Karl Franz Reisner von Lichtenstern

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baron Karl Franz Reisner von Lichtenstern
Coat of arms of the barons of Lichtenstern according to Siebmacher's book of arms

Karl Franz Reisner von Lichtenstern (born August 12, 1776 at Treswitz Castle , † March 24, 1866 in Amberg ) was a district judge in the Upper Palatinate with an impressively long period of service.

Life

He came from the family of Reisner von Lichtenstern , who had settled in the Upper Palatinate and were raised to the baron status on March 9, 1753. His parents were Franz Marquard von Lichtenstern (* 1748, † 1807 in Nabburg ), a carer in Treswitz , his mother was Baroness Meichsner von Alkofen .

After attending grammar schools in Amberg and Regensburg , he began studying law at the University of Ingolstadt in 1797 . He then worked for his father in the Treswitz district court, where he passed the civil service examination on September 19, 1803. At the age of 27 he was given the district court of Nabburg; on May 9, 1806 he was transferred to Parkstein , where he also took over the high court . After relocating the office to Neustadt an der Waldnaab on May 17, 1808 , he resided in the castle there from 1808 to 1862 and retired in 1862 at the age of 86. He then moved to his house in Amberg, where he died at the age of 90. At his request, he was buried in Neustadt an der Waldnaab. His wife, who died in 1850, was the sister of the Windischeschenbach priest Dr. Johann Nepomuk Hortig .

Act

Karl Franz Reisner von Lichtenstern became known for his long term of office and for his idiosyncratic leadership.

Function as commander of the vigilante group

The vigilante group was introduced in Bavaria in 1801. Baron Reisner von Lichtenstern had 12 companies set up in his administrative district, of which he was the commanding officer with the rank of colonel. He also had vigilantes set up in the villages. It was important to him to inspect this troop of about 1,500 men on Sunday and to visit them during the drill. Uniforms were available for the officers and batches of the vigilante groups, and a blue and white armband was sufficient for the simple vigilantes. These vigilante groups were equipped with rifles, side rifles, belts and ammunition pouches, but they had less military than police tasks to perform. In addition to the patrol duty with gendarmes or forest officials, their use in fire cases was also very important, as there were no fire departments at that time . They also took part in church parades, for example on the birthday or name day of the king and queen. No wages were paid for taking part, but failure to do so was punished with an increasing fine (6, 18 and 42 Kreuzer ). Unfit men had to pay a vigilante tax into the vigilante fund.

In this function, the district judge was also responsible for the vigilante group in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate as part of the Neustadt district court. An incident is said to have occurred that ultimately led to the discontinuation of the local vigilante group. Every morning the district judge sent a gendarme to Weiden to receive reports from the head of the vigilante group, which with six men and a corporal was on guard in front of the Weiden town hall. The report almost always reads, “Nothing new at the station”. Once the head of the guard was the Weiden vigilante lieutenant and pharmacist Heinrich Vierling , unwilling to report to the gendarme, he even had the gendarme arrested for insubordination. When the well-known district judge did not receive the report at 9:30 as usual, he sent a second gendarme to Weiden. The result was that the vigilante group in Weiden was hired.

In the places where fire brigades were established in the second half of the 19th century, the vigilante groups were dissolved; here too, the male citizens who did not participate in the service, one had to charge to pay. This was not abolished in Bavaria until 1995.

Karl Franz Reisner von Lichtenstern made great contributions to the reconstruction of Floß after the fire of 1813 and in Windischeschenbach after the fire of 1848, so that he is considered the second city founder in both places. During the reconstruction of Floß, since the citizens could not agree, he had the land expropriated and ordered large and wide streets to be built, uniform plots of land to be distributed to those damaged by the fire and all the Städel to be relocated to the outskirts in order to prevent another fire .

Special features of its jurisprudence

Reisner von Lichtenstern also became known for his idiosyncratic jurisprudence: Once two peasants with plenty of drinking and drinking got into an argument near Floß because of a cow in which one of them killed the other while fighting. The manslaughter was imprisoned despite repeated claims that he had not acted on purpose. One day the dead man's widow came to the district judge and complained that she no longer had anyone to work in the fields. Therefore, as a punishment, the district judge handed the condemned man over to the widow of the slain to do the field work. Then he asked the condemned person whether he was ready to marry the widow, which the latter replied in the affirmative. After the farmer's wife also agreed, he gave both of them his blessing and released the perpetrator from the punishment.

The district judge was known for not having a beard. Now he had an official who, despite his reproaches, was not ready to take off his beard. When one day a vagabond with a respectable full beard was brought before the district judge, the judge had a barber fetched who had to shave his beard without further ado. The next day, the young officer is said to have appeared without a full beard.

Corporal punishment was abolished in Bavaria in 1848. But that didn't stop the district judge from having delinquents who had angered him beaten up. A convict filed a complaint with the government about this and the district judge was reprimanded (he was, as it was called at the time, "shown a nose"). He is said to have said to the victim: "If you start something again, I will let you beat again, then we want to see who can stand it longer, you with the beatings or I with the noses!" On the other hand, he was generous when crops in need had stolen.

Honors

  • On January 1, 1844, the Bavarian King Ludwig I awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of St. Michael .
  • On September 19, 1853, on the occasion of his 50th service anniversary, King Maximilian II Joseph awarded him the Cross of Honor of the Order of Ludwig .
  • On the same occasion, the city of Neustadt an der Waldnaab granted him honorary citizenship.
  • On the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1856, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of St. Michael in the name of the Bavarian King.
  • In Windischeschenbach , Neustadt an der Waldnaab , Floß and in Parkstein streets are named after him.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Titan von Hefner ; Gustav Adelbert Seyler : The coat of arms of the Bavarian nobility. Repro. J. Siebmacher's large book of arms . II. Volume. Nuremberg 1856 Volume 22. Bauer & Raspe, Neustadt an der Aisch, 1971. ISBN 3-87947-022-7 .
  2. ^ Adolf Wolfgang Schuster : 100 Years of the Floss. For the local festival of the Floß market in the Upper Palatinate Forest. Marktgemeinde Floß, Floß 1976, pp. 291-292.
personal data
SURNAME Lichtenstern, Karl Franz Reisner from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and district judge
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1776
PLACE OF BIRTH Treswitz Castle
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1866
Place of death On the mountain