Johann Friedrich Struensee

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Johann Friedrich Struensee, portrayed by Jens Juel , 1771 ( Residence Museum in Celle Castle )
Johann Friedrich Struensee, portrait painted by Christian August Lorentzen about 1770 (Danish National History Museum at Frederiksborg Palace )

Johann Friedrich Struensee (* August 5, 1737 in Halle , † April 28, 1772 in Copenhagen ) was a German doctor and enlightener . For a little over a year he was the de facto regent of Denmark . He was knighted as a count by Christian VII .

Struensee, son of Adam Struensee (1708–1791), General Superintendent of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein , who served from 1759 to 1791, became a pauper's doctor in Altona at the age of 20 . There he made a name for himself over the next decade with new, successful forms of therapy. In 1768 he accompanied the mentally ill Danish King Christian VII on his trip to Europe and in 1769 he went to Copenhagen as his personal physician . Within a short time, Struensee rose to become the most powerful man in the state. Equipped with a royal general power, he tried from September 1770 to transform government and society in the spirit of the Enlightenment . Through its numerous reforms, the Danish state as a whole became the most progressive state of its time. But Struensee quickly made enemies at court with his rigorous austerity and personnel policies. Already in 1772 he was overthrown and executed. However, some of his reforms, such as freedom of the press , remained in place.

His love affair with Queen Caroline Mathilde was a scandal at the time and is still the subject of novels and films today. With high probability he was the father of Princess Louise Auguste of Denmark (and thus ancestor of Auguste Viktoria , the last German empress).

Live and act

youth and family

Johann Friedrich Struensee was born in Halle as the second of six children of the pietistic pastor and professor at the University of Halle Adam Struensee. His mother Maria Dorothea was the only daughter of the Count's personal physician at Berleburg Castle and later Danish Judicial Councilor Johann Samuel Carl . From 1732 to 1742 Carl was the personal physician of the Danish King Christian VI. and had been involved in reforming the Danish healthcare system in 1740.

Johann Friedrich's childhood was characterized by deep piety and fatherly strictness and a sense of duty. In Halle he attended the Latina of the Francke Foundations and began studying medicine a few days before his fifteenth birthday . Before his 20th birthday, he completed his studies on February 14, 1757 with a doctorate. He dedicated his dissertation entitled De incongruis corporis motis insalubritate (On the health damage caused by incorrect body movement) to his grandfather, who had lived in Struensee's daughter's house for a while during Struensee's childhood. In this early writing, he propagated that nature itself strives for healing and that it must therefore be the task of medicine to support it through hardening and fresh air. At the suggestion of his grandfather, he then traveled to Berlin to continue his education at the Charité . He didn't stay there long, however, but moved to Göttingen , where he learned midwifery from Johann Georg Roederer . On the way back he contracted typhus .

Doctor for the poor in Altona

On July 12, 1757, Adam Struensee became senior pastor of the Trinity Church in Altona , the largest city in the Duchy of Holstein , which was ruled by the Danish king . The freshly recovered Johann Friedrich Struensee, just twenty years old, followed his parents and at the beginning of 1758 found a job as a town physician and doctor for the poor. As a doctor, Struensee successfully combated the spread of epidemics through improved hygiene - for example, by giving each orphan a bed of their own - and introduced smallpox vaccination . Instead of the usual treatment of bloodletting and sweating, he recommended fresh air in the sickroom and the destruction of the clothing and bedding of the deceased. His experiences with such hygiene measures and autopsies led him to conclude that diseases developed through contagion . He rejected the theory of humours , to which most of his colleagues adhered, as superstition. Because of his newfangled methods and teachings, Struensee was rejected by many of his colleagues. Above all , however, he found understanding and support from Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus and the Jewish doctor for the poor, Hartog Gerson. He was also friends with the teacher Johann Bernhard Basedow .

Since Struensee, as a doctor for the poor and without his own practice, could not build up a stable patient base among the wealthier, his income was very low. In 1760 his parents moved to Rendsburg , because his father had been appointed General Superintendent of Schleswig and Holstein, forcing Struensee to keep an apartment of his own. He therefore asked Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff , the Danish foreign minister and head of the German chancellery in Copenhagen, for a salary increase that would also allow him to give medical lectures to his uneducated colleagues and the midwives instead of the unprofitable and unloved practice . The request was rejected, but Struensee was appointed country physician in the county of Rantzau and the rule of Pinneberg . In this capacity he was also called to the sick of commoners and nobles.

Struensee reported on his research results in various medical treatises. In 1764, he published the first medical description of foot-and-mouth disease in his veterinary treatise , Attempts on the Nature of Livestock Disease and the Way to Cure It . In addition, he was also a journalist in the monthly magazine “ For Benefit and Pleasure ”, which had been published since 1759. In 1763 this writing, which satirically criticized the doctors, but also the nobility, was banned at the instigation of Hamburg's main pastor Goeze . However, Struensee continued to publish in various periodicals. In his essays he uncovered the connections between a lack of education, a lack of hygiene and diseases in the slums and recommended reforms. He saw the state as having a duty to ensure the health and education of its population, because the "increase in population is one of the most important things that puts the state experts in motion". This care should also extend to unmarried mothers and the mentally ill who have hitherto been excluded from society.

