was since the rebuilding in 1845 for the district Ísafjarðarsýsla a member of the Althings and from 1849 its president, with the exception of the year 1859 and the special sessions for the drafting of the Icelandic constitution, for which his party denied him the honor of chairmanship.
In the Icelandic literary society (Bókmentafélag) he worked from 1840 and was head of its Copenhagen department from 1851. In 1871 the "Association of Friends of the People" (Þjóðvinafélag) sponsored him financially for his political endeavors until the first legislative assembly in 1875 approved a salary. In 1878 the Icelandic treasury bought his extensive manuscript collection and library for 25,000 kroner. After his death, more than 8,500 kroner were donated to a foundation, the interest of which was awarded for prizes for work on Icelandic history, literature, legislation, the constitution and development.
Jón Sigurðsson lived in Copenhagen at Stockhusgade 1 (Jónshús) until his death on December 7th, 1879. His wife, three years older than him, died a few days later. They were initially buried in Copenhagen, but the following spring they were transferred to Reykjavík, where they were buried on May 4, 1880 with great festivities.
politics
Jón Sigurðsson is considered the architect of what is now Iceland. After the establishment of the advisory meeting of the estates under Friedrich VI. the Icelanders had to be content with sending a few members appointed by the king to the assembly of estates. In addition, there was a later meeting of officials in Reykjavík. When Christian VIII ascended the throne, the Icelanders present in Copenhagen expressed the wish for some reforms, including a representative meeting in Iceland. The king complied with the promise to restore the Althing , which had been dissolved around 1800 . In order to prepare the Icelanders for the new possibilities of political participation, Jón Sigurðsson founded the magazine Ný Félagsrit , which appeared from 1841 to 1873 and was completely shaped by his political ideas. An estimated two thirds of the texts are attributed to him as the author. He pushed through that the Althing, which met every two years, should have its place in Reykjavík and not, as the romantic movement wanted, in the old Thing-place in Þingvellir. He then devoted himself to the school system and trade, which was still under the Danish monopoly.
After absolutism had ended in 1848 , the constitutional question came to the fore for Iceland. In an appeal to his compatriots, Sigurðsson defended his principles on the relationship between Denmark and Iceland, which he subsequently adhered to: the two countries should stand side by side on an equal footing. The government for all Icelandic affairs should be in Iceland and be responsible only to the Althing. A financial settlement should be carried out between Iceland and Denmark and Iceland should then contribute a reasonable amount to general government expenditure. From a very dubious interpretation of the old treaty of 1262, he concluded that it automatically came into force again when the king resigned his absolutist power. According to this, Iceland is a royal crown property and not part of the Danish state, which can only be expressed through the personal union. In addition, the limited resources, which were hardly sufficient to implement the required status, took a back seat.
In Denmark it was assumed that the imperial constitution should also include Iceland. Economic considerations were not decisive here, as Iceland was a grant item in the Danish budget. Rather, it was reasons of national pride to have the heirs of the Old Norse writing culture within their own borders. As time was running out for Iceland's representatives to be elected to the constituent assembly, the King appointed five eminent individuals to represent Iceland's interests. At the same time he promised that nothing should be determined about the legal position of Iceland before the Icelanders have been heard in a special meeting. This National Assembly ("Þjóðfundur") did not meet until 1851. The constitutional proposal presented there diametrically contradicted the ideas of the majority formulated by Jón Sigurðsson. The complete rejection by the assembly could only be prevented by the fact that the royal commissioner prematurely dissolved the assembly. After that, the constitutional question was put on hold for a long time. Due to the premature dissolution of the National Assembly, the opposition saw the government's promise to be heard as not yet fulfilled and called for a new assembly, but the government only wanted to negotiate with the normal Althing.
After all, complete free trade for Iceland was decided at the Reichstag in 1854, which resulted in a great economic boom. When this of his demand was enforced, Sigurðsson put the constitutional question back on the agenda in the magazine Ný Félagsrit , whereby he placed particular emphasis in his treatise on the financial relations between Iceland and Denmark. He also wrote the text "Om Islands statsretlige Forhold" ("About Iceland's constitutional relationships"), which opposed the treatise by JE Larsen Om Islands hidtilværende statsretlinge Stilling ("About Iceland's current constitutional position"). He received support from Konrad Maurer in the German press. Jón Sigurðsson showed in his treatise that Iceland's national budget would by no means be underfunded, as had been claimed. In doing so, however, he included extensive demands from Iceland on Denmark. He not only charged claims from sold crown property, but also compensation for the 200 years of monopoly trade in an effort to document such large revenues that complete equality would arise in the financing of joint tasks.
