Simon Heinrich Musäus

Simon Heinrich Musäus (born July 19, 1655 in Rinteln , † September 11, 1711 in Kiel ) was a German professor of natural and international law.

Live and act

Simon Heinrich Musaeus was a son of the theologian Peter Musaeus and his wife Anna Margaretha Sannemann (born December 18, 1637 in Derneburg , † December 25, 1662 in Rinteln). He had two brothers. In 1671 he began studying law at the University of Kiel . His teachers included Erich Mauritius , Samuel Rachel , Nicolaus Martini and Daniel Georg Morhof . He then moved to the University of Jena together with Count Ronoff and later to the University of Giessen . On December 16, 1680 he was litentiate here.

After finishing his studies, Musäus traveled to Belgium, France and England. He then went back to Kiel, where on March 14, 1682, with a ducal rescript, he received the teaching permit for legal lectures and an exposition when a position became vacant. On August 8, 1682, he received an extraordinary professorship for natural and international law at the Philosophical Faculty of Kiel University. On October 29, 1688 an extraordinary professorship and the appointment as assessor of the law faculty was added. In 1689 he received a call as a full professor for natural and international law at the Philosophical Faculty. He stayed there until June 4, 1692, when he moved to the Faculty of Law as a full professor of the institutions.

Musäus spoke in his lectures about “De jure belli et pacis” by Hugo Grotius , the institutions of Justinian , the “Examen institutionum imperalium” by Thomas Hobbes , the “Institutiones juris Canonici” by Johann Schilter or the “dissertations” by Bernard Sutholt . He based his lectures in particular on the principles that Grotius had described in his work. He emphasized the pragmatism of natural law.

Musäus, who was considered a humanist, tried to solve controversial legal questions directly with theses found in natural law and also applied them to civil and criminal law conflicts. Thus, in natural law, material criteria were the focus for people who had to make decisions.

In his writings it can be seen that Musäus was facing Grotius. He wrote about concrete natural law principles and their effects on real state and peoples life. With the antinomies to be found in natural law between will and reason, as well as existence and idea, he decided in favor of reason and idea.

family

Musäus married Anna Margareta Schröder's first marriage in 1686, with whom he had a son. After the death of his first wife in 1690, he married Anna Deging, widowed Heldberg, in 1692. The couple had four sons and four daughters.

literature

• Wilfried Röhrich: Musäus, Simon Heinrich . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 4. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1976, pp. 171-173

Web links

• Publications by and about Simon Heinrich Musäus in VD 17 .