Personal physician and regent of the Danish king

Christian VII in coronation regalia

Through the success of his treatment, Struensee gained a good reputation among the Holstein nobility over the course of time. As he was also known for a new type of therapy for mental illnesses, he was called in 1767 to treat the young Danish king Christian VII during his stay in Altona.

Christian VII

Christian VII had become king in 1766 shortly before his 17th birthday. As a child he had been brought up very restrictively. Later, his teacher Élie-Salomon-François Reverdil sparked his interest in the Enlightenment. As king, he soon proved unpredictable and his behavior at court a growing annoyance. He defied court etiquette. He had already snubbed his young wife, the English Princess Caroline Mathilde, when she arrived in Denmark by declaring that he did not love her. Instead, he let his court marshal Conrad Holck (1745-1800) encourage him to drink too much alcohol, engage in sexual excesses and excesses of violence. The king's public image began to suffer.

Christian VII was not only mentally unstable, but also had little interest in government. That was definitely in the interests of the ministers, who had already largely kept the king away from government business in the days of his alcoholic father, Frederick V. The absolutist royal law (Kongelov) demanded that every decision had to be made by the king himself, but in practice the Secret Council , chaired by Bernstorff, presented him with ready-made resolutions that he only had to sign. Christian VII was therefore bored during the council meetings. However, he sometimes made arbitrary personnel decisions that unnerved the government. Shortly after taking office in 1766, he dismissed the respected Adam Gottlob von Moltke .

King Christian's journey

In 1768, mediated by Count Schack Carl von Rantzau-Ascheberg and Court Marshal Conrad Holck , Bernstorff hired Struensee as a traveling doctor for the king on his one-year trip to Europe. The journey, financed by treasurer Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann , passed through the Holy Roman Empire , the Netherlands , England and France . In the Netherlands, the tour company visited i.a. social institutions, factories and a Moravian settlement. In France he came into contact with Denis Diderot and other leading Enlighteners . During the stay with Christian's brother-in-law Georg III. Struensee experienced the consequences of the beginning industrialization for the poor population such as rural exodus, formation of slums and the resulting increase in social problems and diseases, especially alcoholism and syphilis . Many of his later reforms were shaped by these experiences. In Oxford , Struensee received an honorary doctorate from the medical faculty at a ceremony in which the König, Bernstorff, Holck and a number of other traveling companions were awarded honorary doctorates in law .

Struensee's rise

On the journey, Struensee had gained the king's trust, who allowed himself to be guided by him. The latter therefore asked him to accompany him to Copenhagen. At the Danish court, Christian VII gave Struensee the title of Royal Reader , and in May 1769 he was appointed Real Etatrat . In the first few months, Struensee was primarily concerned with the health of the royal family. He had no political ambitions at the time. But the king had an open ear for Struensee's reform ideas. As early as 1769, the first laws to improve the situation of unmarried mothers and a midwifery ordinance were passed. But soon Struensee was drawn into court intrigues that forced him to secure a secure position at court.

During a smallpox epidemic in Copenhagen in 1770, Struensee became a member of the commission to introduce smallpox vaccination and also vaccinated Crown Prince Friedrich against smallpox. In doing so, he finally won the affection and trust of the royal couple and was promoted to cabinet secretary and conference councilor. Having won the king's confidence, Struensee was able to easily push through his reforms thanks to the kongelov . On September 4, 1770, Christian VII signed the first Struensee Laws: This prohibited the accumulation of titles and orders without corresponding merits and introduced freedom of speech and freedom of the press . Struensee accompanied the royal couple on summer visits to Frederiksberg Palace , Traventhal Palace and Hirschholm Palace . Cut off from the influences of the court and those of the royal advisers, he discussed his ideas for reform with the king and issued most of his decrees.

Prime Minister Count Bernstorff, who had determined Danish politics for decades, was dismissed on September 15, 1770 in connection with a failed punitive action against Algerian barbarians . Struensee had thus got rid of its most important competitor. In December 1770, Struensee caused the king to also dissolve the Gehejmekonseil . On December 17, 1770, King Christian appointed Struensee Maître des requêtes (Head of Requests). Thus, the communication between the king and the people ran solely via Struensee. On December 18, 1770, he was officially appointed personal physician.

But soon Christian's illness broke through more severely and his enthusiasm for the reforms flagged. After he had initially written the decrees himself, in the spring of 1771 he increasingly refused to sign them. On July 15, 1771, he appointed Struensee secret cabinet minister and endowed him with general powers, allowing him to sign in place of the king. This meant that Struensee was practically sole regent. On July 22, he was elevated to the rank of Count as a Lehnsgraf (lensgreve) . However, this status survey was not connected with the granting of land.

