Simon Rottmanner

Simon Rottmanner

Simon Rottmanner , pseudonyms : Theobald Fröhlich , Johann T. zu Schollenberg and Reutha as well as Theophilus Neumann (born February 2, 1740 at the Rottmann-Hof near Erding , † September 6, 1813 in Ast ) was a German lawyer , landowner , agricultural reformer and publicist . He is considered to be the founder of Bavarian forest science.

Career

Simon Rottmanner was the eldest son of Georg Lex (1713–1750), a big farmer near Hörlkofen. His mother was Maria Singldinger, Kochödl daughter from Aufkirchen.

Simon, who later takes the court name Rottmanner, visits the Lyceum in Freising . He then attended lectures in philosophy and theology in Freising. At the age of 20 he is able to respond to the highly specialized theological writings of his professor Coelestin Oberndorffer. Soon he switched to the State University of Ingolstadt , where versatile, enlightened teachers like Peter von Ickstatt and Johann Georg von Lori can be found. Simon enrolls in law and camera studies . He attends public and private colleges that cover the whole range of political science, from history to Roman and canon law to procedural law. The education leaves lasting traces on the student. Much of what had previously seemed self-evident is considered unjust and encrusted to him.

In 1763 Rottmanner acquired the academic degree of licentiate in law. He then completed the three-year internship at the Erding Regional Court with Joseph Anton Zwickh. After the second legal examination, he was appointed court counselor in Munich in 1768.

Max V. Graf von Preysing- Hohenaschau (1736–1827) noticed the young lawyer . The head of one of the most important Bavarian aristocratic families at the time, recruits Rottmanner to entrust him with the management of his property with numerous castles and subordinate farmers. As its managing director and legal advisor, he is responsible for around 30 preysing court brands in the fields of agriculture and forestry, mining, iron processing and breweries. In the years of intensive travel and inspection work, Rottmanner can put his academic knowledge into practice. He succeeds in doing this with great success. Its versatility is required in forestry, hunting, agriculture, brewing and mining. The supervision of the widely scattered Preysing lands and a long journey along the Rhine deepened his knowledge and gave him new perspectives. The atmosphere in Hohenaschau is casual, the classically educated farmer's son has no reservations on the aristocratic parquet, and encounters there result in a number of long-lasting contacts.

In 1775 Rottmanner married Barbara Paur, who came from a brewing family from Isareck . The fortune she brings to the compound enables him to acquire a noble seat. With this, Rottmanner himself becomes the landlord of a manor house and several farms. Even after starting his own business, he remained on friendly terms with the Preysing family and as a lawyer.

Services

Justification of modern Bavarian forest science

Only after years of his own practice did Rottmanner raise his voice publicly for the first time in 1778. The reason for this was the mandate (ordinance) of August 1, 1778, a planned tightening of forest law, which was intended to further drastically restrict the rights of farmers. Rottmanner answers this with a sarcastic polemic: Comments on the Baier mandate (...) . In a legally sound manner, he analyzes the contradictions to the applicable law and denounces the Oberstjägermeister's corruption. He is angry that lawyers who help farmers claim damage caused by game are threatened with punishment. The hunting commissioner Franz Reisenegger criticized by Rottmanner was convicted in the course of the discussion for embezzling a large sum. The Oberstjägermeister, who had launched the mandate in the absence of the Elector, also obtained the confiscation of Rottmanner's polemic. Nevertheless, it found widespread use informally and the mandate was withdrawn.

Main work: Necessary knowledge of forestry and hunting

After this defeat, the hunting party initiated a defense with which Rottmanner is sharply attacked. Franz Anton von Stubenrauch appears as the author (so-called Rottmanner-Stubenrauch controversy). The questionable quality of this publication prompted Rottmanner to fundamentally reopen the case. He wrote the first textbook on forest science in Bavaria: "Necessary knowledge and explanations of forestry and hunting ". An independent and comprehensive explanation of silviculture, which clearly and comprehensibly combines all the essential findings of the time. He became the founder of Bavarian forest science primarily through this textbook with almost 700 pages. As part of the stream of Enlightenment journalism, Rottmanner's view of the forest could not be uncritical. He always judged everything with regard to the benefit or damage to the national culture and the grievances could not be overlooked. Because of the critical passages, the book had to appear anonymously.

The censorship intervened. There was a majority of sympathy for the plant in the regional government and in the court council. Joseph von Widnmann drafted a corresponding report. But there was an internal government struggle and finally Rottmanner's necessary knowledge was banned on the intervention of the Oberstjägermeister. How controversial this was is shown by the fact that the book was initially printed with the note on the title page: "With the approval of the electoral book censorship board".

