Karl Ferdinand Friese

Karl Ferdinand Friese (born July 23, 1770 on the Kant estate near Elbing , † January 5, 1837 in Berlin ) was a Prussian State Secretary and President of the Prussian Central Bank.

Life

Karl Ferdinand Friese was born as the son of Jacob Friese, councilor and general leaseholder of the royal domain office in Riesenburg , on the estate of his mother's parents; his father's estate was near Riesenburg.

Together with his younger brother, he was tutored by private tutors and at the age of 16 he joined the law faculty of the University of Königsberg in 1786 . Because there is only one professor there, Dr. Georg Friederich Holtzhauer , Karl Ferdinand Friese moved to the University of Frankfurt (Oder) to continue his law studies there. On the recommendation of his teacher Ludwig Gottfried Madihn , he moved to the University of Halle on May 9, 1788 , where he finished his law studies under the guidance of Professor Ernst Christian Westphal in 1790 and was appointed auscultator at the later higher regional court in Marienwerder on November 13, 1790 . On August 10, 1793, he moved to the State Judicial College as a judicial commissioner and notary . On September 11, 1793 he was appointed Assistant Councilor to the Justice Deputation of the War and Domain Chamber in Marienwerder. On the basis of a partition treaty concluded with Russia on January 23, 1793 , Prussia acquired Danzig , Thorn and South Prussia with around 1.1 million inhabitants. Another partition treaty dated January 3, 1795 between Russia , Austria and Prussia led to Prussia being awarded Masovia , Warsaw and New East Prussia . This increased Prussia by a third, while the population grew from 5.4 to 8.7 million subjects. These acquisitions meant that the judicial police and financial administration were newly created and filled with the staff of the old provinces, but this made many vacancies.

At the age of 26, after completing the Rigorosum in Berlin, he was appointed War and Domain Council in 1796 and second legal counsel at the West Prussian Chamber in Marienwerder; after the retirement of Carl Achatius Wilhelm Moldenhauer (1730–1799) he was promoted to first legal advisor in March 1798. In May 1800 he formed together with the war and domain councilor Ernst Ludwig Wloemer (1773-1831) and the district administrator Ludwig von Schleinitz, the commission for the promotion of the repeal of vulgarity in West Prussia. On September 26, 1805 he became a lecturing councilor in the old Prussian department of the general management under President Hans Jakob von Auerswald , with the character of a secret war and domain council; at the same time he was the legal advisor in this department

After the Peace of Tilsit on July 9, 1807, both the land area and that of the subjects were reduced by half, which meant that, among other things, the police and financial legislation had to be reorganized. The Minister of State Freiherr Karl Wilhelm von Schrötter called Karl Ferdinand Friese to Berlin under his direct leadership and assigned him tasks in the Prussian department of the General Directory; on September 26, 1805, Karl Ferdinand Friese was promoted to the Secret War and Domain Council. When Freiherr von Schrötter left Berlin in the late autumn of 1806, Karl Ferdinand Friese received the order to accompany him to Prussia. At the end of 1808 the legislation regulating the budget of the cities and the cooperation between the highest administrative authorities was redesigned. Karl Ferdinand Friese played a decisive role in this, especially the town ordinance of November 19, 1808 as well as the instructions for the upper presidents of November 23, 1808, the ordinance on changes to the establishment of the provincial police and the tax authorities of November 26, 1808 and the rules of procedure of November 26, 1808. November 1808. As a result of these laws, three ministries (Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Finance) were established. Count Friedrich Ferdinand Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten became Minister of the Interior . The Ministry of the Interior was given four departments: Police, Trade, Education and Legislation. The minister headed the first department personally, and on December 6, 1808, Karl Ferdinand Friese was employed in this department as the first lecturer council with the character of council of state. In December 1809 the seat of government was moved back to Berlin and it has now returned there. Another piece of legislation concerned the constitution of rural communities and a general obligation to serve in the military. On behalf of the Minister of the Interior, Karl Ferdinand Friese drafted a rural communal order and a draft for the general obligation for military service. Legislation to introduce general military service came into force on September 3, 1814.

On June 6, 1810, Prince Karl August von Hardenberg was appointed State Chancellor at the head of the administration. Karl Ferdinand Friese remained in his position with the police department. On October 22nd, 1813, he was commissioned by the State Chancellor to join an authority that, after the victory at Leipzig, was appointed to jointly administer the countries conquered by the allies under the direction of State Minister Baron Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein . This authority also accompanied the advancing military as far as Paris . After the conclusion of the peace on May 30, 1814, Prussia was given the administration of the areas between the Meuse and the Moselle until the congress in Vienna was decided.

Karl Ferdinand Friese accompanied State Minister von Stein to Vienna; there Russia left the administration of Saxony to the Prussians. On October 28, 1814, after he became director in the Ministry of the Interior , he was commissioned to travel from Vienna to Dresden and to take over the financial affairs of the Prussian administration under Governor Lieutenant General Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold von Gaudi , and so was Karl Ferdinand Friese head of finances at the Generalgouvernement of Saxony .