Royal decree of December 27, 1770 dissolving the Secret Council

personnel policy

The basis of Struensee's reign was the concentration of real power in the king. Therefore, he first saw to the dismissal of the previous government. The leading politicians like Bernstorff were dismissed and the powerful Secret Service was dissolved. Instead, Struensee hired men he trusted. In order to establish a more efficient financial policy, Struensee appointed his older brother Carl August, who was in Prussian service, as an additional advisor alongside Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann . He appointed Tyge Rothe as a further member of the Finance Committee . Carl August Struensee recommended levying luxury taxes on riding horses and gambling to finance the reforms, in exchange for the salt tax, a heavy burden for the population, being dispensed with. In addition, a state lottery was set up, the proceeds of which should also benefit social improvements. Even the court did not escape the austerity measures: numerous courtiers, military officers and civil servants – 182 chamberlains alone with the rank (and salary) of a general – were dismissed, pensions and honorary salaries were abolished, spending on clothes and other luxuries was reduced. Court preacher Johann Andreas Cramer was also among those dismissed .

While previously both the government of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein and relations with other states were the responsibility of the German Chancellery , Struensee now separated both areas and appointed the experienced diplomat Adolph Sigfried von der Osten to head the new department on December 22, 1770 for foreign affairs . Von der Osten had been the Danish ambassador to Russia until 1765 , before he was withdrawn and transferred to Naples because of differences with Bernstorff. As Foreign Minister, he also promoted good relations with Tsarina Catherine II beyond the Struensee era . Together with Caspar von Saldern , he continued the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Tsarskoye Selo in 1773 . In order to keep the easily distracted king away from other influences, Struensee brought his Altona friend Enevold von Brandt (1738-1772) to the court, who was to entertain the king and replace Holck, the king's previous favorite and drinking companion. Brandt was appointed director of the theatre, the picture gallery and the Kunstkammer, but Struensee only charged him with keeping the king happy. Brandt complained about this treatment in the fall of 1771, accompanied by a warning that his despotic behavior would have consequences. Struensee rejected Brandt's accusation and warning. Instead, he arranged for Élie-Salomon-François Reverdil , the king's previous tutor who had been dismissed in 1767, to be recalled and for Brandt to be elevated to the rank of count on 30 September 1771. Like the title of count that Struensee bestowed on himself, von Brandt's was not associated with the allocation of land holdings. Struensee filled the newly created posts or those that had become vacant as a result of layoffs personally and without regard to tradition. He also helped his college friend Peter Matthiesen, grandson of the Föhrer captain known as the Happy Matthias , to a career: he appointed him mayor of Copenhagen. On the other hand, Schack von Rantzau, who had mediated Struensee to Bernstorff and was now hoping for a good position at the court, was disappointed. He received only a subordinate position in the War Chancellery.

transformation of state and society

Within a short time, Struensee tried to reform the entire Danish state in the spirit of the Enlightenment . Overall, he wrote 633 decrees in 16 months, which meant a complete reorganization. In socio-medical questions, Struensee implemented the findings of his time as a doctor for the poor. But government and administration should also become more effective. Struensee, who himself had no experience in these areas but could rely on his brother's support, reorganized the entire government along the lines of the Prussian General-Ober-Finanz-Kriegs- und Domainen-Direktorium , which marked a radical break with the Danish tradition meant. The Danish Chancellery was divided into the Danish, Norwegian and Colonial departments, giving Norway relative independence. The ministries were restructured, reducing their number from eleven to nine. The tax system was unified, deliveries in kind were replaced by cash payments. Government spending was cut radically. The strength of the army was reduced by half, and the mounted bodyguards, which had already been dismantled by Marshal Saint-Germain , were entirely disbanded. Instead of state- subsidized industry, Struensee focused on agriculture as the most important branch of the Danish economy and continued the agrarian reform begun in 1755 with the dissolution of the field community .

A famine made it easier for Struensee to implement his measures by giving him control over the grain trade: in order to ensure that the population was fed, Struensee banned grain exports and distilling schnapps. The right of the nobility , who owned most of the country, to the income from their lands was thus restricted, since the people should first be supplied with cheap grain in sufficient quantities before food could be exported or used for other purposes. In addition, Struensee also planned to abolish serfdom and compulsory labor and to curtail the rights of landlords over their estate members. The slave trade with Denmark's West Indies colonies was also banned. Struensee's first law was directed against the superior power of the nobility: titles and offices should no longer be sold or assigned according to rank and family affiliation, but according to ability. Later laws required exams for future civil servants. Nobles should no longer be preferred to commoners. In order to curb bribery, a fixed salary was provided for civil servants. Orders should also only be awarded as a reward for merit. In fact, the Order of the Elephant and Order of the Dannebro were not awarded in the years up to 1773.

