Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer

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Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer (painting by Helmut Collmann , 1918–1996)
Siebenpfeiffer (image on the Hambach cloth )

Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer (born November 12, 1789 in Lahr ; † May 14, 1845 in Bümpliz in Switzerland ) was a German lawyer, political journalist and, together with the publicist Johann Georg August Wirth and other fellow campaigners, initiator of the Hambach Festival .

Life

Siebenpfeiffer was the son of the master tailor Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer (1761–1799) and his wife Catharina Dorothea Bittenbring (1764–1799) from Lahr. At the time of his birth, the city belonged to the County of Nassau-Saarbrücken . His grandfather Johannes Theobald Siebenpfeiffer (1731–1766) had left his hometown Saarbrücken around 1755 to settle in Lahr. At the age of ten, Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer junior lost both parents within a month and was taken into the care of relatives. After finishing school, on February 15, 1804, at the age of 14, he found a job as a senior clerk student in Lahr. In May 1807 Siebenpfeiffer was promoted to Oberamtsactuar , in October 1808 he was transferred to the financial administration in Freiburg im Breisgau as Renovator and Berains Commissaire . From the following year, he was able to start studying law at the University of Freiburg - financially supported by a grant from his employer . There he met two personalities who were to have a decisive influence on his further career: Carl Wenzeslaus von Rotteck and Joseph Maria Weissegger von Weißeneck . While the liberal views of the first scholar, who even took him in, were to have a lasting impact on his worldview, and both were linked by a long and deep friendship, the second Freiburg professor became not only his doctoral father but also his father-in-law: in 1814 he married his daughter Emilie, after successfully passing his legal state examination in 1813 and completing his studies with a doctorate . It is also worth mentioning - surprising from a historical perspective, but in keeping with the spirit of the times - his antipathy towards Napoleon . After Siebenpfeiffer had already joined a league against Napoleon's tyrannical rule in 1806 , he expressed himself euphorically in a letter to Rotteck on February 6, 1814 about the fall of Napoleonic rule: “Your good-hearted / I am sharing the complex, trembling with joy official message with of the great victory achieved by the Allies ”. And a few lines further: "Rejoice with me, like all good Germans - curse the Napoleons!"

At first, however, Siebenpfeiffer benefited not insignificantly from the new circumstances. In January 1814 he took up a position at the Austrian General Government in Colmar , a kind of occupation authority in Upper Alsace. This was followed by a veritable odyssey, during the course of which he carried out numerous administrative activities in the service of the Bavarian-Austrian regional administration over the next four years. Colmar, Kreuznach , Trier and Ottweiler , Landau , Speyer , Frankenthal were the stations of his nomadic life as an administrative officer, which finally led him to Homburg in 1818 . The Rhine district was in a dozen Landcommissariate been divided, Siebenpfeiffer was the country's Commissariat Homburg on the border with Prussia allocated. From Homburg - now in the Saar- Palatinate district in Saarland - he had to administer 79 communities with around 40,000 inhabitants. The first half of his term of office was marked by an initial stabilization after the upheavals and wars resulting from the French Revolution and Napoleonic rule, especially since the consequences of the so-called wars of freedom were still virulent. Crises such as crop failures, famines, epidemics and, last but not least, the economic recession prompted him to seek support and countermeasures from the government of the Rhine district. He also did not shy away from urging the two Bavarian regents of his term of office, Max I Joseph (until 1825) and Ludwig I , for reforms, especially since "home-made" problems such as customs regulations or the excessive punishment of forest offenses exacerbated the crises. Siebenpfeiffer himself set accents in the area-wide construction of new schools, in the expansion of traffic routes and in the improvement of social and economic conditions. And he published: In 1818 a kind of inventory under the title On Community Goods and Community Debt , in 1823 the book On the Question of Our Time in Relation to the Maintenance of Justice, motivated no less from my own experience and practice, appeared .

