Christian Paulsen

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Christian Albrecht Jensen's portrait by Christian Paulsen.
Christian Paulsen Skolen in the Südergraben, named after him in Flensburg

Paul Detlev Christian Paulsen ( January 10, 1798 in Flensburg - December 28, 1854 ibid.) Was a Danish lawyer , author and politician who was involved in promoting the Danish language in Schleswig , among other things .

life and work

Paulsen comes from a Flensburg merchant family and studied in Goettingen, Berlin, Heidelberg, Kiel and Copenhagen Jura . In Berlin he studied with Friedrich Carl von Savigny , the founder of the historical school of law . In 1818 he won a science award for a treatise on Rhodes in the Macedonian period. In 1822 he obtained a licentiate and two years later a doctorate in law. Between 1825 and 1848 he worked as a professor for law and legal history at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. In 1831 he turned down an offer at Dorpat University in Estonia .

After Uwe Jens Lornsen spoke out in favor of a unified Schleswig-Holstein in 1830, Paulsen published two papers in 1832 and 1837 in which he emphasized the legal fiefdom of Schleswig to Denmark and called for a stronger position for the Danish language in Schleswig. Paulsen argued that the legal and school language must correspond to the spoken colloquial language. Like Lornsen, he also called for the modernization of the absolutist state as a whole , but at the same time emphasized the rights of the Danish-speaking Schleswigers. He emphatically demanded the application of the previously unrealized royal language rescript of January 19, 1811, according to which Danish should have become the school, church and legal language in those parts of Schleswig in which it was mostly spoken as a colloquial language. In order to limit the influence of the German-oriented Kiel University, Paulsen suggested the establishment of a university in Kolding . In 1838 he supported the publication of the daily Dannevirke in Haderslev by the Danish theologian and policeman Christian Flor , for which he himself wrote several articles on mostly language-political and language-historical content. In the looming German-Danish nationality conflict , his position at the German-oriented Kiel University became increasingly difficult. On March 24, 1848, Paulsen protested against the formation of a German Provisional Government for the two duchies before he left for Copenhagen that evening.

In Copenhagen, Paulsen worked as a lecturer at the university there and, together with the botanist Joakim Frederik Schouw and Christian Flor, founded a committee to support Schleswig-Holstein residents who had been expelled as a result of the Schleswig War. After negotiations on a Danish constitution began, Paulsen unsuccessfully requested that negotiations be suspended until delegates from all over the country could take part. Instead, at the request of the Danish government, Paulsen drafted a constitution for Schleswig. According to Paulsen's idea, Schleswig should be largely integrated administratively into the kingdom, only the legal and municipal system should be subject to a Schleswig state parliament. After the Battle of Idstedt , Paulsen became a member of the Higher Justice Commission in Flensburg, but died unexpectedly on December 28, 1854 in his hometown.

Paulsen has distinguished himself as a lawyer above all as a legal historian . Paulsen has also done research in the field of private law and has published, among other things, writings on family law in Nordic law and in particular in Jutian law . Politically, he appeared primarily as a supporter of the Danish-speaking Schleswigers. He is one of 18 deserving Danes who are named on the obelisk on Skamlingsbanken . A Danish school in Flensburg is named after Paulsen.

Christian Paulsen was the son of the Flensburg merchant Christian Detlev Paulsen (1756-1805) and his wife Ingeborg Sophie Gadebusch (1777-1854). He was married from 1826 to Thora Alvilde Bloch (1802–1834) and his second marriage from 1835 to her sister Margrethe Christiane Marie Bloch (1798–1866).

Works (selection)

  • Commentatio exhibens Rhodi descriptionem Macedonica aetate , 1818
  • On the popular character and constitutional law of the Duchy of Schleswig and views of the entire Danish state , 1832
  • Det danske sprog i hertugdømmet Slesvig , 1837 ( digitized )
  • Slesvigsk rets-formularbog, including tydsk-dansk lovkyndigheds-ordbog , 1853 ( digitized )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Paulsen, Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paulsen, Paul Detlev Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish legal scholar, author and politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Flensburg
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1854
Place of death Flensburg