Søren Jaabæk

Søren Jaabæk

Søren Jaabæk , Søren Pedersen Jaabæk (born April 1, 1814 in Holum (now Mandal ), † January 7, 1894 in Holum) was a Norwegian farmer and politician.

The parents were the farmer Peder Sørensen Holmesland (1788–1849) and his wife Sille Johanne Hansdatter Lone (1788–1862). On June 26, 1837 he married his cousin Elen Gurine Jaabæk, née Holmesland (April 11, 1808– January 10, 1894), widow of Haagen Eriksen Jaabæk, daughter of the farmer Tolli Aanensen Nøding (1785–1863) and his wife Aaslu Sørensdatter Holmesland ( 1786-1861).

youth

Jaabæk grew up on his father's farm. At the age of 17 he became a teacher in a hiking school. The pastor there gave him a four-week crash course. He was popular with the children because he opposed corporal punishment and cramming methods and wanted the children to understand what they were reading.

The beginnings

At the age of 23 he moved to Jåbekk im Halse sogn. There he married his cousin, a widow who ran a farm. With that he became an independent farmer and took the name Jaabæk. Soon he got the sexton and teacher post in Harkmark, which he held until 1845. From 1842 he was mayor of Halse and Harkmark. He was very impressed with the English form of government. He learned English and German in order to be able to read the original political and philosophical writings. He wanted a real opposition party and a government that had its roots in parliament and was not installed by the king. “Party” was almost a dirty word in its day. It was believed that every member of parliament should vote according to his or her own convictions, without being tied to a party program.

Political attitude

Democratic radicalism and economic liberalism

His political views were "democratic radicalism" and "economic liberalism". He was strongly influenced by John Stuart Mill , who advocated the greatest possible freedom for the individual citizen and a correspondingly weak state power. Jaabæk also demanded that the state should not take on tasks that active citizens could do just as well. His demand for frugality in the state budget was connected with this. “Rule as little as is possible to maintain order” was his motto. But he was also aware that laws were needed to protect vulnerable groups. He saw a means for this in a fixed statutory pension, which he could not enforce. He stood up for the “debt slaves” and suggested that the “usurers” be prevented from completely pillaging the people. Human equality was a great asset to him and privilege was a great evil. He wanted the state officials with their many privileges removed from the Storting, wanted to reduce their high salaries, and he consistently voted against their pension entitlement.

His horizon of experience was the farming society in Agder, poor small farmers without large landowners, tenacious in rejecting taxes, military obligations and central government. Because of his democratic ideas, Jaabæk was viewed by his contemporaries as "ultra-red". In 1858 he campaigned for universal suffrage for all men and for direct election. He was also the first to call himself a Republican at the Storting's lectern. He denounced the royal abuse of power and its waste and published the book Kongers og Keiseres Levevis (The way of life of kings and emperors), where he compiled a register of sins through the ages.

Radical thrift

His thrift was so radical that his name Jaabæk was corrupted in Neinbæk. He not only voted against civil servants 'pensions, but also against the increase in civil servants' salaries, against the grants for district doctors, against the salaries of school inspectors, against the poetry grants for Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Alexander Kjelland , against any increase in the military budget and against the subsidy for Ivar Aasens Research for the Nynorsk . He also wanted to cut the entire agricultural budget because he felt that farmers could best help themselves. He voted against the budget for the construction of the new railway. His resistance to the annual summoning of the Storting was also dramatic. He also voted against a post for the Swedish-Norwegian Union, fearing that it would lead to an even more expensive ministerial post. He was also against the introduction of the jury in the code of criminal procedure because he feared expenses for the lay judges. He even calculated the printing costs for the MPs' speeches and kept his own speeches short in order to save paper and labor for the staff of the Storting.

Practical policy

Politics in Storting

1845-1892 he was a member of the Storting. For the first 20 years of his parliamentary time, Ole Gabriel Ueland was the leader of the farmers in Storting. In many ways they were allies against the official faction. But Jaabæk's furor against the government and the royal power was not his line. The radical gust of wind in the wake of the February Revolution in 1848 made itself felt at the Storting in 1851. Jaabæk certainly had sympathy for Marcus Thrane's labor petition , but he never became a socialist. For the next decade, economic problems took center stage and radical ideas disappeared from the agenda. In 1851 he wanted to unite the opposition in one party. When the "Reform Association" was founded, he was a member of the governing body, but came into conflict with his colleagues and left the association.

He supported elementary schools as an important element of education and even voted for a fixed state budget for the remuneration of teachers and the building of schools and libraries. On the other hand, he put the red pencil on the high schools and the Realschule, since these served the privileged classes who should help themselves. He also dealt with agriculture and founded the first fish farm for young salmon.

