Johann Christoph Schwartz (legal historian)

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Johann Christoph Schwartz

Johann Christoph Schwartz (born January 19, 1722 in Riga ; † November 7, 1804 there ) was a Baltic German legal scholar and diplomat. He was the mayor of Riga and the Nestor of Livonian legal history.

Life

Schwartz came from a council family who had immigrated to Livonia from Mecklenburg . After he finished attending Riga's cathedral school in 1741, his father Adam Hinrich Schwartz sent him to Saint Petersburg . He then got an accurate picture of their constitution and administration in most of the cities of Livonia and Estonia . Only then did he study law at the University of Leipzig . After completing his studies, he traveled to Germany, Holland and England.

mayor

Returned to Riga in 1745, he entered the service of his hometown as secretary of the city ​​council . He became senior secretary in 1753 and councilor in 1761. In addition, he devoted himself to the city history and diplomacy of Riga. In 1767 he represented the city at the great law commission that Catherine II had summoned to Moscow from all the provinces of Russia to draw up a general code of law for the Russian Empire . He also took part in the further negotiations in Petersburg until 1772, when the entire commission was finally dissolved without result. Before and afterwards he represented Riga's affairs in Petersburg several times. In 1782 Schwartz became mayor . He received the highest political position in his hometown. In 1787 the old constitution of the city was overturned, the old council was removed and a governorate was established. After 42 years in the service of Riga, Schwartz resigned from his position. He felt the new institutions were illegal. Most of the councilors followed suit. Schwartz withdrew completely from public life.

Private scholar

As the fruit of years of study, his publications fall almost exclusively into the period of seclusion. When Tsar Paul I restored the old constitution in 1796, he was immediately re-elected mayor; but he did not accept the election because he no longer felt up to the physical demands of the office. Public spirit remained his determining trait. Unpretentious and modest, he disdained all titles. The works of Friedrich Georg von Bunge and especially Leonhard von Napiersky corrected and overtook some of Schwartz's views. Regardless of this, it is thanks to Schwartz that the first historical account of the development of the Old Livonian legal status and its legal sources is due. As a historian and expert on documents, he also dealt with the Duchy of Courland and Zemgale . Not particularly supported by the Kurlanders, he collected the scattered and difficult to access material. The Courland Provincial Museum in Mitau kept supplements and improvements in 2 volumes .

Like no other before, Schwartz was buried from the town hall. 12 merchants carried him to his grave. All of Riga gave him his last escort. In the first decades of the 19th century his bust stood in many houses in Riga, Livonia and Courland.

Honors

Works

Except for the book about Kurland (1799), all of Schwartz's writings appeared without his name.

  • An attempt at a history of the Rigian city rights . Gadebusch's experiments in Livonian history II St. 3 (1785)
  • Diplomatic remarks drawn from the Liefland documents. Nordic Miscellanees St. 27 and 28, Riga 1791.
  • Attempt to create a history of the rights of knights and land in the country . Riga 1794.
  • Some remarks about M. Carl Philip Michael Snell's parish priest zu Butzbach im Hessen-Darmstaedtschen (formerly Rectors in Riga) Description of the Russian provinces on the Baltic Sea; as a supplement or an appendix to it . Goettingen 1798.
  • Complete library of Kurland and Pilsen state writings, arranged according to the chronological order . Mitau 1799. Piltene

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GoogleBooks
  2. ↑ Extract from Schwartz's notes on his activities in Moscow by B. Hollander in the reports of the meetings of the Society for History and Archeology in Riga for 1885, pp. 81–90.
  3. ↑ GoogleBooks
  4. ↑ ADB

Remarks

  1. ↑ The family history was printed in only 40 copies as a private print for the family. Originals can be found in the Berlin State Library, at the “Herold” association in Berlin-Dahlem and in the Secret State Archive of Prussian Cultural Heritage.


personal data
SURNAME Schwartz, Johann Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baltic German legal scholar and diplomat, Mayor of Riga
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1722
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 1804
Place of death Riga