Johannes August Speltz

Johannes August Speltz (born May 18, 1823 in Frankfurt am Main ; † February 7, 1893 there ) was a lawyer and politician of the Free City of Frankfurt .

life and work

Speltz studied law at the University of Heidelberg , where he received his doctorate in 1848 , and in Bonn. During his studies in 1846 he became a member of the Frankonia fraternity in Bonn . From 1851 he worked at the Higher Appeal Court of the four Free Cities in Lübeck . From 1854 to 1856 he was a city judge in Frankfurt.

In 1853 Speltz was elected to the Senate of the Free City of Frankfurt , where he was drawn to the office of the younger mayor in 1860 and 1865 as the representative of the second bank . In 1855/56 he was elected to the city's legislative body .

Speltz was one of the leaders of the opposition to Bismarck's policy , which led to the German war in the early summer of 1866 . A declaration published by the Frankfurt Senate on July 15, 1866, which could be understood as a sharp criticism of Prussia , came largely from his pen. The next day, Prussian troops of the Main Army under General Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein occupied the Free City of Frankfurt and declared the city's constitution suspended and the Senate deposed. On July 17, the Prussian military arrested Senators Speltz and von Bernus and had them arrested at the main station . On the same day, the senators were taken hostage to the Cologne fortress , but were allowed to return to Frankfurt on July 19 in return for pledging their word of honor . The city lost its independence and was annexed by Prussia.

After the introduction of a municipal constitution based on the model of the Prussian city order , Speltz was Frankfurt city councilor from 1867 to 1869 and then withdrew from politics.

His grave is in the Frankfurt main cemetery . His heirs bequeathed his valuable collection of Francofurtensia to the Frankfurt City Library in 1899 .

literature

• Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . Second volume. M – Z (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 2 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-7829-0459-1 .
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 5: R – S. Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1256-9 , p. 463.