Karl von Weizsäcker

The title of this article is ambiguous. For other people with a similar name, see Carl von Weizsäcker .

Ensign Karl Hugo Weizsäcker after the Franco-German War

The young couple Karl and Paula Weizsäcker in Stuttgart around 1880

Karl Weizsäcker and his family around 1895

Karl Hugo Weizsäcker , von Weizsäcker since 1897 , Baron von Weizsäcker since 1916 , (born February 25, 1853 in Stuttgart ; †  February 2, 1926 there ) was a German politician who served as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Württemberg from 1906 to 1918 .

Life

Karl Weizsäcker passed his Abitur at the age of 17. In 1870 he became a war volunteer with the 1st Royal Württemberg Infantry Regiment , the so-called Olga Grenadiers . He was wounded on November 30, 1870 during the siege of Paris . After his recovery he moved to the 2nd Württemberg Infantry Regiment in Ulm , where he served as an ensign. Weizsäcker studied law at the University of Tübingen from autumn 1871 . During his studies he became a member of the Tübingen student association Akademische Gesellschaft Stuttgardia . He passed the first and second judicial service exams with an excellent grade of 2a. In 1879 he received his doctorate as Dr. iur. ; the title of his dissertation was The Roman Arbitration Office compared with the officium judicis .

In 1877 Weizsäcker entered the Württemberg civil service as a court assessor and in 1879 became a district judge in Stuttgart. From 1883 he was employed as ministerial secretary at the Ministry of Justice, first with the title of district judge, since 1887 with that of a district judge and five years later with that of a ministerial councilor. From 1896 onwards he took part in the commission for the introduction of the civil code . On February 24, 1897, in connection with his appointment as Ministerial Director, he was given personal nobility. In 1916, Karl von Weizsäcker and his entire family were raised to the baron status by King Wilhelm II of Württemberg after they had previously been conferred the hereditary nobility .

politics

From April 19 to November 10, 1900, Weizsäcker was the new head of the Ministry of Churches and Schools in the Midnight Government as a Real Councilor, and from November 10, 1900 to December 4, 1906 in the Schottenstein and Breitling governments . Since February 25, 1901, he officially held the title of Minister of State . From December 4, 1906 to November 6, 1918, he was President of the Württemberg State Ministry , which corresponded to the function of Prime Minister . Weizsäcker was President of the Privy Council from December 4, 1906 to 1911 , until it was dissolved by law of June 15, 1911.

As minister of education, Weizsäcker wanted to replace the previous supervision of the Württemberg elementary schools by the churches in favor of state supervision. The amendment to the law found the majority approval of the second chamber of the state parliament, but was rejected by the first chamber, the predominantly Catholic chamber of the class members. The amendment was then withdrawn in 1904, but ultimately triggered the constitutional reform that was implemented in the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1906. This reform significantly upgraded the position of the Second Chamber, as it was now fully elected by the people. In 1909 an elementary school reform could then be carried out with the consent of both chambers of the state parliament.

Politically, Weizsäcker was close to the National Liberals and, as head of government, felt solely responsible to King Wilhelm II of Württemberg , with whom he had the best possible connections. Weizsäcker was accordingly a member of the German party , which corresponded to his values ​​of the imperial idea , the monarchy and the rejection of the republic. He refused to parliamentarise Württemberg until the resignation of the Württemberg state government, which he led on November 6, 1918. According to the constitution, the Württemberg state parliament should only be involved in legislation and budget approval, but not have any direct influence on the government. Weizsäcker was highly regarded as a statesman and, through the Federal Council's Committee on Foreign Affairs , gained an important say in Reich foreign policy. This was further promoted by the personal friendship with State Secretary Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter , whom he knew from studying law in Tübingen. Since the Daily Telegraph affair, Weizsäcker had advocated an understanding with Great Britain and tried to prevent a war from which he expected an unfavorable outcome for Germany and its existing state system. During the First World War , out of loyalty to the emperor and empire, he always spoke out in public for a war of defense with all his might. Like Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg , Weizsäcker was a staunch opponent of unrestricted submarine warfare , as this would result in the USA entering the war . After the fall of the monarchy in the November Revolution, Weizsäcker withdrew from politics, but encouraged Gottlob Egelhaaf in the plan to found the Württemberg State Association of the German People's Party (DVP) .