The judiciary should be renewed and separated from the administration. Instead of the old professional courts, there was now a unified court. Every citizen should have equal rights before the law. Struensee also enacted numerous laws to alleviate social injustice: he founded foundling homes and hospitals and allowed the palace gardens to be opened to the public. He intended to reform health and education, to teach Danish instead of Latin, and to abolish corporal punishment. Torture was abolished. Illegitimate births were no longer punished, and children born out of wedlock were to be given the same treatment as legitimate children. Adultery was no longer considered a crime, but only a problem within the family.

Struensee's reforms also intervened in matters relating to the state church : on October 26, 1770, a law was passed to reduce the number of public holidays. In doing so, Struensee implemented a plan by Schimmelmann and Andreas Peter von Bernstorff , who hoped that more effective work would be done in the summer months, which are important for agriculture, if the Sunday rest prescribed for church holidays was dispensed with. A total of eleven public holidays were deleted: the third public holiday of Christmas , Easter and Pentecost , several Marian and saint festivals dating back to pre-Reformation times, and thanksgiving for the end of the catastrophic fire that lasted several days, to which large parts of Copenhagen fell victim in October 1728. Several of these festivals were canceled completely, others were postponed to the following Sunday. In connection with the equality of those born out of wedlock, he abolished church discipline , which primarily served to expose unmarried mothers. With one of his last decrees, Struensee approved the establishment of the Moravian Church in Christiansfeld in the Duchy of Schleswig in November 1771 as part of the religious freedom he advocated.

The first successes came quickly: the relocation of the cemeteries outside the city, the paving of the streets and the street lamps made Copenhagen cleaner and safer. The radical austerity measures gave the state an almost balanced budget within a year.

Queen's lover

Queen Caroline Mathilde in the uniform of her life regiment

The king himself encouraged Struensee to become acquainted with his wife Caroline Mathilde, whose depression he was to treat. Struensee recommended that the royal couple break out of the strict court etiquette and ride out together. He also advised Caroline Mathilde to educate the crown prince according to the principles of Rousseau 's Emile . Frederick was given a middle-class playmate and grew up with far less luxury than was considered appropriate for royal offspring, but with far more freedom.

The 19-year-old queen was initially suspicious of her husband's new favourite, as since her arrival in Denmark she had suffered from the intrigues waged against her by a group led by Conrad Holck. However, she took a great liking to the rides suggested by Struensee and then also to the man himself. She had Struensee, who had initially been officially hired as her private secretary, set up an apartment in her Christiansborg Palace . Their relationship deepened quickly. There is even said to have been a secret passage between Struensee's apartment and the Queen's chambers. During the summer stays, Struensee spent a lot of time alone with the Queen.

Their love affair soon became public knowledge. However, the king paid no attention to the rumours. On the occasion of his birthday on January 29, 1771, he awarded Struensee the Order of Mathilde donated by the Queen. It was widely assumed that Louise was Auguste Struensee's daughter. While intercessions for the pregnant queen and later thanksgiving prayers for the birth of the princess were said in the churches on Struensee's orders, numerous people left the churches in silence. The fact that Struensee had declared adultery a private matter by decree was considered an open admission of guilt. Even when Christian VII raised Struensee to the rank of count on July 22, 1771, the day of the baptism of his daughter Louise Auguste, the distrust of the population did not diminish.

Reactions to Struensee's reforms and rise

Leaflet from 1772 depicting prostitutes as the main beneficiaries of Struensee's reforms

Although many of the reforms introduced by Struensee had already been prepared by the previous government, the numerous innovations of the bourgeois Enlightener and his rapid rise quickly made Struensee and his reforms unpopular at court. The mass dismissals of courtiers, the dissolution of ministries and regiments and the radical austerity measures did the rest to create many enemies for Struensee: the nobility feared for their privileges and property. The conservative clergy saw Struensee as an atheist and feared for the morale of the people because church discipline was relaxed, holidays were canceled and instead drama and secular music were also permitted on Sundays.

The Danish population, too, was suspicious of the reorganization of the traditional order, which was seen as God-given, by a bourgeois. Part of the reason for the rejection of Struensee's reforms was that Struensee did not speak Danish and his decrees appeared in German. The people of Copenhagen therefore considered him an "enemy of Denmark", although German was the official language in Denmark at the time. At the same time, he was ridiculed for the number of his decrees and the speed of their publication. Neither the clergy nor the population liked the fact that eleven public holidays were sacrificed for economic progress, even if this measure had already been planned by Schimmelmann and Bernstorff in the early 1770s. The better position given to unmarried mothers and their children led to the misconception that Struensee encouraged prostitution. Struensee's measures for the health of the little prince by toughening them up were also viewed with suspicion , because walking barefoot and simple meals was not considered appropriate for a future king. It was even feared that Struensee wanted to remove the heir to the throne, disempower the king and make himself the sole ruler.

Ironically, one of Struensee's first reforms, the freedom of the press introduced in early September 1770, promoted his unpopularity and ultimately brought about his downfall, as it made it possible to influence a large audience in a very short time. Struensee's opponents incited the population against him by means of pamphlets directed against him. Even the queen, who sat in trousers in the men's saddle for the sake of better mobility, became the target of numerous lampoons. Struensee recognized the danger himself and in October 1771 restricted the freedom of the press to such an extent that complete anonymity of the publications was no longer permitted.

