Johann Friedrich Knapp (politician)

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Johann Friedrich Knapp

Johann Friedrich Knapp (born September 20, 1776 in Erbach , † May 22, 1848 in Darmstadt ) was a Hessian politician , archaeologist, writer and member of the parliament and president of the 2nd Chamber of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse .

family

Johann Friedrich Knapp was the son of the Erbach Chamber Councilor Theodor Friedrich Knapp (1731-1810) and his wife Juliana Katharina, née Seyffardt (1734-1805). Juliana Seyffardt was the daughter of the Countess Erbachischen centgrave Johannes Seyffart. After the engagement on December 30, 1803, Knapp was married to Elisabethe Christine, nee Louis (1787–1862), with whom he had 8 children, from January 30, 1804. One of his sons was the chemist Friedrich Ludwig Knapp , his grandson the economist Georg Friedrich Knapp , his great-granddaughter the social reformer Elly Heuss-Knapp (married to the Federal President Theodor Heuss ) and his great-great-grandson the resistance fighter Ernst Ludwig Heuss . One daughter married Wilhelm Freiherr von Wedekind , a member of the Hessian state parliament .

education and profession

Medallion on the base of the monument to Count Franz I on the market square in Erbach / Odenwald. East side: Friedrich Knapp.

He attended the Erbacher Stadtschule and was chosen by Count Franz I of Erbach-Erbach to play with the count's children, so he spent most of the afternoons in Erbach Castle . From 1792 he attended high school in Darmstadt . Just graduated from spring 1795 law , first in Jena , then in Marburg . In 1798 he registered for the legal exam in Erbach, he was the first candidate in this subject in Erbach. After that he worked as a lawyer. Count Franz I appointed Knapp, who was only 23 years old, to be his office director on July 24, 1800, making him the most important employee in the administration. His salary was initially 200 guilders and was increased to 350 guilders in March 1801.

Knapp initially led the difficult negotiations for Erbach-Erbach after the Treaty of Lunéville . In the course of this he was appointed to the government council on October 17, 1802 and traveled to Munich for his master . He then moved on the orders of Count Francis I in the services of the brother in law of Count Franz, Count Wartenberg . Knapp negotiated almost daily with numerous important personalities of the time, including Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich . His negotiations were successful, and as a thank you, Count Wartenberg gave him a gold watch and 4,000 guilders. In 1806 Knapp met Napoleon Bonaparte in Munich . After the mediatization of Erbach-Erbach, he returned there and on September 20, 1808, he became an Erbachian councilor at the newly created general justice law firm in Michelstadt . Count Franz made it short with the words: You are going to Vienna or no one. - Franz Graf zu Erbach Erbach sent to the negotiations for the Congress of Vienna . Subsequently, after his return to Erbach, this led to considerable disputes with the Erbach law firm director Seeger. The relationship eventually became so bad that Knapp was forced to resign from the Erbach service and apply for a job with the then Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt , Ludwig I. In 1816, Knapp was appointed Real Privy Councilor to the Darmstadt Court of Appeal and Cassation. Nevertheless, his relationship with the Erbacher Grafenhaus remained friendly. In Darmstadt he joined the Masonic lodge there in 1815, Johannes the Evangelist for Eintracht .

Activities in antiquity

Out of his own interest as well as out of the interest of Count Franz, he accomplished some pioneering achievements in early Roman provincial archeology from 1810 onwards . Knapp examined several forts in the Odenwald Limes and the Roman villa rustica Haselburg . Accordingly, many of his contributions can be found in the Erbacher catalogs. The result of the encouragement on the part of some Heidelberg professors after a chance meeting in 1812 led to the publication of his work Roman Monuments of the Odenwald a year later , in particular the County of Erbach and Herrschaft Breuberg, at the same time a guide for friends of antiquity on trips to those areas . The book, published by Joseph Engelmann in Heidelberg, was well received in the scientific world and brought him several visits from learned personalities of his time, including Friedrich Ludwig Jahn , who visited him in Michelstadt in April 1814.

Excavations on the Odenwald Limes at the time of Knapp, illustration from the Erbacher catalogs by Christian Kehrer .

Even later, as President of the Historical Association for the Grand Duchy of Hesse, he remained connected to historical studies.

politics

In 1820, Friedrich Knapp was elected to parliament for the constituency of Starkenburg 7 (Heppenheim-Fürth) in the first elections to the 2nd Chamber of the Land estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse . In the second parliamentary term from 1823 he was President of the 2nd Chamber.