But the land commissioner also tried his hand at the pen on aesthetic terrain. Baden-Baden or Rudolph and Helmina is what he called his voluminous "Epic Poem in Twelve Songs", which was published by Georg Ritter in Zweibrücken : a travelogue, interwoven with a romance of confusion between two lovers that takes place in Baden and in which the autobiographical approaches are just as unmistakable are like a good helping of homesickness. However, undertones of resignation cannot be ignored on the 445 pages. The change and improvement in the social, economic and political conditions, which Siebenpfeiffer had written on the banner, did not finally come from the spot, he saw his own commitment in this regard without any tangible success, without any progress. In 1821, with a touch of frustration, he had already written to Rotteck: “What does the world care about Westrich's products?”, He had added in 1823: “My heart is dry”, but this was also the first time the opposition party indicated himself in his lyrical debut Siebenpfeiffer: "Sick the aristocracy, the donkey rears up on what it ridden" or "Many a regent sick for fear of the fever of freedom", it says at one point, for example. Nevertheless, the criticism articulated in this way does not go beyond the approach. Rather, it is the Biedermeier emphasis on private life and the finding of happiness in the personal sphere, which dominate the verses and which should also significantly shape Siebenpfeiffer's subsequent Homburg years. The offspring who joined Siebenpfeiffers may also have contributed to this step. Their daughter Cornelia was born on July 19, 1826, and for the baptism, the parents of the Protestant Church donated a paten, a silver bowl that has been preserved to this day, on which the child's name and the date of baptism, September 13, 1826, are engraved. Siebenpfeiffer had a close relationship with the Protestant church anyway, as he was a member of the synod of the Palatinate regional church as early as 1821 . He was close friends with Carl Gottfried Weber , the dean and pastor of Homburg - in contrast to his Catholic colleague Johann Jackel , with whom he had bitter hostility throughout his twelve-year term in office and beyond. Whenever the opportunity for a dispute arose, he got into a fight with the clergyman, whom he once dubbed a “stupid farmer and Jesuit servant”.

Apart from this guerrilla war, Siebenpfeiffer presented himself as a loyal servant of his master, revolutionary ambitions could not be discerned in the Homburg district commissioner, who in 1827 was one of the founders of the Central Music Society of the Palatinate in Kaiserslautern . When the Bavarian King Ludwig I made a visit to the Rhine district in the summer of 1829 and also made a stop in Siebenpfeiffer's area of ​​responsibility, he had written poems of praise specifically for the royal couple. Admittedly, there was already a noticeable seething beneath the surface, especially since Siebenpfeiffer had made the acquaintance of the censors without having achieved anything. He had written several articles under a pseudonym for the semi-official Inland newspaper . While those in which he talked about agriculture and cattle breeding were at least still printed, his political demands - which he had previously articulated in letters to the Bavarian king and his authorities and which had received no reaction - fell victim to the scissors.

When the wind of freedom seemed to blow from France again with the July Revolution of 1830, he implemented his long-drawn-out plan to denounce the grievances with journalistic means. In the autumn of 1830, the first edition of his magazine Rheinbayern appeared , in which things were called by their names under the apparently loyal headline “Only no revolution in Germany”. Siebenpfeiffer was immediately removed from his position as Land Commissary by being transferred to the Swabian Kaisheim , where he was supposed to work as a prison director . He did not take up the new position; instead he moved from Homburg to Zweibrücken, where he expanded his journalistic activities. With his papers Rheinbayern and Der Bote aus Westen , he offered the increasingly growing liberal opposition in the Palatinate effective mouthpieces. It was also Siebenpfeiffer who made it palatable to the Munich journalist Johann Georg August Wirth to move to the West Palatinate. From Homburg, he should be able to produce his German tribune under the protection of the Rhenish institutions, unmolested by the Bavarian government and its censorship. The first edition of this most important sheet of the liberal opposition in the Vormärz appeared in Homburg / Palatinate on January 1, 1832.

At the same time, Siebenpfeiffer left Zweibrücken to settle in Oggersheim in the Upper Palatinate and from there to publish his newspaper, which has now been renamed Westbote . Rheinbayern now appeared under the title Germany - a signal that Siebenpfeiffer no longer wanted to see his sphere of activity limited to the Palatinate alone. The struggle for “ freedom of the press ” was always a topic in his newspapers and articles. The uncompromising commitment to freedom of the press runs like a red thread through the various publications - be it the newspapers or the pamphlets , which served as an alternative medium in the event of censorship .