The downsizing of the army, the dismissal of numerous officers and the lack of salaries fueled further distrust and dissatisfaction. In addition, Struensee had stopped the further construction of the Frederikskirche . The large number of those who had become unemployed as a result of the reforms and austerity measures, such as the craftsmen at the Marble Church or the more than 2,000 workers from factories that were closed as unprofitable, contributed to the dissatisfaction of the poorer sections of the population. In the autumn of 1771 there were riots. Sailors hired in Norway arrived to find the ships they were hired on still under construction. Neither pay nor food was provided for the sailors, who were not yet needed. They moved to the summer residence of Hirschholm to ask the king for help. A party was held to calm them down, but Struensee, who had been injured a few days earlier after falling off his horse, did not show up.

On the other hand, Struensee found support for his reform program particularly in the personal physician of the royal family, Christian Johann Berger (1724–1789), and in Friedrich Gabriel Resewitz (1729–1806), second preacher at the German St. Peter's Church . Among the military, it was above all General Peter Elias von Gähler (1718–1783) who advocated his reforms.

Arrest of Count Struensee on January 17, 1772. Contemporary woodcut.

fall and execution

Among Struensee's most powerful opponents were the king's stepmother, Juliane Marie , and her son Hereditary Prince Friedrich . They had long shared a mutual dislike with Christian VII. Under Struensee they were almost completely excluded from the court. Together with Ove Høegh-Guldberg , her son's tutor and private secretary, and Schack von Rantzau, she eventually took advantage of Struensee's growing unpopularity and the rumors circulating about his relationship with the Queen. An allegedly secret document, which was said to have come from Struensee's safe and which the official court reporter Peter Suhm presented to Juliane Marie, was intended to prove that Struensee had planned a coup d'état together with the queen to overthrow the king.

After a masked ball at Copenhagen Castle on January 17, 1772 at 4 a.m., Struensee was arrested and taken to Copenhagen Castle . Caroline Mathilde, Enevold von Brandt and Carl August Struensee and several others were also arrested. Only then was the king woken up and forced to put his signature under the completed arrest warrant before he and his half-brother were put in a golden carriage and driven through Copenhagen so that the subjects could cheer for their "liberated" ruler. The population was incited against the arrested person by means of a flood of leaflets . Riots broke out in the streets, fueled over and over again by the conspirators, leading up to the execution .

Struensee in prison. Contemporary Leaflet

The interrogations began immediately after the arrest. Struensee was treated like a criminal, chained in the dungeon and guarded day and night. Contacts were initially forbidden to him. As his pastor, Struensee's declared opponent, the Copenhagen court chaplain Balthasar Münter , had almost daily conversations with him from March 1, which he subsequently published.

Already on February 25 he made a confession about his relationship with the queen. He had therefore not shared her love. On March 8, 1772, Caroline Mathilde was presented with this confession, and she herself signed an already prepared confession, after she had been given hope that she might be able to save Struensee's life. On March 23, after the official interrogations and witness interviews were completed, Fiscal General Frederik Wilhelm Wiwet was appointed prosecutor. His accusation was mainly based on the relationship with the queen, which both parties had already confessed. Other of the total of nine charges were lèse majesty , abuse of government power, inciting Brandt to violence against the king, mistreatment of the crown prince and also personal enrichment and favoritism because Struensee had appointed his brother to the board of finance. The indictment was filed on April 21. The process began on April 23, the outcome of which had long been known. Struensee 's legal counsel was Peter Uldall, the Queen's legal adviser. While he tried to be fair to Struensee and refuted the charges of lese majeste and alleged mistreatment of the crown prince, he was at the same time convinced of the necessity of the death penalty . Struensee himself wrote a letter of defense on April 14, in which he explained his reforms and emphasized that he always had the will of the king and the welfare of the state in mind. At the same time, he tried to exonerate all fellow suspects. Even the controversial dismissal of the Conseil was only done in order to put government power back in the hands of the king, who was unsettled by the authoritarian ministers.

After four days of trial Struensee was found guilty on April 25, 1772 and sentenced to death . The written defense was not taken into account in the reasoning for the judgement. Instead, it was argued that Struensee, as an inexperienced commoner, had presumed to be above long-serving ministers and, as a secret cabinet minister, had risen to the status of "despot" contrary to the provisions of the King's Law. When the verdict was announced, Struensee was relaxed, he had already imagined such an outcome of the negotiations.

Portraits of Struensee and Brandt from Christian VII's hand with the comment "I would have liked to have saved them both".

Neither the king's decision to support Struensee and his reforms nor his state of mind were taken into account in the verdict. He himself was not questioned throughout the process. He was only presented with the final verdict for signature, just like the arrest warrant before him. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , who already knew Struensee from his time in Altona and was in Copenhagen at the same time, had already written to his later wife Eva König on January 31 : "You can see that his case was forced on the king." A later allegedly by The sketch made by Christian VII bears the caption:

“Count Struensee is a very great man. died in 1772. by Queen Juliane Marie's order, and by Frederick's print and not by mine. And by the will of the Stats Raths. […] I would have gladly saved them both.”

