Jean-Baptiste Nothomb

Jean-Baptiste Nothomb (around 1832)

Jean-Baptiste Baron de Nothomb (born July 3, 1805 in Messancy / Province of Luxembourg , † September 16, 1881 in Berlin ) was a Belgian statesman and diplomat.

After visiting the Athenaeum in Luxembourg , Nothomb studied law and cameralia in Liège and set up as a lawyer in Brussels . He took an active part in the struggle against the government of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and, as one of the chief editors of the Courrier des Pays-Bas in 1829 and 1830, exercised a great influence on the course of the events of the day that ultimately led to the Belgian Revolution .

Appointed by the Provisional Government as a member of the Constitutional Commission, he prepared the Belgian draft constitution and was then appointed a member of Congress and in November 1830 by the Provisional Government a member of the Diplomatic Committee. Nothomb pursued the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the separation of church and state with zeal and success , voted for the election of the Duke of Nemours as king and, in 1831, obtained the position of General Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the Van de Weyer Ministry after the election of Duke Leopold von dem Congress of London 18 items cheap for Belgium. The position of general secretary remained to him under all ministerial changes, and he was considered to be the chief director of Belgian foreign policy. He was also a leader of the moderate party in the Chamber of Deputies.

In 1837 he received the newly established Ministry for Public Works, Navy and Militia. In this role he founded the Belgian railway network, which was exemplary at the time, and promoted mining. After the overthrow of the de Theux government in 1840, Nothomb resigned from the cabinet and was appointed Belgian envoy to the German Bundestag . Returning to Belgium in 1841, he fell out with Prime Minister Lebeau and his other liberal friends, as he maintained his alliance with the Catholic Party . In 1841 he himself became prime minister of a new cabinet that pursued a Catholic-liberal direction, but was unable to overcome the split between the parties and in 1845 was subject to the liberal opposition. He then took over the legation post in Berlin , where he earned the special trust of the court and knew how to consolidate the good relationship between Germany and Belgium.

Fonts

• Essai historique et politique sur la révolution Belge. Meline, Bruxelles 1833 (4th edition 1876).
• Historical-diplomatic presentation of the foundation of the Kingdom of Belgium under international law. Cotta, Stuttgart 1836. (Translation: Adolph Michaelis ).
• Péage des routes. Bruxelles 1938.
• Travaux publics en Belgique: chemins de fer et routes ordinairs, 1830–1839. Rémy, Bruxelles 1839. (2nd edition 1840: Google book )
• La Navigation de la Belgique vers Paris. Rémy, Bruxelles 1840. Google book
• Statistique de la Belgique. Bruxelles 1848.

literature

• Théodore Juste: Le Baron Nothomb. Muquardt, Bruxelles 1874.
• Théodore Juste: Souvenirs du Baron Nothomb: pour faire suite à la biography. Bruxelles 1882.