Justin von Linde

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Justin von Linde, 1845. Graphic by Eduard Kretzschmar.
Signature Justin von Linde.PNG
Justin von Linde

Justin Timotheus Balthasar Linde , from 1839 von Linde , from 1859 Baron von Linden zu Dreyß (born August 7, 1797 in Brilon ; † June 9, 1870 in Bonn ), was a German lawyer, civil servant, conservative politician and diplomat. He was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly and the Erfurt Union Parliament and was an envoy in the Bundestag of the German Confederation .

Family and nobility uprisings

He was the son of the lawyer Dr. Franz Levin Linde († 1800) and grandson of Dr. jur. Bernhard Engelbert Linde , electoral court and government councilor of Cologne (1750), prince-bishop of Munster Gaugraf and judge of Rheine and Bevergern in Westphalia .

As the Grand Ducal Hessian State Councilor, Professor of Law and Chancellor of the University of Giessen, Linde was raised to the Hessian nobility on October 23, 1839 in Darmstadt . On May 10, 1859, he was raised to the Liechtenstein baron class in Bonn with the name " von Linden zu Dreyß " (he had acquired the Dreis estate in 1837 ) as a princely Liechtenstein real privy councilor and envoy to the Federal Assembly in Frankfurt and on May 4, 1866, but only with a diploma on May 23, 1870, the elevation to the Austrian baron status without the title of kuk real privy councilor and knight of the Austrian Iron Crown Order, 1st class. On October 28, 1842 he was made an honorary citizen of Gießen.

Youth and education

Linde attended the Laurentianum grammar school in Arnsberg and completed his school education in 1816. In 1817 he began his law studies in Münster . In 1818 he moved to Göttingen , but left the university again because he spoke out against the student unrest there and finally enrolled in Bonn . There he obtained a doctorate in law in 1820 and completed his habilitation a year later. In 1819 he joined the old Bonn fraternity / general public .

University career

The attempt to get a professorship in Bonn failed because the university did not want to employ any more Catholics at the law faculty. This rejection was probably a reason for the later antipathy towards the Prussian government. As with his colleague Johann Friedrich Joseph Sommer , the initial enthusiasm for Prussia turned into a certain rejection. Finally he accepted a call to Giessen , where from 1823 he taught civil procedure law as an associate professor. His lectures were extremely popular and characterized by factual clarity and structure. Just one year later he was a full professor and also took a position as a councilor in the "Church and School College".

Senior ministerial official in Hessen-Darmstadt

The government of Hessen-Darmstadt became aware of the talented academic and appointed him to the Ministerialrat (with the title of a secret government councilor) in the Ministry of the Interior and Justice in 1829. Some time later he became head of the board of directors of the "Oberstudienrat" created at his suggestion and in 1833 a member of the State Council. At the same time, Linde was also Chancellor of the University of Gießen and as such he was a member of the first Chamber of Estates and a member of the Federal Arbitration Court. In 1836 Linde became the “Privy Councilor of State” and head of the Department of Culture, the Interior Department and, for a long time, the Department of Justice in the capital Darmstadt. Linde was the leading statesman in Hessen-Darmstadt for a long time (around 1845) and also had a considerable influence on Prince Emil.

On the basis of a conservative majority in the state parliament, an agreement was reached between the government and the estates in 1836 to draw up new legislation. Despite his diverse administrative tasks, Linde was entrusted with drafting a code of civil procedure in this context. The draft was received positively by experts, but due to political delays, it was no longer passed.

As a Catholic he played an important mediating role between state and church and ensured a peaceful relationship between the government and the Mainz bishop. Together with the bishop, Linde set up a Catholic theological faculty in 1830. However, Linde was not a supporter of ultramontanism , but was considered a friend of the state church in Rome . This led to conflicts with the relatively strong German Catholics in Hesse .

However, the Hessian Protestants accused Linde of attempting to catholize the country. Last but not least , Linde fell out of favor with Minister of State Du Thil . Affected by these allegations, he submitted his departure in 1844, which, however, was not approved until 1847 after long bureaucratic quarrels. Linde withdrew to a property he had bought near Wittlich in the Prussian Rhine Province. Ultimately, his rigid anti-liberal stance, which was no longer shared by the top of the government, was the reason for his resignation.

Basic political attitude

Linde had no relation to the “German idea”, but saw himself exclusively as a Hessian civil servant. He was also hostile to the liberal or even democratic forces of the time. Even a constitutional form of government met with rejection and he remained an advocate of absolutism . This almost anachronistic attitude earned him sharp criticism from Robert von Mohl in the 1850s .

Linde had no sympathy for the revolution in 1848. In view of his anti-Prussian and church-friendly attitude, it is remarkable that he took a clear position against Archbishop von Spiegel and for the Prussian state during the Cologne turmoil . Ultimately more important for Linde than the church was the power of the absolute state. In his function as Chancellor of the University of Giessen there were violent public disputes between him and the liberal Protestant theology professor Credner . This scandal made Linde one of the most unpopular in Hessen.