Struensee's execution on April 28, 1772

On April 28, 1772, Struensee and his confidante Enevold von Brandt , who was also sentenced to death, were executed outside Copenhagen . Struensee had to wait in the carriage with Münter until Brandt was executed. Then he too was beheaded , quartered and braided onto the wheel . There were delays in erecting the scaffold in front of the city because at first no carpenter was willing to build it, and no craftsman wanted to make the wheel on which the body parts were to be braided. The craftsmen only set to work under threat of torture and imprisonment . The wheels were removed from an old carriage and about 30,000 people flocked to witness the execution. While incensed crowds in the streets cheered and destroyed brothels believed to have promoted Struensee's reforms and homes of his supporters or those believed to be, there was also a widespread view that the death penalty was excessively harsh, particularly for Brandt . Since little was made public about the trial itself, many, such as Lessing, did not expect an execution.

The dismembered and wheeled corpses of Struensee and Brandt

afterlife

dig

The bodies of the executed were publicly displayed at the place of execution for two years until the bones fell from the erected wheels. What subsequently happened to the remains is unknown. According to tradition, Struensee was buried in the church in Dörbeck , which belonged to the estate of his youngest brother, Gotthilf Christoph Struensee . According to another tradition, the mortal remains of Struensee and Brandt were reburied several times and finally buried in a crypt in the German St. Peter's Church in Copenhagen in 1920.

The fate of the reforms

Juliane Marie's confidant Ove Høegh-Guldberg, one of his harshest critics, took Struensee's place. He reversed many of the reforms that Struensee had initiated and reintroduced old-style Danish absolutism . The Conseil was re-established as the Privy Council of State and existed until 1848. The Norske Kammer , the independent government of Norway founded by Struensee , was dissolved again. The abolition of torture and the ban on the slave trade were also reversed. From Struensee's reforms u. a. the changes affecting the Church, the abolition of patronymics as surnames, the separation of the Foreign Ministry from the German Chancellery and freedom of the press (until 1799).

Crown Prince Friedrich overthrew Høegh-Guldberg in 1784 and, as regent for his father, began to reintroduce some of Struensee's reforms, including the abolition of serfdom in 1805, albeit slowly and with the cooperation of the government and the estates .

reception

The new government felt compelled to legitimize its coup at home and abroad. The printer Godiche was commissioned to publish the verdict. Münter's conversion story was also published in German and Danish in 1772. It also served to justify the actions of the conspirators surrounding Queen Dowager Juliane. The conversion story was a great success, so that it went through several editions and translations until 1845, and largely determined the image of Struensee for posterity. The assertion that Struensee renounced his enlightened reforms in view of his death is not supported by other sources, but largely contradicts Struensee's own defense. The success of the alleged "conversion" was also doubted by contemporaries such as Lessing and Matthias Claudius .

The indictment and defense papers appeared in print a little later and met with great interest, especially in Germany, as did other titles that promised clarification on the case. Soon after Struensee's execution, the anonymous publication Discovered secret of the future state change in Denmark was published, which critically examined the events and, unlike the pamphlets that had appeared during his lifetime, gave Struensee and his reforms a positive assessment. Similar writings followed. In conversation in the realm of the dead, between the two former counts, Johann Friedrich Struensee, and Enewold Brand, and between the former Danish Reichshofmeister Cornifitz Ulefeld, in which the rise and fall of the same, and the execution of the first two of 1773 is described in detail Struensee, on the other hand, was compared to Corfitz Ulfeldt , who was considered the worst traitor in Danish history, and to the also disgraced Peder Schumacher Griffenfeld . The parallel that all three groups competing for power at court fell victim is not mentioned at all, but only that men of middle-class origin had striven for financial and social advantages.

Kristian Zahrtmann , Scene at the Court of Christian VII , allusion to Struensee's paternity of Caroline Mathilde's daughter Louise Auguste of Denmark

In the escalating national disputes over Schleswig-Holstein in the 19th century, Struensee was stylized as a martyr . Criticism of the legality of his trial has dominated much of the literature to this day. The memoirs of Élie-Salomon-François Reverdil , the former tutor of the king, published posthumously in 1858, shaped the image of the arrogant favorite on the one hand, but on the other hand the high regard for his reforms and the abhorrence of the conspirators.

Also in the newer literature Struensee is judged contradictory. On the one hand, for example, the German doctor Stefan Winkle admires Struensee as an innovative innovator in both the medical and political fields, on the other hand, the Danish historian Svend Cedergreen Bech judges : "The reforms in St. were not based on their own ideas, and on the other hand He was unsuited to govern.” In fiction, on the other hand, Struensee is often reduced to Caroline Mathilde's lover. The Danish historian Asser Amdisen offers a new look at both the relationship between Struensee and the Queen and the reforms. For the first time he addresses the Queen's participation in Struensee's political programme. He refutes the romanticizing view of Struensee as a philanthropic democrat: although Struensee was an idealist, he forced the implementation of his radical ideas through dictatorship.

