Johann Georg Kulpis

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Johann Georg Kulpis , from 1694 von Kulpis (born December 19, 1652 in Alsfeld , † September 2, 1698 in Stuttgart ) was a legal scholar and a theoretician of the right-wing empire . As the Württemberg minister, he was also politically influential and promoted the idea of district associations .

Johann Georg Kulpis

Life

He was a son of the rector and pastor Heinrich Balthasar Kulpis and the mother Magdalene Agnes (née Conradi). He himself married Sophie Margarethe Kieffer in 1684. With this he had a son and four daughters.

He studied in Strasbourg jurisprudence , but also heard scientific history lectures by Johann Heinrich Boeckler . Against the background of the Dutch War , which also spread to the Reich, he left Strasbourg and studied in Frankfurt am Main and later in Giessen . There he received his doctorate in 1678. jur.

In 1683 he became professor of institutions and constitutional law at the University of Strasbourg . He also worked as a consultant for the city's magistrate. Kulpis switched to the service of the Duchy of Württemberg in 1686. He was initially vice director of the council of churches. In 1693 he was appointed secret councilor, real minister and director of the council of churches. On the basis of these functions he was politically influential in Württemberg.

Reich theorist

Kulpis emerged as a legal author who dealt in particular with problems of law in the Holy Roman Empire . He emphasized the importance of German law basically before Roman law . Methodically, he considered it necessary to study the history of the empire, to analyze the real political situation and to know the relevant scientific literature.

In 1685 he published a paper on the coming of the empire ( Dissertatio de observantia imperiali , vulgo Reichs-Herkommen). This work became a standard work. As early as 1676 he published " De unitate reipublicae in SR Imperio " and in 1682 commented on the work of Samuel von Pufendorf "Monzambano". With these contributions he participated in the contemporary debate on the question of statehood in the Holy Roman Empire. With his view that the Reich would be a state with a mixed form of government, he opposed Pufendorf. The imperial estates would not then be completely sovereign. He had already represented this view in his dissertation from 1678 " De legationibus statuum Imperii ", in which Kulpis devoted himself to the imperial legation law. In addition to his work on imperial law issues, he also wrote articles on natural and international law. Overall, natural law only played a subordinate role in his description of the political legal system. He understood the empire as a historically grown and thus legitimized political system.

Imperial and district politics

Kulpis was one of the leading theorists of the imperial concept and tried to translate his findings into practical politics. As a minister, he advocated reform of the empire. The basis was to be a reform and association of the imperial circles . Kulpis was the director of the Swabian Reichskreis . There he supported the plans of Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden to set up a standing army. The Frankish Imperial Circle also joined this.

He saw the association of the imperial circle and the resulting improved military strength as decisive for the preservation of the empire in the fight against France, Louis XIV . In addition to Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden, his ideas were also supported by the Imperial Chancellor and Archbishop of Mainz, Lothar Franz von Schönborn . It was also about the formation of a counterweight to the armored imperial estates with a standing army such as the Habsburg Monarchy or Kurbrandenburg .

In 1697, towards the end of the Palatinate War of Succession , there was an association between six front imperial circles and other participants in the Frankfurt association . It was agreed that the military alliance would continue to exist in times of peace. Kulpis played a major role in the creation of this agreement. He published a highly regarded pamphlet: " Armier- und Association of the six Creysen closest to the Rhine as Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia, Chur and Upper Rhine and Westphal pro Defensioni communi ." Due to the peace agreement, the alliance could no longer play a significant military role. In the document mentioned, Kulpius described the district associations as a form of defense alongside the regular imperial defension and the troops of the armed imperial estates. He and other protagonists of the association idea did not succeed in enforcing this as the predominant form of organization. But they remained one possibility alongside another and often there were mixed proportions in practice.

When the Swabian Imperial Circle joined the Vienna Great Alliance against Louis XIV in 1696 , Kulpis wrote to Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden enthusiastically that this was the first time that the circle had been in an alliance with crowns and republics on an equal footing, and thus from slavery to the Liberty would come.

Kulpis was the Württemberg envoy to the Rijswijk Peace Congress in 1697 . There he found that the smaller estates and the district association could hardly play a political role alongside the great powers.

In 1691 he was appointed Imperial Court Councilor, but did not exercise this office. Kelpis was raised to the imperial nobility in 1694 as a nobleman by Kelpis.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johannes Burkhardt : Completion and reorganization of the early modern empire 1648–1763. Stuttgart 2006 p. 452f.
  2. ^ A b Johannes Burkhardt: Completion and reorganization of the early modern empire 1648–1763. Stuttgart 2006 p. 130
  3. ^ Johannes Burkhardt: Completion and reorganization of the early modern empire 1648–1763. Stuttgart 2006 p. 132
  4. ^ Susanne Friedrich: Problems of legitimation of district alliances. New reflections on a new debate. In: Fascinating Early Modern Age: Empire, Peace, Culture and Communication 1500–1800. Berlin 2008 p. 47

literature

personal data
SURNAME Kulpis, Johann Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kulpis, Johann Georg von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German legal scholar and Minister of Württemberg
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1652
PLACE OF BIRTH Alsfeld
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1698
Place of death Stuttgart