Johann Matthias Gierse

Johann Matthias Gierse

Johann Matthias Gierse (born June 19, 1807 in Gellinghausen near Meschede , † June 7, 1881 in Münster ) was a lawyer and politician. He is considered to be one of the leading figures in the second phase of the revolution of 1848/49 in Westphalia .

Family and education

His father was mayor in Meschede. Gierse attended, among other things, the city school in Meschede and the Laurentianum grammar school in Arnsberg , which he left with the Abitur in 1826. He mainly studied law in Bonn , where he joined the old Bonn fraternity Germania in 1828, despite the Karlsbad resolutions . He continued his studies in Marburg and was the founder of a fraternity there. Gierse wanted to take the legal exam again in Bonn, but had to do the preparation at home because he was being investigated for a student duel. After successfully passing the university exam , Gierse worked at the court in Arnsberg , where he passed the first state examination in 1830 - the ausculator examination. Between 1830 and 1834 Gierse did his military service and was in legal preparatory service a. a. at the city court in Fredeburg, at the higher regional courts in Münster and Paderborn . In Paderborn he also took the legal traineeship exam in 1833.

Arrested and sentenced as fraternity members

In the same year he was arrested because of his membership and outstanding position in the fraternities and transferred to Berlin as a remand prisoner. He was imprisoned for a total of one and a half years and finally admitted his membership in a banned association. In 1836, Gierse was therefore sentenced to six years' arrest, impeachment and incapacity, although he had never been politically active. Gierse spent his imprisonment in Paderborn through intercession. Thanks to the intercession of the President of the Higher Regional Court, the conditions of detention were extremely good. After a year and a half, Gierse was pardoned, but was relieved of his office. Gierse was only admitted to the third state examination in law following the intercession of former President Ludwig von Vincke .

Official in the Berlin Ministry of Justice

In view of his recently served prison sentence, it is remarkable that Gierse was employed in the Berlin Ministry of Justice. At the same time he began to get involved politically in the narrower sense. After Friedrich Wilhelm IV came to power , he pleaded publicly for the amnesty of political offenses under Friedrich Wilhelm III. Convicts. In fact, Gierse received the order from his superiors to draft a corresponding decree, which was finally signed by the king. With that, Gierse was rehabilitated himself.

In 1841 Gierse married Sophie von Livonius , a landowner's daughter from the Hammerstein estate . Professionally, a nervous breakdown forced him to give up his work in the ministry and went to the higher regional court in Hamm as a judicial commissioner (i.e. lawyer) and moved to Münster in 1843. Like Johann Friedrich Joseph Sommer, he specialized in peasant rights. The unclear regulated hunting rights of the landowners and the nobility on the one hand and the farmers on the other played an important role. Ultimately, it was about the abolition of the feudal hunting rights of the nobility on the property of the rural landowners.

Gierse during the revolution of 1848/49

The commitment to the rights of the rural population made Gierse popular throughout Westphalia and in the elections for the Prussian National Assembly he was nominated in both Münsterland and Sauerland , but narrowly failed in both constituencies. Nonetheless, it played a certain role, since the hunting rights decided by the National Assembly and the abolition of noble privileges go back to Gierse's draft. The dissolution of the National Assembly in Berlin triggered violent reactions, especially in the west of the Prussian state. There were popular assemblies and protest movements. In Westphalia there was a congress of the democratic and (left) liberal opposition in Münster in mid-November. In addition to Councilor of Justice Groneweg, Gierse was elected President of the Assembly. This called for German unity, a constitutional constitution and decided to protest against the dissolution of parliament with the help of tax refusal. A short time later Gierse was arrested along with 15 other speakers at the Congress. The elections for the second chamber of the newly convened state parliament took place during the two-month detention period. While moderate politicians were often elected in the election for the Prussian National Assembly in Westphalia, the result of this ballot speaks for a clear move towards the decidedly democratic representatives. Gierse won three constituencies alone and accepted the nomination for Arnsberg . After the failed imperial election, the parliament in Berlin was dissolved again. This ended Gierses political activity and he concentrated in the coming decades on his legal work.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 2: F-H. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0809-X , pp. 128-129.
• Patrick Sensburg : The great lawyers of the Sauerland . 22 biographies of outstanding legal scholars. 1st edition. FW Becker, Arnsberg 2002, ISBN 978-3-930264-45-2 (276 pages).
• Karl Hüser (ed.): The memoirs of Johann Matthias Gierse (1807–1881). In: Westfälische Zeitschrift; 121 (1971). - pp. 71-95.