Joseph Unger

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Joseph Unger, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1861
Joseph Unger, painting by Adalbert Seligmann , 1913

Joseph Unger (born July 2, 1828 in Vienna , Austrian Empire , † May 2, 1913 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary ) was an Austrian lawyer , writer , politician and President of the Imperial Court of Justice. He is considered the father of the historical school of law in Austria.

Create and work

Unger studied law at the University of Vienna , where he was an assistant librarian in 1850 and a private lecturer in 1852. In 1852 he converted from the Jewish to the Catholic faith. In 1853 he was appointed to the University of Prague as an associate professor for Austrian civil law. In his inaugural address on October 8, 1853, he gave a lecture on the scientific treatment of Austrian private law, in which he called for the exegetical method, in which only the individual paragraphs are seen as fragments of a whole, to be turned away. He advocated the systemic method that grants knowledge of the ratio iuris, the inner nature of the thing.

Unger returned to Vienna in 1855, where he received the professorship for law in 1857. He owed this, among others, to Leopold Graf von Thun and Hohenstein , who, in the course of his educational reform, promoted an opening to the outside world in the direction of pandectism represented in the German states . In 1868 he published the stately literature "System des Austrian Private Law" in three volumes, the first two being devoted to the general teachings of private law and the third volume dealing with inheritance law. Unger's work remained unfinished, but with it he introduced the historical-systematic presentation of Austrian private law.

Grave of Joseph Unger in the Schey von Koromla family crypt in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Unger was elected to the Landtag of Lower Austria and the Reichsrat in 1867 , but had to resign the following year due to health problems. In 1869 the emperor appointed him a member of the manor house for life, where he worked as a German liberal politician. From 1871 to 1879 he was Minister without Portfolio in the cabinet of Adolf Carl Daniel von Auersperg and was highly valued in his ranks as an excellent, tactful speaker. In 1875/1876, as minister, he was the main initiator of the establishment of the Administrative Court , which still exists in Austria today. From 1881 to 1913 he was President of the Imperial Court, appointed by the Kaiser .

Joseph Unger was married to Emma, ​​a daughter of the banker and entrepreneur Friedrich Schey von Koromla . He rests in the Israelite section of the Vienna Central Cemetery .

Quote

“There is no such thing as dry science. There is only dry learning and dry scholars. "

Honors

Fonts (selection)

  • Marriage in its World Historical Development (Vienna, 1850)
  • On the Scientific Treatment of Austrian Common Private Law (Vienna, 1853)
  • The draft of a civil code for the Kingdom of Saxony (Vienna, 1853)
  • System of Austrian general private law (Leipzig, 1856–64)
  • The legal nature of bearer papers (Vienna, 1857)
  • The revised draft of a civil code for the Kingdom of Saxony (Vienna. 1861)
  • Solving the Hungarian Question (Vienna, 1861)
  • The Estate Treatise in Austria (Vienna, 1865)
  • On the Reform of the University of Vienna (Vienna, 1865)
  • The contracts in favor of third parties (Jena, 1869)
  • Assumption of debt (Vienna, 1889)
  • Act at your own risk (Jena, 1891)
  • Acting at the risk of others (Jena, 1894)
  • Colorful considerations and remarks. Mosaik, A Collection of Aphorisms, Academ. Verlagsges. (Leipzig 1911)

literature

Web links

Commons : Joseph Unger  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The division of the University of Prague in 1882 and the intellectual disintegration in the Bohemian countries, Collegium Carolinum . Oldenbourg, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-486-51891-7 , p. 59 .
  2. ↑ image of science . September 2019, p. 11
personal data
SURNAME Unger, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer and politician, member of the state parliament
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1913
Place of death Vienna