Sebastian Anton Homfeld

Sebastian Anton Homfeld (born September 11, 1688 in Aurich ; † May 20, 1761 ibid) was a lawyer, Prussian directorate in the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Empire and from June 1744 to 1759 Prussian Chancellor of East Frisia. He had been married to Christine Juliane Rüssel, the daughter of the East Frisian Chancellor Enno Wilhelm Rüssel, since 1719 and had seven children with her.

Life

Homfeld grew up as a member of a family of civil servants and landowners that was widely networked in Aurich and the Rheiderland. His father was the lawyer Peter Homfeld in Aurich and the grandfather of the Ditzum Vogt Hans Homfeld, until 1693 in the service of Prince Christian Eberhard of East Friesland. In 1711 he completed his law studies in Groningen with a doctorate and then settled as a lawyer in Emden . From 1720 he was bailiff and court administrator for the glory Jennelt . In 1721 he was also the syndic of the East Frisian estates . From then on he fought with legal means for the " accorded, old-class freedom ". With this he stood in opposition to the absolutist position represented by the princely chancellor Enno Rudolph Brenneysen . His first fight was the imperial decrees of August 18, 1721, with which Emperor Charles VI. responded to complaints from Prince Georg Albrecht . In it, Karl granted the prince overall supervision over the use and accounting of the state funds, which the estates saw as a contradiction to old state treaties, such as the Osterhusischen accord. At this time the course was set for Prussia's takeover of power in East Frisia. Negotiations in which Homfeld played a key role. The unruly estates hoped that Prussia would restore the rights of the old estates in the event that East Frisia fell to Prussia after the local dynasty died out. For this purpose, Homfeld first stayed in Berlin in 1724.

The dispute over tax sovereignty finally culminated in a civil war, the so-called roll call war, from 1725 to 1727 . Homfeld, although born a Lutheran, belonged to the rebellious party and had converted to Calvinism . After several skirmishes, the war ended with the defeat of the so-called unruly estates around the city of Emden, who were severely punished by the prince. At the request of the princely government, Homfeld was deprived of his lawyer by an imperial commission. From 1733 Homfeld was a Prussian directorate in the Lower Rhine-Westphalian Reichskreis. In this function he tried to further legitimize the Prussian entitlement to East Friesland, which had been possible since 1694 through an exposition issued by Emperor Leopold I in the event of a lack of male heirs.

Homfeld also agitated skilfully with the classes, to whom he conveyed that Prussia would restore the medieval freedom of classes. It is not known whether he believed in it himself. Little by little he managed to win the city of Emden, which had felt more inclined to the Netherlands since the Emden Revolution of 1595 at the latest , for his position.

Homfeld thus became the most important representative of Prussian interests in East Frisia. After Georg Albrecht's death in 1734, he and the commander of the Prussian battalion in Emden held ownership patents, even though his son Carl Edzard was just 20 years old when he took over the affairs of state in East Frisia.

From 1740 at the latest, the estates and the city of Emden relied on the transition of rule in East Frisia to Prussia in the event of the local count and princely house of the Cirksena becoming extinct . To this end, a contract should be created that recognized the Prussian entitlement. The economic position of Emden was to be supported by protective measures and subsidies, and the city's existing privileges (such as stacking rights ) confirmed. The negotiations on the Prussian side were conducted by Homfeld, who on November 8, 1740 presented an initial report on the procedure to be followed in the event of inheritance.

After initial difficulties, two treaties were concluded on March 14, 1744, which are collectively referred to as the Emden Convention . On the one hand, this was the Royal Special Declaration and Insurance Act , and on the other, the Agitation and Convention Act , in which primarily economic regulations were made. The land was thus prepared for the Prussian occupation, although the young prince was in good health and his wife was expecting a child - an heir. In May, however, she suffered a miscarriage, which initiated the last phase of the Prussian conquest prepared by Homfeld.

On May 23, 1744, Homfeld declared in a memorandum that the prince was ill and indicated that he would soon die, which is why the inheritance could now occur. Only two days later, on May 25, 1744, Carl Edzard died as the last sovereign prince of East Friesland, allegedly after enjoying a glass of buttermilk a week earlier. The details of his death, whether natural or not, can no longer be clarified.

Immediately afterwards, King Friedrich II of Prussia asserted his right of succession, which was regulated in the Emden Convention. He let East Frisia, starting from Emden, occupied without resistance, whereupon on June 23 the country paid homage to the crown. The state capital Aurich remained the seat of the state authorities, received a war and domain chamber and became the government capital of the Prussian province of East Frisia. Despite the resistance of the Electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , which asserted its own claims, Prussia prevailed in the effort to protect East Frisia.

Homfeld was appointed chancellor and head of the East Frisian government in June 1744 to represent Prussian interests, making him nominally the highest-ranking official in the now Prussian province. An important part of the power in the country, however, lay with the competing war and domain chambers, which were occupied by Prussian officials, which in the following period repeatedly led to tensions, especially at the instigation of Homfeld, who did not want to recognize the authority as having equal rights. For this reason, the head of the War and Domain Chamber, the Chamber Directorügel, had already proposed in 1746 that Homfeld be transferred to another province, which ended in 1748 when Homfeld was ordered to Berlin to talk to the authorities about the regulation of “all kinds of East Frisian affairs " to advise. Homfeld was sidelined as the most influential representative of corporate interests in East Friesland until 1749. Back in East Friesland, Homfeld was noticed by his sluggish work posture. For example, he delayed the upcoming judicial reform, the introduction of the Codex Fridericianum or the unification of the court and government. In 1751, Christoph Friedrich von Derschau, and not he, became the first Prussian district president of East Friesland. After further disputes and a severe reprimand for behavior by the Justice Department in 1758 and a trial for infidelity that finally failed to materialize, Homfeld was referred to the elderly in 1759.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Thorsten Melchers: Ostfriesland: Prussia's atypical province? Prussian integration policy in the 18th century, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Diss., 2002, p. 168
2. ^ Heinrich Schmidt: Political history of East Frisia . Rautenberg, Leer 1975 (Ostfriesland in the protection of the dike, vol. 5), p. 334.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} ostfriesenelandschaft.de, Stefan Pötzsch: Sebastian Anton Homfeld .
4. ↑ On the Homfeld family, see Wolbert Smidt : "Homfeld", in: Martin Tielke (Ed.): Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland , Vol. 4, Aurich 2007, pp. 175–77
5. ^ Thorsten Melchers: Ostfriesland: Prussia's atypical province? Prussian integration policy in the 18th century, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Diss., 2002, p. 183.