In 1823 he became a member of the State Council. In 1825 he became a Privy Councilor in the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, and in 1832 a Privy Councilor of State. In 1838 he was retired.

Literary activities

In addition to the literary work for antiquity and economics, Knapp was also active in literature. In 1813 he wrote two plays : The Knight's Word or Schenk Eberhard the Younger von Erbach in four acts, and The Allies , a one-act play. Both are still handwritten, but have never been published. In 1838 he wrote the poem Mein Geschick in 24 stanzas. In 1844, already in retirement, he wrote the work: A few comparative reviews of the times of Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous of Hesse and Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse . In addition, Knapp dealt with other questions, for example the following writings appeared about 1845: Why wasn't the steam engine invented earlier? and where is Siegfried, one of the heroes of the Nibelungenlied, supposed to have been murdered? . On this question, Knapp decided to go to the source near Grasellenbach . When he was over 70 years old, he began a purely platonic friendship with a woman who was more than 40 years his junior, Amalie von Faber. The correspondence between the two of them has survived, and they mostly wrote longer, romantic poems in the Biedermeier style .

Johann Friedrich Knapp died on May 22, 1848 and was buried in the old cemetery in Darmstadt. His grave is still preserved and is maintained by the city of Darmstadt.

Honors

1831 Friedrich Knapp received from the University of Giessen, the honorary doctorate Dr. jur. hc and he was Commander First Class of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Ludwig .

Fonts

  • Roman monuments of the Odenwald, in particular of the County of Erbach and Herrschaft Breuberg. At the same time a guide for friends of antiquity on trips to those regions. Engelmann, Heidelberg 1813, digitized version, (Also: Meder, Heidelberg 1814; 2nd, improved edition, increased with additions by HE Scriba . Jonghaus, Darmstadt 1854, digitized version ).
  • Drafts for a penal code for the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1831 and 1836. With a lecture by Friedrich von Lindelof and comments by Johann Friedrich Knapp. Edited and introduced by Werner Schubert. Keip, Goldbach 1993, ISBN 3-8051-0055-8 .
  • Fourteen treatises on subjects of political economy and state economy. Jonghaus, Darmstadt 1840.
  • Numerous articles in the archive for Hessian history and antiquity. ISSN  0066-636X .

literature

  • Eduard Anthes :  Knapp, Johann Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 250-252.
  • Rainer Braun: Early research on the Upper Germanic Limes in Baden-Württemberg (= writings of the Limes Museum Aalen. No. 45, ZDB -ID 236356-2 ). Württembergisches Landesmuseum - Secretariat of the Archaeological Collections, Stuttgart 1991, p. 22 f.
  • Magda Heidenreich: The Erbach government councilor Johann Friedrich Knapp as a civil servant, scholar and private individual. In: Historical association for the district town and the former county of Erbach (ed.): From the history of town and county Erbach (= From the history of town and county Erbach. Vol. 1, ZDB -ID 2292273-8 ). Historical association for the district town and the former county of Erbach, Erbach 1989, p. 119 ff.
  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , pp. 216-217.
  • Hans Georg Ruppel, Birgit Groß: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (2nd Chamber) and the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse (= Darmstädter Archivschriften. Vol. 5). Verlag des Historisches Verein für Hessen, Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-922316-14-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heidenreich: The Erbach government councilor Johann Friedrich Knapp as a civil servant, scholar and private man. In: From the history of the city and county of Erbach. 1989, p. 122.
  2. ^ Heidenreich: The Erbach government councilor Johann Friedrich Knapp as a civil servant, scholar and private man. In: From the history of the city and county of Erbach. 1989, pp. 131-132.
  3. ^ Heidenreich: The Erbach government councilor Johann Friedrich Knapp as a civil servant, scholar and private man. In: From the history of the city and county of Erbach. 1989, p. 141.
  4. ↑ JF Knapp: Roman monuments of the Odenwald, especially the county of Erbach and the rule of Breuberg. 1813; Reinhold Fischer, Michael Müller: The history of the "Haselburg".
personal data
SURNAME Knapp, Johann Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Knapp, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hessian politician, archeologist, writer and member of the state parliament in the Grand Duchy of Hesse
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH Erbach
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1848
Place of death Darmstadt