Artistic Adaptations

Fiction (selection)

theater and radio play

Movie

Memorial plaque for Johann Friedrich Struensee in Halle

memorials and honors

In 1937, on the occasion of Struensee's 200th birthday, the town where he was born donated a commemorative plaque. However, this disappeared under circumstances that are still unclear to this day. Since April 2010, a new plaque in Halle has commemorated Johann Friedrich Struensee. It hangs on the house where he was born, the vicarage of the Moritzkirche . On the initiative of Oliver Meyer and Kerstin Schmidt and with the support of the Saalesparkasse, the project was realized by the Halle sculptor Martin Roedel.

In Hamburg-Altona, a commemorative plaque for Johann Friedrich Struensee was attached to the house at Kirchenstraße 5 (formerly Papagoyenstraße) by the Patriotic Society from 1765 .

Named after Struensee are the Struensee Community School in Mittelangeln , the Struensee Gymnasium in Hamburg-St. Pauli and a street as well as a medical center in Hamburg-Altona.

sources

  • J[ohann] F[riedrich] S[truensee]: Reliable news of the major state change that occurred in Denmark on the 17th of Jenner, 1772, the living conditions of the most remarkable people at the royal Danish court, as well as the state prisoners, together with the circumstances of their capture, and all the incidents that occurred in the process a letter from a traveler about C. to his friend in H. Trampe, Halle 1772, digitized .
  • Writings in matters of the former Count Johann Friedrich Struensee, at the royal. Inquisition Commission at Copenhagen and handed over for him; with the apology he himself drafted and the verdict passed on him. Without place 1772, digitized .
  • Johann Friedrich Camerer : Particular news of the victims of the states as well as of the victims of justice of this eighteenth century; but especially of Counts Struense and von Brandt, who were executed in Denmark that year. Korte, Pelim (di: Flensburg) 1772, digital copy .
  • Attempt at a biography of the two executed Counts Struensee and Brandt. Undressed from reliable news. With their pictures. Without place 1773.
  • Élie-Salomon-François Reverdil : Struensee og Hoffet i Kjøbenhavn 1760–1772. Included with other words Bemærkninger om Forfatteren and ledgerde af nogle hidden until utrykte Breve. Udgivne af Alexander Roger. Oversatte fra Fransk af L. Moltke, Eibes Forlag, Copenhagen 1859, books.google.de (Danish translation of the French original).
  • Holger Hansen (ed.): Kabinetsstyrelsen i Danmark 1768-1772. Aktstykker and oplysninger. 3 volumes. Reitzel, Copenhagen 1916–1923 (Danish, contains all Struensee edicts, online ),.
  • Holger Hansen (ed.): Inkvisitionsommissare af January 20, 1772. Udvalg af den Papirer og Brevsamlinger til Oplysning om Struensee og Hans Medarbejdere. 5 volumes. I commission hos GEC Gad, Copenhagen 1927–1941, (Danish).

literature

web links

Commons : Johann Friedrich Struensee  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