The development escalated when, with the help of Siebenpfeiffer, the German Fatherland Association was founded on January 29, 1832 as part of a banquet for the member of parliament Friedrich Schüler in Zweibrücken to support the free press (short: "Preßverein"). In a short time this political organization expanded across Germany, with around 5000 people joining it. Even in Paris the goals of the association met with a great response, emigrants like the writers Heinrich Heine and Ludwig Börne followed the events in Zweibrücken with great tension.

The numerous banquets that were celebrated by the democratic movement especially in the first half of 1832 - just under the guise of sociability there was an opportunity to articulate and organize oneself politically - gave rise to the idea of ​​a large national festival . Siebenpfeiffer brought such a demonstration publicly into play in January 1832 . He initially suggested Kaiserslautern as the setting .

Hambach Festival (contemporary engraving)

At the end of May the powerful, but ultimately ineffective, demonstration took place at the Hambach castle ruins . The number of participants is estimated at up to 30,000. In numerous speeches, more or less radical, freedom, democracy, a German nation state or a united democratic Europe were called for. The spokesmen, who had already quarreled among themselves before the Hambach Festival , did not come to any conclusion in a follow-up meeting regarding the further procedure. “Everyone should act on their own” was the only tangible motto that was issued. The lack of a concerted strategy gave the authorities plenty of leeway to intervene.

In the following weeks the speakers were arrested one after the other, only a few - such as Friedrich Schüler and Joseph Savoye - managed to escape to a safe country abroad. Siebenpfeiffer was arrested in Haardt on June 18, 1832, and the spectacular assis trial against the Hambach actors began in Landau more than a year later . At the end of this there was the sensational acquittal by the jury , although the jury's composition had been manipulated to the detriment of the accused. The acquittal did not always mean freedom for the accused. Siebenpfeiffer was transferred to the Frankenthal Breeding Police Court, which sentenced him to two years' imprisonment for "insulting officials".

With the help of friends Siebenpfeiffer escaped from prison and about on November 14, 1833 Alsace to Switzerland to escape. He not only received asylum in Switzerland, but also a job at the University of Bern as an associate professor for criminal and constitutional law .

Siebenpfeiffer's wife died in 1835. Appointed secretary of the Justice Department of the Republic in 1840, the first signs of mental illness became noticeable in 1841, because of which he was admitted in May 1842 to the private clinic ("private insane asylum") of Prof. Albrecht Tribolet in Bümpliz Castle near Bern . Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer died there at the age of 55 on May 14, 1845. He was buried on May 17, 1845 in the Bümpliz cemetery. Until 1885 the dead in Bümpliz were buried in the cemetery around the church. This cemetery has been abolished.

Honors posthumously

  • To commemorate Siebenpfeiffer's journalistic work and to honor it, the Siebenpfeiffer Prize for committed journalists has been awarded every two to three years since 1987 . The prize is awarded by the Siebenpfeiffer Foundation , which is based in Homburg . In Homburg there is also the Siebenpfeiffer-Haus , which contains an exhibition about Siebenpfeiffer and seminar rooms.

Works

  • About communal goods and communal debts. A legal and political treatise . Florian Kupferberg, Mainz 1818.
  • Handbook of the constitution, court rules and entire administration of Rhine Bavaria . 4 vols., Zweibrücken 1831/32, Neustadt 1833, Speyer 1846.
  • Citizenship, adapted from the French . 1832.
  • Ideas for a basic reform of education and teaching institutions . Literary. Comptoir, Bern 1834.
  • Baden-Baden or Rudolph and Helmina, epic poem in twelve songs . Ritter & Comp., Zweibrücken 1824.
  • Sentences of law and from the political sciences, which will publicly defend . Diss., Freiburg 1813.
  • On the question of our time in relation to the maintenance of justice . Groos, Heidelberg 1823.
  • Two judicial defense speeches . Literarisches Comptoir, Bern 1834. Digitized
  • Préavis sur la motion des députés du Jura, rélative au rétablissemant de la legislation francaise . Imprimerie de CA Jenni, Père, Bern 1839.