In the constitutional negotiations that followed with the Althing in 1865, the government offered an independent state budget for Iceland and a subsidy from Denmark for a limited number of years. This proposal was rejected under the influence of Jón Sigurðsson. In 1867 a new and more accommodating proposal on the constitution and the financial regulations was submitted, which, although more popular, was also amended.
At the Reichstag in 1869, impatience with the protracted constitutional negotiations led to a draft law on Iceland's status in the Reich. When this was also rejected, the law "Lov om Islands forfatningsmæssige Stilling i Riget" (Law on Iceland's constitutional status in the empire) was promulgated on January 2, 1871. Iceland was codified as an inseparable part of the Danish Empire with special national rights. Iceland should not be represented in the Imperial Council, nor participate in the Imperial legislation. Iceland was not to contribute anything to the general needs of the empire, which included the annual grant to Iceland. This fulfilled much of Jón Sigurðsson's demands, but the coming into effect of the law was contrary to the principles of the Icelandic opposition and it was only accepted under protest.
In 1873 the mood was so heated that immediately before the Althings met, a people's assembly was held in Þingvellir, in which it was demanded that there should only be a personal union with Denmark. Jón Sigurðsson saw the impracticability of this demand, feared the Danish reaction and reached in the subsequent Althing meeting that, in principle, these demands should be adhered to, but in view of the 1000th anniversary celebrations taking place in the following year, the king should first ask Iceland a constitution to give with as much freedom as possible. So the "Forfatningslov for Iceland" (constitutional law for Iceland) of January 5, 1874 came about, which allowed the Althing to legislate in all Icelandic affairs. This law, like the law of 1871, is essentially due to the tireless work of Jón Sigurðsson. The remaining differences mainly related to problems of state theory.
Nevertheless, he noted with bitterness that his ideal of absolute equality was not able to prevail. After the introduction of this constitution, he took little part in political life. At the Althing in 1877 his weakened health became apparent, and in 1879 he resigned from his mandate. His last political articles can be found in the magazine Andvari , the successor magazine to Ný Félagsrit .
science
Jón Sigurðsson also achieved remarkable achievements as a philologist. He was an excellent manuscript reader and a meticulous editor with a clear eye for the meaning of the sources. For Det kongelige nordiske Oldskriftselskab he published the Íslendinga sögur I – II (1843–1847), containing the Landnámabók , the Íslendingabók and six selected sagas. In the Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed 1848-1854 he published sagas with material from foreign literature and also the Snorra Edda I-II (1848-1852) for the Arnamagnæan Foundation , then in three volumes Skáldatal with the beginning of a corresponding commentary. He based his editions on the oldest and best manuscripts with an extensive critical apparatus on the text variants and a detailed description of the respective manuscript. For Sveinbjörn Egilsson's Lexicon poëticum he wrote a knowledgeable literary-historical introduction. In the Antikvarisk Tidsskrift he published the results of his studies from 1841 in the Swedish libraries. He also participated in the preparatory work for the Regesta diplomatica historiae danicae and the register of the Scriptores rerum Danicarum . He also edited the first volume of the Diplomatarium Islandicum (1857–1876). He has published a number of important source collections.
In 1866 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .
Appreciation
The 500 crown note features a picture of Jón Sigurðsson.
front
back
literature
- Gunnar Karlsson: Den islanske renæssance . In: Annette Lassen (Red.): Det norrøne og det nationale . Reykjavík 2008, pp. 29–42.
- Peter Erasmus Kristian Kaalund: Article Sigurðsson, Jón . In: Dansk biografisk Lexikon , Volume 15. Copenhagen (1887–1905), pp. 578–585.
- Hallgrímur Sveinsson: The national hero of Iceland: Jón Sigurdsson. A concise biography , Vestfirska forlagið, Hrafnseyri 1996, ISBN 9979-9160-1-X .
Web links
- About Jón Sigurðsson (Icelandic, English, German)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frauke Rubart: Iceland: Traditional Democracy and Modern Political Culture on the Northern Edge of Europe ( Memento from August 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ); Parliament, 2004
- ↑ Jónshús , Danish, accessed on 18 January 2017
- ^ Karlsson, p. 35.
- ^ Karlsson, p. 38.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jón Sigurðsson |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sigurðsson, Jón |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Champion for Iceland's independence |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 17, 1811 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hrafnseyri |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 7, 1879 |
| Place of death | Copenhagen |