Reich journalism

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Title page Historical development of the present state constitution of the German Empire by Pütter (1788), one of the later works of Reich journalism.

The term Reichspublizistik (contemporary also Reichspublicistik and Latin ius publicum ), in a narrower sense, summarizes the constitutional and political science publications from the period from the beginning of the 17th century to the end of the 18th century, insofar as they cover the constitution and the Had constitutional law of the Holy Roman Empire as their subject. In a broader sense, the term denotes the entire early modern imperial state (right) science, the specifically German forerunner of today's political science .

Origin and subject

To the formation

The Worms Reichstag of 1495 had brought about a historical turning point with regard to the disputes, which were regularly resolved by force by the imperial estates , because from now on conflicts should be resolved and pacified before the Reich Chamber of Commerce or the Reich Court Council , which, according to modern understanding, means a state, public-law process. Captured in the Eternal Peace of the Land , this legal development significantly restricted the medieval right to feud , although the success in the following decades remained very manageable. At least the seeds were set for courts to deal with constitutional issues relating to the competencies of the emperor and princes , which meant that politics would become legal. The newly created monopoly of force was legitimized by the emperor himself, because he had undertaken, among other things, to convene the Reichstag annually so that the estates could express their opinion publicly. From around 1600 the ius publicum was increasingly pursued scientifically. As a result of the movement of the Reformation with its lasting political effects and the ensuing Thirty Years' War , which led to a further strengthening of the imperial estates , the tension between the emperor and the estates within the political system of the old empire finally became apparent on the ongoing topic of political disputes. The political tension created by the arrival of the Reichstag led to a great demand for theoretical analysis of the political positions of the conflicting parties. The conflict between the poles of power of the imperial constitution offered at the same time very fertile ground in which to practice learned reflection on the fundamentals of the empire, state authority and politics itself.

In this situation, starting with the writings of Henning Arnisaeus , a specifically German constitutional science developed, which ultimately moved away from the sources of Roman law and primarily empire German legal sources (such as the Golden Bull of Charles IV ) and those from the tradition of German Took kings and empires as the basis. Reich journalism also made a significant contribution to the political discourses of the time, such as those conducted on Jean Bodin's theory of sovereignty .

At the center of the theoretical debate was, among other things, the question of how the empire could be characterized using the terms of the traditional theory of the forms of government . The power-political tension between the individual powers of the estates and the central power of the emperor resulted in a special state structure that eluded classification in the constitutional terminology used since antiquity. "For some (like Bodin for the first time) the empire was an aristocracy , for others (like Reinkingk ) a monarchy , for still others (like Conring ) a status mixtus , for Pufendorf ultimately none of this, but an 'irregular' structure, 'like a monster'. "

Cäsariner and Fürstenerianer

Against the background of the concrete political struggle of the imperial estates (especially the electors ) and the emperor for supremacy in imperial politics, two groups emerged among the constitutional lawyers of the time: On the one hand, those who saw the empire as a monarchy and, accordingly, the royal - sought to strengthen the imperial position (the so-called Caesarians ). Dietrich Reinkingk was the main representative of this position.

On the other hand emphasized political thinkers such as John Limnäus and Bogislaw Philipp von Chemnitz the obvious for them feudal character of the Reich Association (they were called Fürstenerianer ). This second view corresponds to the classification of the Old Reich as an aristocracy, which one sought to underpin through a pro-class interpretation of German legal sources, such as the Golden Bull or the electoral capitulations . Imperial journalism reached its peak with Samuel von Pufendorf's De statu imperii Germanici in 1667, whereupon it flattened out in the 18th century into an increasing positivism . Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Reichsverfassungsschrift (1800/02) can be seen as the last flash of the Reichspublizistik, which, however, came to an end with it at the latest.