literature

  • Anton Doll: Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer / Johann Georg August Wirth . In: Kurt Baumann (ed.): The Hambach Festival May 27, 1832. Men and ideas . Speyer 1952 (2nd edition 1982)
  • Werner Helmes (Ed.): People and Effects. Biographical essays . Krach, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-87439-065-9 .
  • Saarpfalz-Kreis (Hrsg.): A life for freedom. Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer . Verlag des Südkuriers, Konstanz 1989, ISBN 3-87799-060-6 .
  • Elmar Wadle (Ed.): Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer and his time in the field of legal history . Writings of the Siebenpfeiffer Foundation, Vol. 1, Sigmaringen 1991, ISBN 3-7995-4901-3 . (Contains a biography of Siebenpfeifer from the hand of Wadle.)
  • Sylvia Zylka (Ed.): Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer. A life for freedom 1789-1845 , Homburg 1992.
  • Theophil Gallo: The negotiations of the Extraordinary Assisengericht zu Landau in the Palatinate in 1833 , writings of the Siebenpfeiffer Foundation, Vol. 3, Sigmaringen 1996.
  • Martin Baus: The German-French border as the vanishing point of the persecuted Palatinate democrats in the 19th century, in: Saarpfalz, Blätter für Geschichte und Volkskunde, 1997/4, pp. 5–20.
  • Martin Baus: On Siebenpfeiffer's first edition of Rheinbayern , commentary on the facsimile of the first edition of Rheinbayern , Blieskastel 1999 (with a portrait of Siebenpfeiffer).
  • Martin Baus: Siebenpfeiffer and Homburg , Homburg 2000.
  • Bernhard Becker:  Siebenpfeiffer, Philipp Jakob. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 321 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Martin Baus (ed.): Power and freedom - the road of democracy in Homburg and Zweibrücken. A route companion . Homburg: Saarpfalz-Kreis, 2011. 196 pp. ISBN 3-9807983-9-9
  • Lutz Frisch: Germany's rebirth. Neustadt citizens and the Hambach Festival in 1832 . Neustadt: District group Neustadt in the historical association of the Palatinate, 2012. (Series of publications of the district group Neustadt in the historical association of the Palatinate; 16) ISBN 978-3-00-037610-8
  • Martin Baus: Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer (1789–1845) and Johann Georg August Wirth (1798–1848) , in: Charlotte Glück / Martin Baus (ed.): Law. Law. Freedom - 200 years of the Palatinate Higher Regional Court, Zweibrücken, Koblenz 2015, pp. 158–170.
  • Martin Baus: Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer - a campaigner for democracy in church and society, in: Saarpfalz, Blätter für Geschichte und Volkskunde, 2018/1, pp. 47-63 (in a different version also in: Bernhard H. Bonkhoff (ed.) , Bold progress, contributions to the 200th anniversary of the church union in the Palatinate, St. Ingbert 2018, pp. 473–486).
  • Heike Jung: Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer as an actor on the political stage in Bern, in: Barbara Döhlemeyer / Heike Jung: The Napoleonic Legislation in Political Controversy in Bern and Hesse, Small Series of the Siebenpfeiffer Foundation, Vol. 18, Homburg 2020, p. 7 - 35. ISBN 9783981446067
  • Martin Baus: Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer. In: Norbert Otto Eke (ed.): Vormärz-Handbuch, Bielefeld 2020, pp. 925–980. ISBN 978-3-8498-1550-9
  • Martin Baus: Zurich? Algiers? Bern! - Flight and exile of Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer. In: Wilhelm Kreutz (ed.): Germans in political exile after the Hambach Festival and the revolution of 1848/49. Thorbecke-Verlag Ostfildern, 2020 (= writings of the Siebenpfeiffer Foundation, vol. 11), pp. 27–50.

Web links

Wikisource: Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Antje Gerlach: German literature in exile in Switzerland . Lostermann, Vittorio, 1975, ISBN 978-3-465-01042-5 , pp. 38 ( online at: books.google.de ).
  2. ↑ Communication from the State Archives, State Chancellery of the Canton of Bern dated February 20, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Siebenpfeiffer, Philipp Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION political publicist, co-initiator of the Hambach Festival
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Lahr
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1845
Place of death Bümpliz in Switzerland