But it was always about power within the opposition to the government officials. This power struggle was won by Johan Sverdrup , a good tactician and, unlike Jaarbæk, a moderate politician. Sverdrup also occupied the national issues, which Jaarbæk was not interested in. He was more of an anti-militarist, although he recognized the need for defense forces. Despite the antagonism between the two, Jaabræk joined Sverdrup in 1884 because he realized that his supporters were unreliable in their voting behavior and only Sverdrup was able to lead a successful opposition to the government. This was the hour of birth of “ Venstre ”. When Sverdrup formed the government in 1884, Jaabæk supported him despite their contradictions. He who despise the king, even agreed to increase the prerogative of the prince. In 1885, contrary to his liberalist attitude, he voted on his line of state protection for the weak for the statutory definition of a normal working day for the workers.

Extra-parliamentary politics

In 1868 he founded the first association of peasant friends (bondevennforening) in Mandal and also published his own newspaper, the Folketidende . With the help of this newspaper he undertook it with some success to organize the opposition electorate in the country. He was the only one who published the translation of the program of the First International in this newspaper . Between 1867 and 1873 around 300 clubs with around 30,000 members formed a "Jaabækrørsla" (Jaabæk movement) and an "Overbestyrelse" (umbrella organization) in Mandal. His association newspaper had a circulation of 17,000 in 1868. This movement spread across the whole country except Finnmark and served primarily to mobilize voters. In 1868 in particular he came to Storting with a large group of farmer friends. But as quickly as the movement blossomed, so quickly after 1873 it sank again. Most of the clubs fell into lethargy. The reason for this is presumed to be that the economic crisis in the 1960s led to its prime and the economic recovery in the 1970s made organizing the dissatisfied unattractive. The turning point came as early as 1871 when the clubs were presented with a vote of no confidence in the government for a hearing. The reaction was mild. Some did not answer at all, others felt that such a thing should take longer to mature.

When interest in his ideas in the electorate waned, Jaabæk lost his interest in the association's work. He turned to the official business in Lister and Mandals office (today's Vest-Agder ). In 1879 his newspaper Folketidende also ceased publication. The period until 1884 was the trial of power between the government and Storting. In the attack against Minister of State Frederik Stang and then against Christian August Selmer that ended in 1884 before the Reichsgericht, he was still there, but no longer in a leading position. The criticism of the civil servants, the austerity policy and the proposals for tax reductions had made him popular. But when he took action against the clergy in his newspaper and wrote disrespectfully about them, many of his followers felt that this was going too far. In accordance with his liberalism, he advocated the separation of church and state and rejected compulsory confirmation. He was then accused of hostility towards Christianity. That was wrong because he was a churchgoer and supported church missionary work. But he said that pastors obscured the gospel when they were royal officials. He preferred Grundtvig's ideas to pietism . Nor was he for the great revival movements that were widespread at the time. Lars Oftedal was particularly important as the founder of the “Inner Mission”. He thought she was superficial and emotional. His attitude was a rationalist Christianity, and he saw the ministry as a normal profession like others. So he came into conflict with the church and the prayer circles. When the pastors of Lyngdal and Mandal refused to enter him as godfather in the church register at a baptism in 1872, this led to a public controversy in the press. The poet Arne Garborg was prompted to write Jaabæk og Præsterne (Tvedestrand 1874). He also brought a libel suit against Pastor Julius Riddervold because of his series of articles "Jaabæks angreb paa kristendommen" (Jaabæks attack on Christianity) (1872), which he lost in the last instance. His eldest son immigrated to Minnesota . He then defended emigration against many attacks: If Norway could not find work for its citizens, then it was good that free America offered this.

The end

In old age he became hard of hearing and rarely took part in debates. In 1891 he left the Storting and moved to Holum. There he died and a few days later his wife too. They were buried there with great sympathy. In the Storting there is a marble bust created by Mathias Skeibrok. As a thank you for his commitment to the students and teachers, they erected a memorial stone in mandal with a portrait relief of Lars Utne . It was unveiled in 1909.

Remarks

The article essentially follows the Norsk biografisk leksikon . Other information is specifically proven.

1. ↑ According to the Education Act of 1827, permanent schools or factories and economic units with at least 20 workers should be built in the main churches in all places in the country. Where these conditions were not met, there was the "Omgangsskole", the hiking school, whose teachers went from farm to farm and taught there.
2. ↑ Halse was formerly the southernmost municipality in Norway. Today the area belongs to Mandal .
3. ↑ At that time the right to vote was tied to a certain property and the deputies were elected by elected electors.
4. ↑ Until 1869 the Storting was convened every three years.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Article “Jaabæk, Søren” in Norges Lexi ( memento of October 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on September 14, 2009.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Norwegian Imperial Archives ( Memento of the original from August 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 14, 2009. 
7. ^ The Reichsgericht was a special court for misconduct by members of the government, members of parliament and judges.
8. ↑ Julius Riddervold (1842–1921) was the son of Hans Riddervold . He was a member of the Inner Mission.

literature

• Bjørn Slettan: Article “Søren Jaabæk” in Norsk biografisk leksikon , accessed on September 11, 2009.