Johann Christoph von Herdegen

Johann Christoph von Herdegen. Oil painting by Gottlob Wilhelm Morff

Johann Christoph Herdegen , from June 10, 1814 from Herdegen (born March 20, 1787 in Lauffen am Neckar , † March 16, 1861 in Stuttgart ) was an official, politician and finance minister of the Kingdom of Württemberg .

Career

Christoph Herdegen was the son of the red tanner Johann Christoph Herdegen (* 1752, † 1807) in Lauffen. His mother's name was Dorothea Katharine geb. Bezner and was the daughter of a surgeon from Walheim . Herdegen grew up as the eldest next to four younger siblings. He attended the Latin school in Lauffen and began an apprenticeship with the local clerk and community clerk in 1801 . During his apprenticeship he was accepted into the salary-related activity of a middle subscriber. From 1805 to 1807 he worked as a substitute in Großsachsenheim . In 1806 he passed the examination to become a substitute and in 1807 the examination for senior actuary and town clerk . From 1807 to 1810 he was employed as a senior actuary in Bietigheim . Because of the frequent absence of the chief bailiff , Herdegen was able to distinguish himself as his deputy. In 1810 he was appointed Secretary of the Military Conscription Commission in the War Department , where he served for the next five years. From 1812 to 1813 he served as General War Commissioner of the Royal Württemberg Supplementary Corps, which was sent to the Russian campaign in August 1812 . From 1813 to 1814 he took part in the wars of liberation as a war commissioner and ended his military service from 1814 to 1815 as a general war commissioner. From February 15 to March 7, 1815 he still held the function of an accountant in the military accountancy chamber , before he was then from 1815 to 1817 chief finance officer in the crown domains section and the general administration of salts. On November 18, 1817 he was appointed assistant to the newly established state control.

politics

From 1820, Herdegen, as a companion to Finance Minister Weckherlin, observed the meetings of the Württemberg Chamber of Deputies . As a lecturing councilor in the Department of Finance and since 1821 as an extraordinary member of the Privy Council , over the next ten years he gained a deep insight into the management of state affairs. On September 23, 1832 he was appointed head of the Department of Finance and a full member of the Privy Council with the title Real Council of State . According to today's understanding, this corresponded to the function of a finance minister, although he was only promoted to real minister on September 26, 1839 .

When he assumed his position at the head of the Ministry of Finance in 1832, the Württemberg state finances were already in good shape. The results of the calculations during the previous peace years had led to surpluses. As a result of the French July Revolution of 1830 , however, it became politically uneasy and the liberal movement in Württemberg also received a strong boost, so that Herdegen, as a representative of the government, had to answer countless critical questions from the opposition in the state parliament in his early years. As early as January 16, 1833, Herdegen submitted its first draft state budget law to the 6th Ordinary State Parliament , on which the leaders of the opposition Friedrich Römer , Paul Pfizer , Ludwig Uhland and Albert Schott did not take a clear position, so the State Parliament already on March 22 It was dissolved in 1833, the day the German Customs Union was founded, and went down in history as the Vain State Parliament . The 7th Annual parliament now discussed since 20. May 1833 in 116 intensive series of meetings the new budget, which finally was adopted on 9 December 1833 envisaged for the next three years tax relief for citizens. The next three-year budget was decided in 1836 after almost six months of negotiations in the state parliament and again led to tax breaks. His third state budget, which Herdegen presented to the state parliament in 1839, led to a historic low in the Württemberg tax burden. Herdegen was also able to continue his financial policy in the tax period from 1842 to 1845 and contributed to the upturn in the Württemberg economy with his tax relief. To save money, Herdegen also streamlined the state administration, for example. From the original 79 Kameralämtern he was 65, he territorially the top office districts accessible.