Main representatives and their works

Lifetime Reich journalistic main work Publishing year
Henning Arnisaeus 1575-1636 De jure majestatis libri tres 1610
De republica seu relectionis politicae 1615
Dominicus Arumaeus 1579-1673 Discursus academici de iure publico 1620-1623
Dietrich Reinkingk 1590-1664 Tractatus de regimine seculari et ecclesiastico 1619
Biblical Policey 1653
Johannes Limnäus 1592-1663 Juris publici Imperii Romano-Germanici libri IX 1629-1634
Bogislaw Philipp von Chemnitz
(Hippolithus à Lapide) 		1605-1678 Dissertatio de ratione status in Imperio nostro Romano-Germanico 1640 (?)
Hermann Conring 1606-1681 De origine iuris Germanici 1643
De Germanorum Imperio Romano 1643
Samuel von Pufendorf
(Severinus von Monzambano) 		1632-1694 De statu imperii Germanici [...] 1667
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646-1716 In Severinum de Monzambano 1669-72
De iure Suprematus ac Legationis Principum Germaniae 1677
Johann Jakob Moser 1701-1785 German constitutional law (in 50 volumes) 1737-1754
New German constitutional law (in 20 volumes) 1766-1775
Johann Stephan Pütter 1725-1807 Elementa iuris publici Germanici 1754
Historical development of the present state constitution of the German Reich 1786-87
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770-1831 Constitutional writing (fragment) 1802/03

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Uwe Wesel : History of the law. From the early forms to the present . 3rd revised and expanded edition, Beck, Munich 2006, Rn. 248.
  2. ↑ Uwe Wesel: History of the law. From the early forms to the present . 3rd revised and expanded edition, Beck, Munich 2006, Rn. 242.
  3. ^ Henning Ottmann: History of political thinking, Vol. 3, Die Neuzeit , Teilbd. 1, p. 385f. Emphasis in the original
  4. ↑ cf. Ottmann, p. 388
  5. ↑ The following information is taken from: Henning Ottmann: History of political thinking, Vol. 3, Die Neuzeit, Teilbd. 1, from Machiavelli to the great revolutions. Stuttgart, 2006, p. 397; Horst Denzer: Late Aristotelianism, Natural Law and Imperial Reform: Political Ideas in Germany 1600–1750, in: Iring Fetscher / Herfried Münkler (ed.): Piper's Handbook of Political Ideas, Vol. 3, Modern Times: From the Confessional Wars to the Enlightenment, Munich 1985 , Pp. 233-273.

literature

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Secondary literature

  • Horst Denzer : Late Aristotelianism, Natural Law and Imperial Reform: Political Ideas in Germany 1600–1750. In: Iring Fetscher, Herfried Münkler (Hrsg.): Piper's manual of political ideas. Volume 3: Modern Times: From the Denominational Wars to the Enlightenment. Munich 1985, pp. 233-273.
  • Horst Dreitzel: Protestant Aristotelianism and the Absolute State. The 'Politica' by Henning Arnisaeus (approx. 1575–1636). Wiesbaden 1970.
  • Notker Hammerstein, Hasso Hofmann , Rudolf Hoke, Michael Stolleis a. a .: State thinkers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Reich journalism, politics, natural law. Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-7875-5264-2 .
  • Rudolf Hoke : The theory of the Reichsstaatsrechtslehre of Johannes Limnaeus: a contribution to the history of German constitutional law in the 17th century. (= Investigations into German state and legal history (habilitation thesis at the University of Saarbrücken). New series, Volume 9). Aalen 1968, DNB 457019794 .
  • Gerd Kleinheyer, Jan Schröder: German lawyers from five centuries. A Biographical Introduction to the History of Law. 3., rework. u. exp. Edition. Heidelberg 1989, ISBN 3-8114-4488-3 .
  • Henning Ottmann : History of Political Thought. Volume 3: The Modern Age. Volume 1: From Machiavelli to the Great Revolutions. Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-476-01632-3 , pp. 385-403.
  • Michael Stolleis : History of Public Law in Germany. First volume: Reich journalism and police science 1600–1800. Beck, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-406-32913-6 .
  • Michael Stolleis (Ed.): State thinkers in the early modern times . Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-39329-2 .
  • Uwe Wesel : History of Law. From the early forms to the present . 3rd revised and expanded edition, Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-47543-4 , Rn. 248.