List of the Hanseatic envoys at the German Confederation

Europe within the borders of 1815 ; for the Hanseatic cities, the German Confederation was also important in terms of trade policy.

German Confederation (DB)

Territories of Austria and Prussia outside the DB

This list of the Hanseatic envoys to the German Confederation shows the envoys of the three free Hanseatic cities of Bremen , Hamburg and Lübeck to the Bundestag of the German Confederation (1816–1866) in Frankfurt am Main .

As free city-states , the three Hanseatic cities were also sovereign member states of the German Confederation . I.e. In addition to their duties and rights as diplomatic representatives vis-à-vis the German Confederation as the sum of the German states, the Hanseatic envoys were also members of the German Bundestag with voting rights. According to Articles IV, V and IX of the German Federal Act of 1815, however, they had to share their so-called " 17th vote " with each other and also with the Free City of Frankfurt am Main . This common mandate of the four free cities is also known as the " curiate vote ", i. H. only if all four were unanimous did this one common vote become valid. While the cooperation within the three Hanseatic cities - and their joint diplomatic and consular network , which was worldwide at the time - had developed into a certain routine over the centuries, it is not undisputed among historians today how exactly the cooperation with the ambassador of the Represented the Free City of Frankfurt .

history

See also : History of Federalism in Germany

To represent the interests of the Hanseatic cities vis-à-vis the German states, the Hanseatic envoys to the German Confederation succeeded the Hanseatic envoys at the Perpetual Reichstag in Regensburg (1662–1806; all three on the Rheinische Bank ). The German Confederation was founded in 1815 on the basis of the Vienna Congress Act . After the dissolution of the German Confederation (1866), the Hanseatic legation in Frankfurt was also abolished. After the establishment of the German Reich (1871), the Hanseatic ambassadors in Prussia and Berlin took over this function as "Hanseatic ambassadors to the [German] Reich" (until 1933 ).

The Frankfurt legation of the Hanseatic cities itself looks back on a longer, albeit discontinuous, history as a legation to the city of Frankfurt and the Electoral Mainz and Hessian courts .

Heads of mission

Comments on the protocol and the official designation: as a rule, each of the Hanseatic cities in Frankfurt was represented by its own envoy or business agent, whereby a rotating or deputy representative had been established among the Hanseatic cities (also from experience from elsewhere). It usually made no difference whether one of the diplomats was a citizen or citizen, dignitary or official in one of the three sister cities, and represented one of the others to the outside world or to third parties. From the outside, the ambassadors in Frankfurt were often perceived as "ambassadors of the four free cities", although such a joint delegation did not exist.

Legend: HB = Bremen, HH = Hamburg, HL = Lübeck

Bremen Bremen envoy (1816 to 1848) 1816–1840: Johann Smidt (1773–1857) 1840–1841: see HL 1841–1848: Johann Smidt (1773–1857)

Hamburg Hamburg Envoy (1816 to 1848) 1816–1828: Johann Michael Gries (1772–1827) 1828–1831: vacant 1831–1838: Karl Sieveking (1787–1847) 1838–1841: see HL 1841–1844: Karl Sieveking (1787–1847) 1844–1847: see HL 1847–1848: vacant 1848–1848: Ascan Wilhelm Lutteroth (1783–1867) 1848–1848: Edward Banks (1795–1851)

Lübeck Ambassador of Lübeck (1816 to 1848) 1816–1819: Johann Friedrich Hach (1769–1851) 1819–1823: Anton Diedrich Gütschow (1765–1833) 1823–1835: Carl Georg Curtius (1771–1857) 1835–1836: Johann Joachim Torkuhl (1790–1870) 1836–1838: see HH 1838–1841: Johann Joachim Torkuhl (1790–1870) 1841–1842: see HH 1842-1844: see HB 1844–1847: Carl Georg Curtius (1771–1857) 1847–1848: Johann Joachim Torkuhl (1790–1870) 1848–1848: Carl Georg Curtius (1771–1857)

1848 to 1849: Break in relations as a result of the revolution of 1848/1849 and creation of a short-lived, first German federal state (1848–1849)

Bremen envoy (1850 to 1866) 1850–1857: Johann Smidt (1773–1857) 1857–1863: Georg Wilhelm Albers (1800–1876) 1863–1864: vacant 1864–1866: see HH

Hamburg Envoy (1850 to 1866) 1850–1851: Johann Martin Lappenberg (1794–1865) 1851-1852: Edward Banks (1795-1851) 1852–1861: Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer (1808–1887) 1861–1864: vacant 1864–1866: Friedrich Krüger (1819–1896)

Ambassador of Lübeck (1850 to 1866) 1850–1854: Heinrich Brehmer (1800–1872) 1854–1866: Peter Ludwig Elder (1798–1881)

1866: the legation is abolished

Remarks

1. ↑ As "Members of the Bundestag" the envoys are also referred to as Bundestag envoys , not to be confused with members of the Bundestag ( MdB )
2. ↑ Although the plenipotentiaries at the Provisional Central Authority (1848 to 1849) were members of the new German federal state and were no longer connected to the German Confederation, these politicians largely emerged from the diplomatic corps of the Hanseatic legation:

   the representative of Bremen: 1848–1849: Johann Smidt (1773–1857),

   Hamburg plenipotentiary: 1848–1849: Edward Banks (1795–1851) nominally, represented 1849–1849 by: Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer (1808–1887) and

   the Lübeck representative: 1848–1849: vacant

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tobias C. Bringmann : Handbuch der Diplomatie 1815-1963: Foreign Heads of Mission in Germany and German Heads of Mission abroad from Metternich to Adenauer. KG Saur, Munich 2012, p. 180.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Tobias C. Bringmann, p. 58
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Tobias C. Bringmann, p. 206
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Tobias C. Bringmann, p. 259 f.