Karl Rothe (politician, 1848)

Karl Rothe (Photo: 1902)

Karl Friedrich Otto Rothe (born July 10, 1848 in Großrudestedt ; † April 28, 1921 in Eisenach ) was a German politician and honorary citizen of Jena . In 1899 he was Minister of State of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach and thus an authorized representative at the Federal Council .

Life

Born as the son of an official commissioner , Rothe studied law in Jena from 1869 to 1873 after attending grammar school in Gera . During his studies in 1869 he became a member of the Arminia fraternity in the castle cellar . He took part in the Franco-German War as a one-year volunteer with the Jena 94th Infantry Regiment . After his exams in 1873 and his second state examination in law, he became district court secretary in Eisenach in 1877, district court assessor in Weida in 1878 and district judge in Gera in 1879. In 1883 he was promoted to lecturing council in the culture department of the state ministry and to the government council. In 1893 he became head of the finance department as a secret government councilor and in 1899 he became a real secret councilor and excellence minister of state and chairman of the state ministry. In this function he was the Federal Council representative for Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach. Together with his federal brother Johannes Hunnius , he played a key role in the preparation of the state legislation introducing the German Civil Code (BGB). From 1901 he headed the Department of Culture, the Ministry of the Grand Ducal House, Justice and Finance. After he resigned as minister in 1918, he became director of the State University of Fine Arts . He was also chairman of the board of directors of the German Schiller Foundation and organized the financial affairs of the newly founded Thuringian regional church.

Honors

• 1900: Saxon-Ernestine House Order , Grand Cross, associated with the hereditary nobility , but of which he made no use
• 1908: Honorary citizen of the city of Jena
• Honorary doctorate from all four faculties of the University of Jena
  • 1896: Dr. phil. hc
  • 1908: Dr. jur. hc
  • 1917: Dr. theol. hc
  • 1918: Dr. med. hc

His federal brother Ferdinand Tönnies dedicated his criticism of public opinion in 1922 to the memory of Karl Rothes.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 5: R – S. Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1256-9 , pp. 120-121.