The book censorship councilor Lorenz von Westenrieder was forced to revoke the advertising for the book in his magazine. In this way, Rottmanner's writing received a publicity that it would otherwise hardly have achieved.

content

In his main forest work, Rottmanner critically examines the rules of forest management known at the time, based on his own experience. It describes in detail and systematically how to manage the forest systematically and how to ensure forest renewal after the timber has been harvested. Under no circumstances should more be cut down than can grow back in the same period. The author gives numerous practical examples.

In the necessary knowledge , Rottmanner deals with the different soils and names suitable tree species for each. He describes the necessary tightness in the youth, the forest maintenance and the respective rotation times for firewood and construction wood. He notes how the thinning is most sensible and addresses possible problems with felling and moving the wood. He also considers the soil protection during the wood harvest to be worth mentioning.

This expertise was significant in Bavaria because the height of forest destruction was reached in the late 18th century. Looted forests and foresters without forest training dominated the picture. Nobody cared about the rejuvenation of the forests. The prerequisite for this are low wild populations. Simon Rottmanner's unique selling point is that he was not afraid to question the overwhelming power of the hunt, to which all other interests were sacrificed. He realized that all the prerequisites for sustainable forest management were missing. He attributed the poor condition of Bavarian forests to a lack of silvicultural expertise and outdated administrative structures. Without changing these grave grievances, the rebuilding of the forests would have had little chance of success. A fundamental change of direction was therefore necessary. Therefore, Rottmanner drafted a reform of the forest administration and the relevant legislation. In the necessary knowledge , he called for specialist training for the Bavarian foresters, outlined the content of the course and made a proposal for the structure of the course. In addition to forest-specific content, his canon of subjects also included botany and zoology, as well as soil chemistry, physics, mathematics and forest law.

A sensible management, so his point of view, would only be possible if the forests in Bavaria were measured and mapped, if there were well-trained specialists with a fixed salary. To achieve this, he urged the establishment of the first forest academy in Bavaria. Furthermore, the secondary uses should be gradually reduced in a socially acceptable manner. He explained why forest and hunting should be separated in terms of personnel and institutions and why the hunting authority should be subordinate to the court chamber. Richard Hölzl writes: "The most sensational ideas for forest reform in Bavaria came from Simon Rottmanner."

20 years after the appearance of the necessary knowledge , it was regarded as fundamental by the professional world. Around 1930 they were read as a textbook at the Munich Forest Faculty. The management of the Bavarian state forests at that time was also based on the teachings of Rottmanner.

Forest management reform and forest academy

Rottmanner's initiative was recognizable in all essential points: when the state forest organization was introduced, when the first Bavarian forest academy was founded and when the teaching content was formulated. This laid the foundation for modern forest science in Bavaria. The implementation of his ideas was taken by Joseph von Utzschneider and Joseph von Hazzi . An independent forest authority was finally set up. Rottmanner's concern, the unbundling of forestry and hunting, was realized in the forest reform of 1798. Years of fighting preceded this. "In 1789 Utzschneider organized the forestry in a bold fight against all prejudices and the entire entourage of Diana", wrote Joseph von Hazzi in 1803.

“The Rottmanners program was completely fulfilled in 1789 when Bavaria was divided into 20 forestry supervisors.” This is where the Bavarian Forest Administration was actually born. The Forest Policy Handbook judges that this year represents a turning point in every respect, “the dividing wall between the old and the new times.” This is where Bavaria's state forestry begins.

Rottmann's demand for a forest academy was also met, but only after the elector gave a powerful word in 1790. A textbook was sought and the silvicultural part of the necessary knowledge was suitable. However, it was not used, the forest students should be protected from critical ideas. Therefore, two mathematicians, Dätzel and Grünberger, were commissioned to write a forest textbook for the academy because there was supposedly no suitable one. It was called Practical Guide to Taxing the Forests and although it was officially approved as a textbook, it consisted almost entirely of formulas and calculations. There was no silviculture and the book was so impractical that it could hardly have been used for teaching at the forest academy. Dätzel later excused his hastily written book as fragmentary and confusing. He refers to the “better and bigger works” from which the students should first study forest science before they can “get back” on the basis of his book.