Member of the National Assembly 1848/1849

Despite his conservative stance and a public warning in the Westphalian Merkur , von Linde was elected as Hermann Wedewer's successor to the National Assembly in the Frankfurt Paulskirche in the constituency of Borken , to which he belonged from June 27, 1848 to May 30, 1849 as a non-attached member. Linde was a member of the Committee for Ministerial Responsibility and spoke primarily on fundamental rights and constitutional issues. His statements were important to distinguish between personal and political basic rights. With regard to the equal rights of the Jewish religious community, he defended - at that time by no means a matter of course - the equation with the Christian denominations. Different religious beliefs should not have any influence on civil and political rights. Incidentally, von Linde advocated equal access to the public service and the end of preferential treatment for the nobility.

In addition to his parliamentary activities, von Linde was one of the legal advisors of the Reich Administrator Archduke Johann .

Linde was recognized by many parliamentarians for his legal knowledge. However, his political attitudes also met with criticism. Although his basic conservative position agreed in many ways with the leader of the national conservative right of Joseph von Radowitz , Linde remained a state- conservative defender of the old federal constitution and a strong position for Austria. This earned him criticism from the liberal Heinrich von Gagern . At times, Linde was considered one of the strongest opponents of the President of the National Assembly.

Member of the Bundestag 1850–1866

Linde was a member of the National Assembly until May 1849, when the Prussian government illegally declared that the Prussian mandates had expired. After the revolution he was a member of the Erfurt parliament as a representative of the Arnsberg constituency .

When the Erfurt parliament was closed, von Linde was invited by the Austrian government to take part in the reopening of the Bundestag in Frankfurt. Linde was accepted into the Austrian civil service and appointed envoy to the Bundestag in 1850. There he worked as the Princely Liechtenstein Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary. He was also involved in the negotiations on a constitution for Liechtenstein . He later became an advisor to the Austrian embassy. He also represented Hessen-Homburg , the Principality of Reuss older line and Schaumburg-Lippe . Linde was the only one who belonged to the Bundestag from 1850 to the end of 1866. On May 10, 1859, he was raised to the Liechtenstein baron class with the addition of the name " von Linden zu Dreyß ". He and the members of his family had been Liechtenstein citizens since 1859 and citizens of the Schellenberg community since 1869 .

During this time Linde tried to set a counterpoint to the growing Prussia in the service of Austria. So he fought for a strengthening of the Bundestag under the leadership of Austria. During this time, Linde was the legal and intellectual head behind the Austrian ambassadors, who were changed several times.

In 1866 his vote was decisive in mobilizing the federal troops against Prussia. His decision was controversial under constitutional law, but in any case could not have changed the outbreak of the Prussian-Austrian war . After the Prussian victory, von Linde bitterly withdrew to his estate. Only a few months before his death, he was finally raised to the Austrian baron status on May 23, 1870 (but without distinction).

Fonts (selection)

  • De successione Germanica . Diss. Bonn, 1828.
  • Textbook of the German civil civil process . 4th edition Bonn, 1835
  • Equal rights of the Augsburg Confession with the Catholic religion in Germany according to the principles of the Reich, the Rhine Confederation and the German Confederation: together with illumination of the text: “The Catholic religious exercise in Mecklenburg = Schwerin. Historically and legally. ” Mainz, 1853.
  • About non-profit orders according to the principles of German federal law in particular application to common laws and the assembly of delegates . Giessen, 1863.

literature

  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 3: I-L. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0865-0 , pp. 292-294.
  • Eva-Marie Felschow / Emil Heuser (edit.): University and Ministry in March: Justus Liebig's correspondence with Justin von Linde . Giessen, 1992. ISBN 3-927835-19-6
  • Genealogical manual of the nobility , Adelslexikon Volume VII, Volume 97 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1989, ISSN  0435-2408
  • Hans Körner:  Linde, Justinus Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 576 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , pp. 243-244.
  • Jochen Lengemann: The German Parliament (Frankfurt Union Parliament) from 1850. A manual: Members, officials, life data, parliamentary groups . Munich 2000. ISBN 3-437-31128-X , pp. 201f.
  • Klaus-Dieter Rack, Bernd Vielsmeier: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the first and second chambers of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse 1820–1918 and the state parliament of the People's State of Hesse 1919–1933 (= Political and parliamentary history of the State of Hesse. Vol. 19 = Work of the Hessian Historical Commission. NF Vol. 29) . Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-88443-052-1 , pp. 589-591.
  • Johann Friedrich von Schulte :  Linde, Justinus Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, pp. 665-672.
  • 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).
  • Hugo Stumm: Councilor of State Justin Freiherr von Linde. A contribution to the history of the state church in Vormärz . In: Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz , vol. 6 (1951/1954), pp. 62–81.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Kaupp: Fraternity members in the Paulskirche
  2. ↑ Cornelius Goop: Rich and famous Schellenberger . In: Schellenberg My Magazine . Schellenberg July 2020, p. 34-37 ( gmgnet.li ).
personal data
SURNAME Linde, Justin von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Linde, Justin; Linden zu Dreyß, Justin von; Linde, Justin Timotheus Balthasar (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hessian lawyer and politician, Austrian diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Brilon
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1870
Place of death Bonn