family

origin

Karl Weizsäcker was the son of the Protestant theologian Carl Heinrich Weizsäcker and Sophie Auguste Weizsäcker née Dahm, a pastor's daughter and granddaughter of the Württemberg finance minister Ferdinand Heinrich August von Weckherlin (1767-1828).

The Weizsäcker were an up-and-coming family of the educated middle class, initially at the court of the Prince of Hohenlohe-Öhringen . It is noteworthy that this family then produced high-ranking officials (Prime Minister, State Secretary, Federal President) within three successive generations in four different systems of government (Imperial Era, Weimar Republic, Nazi dictatorship, Federal Republic). This led the political philosopher Gérard Radnitzky to the question of whether it is possible to speak of “innate political correctness” here. The publicist Ralph Giordano judged critically: “The Weizsäcker are solid, successful, highly intelligent contemporaries with a pronounced inclination towards authority, so much so that one can call him 'given'. [...] When Karl Hugo von Weizsäcker, honored, died in February 1926, the political family terrain was marked: alienation from democracy, yes hostility, bias in the authoritarian state thinking of monarchical stamping. "

Marriage and offspring

Weizsäcker had been married to Paula von Meibom (1857–1947), the daughter of the jurist Viktor von Meibom from Kurhessen, since 1879 . They had four children:

• Carl Victor von Weizsäcker (1880–1914), Legation Councilor , First Lieutenant dR, fallen
• Ernst von Weizsäcker (1882–1951), diplomat; Father of Carl Friedrich and Richard von Weizsäcker
• Viktor von Weizsäcker (1886–1957), neurologist; ∞ Olympia Curtius, granddaughter of Ernst Curtius
• Paula von Weizsäcker (1893–1933), farmer

honors and awards

• 1871 Iron Cross, 2nd class
• 1889 Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Württemberg Order of Frederick
• Silver and Gold Merit Medal of the Order of the Württemberg Crown
• 1897 Elevation to the personal aristocracy of Württemberg
• 1906 Grand Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown
• In 1916 he was raised to the status of hereditary baron
• Numerous other orders and honors

literature

• Martin Wein : The Weizsäcker. Story of a German family . Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-421-06389-3 , pp. 143-203.
• Frank Raberg : A statesman between kingdom and republic. One of the most capable politicians of his time: Carl Hugo von Weizsäcker (1853–1926) . In: Schlösser Baden-Württemberg No. 3, 2003, ISSN  0943-5298 , pp. 34-36.
• Martin Furtwängler: Heinrich von Bodman and Karl von Weizsäcker. Government policy and strategies for action in the last year of the war, 1918, In: Zeitschrift für Württembergische Landesgeschichte, Vol. 79 (2020), pp. 315-330.

Web links

• Works by and about Karl von Weizsäcker  in the German Digital Library
• Entry on Karl von Weizsäcker in Kalliope
• Entry about Karl von Weizsäcker in the central estate database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Wein: Die Weizsäcker , p. 151.
2. ↑ Martin Wein: The Weizsäcker , p. 154.
3. ↑ Martin Wein: The Weizsäcker , p. 150.
4. ^ Ralph Giordano : Weizsäcker and other Germans . In: Der Spiegel . No. 11 , 1989 ( online ).
5. ↑ Ingrid Hubing-Weizsäcker (source): The Weizsäcker (family tree) . In: Der Spiegel . No. 11 , 2010 ( online ).
6. ↑ Court and State Manual of the Kingdom of Württemberg 1907, p. 31.

predecessor	Office	successor
Julius von Soden	Württemberg Foreign Minister 1906–1918	Theodor Liesching