Despite the constant tax cuts during his twelve years as finance minister, the budget remained balanced. Nevertheless, the Württemberg state did not bypass necessary investments. This included the expenses that resulted from the further peasant liberation . Herdegen submitted four replacement laws to the state parliament on January 16, 1833, of which, however, only three could be consulted on January 30, 1836 due to the resistance of the noblemen. The three replacement laws were finally passed in October 1836 and cost the Württemberg taxpayers around 2.5 million guilders in compensation capital. During his tenure, Herdegen endeavored to replace the partly still existing state tax obligations in kind (fruit and wine) with purely monetary burdens and to cede the tithe and wine presses that became free to the communities.

State investments during Herdegen's tenure included the takeover of the rifle factory in Oberndorf in 1839 and expenses for the Württemberg army , including the construction of the Rotebühl barracks completed in 1842 , the construction of a new riding barracks (on the site of today's Stuttgart main station; therefore demolished in 1920) and a military hospital in Stuttgart, next to it new barracks and military hospital buildings in Ulm . In the civil sector, new buildings were constructed for the Stuttgart Art School and the State Gallery , the new auditorium and an anatomy at the University of Tübingen , the expansion of the spa in Wildbad and the improvement of the transport infrastructure. Around 400,000 guilders flowed into the expansion of the country roads per three-year financial period, new bridges were built and shipping on the Neckar and other rivers and canals expanded. Herdegen proved to be very hesitant when it came to the question of railway construction. He initially considered a railway for the agricultural state of Württemberg to be completely unnecessary and also shied away from the high costs of a possible state railway. He also tried to win over the Minister of the Interior, Johannes von Schlayer , who was responsible for railroad construction , but gradually changed his mind in favor of the state railway under the influence of his childhood friend and student friend Friedrich List . Herdegen is one of the main culprits for the long delay in railway construction in Württemberg compared to other German states, as he rejected the immense government debt policy associated with it. After all, the other German states initially relied on private railways, but given the difficult topography of Württemberg, a privately financed railroad was hopeless. On August 5, 1844, Herdegen retired at his own request.

In the twelve years of his first tenure as Minister of Finance, Herdegen was able to push the Württemberg state debt to the lowest level in its history, to around 21 million guilders (the equivalent of 36 million marks, as of June 30, 1844). Since then, the debts rose to over 700 million marks, mainly due to the operation of the state railways, by 1918.

After the events of the revolution of 1848 , the October Ministry was formed in 1849 , to which Herdegen belonged again as Minister of Finance. However, this second term was not an official return to active service, as Herdegen waived regular ministerial salaries and instead continued to receive his pension. With the dissolution of the Second State Assembly to discuss the constitution on July 2, 1850, the October Ministry also resigned. From July 15, 1850, Herdegen headed the Statistical Topographical Bureau until his death in 1861 .

Private life

Herdegen was a Protestant and in 1815 married Katharine Rosine Nellmann († 1863), the daughter of a master builder from Lauffen. The marriage resulted in six children, including the finance advisor Robert Herdegen and the forest advisor Hermann Herdegen.

Honors

• On September 10, 1814, Herdegen was awarded the Order of Civil Merit, with which the personal Württemberg nobility was connected,
• In 1820 he received the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown ,
• On October 30, 1841 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tübingen,
• In 1834 he received the commentary cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown
• In 1835 he received the Grand Cross of the Zähringer Lion Order ,
• Then in 1837 the Knight's Cross of the Order of Frederick .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Swabian images of life. Volume 5, p. 198.
2. ↑ Swabian images of life. Volume 5, p. 206.
3. ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Handbook 1824. P. 31.
4. ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Handbook 1858. P. 34.
5. ↑ Court and State Handbook of the Grand Duchy of Baden 1847. P. 51.
6. ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Handbook 1839. p. 41.

literature

• Alfred Dehlinger : Christoph Herdegen. In: Hermann Haering (Ed.) Swabian Life Pictures. Volume 5, W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1950, pp. 192-213.
• Markus Numberger: The ancestors of Johann Christoph Herdegen. (= Southwest German ancestral lists and pedigree tables. Volume 5). Published by the Association for Family and Heraldry in Württemberg and Baden eV, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-934464-10-0 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Christoph Ludwig von Herzog	Head of the Finance Department in the Privy Council of Württemberg 1832–1844	Karl von Gärttner