Siegfried Behrens (lawyer)

Siegfried Johann Georg Behrens (born July 17, 1768 in Marne , † October 2, 1828 in Husum ) was a Husum governor.

Life

Siegfried Behrens was a son of the parish bailiff Nicolaus Behrens (born September 9, 1734 in Rösthusen , † April 28, 1796 in Heide ) and his wife Dorothea Amalia, née Hudemann. He had three sisters. Beate Wibke Dorothea married Hieronymus Friedrich Philipp Hensler , Sophia Amalia Catharina became the first wife of Barthold Georg Niebuhr and Friederica Luisa married the Meldorfer court actuary Carl Wilhelm Cartheuser.

He studied law at the University of Göttingen and later at the University of Kiel , where he enrolled on October 14, 1789. After graduating as Dr. jur. He completed his habilitation in 1792. In 1794 he received a position as adjunct of the law faculty of Kiel University. In 1795 he moved to Bordesholm as an official clerk .

On May 9, 1794, Behrens married Anna Helene Dorothea von Sievers, known as Röhres, (* in Saint Petersburg ; † probably in Berlin ), a sister of Georg von Sievers, in Kiel . Her father Gottlieb Christian von Sievers was a "Colonel in Russian service", her mother was Margaretha Ursula, née Scheel. The couple had two daughters. The daughter Catharina Amalia Margarethe (born September 8, 1795 in Bordesholm, † October 12, 1878 in Berlin) married the theologian August Twesten ; the daughter Sophie Amalia Bartholdine (born January 1, 1800 in Bordesholm) died unmarried.

Due to disputes with his bailiff, Count Conrad Holck , Behrens moved as bailiff to Süderstapel , where he was appointed on September 17, 1799. Due to health problems he went to Husum in 1802. On March 19, 1802, he was appointed bailiff for the offices of Husum and Schwabstedt . His superior as bailiff and head stableman was Hans Christoph von Levetzow.

Act

Behrens came from a family that was considered highly educated and enlightened. The French Revolution had given them liberal views. After the end of the wars of liberation , Behrens wrote About the State Constitution , which appeared in Hamburg in 1816 . He dedicated this book to the Chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg , whose reforms were based on liberal principles.

In 1817 Behrens recorded his reflections on the state constitution in writing. In it he called for citizens to have a say and responsibility in the context of legislation and administration. He contradicted the sovereignty of the citizens in questions of legislation, law enforcement and judicial power, as demanded by the French revolutionaries. Instead he emphasized the liberal English organization of administration and constitution. He also advocated a constitutional monarchy and a bicameral system . The House of Lords, known as the “Prairie”, was supposed to strengthen the state as a stabilizing, conservative element. During his lifetime he was considered the best expert on the English constitution.

Behrens called for legislative changes to be initiated only through petitions. He certainly supported the petition movement in 1816/17, although he held back as a royal official. Along with Niels Nikolaus Falck , Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann , and Franz Hermann Hegewisch, he was one of the people who represented early liberalism in the region around Kiel .

Behrens was orthodox on questions of religion. When Jacob Georg Christian Adler presented a new church agenda, which the government published on December 2, 1796, Behrens sharply criticized it. He rejected freethinkers as well as neology and freemasonry . He also campaigned for Claus Harms to come to the Nikolaikirche in Kiel . After Harms published his controversial theses on October 31, 1817, Behrens supported him in word and writing.

literature

• Dietrich Korth: Behrens, Siegfried. In: Olaf Klose (Ed.): Schleswig-Holsteinisches Biographisches Lexikon. Volume 3. Karl Wachholtz, Neumünster 1974, ISBN 3-529-02643-3 , pp. 34-36.