itemizations

  1. ↑ a b c d e Johannes Jensen: Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737–1772) on the homepage of the German-speaking St. Peter's congregation in Copenhagen.
  2. ↑ Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, p. 11.
  3. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 20.
  4. ↑ Winkle: JF Struensee 1737–1772. Doctor - enlightener - statesman. In: Hamburger Ärzteblatt. 55, 2001, pp. 578–589, here p. 579.
  5. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee: doctor, enlightener and statesman. , Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-437-10845-X , p. 41.
  6. ↑ a b Juliane Schmieglitz-Otten: Royal Escapes. Attempted escapes from courtly etiquette. In: Schmieglitz-Otten, Steinau: Caroline Mathilde. 1751-1775. 2001, pp. 107–125, here p. 120.
  7. ↑ Struensee: A doctor's thoughts on the depopulation of a country. In: Monthly magazine for use and pleasure. Piece 1, July 1763, ZDB -ID 1283325-3 , p. 1 f; quoted from: Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 47.
  8. ↑ Keitsch: "Everything I did referred only to the person of the king" . In: Schmieglitz-Otten, Steinau: Caroline Mathilde. 1751-1775. 2001, pp. 71–106, here p. 72.
  9. ↑ J. Kr. Höst: Foreign voyage of King Christian VII in 1768 . In: Copenhagen Stock Exchange , Nos. 9, 10, 11 & 12 (Edited and re-edited by Friedemann Prose (Kiel, 2012))
  10. ↑ Winkle: JF Struensee 1737–1772. Doctor - enlightener - statesman. In: Hamburger Ärzteblatt. 55, 2001, pp. 578–589, here p. 587.
  11. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 159.
  12. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 555 f.
  13. ↑ Bech: Struensee, Johann Friedrich. In: Olaf Klose (ed.): Schleswig-Holstein biographical dictionary. Volume 5. pp. 259–264, here p. 260.
  14. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 185.
  15. ↑ Amdisen: Struensee. To nytte and Fornøjelse. 2012, p. 99.
  16. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 233.
  17. ↑ Bech: Struensee, Johann Friedrich. In: Olaf Klose (ed.): Schleswig-Holstein biographical dictionary. Volume 5. pp. 259–264, here p. 261.
  18. ↑ Barz: The king's personal physician. 2002, p. 179.
  19. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 207.
  20. ↑ Amdisen: Struensee. To nytte and Fornøjelse. 2012, p. 118.
  21. ↑ Danske Kancelli. Aarhus Universitet, Institut for Historie og Områdestudier, accessed 4 September 2018 .
  22. ↑ Kersten Krüger: Possibilities, limits and instruments of reforms in enlightened absolutism. Johann Friedrich Struensee and Andreas von Bernstorff (= History, Research and Science , Volume 14). Lit, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8873-8 , pp. 251–270, here p. 265.
  23. ↑ Stefan Winkle : "The company Schimmelmann and son". The Danish Slave Trade . In: Hamburger Ärzteblatt H. 12/2003, pp. 530-537; 534
  24. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 206.
  25. ↑ Jens Toftgaard Jensen: Sekularisering af tiden? – Den danske helligdags reduction 1770. In: Den jyske historian. No. 105, 2004, ISSN  0109-9280 , pp. 73–93.
  26. ↑ Barz: The king's personal physician. 2002, p. 187 f.
  27. ^ a b Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, p. 15.
  28. ↑ Jutta Nehring: Denmark's short summer of enlightenment. In: Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung , August 3, 2012 (accessed March 24, 2014).
  29. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 249.
  30. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 218 f.
  31. ↑ Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, p. 16.
  32. ↑ Keitsch: The Struensee case - a look at the scandalous press of the late 18th century. 2000, p. 11.
  33. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, pp. 208, 215.
  34. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 252.
  35. ↑ Winkle: Johann Friedrich Struensee. Physician, enlightener and statesman. 1989, p. 255.
  36. ↑ Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, p. 22.
  37. ↑ Balthasar Münter : Conversion story of the former Count Johann Friderich Struensee. With annotations. Latest edition. Buchenröder & Ritter, Hamburg 1774.
  38. ↑ Hattendorff: Her "nature is free and unconstrained and it seems that she does not love the humiliated way of life". In: Schmieglitz-Otten, Steinau: Caroline Mathilde. 1751-1775. 2001, pp. 27–70, here pp. 64–66.
  39. ↑ Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, p. 172.
  40. ↑ Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, pp. 177–180.
  41. ↑ Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, p. 184.
  42. ^ "Stralsundische Zeitung." Np, 1772. Digitized edition. University Library Greifswald, 2013. (Pomeranica)
  43. ↑ a b Keitsch: "Everything I did related only to the person of the king". In: Schmieglitz-Otten, Steinau: Caroline Mathilde. 1751-1775. 2001, pp. 71–106, here p. 92.
  44. ↑ Thea Leitner : scandal at court. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-8000-3492-1 .
  45. ↑ Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, pp. 169. 190.
  46. ^ Dörbeck Church
  47. ↑ Madame Godiche was the widow of the printer Andreas Hartwig Godiche (1714–1769), official printer of the university and publisher of e.g. from Pontoppidan's Danske Atlas .
  48. ↑ Weisbrich: Struensee. The case. 2011, p. 170.
  49. ↑ Keitsch: The Struensee case - a look at the scandalous press of the late 18th century. 2000, p. 127.
  50. ↑ Keitsch: "Everything I did referred only to the person of the king". In: Schmieglitz-Otten, Steinau: Caroline Mathilde. 1751-1775. 2001, pp. 71–106, here p. 95.
  51. ↑ Keitsch: The Struensee case - a look at the scandalous press of the late 18th century. 2000, pp. 213-216.
  52. ↑ Bech: Struensee, Johann Friedrich. In: Olaf Klose (ed.): Schleswig-Holstein biographical dictionary. Volume 5. pp. 259–264, here p. 263.
  53. ↑ Morten Mikkelsen: Ekstremisten, the blev secret cabinet minister. In: Kristelig Dagblad , 12 March 2012 (Danish) (accessed 26 February 2014).
  54. ↑ dmfilm.de
  55. ↑ The Queen and the Physician at the Internet Movie Database
  56. ↑ Michael Falgowski: ´ Denmark's mighty Hallenser . ( Memento of November 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung , April 27, 2010
  57. ↑ Struensee Community School
  58. ↑ Struensee Gymnasium. Retrieved January 3, 2022 .
  59. ↑ Struensee-Haus (there also a short biography)
personal data
SURNAME Struensee, Johann Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Struensee, Johann Friedrich Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and minister at the Danish court
BIRTH DATE August 5, 1737
PLACE OF BIRTH Hall
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1772
PLACE OF DEATH Copenhagen