Schwen Hans Jensen

Schwen Hans Jensen

Schwen Hans Jensen , also Schwenn Hans Jensen , Sven Hans Jensen and Svenn Hans Jensen (born December 1, 1795 in Keitum on Sylt ; † March 6, 1855 in Tinnum on Sylt) was a German seaman , later a lawyer , German / Danish civil servant, Financial expert, mayor of Kiel , Schleswig-Holstein politician and governor on the island of Sylt.

Life

Schwen Hans Jensen was the father of the writer Wilhelm Jensen (1837-1911) and a great-grandfather of the writer and poet Hans Heyck. With ten years he lost his father, who as a captain on the West Indian island of Saint Thomas , the then to Denmark , was one of the yellow fever died. Jensen showed himself to be talented and, in addition to the usual elementary school education, received private lessons in Latin and Greek . At the age of 19 he went to sea and completed a complete seaman's training until 1820 to become a helmsman .

On the advice of his Sylt friend Uwe Jens Lornsen (1793-1838), he studied mathematics , physics , history , philology , philosophy and law at the universities of Kiel , Bonn and Göttingen from 1820 . After successfully passing his legal exam, he began an excellent career at the Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg law firm in Copenhagen , where he rose to the position of head of the department. He was instrumental in drafting new customs legislation for the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein .

In 1834 Jensen was appointed mayor of Kiel by the Danish king, but did not take up this post until 1837 to ensure the completion of the new customs law. As mayor of Kiel, Jensen made a living by introducing a financial budget, a (controversial) improved cadastre , and above all by planning a railway from Altona to Kiel, the very first railway in the entire Danish state.

For health reasons, Jensen retired to his property on the island of Sylt in 1844, but was appointed bailiff of Sylt by the Danish government , an office he held until 1854.

In 1848 the city of Kiel elected him to the short-lived Schleswig-Holstein assembly of estates. Jensen was finance minister for almost a year . He was responsible for finance, domains, forestry, mail, commerce, and shipping. In 1849 he returned to his old office on Sylt and died in Tinnum on March 6, 1855.

Jensen was judiciary and budget councilor in 1832, and knight of the Dannebrog Order in 1836 .

literature

• “One of the most important mayors. On the 100th anniversary of Schwenn Hans Jensen's death, “Kieler Nachrichten”, March 5, 1955.
• Johannes Jensen, “Mayor Schwen Hans Jensen. A Sylter reformed the Kiel city administration ”,“ Communications of the Society for Kiel City History ”, Volume 80, Issue 2, 2000, pp. 49-100.
• Johannes Jensen, “Two 'Sylt giants' in the 19th century. Uwe Jens Lornsen and Schwen Hans Jensen ”, Verlag Nordfriisk Instituut, Bräist / Bredstedt, NF, 1998.
• Friedrich Kleyser, “Schwenn Hans Jensen as Mayor of Kiel”, in “Communications from the Society for Kiel City History”, April 1955, pp. 95–106.
• [Th. Olshausen], "Sketches from the Holstein Estates Assembly. Etatsrath Jensen", Correspondenz-Blatt Kiel, No. 25, 1845, pp. 109–110, see Internet: Familia Heyck-Jensen.