On May 18, 1815, a treaty between Prussia and Saxony was concluded, which put the royal Saxon government back into possession of the remaining territory in June 1815. As a result, a peace enforcement commission met in Dresden to negotiate the rights and obligations, assets and debts between the states. Karl Ferdinand Friese took part in the negotiations on behalf of Prince von Hardenberg and did not leave Dresden until 1817.

With the peace treaty concluded on May 30, 1814 ( First Peace of Paris ), the restoration of the Prussian state was reset to the state of 1806. The king therefore issued orders on June 3, 1814 and appointed Friedrich von Schuckmann Minister of the Interior. Under his leadership, according to a further regulation of October 14, 1814, Karl Ferdinand Friese was made director of the first and third departments of this ministry; however, he never carried out this activity because on his return from Dresden he was directly subordinated to State Chancellor von Hardenberg.

With the ordinance of December 4, 1817, supervision of trade, factories and construction was separated from the Ministry of Finance and transferred as an independent ministry to Count Hans von Bülow , previously Minister of Finance. Minister of State Wilhelm Anton von Klewiz took charge of financial affairs. The business previously managed by the latter, the State Secretariat with the chairmanship of the Senior Examination Commission for Finance and Police Administration and the Presidium at the Royal Main Bank and in the Ministry of the Treasury passed to Karl Ferdinand Friese.

In 1819 the Ministry of the Treasury had to provide the means to meet government spending and at the same time pay off the arrears, while the current income did not even cover current needs. In this situation, Karl Ferdinand Friese asked on January 11, 1819 to be released from the Presidium in the Treasury. He was entrusted with the management of the royal main bank in Berlin and its subsidiary banks in the provinces, so that he could now look after the improvement of Prussian finances without any additional tasks.

Although he had not been declared Minister of State, like his predecessor in the State Secretariat, he still had a seat and vote in the State Ministry and only resigned when he was released from the Presidium of the Treasury. Since then, his business as State Secretary has been limited to the State Council and the Senior Examination Commission.

In December 1836, for health reasons, he asked to be dismissed as State Secretary and Chairman of the Senior Examination Commission, which the King approved on December 18 and 24, 1836. After his death in 1837, Christian von Rother took over as President of the Royal Main Bank .

On February 2, 1796, he married Juliane Dorothee Friese, b. Günther. When he died he left a widow and three sons and two daughters employed in the civil service. The following are known by name of his children:

• Carl Gottfried Hermann Friese (born August 17, 1803 in Marienwerder; † July 6, 1868), royal Prussian government councilor.

Honors

• Karl Ferdinand Friese received the Iron Cross with a white ribbon on May 30, 1814 .
• On January 17, 1816, after the conclusion of the Second Peace of Paris , he received the Order of the Red Eagle, third class.
• After completing his participation in the dispute commission in Dresden, he received the second class of the Order of the Red Eagle on January 17, 1818, and was awarded the star on January 18, 1831.
• As a result of his participation in the negotiations with Russia and Poland, he received the Imperial Russian Order of St. Anne, second class , in 1819 .
• In 1830 he was awarded the Royal Polish Order of St. Stanislaus, first class.

Freemasons

Karl Ferdinand Friese belonged to the Freemasons : in 1806 he was master of ceremonies of the Berlin Urania Lodge for Immortality and from 1812 to 1815 he was representative of Urania at the Great Lodge Royal York for Friendship .

Individual evidence

1. ^ New necrology of the Germans . Voigt, 1839 ( google.de [accessed January 17, 2018]).
2. ^ Johann Gottfried Hoffmann: Estate of small writings of state economic content . Walter De Gruyter Incorporated, 1847 ( google.de [accessed June 8, 2018]).
3. ^ Rolf Straubel: Biographical Handbook of the Prussian Administrative and Justice Officials 1740–1806 / 15, p. 285 . Walter de Gruyter, 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-44130-1 ( google.de [accessed on June 9, 2018]).
4. ↑ Rebekka Horlacher, Daniel Tröhler: August 1817–1820, p. 297 . Walter de Gruyter, 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-030443-5 ( google.de [accessed on June 9, 2018]).
5. ^ Wilhelm Treue: Economic and Technical History of Prussia, p. 271 . Walter de Gruyter, 1984, ISBN 978-3-11-009598-2 ( google.de [accessed on June 9, 2018]).
6. ↑ Berlin: Chronicle of the Royal. Capital and royal seat of Berlin: 1837 (1840), pp. 25–27 . Gropius, 1840 ( google.de [accessed June 9, 2018]).
7. ↑ Johann Gottfried Hoffmann: Estate of small writings of state economic content, pp. 688–708 . Walter De Gruyter Incorporated, 1847 ( google.de [accessed June 9, 2018]).
8. ↑ Uta Motschmann: Handbook of Berlin Associations and Societies 1786-1815 . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-038093-4 ( google.de [accessed on June 9, 2018]).