Political impact as a publicist

Rottmanner's commitment went far beyond the forest and agricultural framework. He dealt intensively with the social problems and injustices of his time and examined socio-political, historical and economic connections. Because of his analytical view of the entire social situation, he always formulated political demands . As an advocate of the Enlightenment, his attitude was liberal and he always kept the historical dimension in mind. In the quotes that he placed in front of his publications, his attitude becomes clear, compressed like a burning glass. He cites Hesiod's words: Once upon a time kings were chosen for one purpose only, to do justice to the people and to remedy injustice. A quote from Voltaire introduces his treatise on the history of the compulsory labor of Bavarian farmers: “ De nos cailloux frottés il sort des étincelles.” What he means is: the general public benefits only from the contradictions and arguments of scientists.

He saw promoting the common good as his first task. The focus was on his efforts to improve the living and working conditions of the farmers in Bavaria, but also in their immediate surroundings. He was critical of the conservative nobility; he would rather see the role of the state government strengthened. His often clear criticism is always permeated by the desire to serve the country and to achieve relief for the rural people.

He presented a series of treatises and pamphlets that was impressive both in terms of quantity and content. He was particularly interested in the origin of rural misery and the lack of freedom of the peasants. That is why he studied Bavarian state parliament files from the 16th century and found that the rural population at that time had significantly more rights and had to pay fewer taxes. In addition to the legally defined burdens, more and more services had been added without any legal basis over the centuries. In addition to the history of the Frone or Scharwerk in Baiern , he explains that in the times of the law of the thumb, the peasants paid in return for the protection afforded by the armed nobility, but with the greater legal certainty of modern times they would have lost their justification.

In 1798 Rottmanner examined manorial rights: In the preface a desperate appeal to the rulers to forego at least small parts of their power and their abundant income for the sake of the human dignity of the poor classes. Otherwise he feared a violent revolution in Bavaria as it had been raging in France for almost ten years. “ Do not shake the animal out of sleep,” he writes, “that you take for an ass; When you wake up, it becomes an angry lion who throws everything to the ground and buries itself under the rubble . "

In 1800 materials for a future state parliament in Bavaria were put into print in Regensburg . In it, future members of parliament are strongly recommended to read 15 newer papers on the Bavarian state constitution. Among them were four publications by Rottmann. His fight against favoritism and perversion of the law runs like a red thread through his journalistic work. Especially in the class of an old civil servant .

In this epoch of stormy reforms, profound changes in power politics could be achieved. The development went towards a modern understanding of democracy. Rottmanner's enlightening journalism made an important contribution here. He was also actively involved in the discussion about the constitutional question in Bavaria and, in the spirit of Montgelas , worked on the abolition of the absolutist corporate state and the liberation of the peasants. His success became evident during his lifetime and almost all of his demands were realized. Censorship was abolished in 1803. In the Bavarian constitution of 1808, the most modern in Germany, the equality of all citizens before the law, the abolition of serfdom , the security of property, freedom of conscience, the independence of judges and important innovations in civil service law were enshrined.

As a manorial judge, Rottmanner had an insight into the machinations of private officials in the conservative aristocratic houses. Too often the dependent farmers were defrauded. Corruption and self-enrichment of public officials were the focus of the three-volume satire teaching an old civil servant to young civil servants, candidates and interns . As a first-person narrator, Rottmanner supposedly gives prospective civil servants good advice. He mimes the "greedy, corruptible, cynical, saliva-licking court official who intimidates the dependent peasants, sows discord between master and servant, makes inspectors impossible and masters perversion of law, fraud and forgery like a game of cards."

Agricultural reformers

With his literature Rottmanner had also prepared the ground for decisive agricultural reforms of the 19th century. The aim was to end the decline of agriculture because famine was widespread and mortality was high. The population grew faster than the agricultural yield. Rottmanner realized that the farmers had to be given more freedom in order to remedy the situation. The oppressive circumstances with compulsory labor and payments in kind kept them in misery and prevented more modern cultivation methods. Simon Rottmanner was known as an agricultural reformer beyond the borders of Bavaria. This side of his work has not yet been adequately researched.

Hofmarksherr and farmer

Innovations were also essential at his mansion in Ast near Landshut. When Rottmanner bought it in 1774, years of neglect had made it run down. After the thorough renovation of the building, Rottmanner's “subjects” were taken to duty with hand vows. Then he began to transform his property into an agricultural model estate. He managed the economy himself. He had orchards laid out around the castle, pastures fenced in and feeding in stables was introduced. Through efficient fertilization and irrigation, he succeeded in remarkably increasing the yields of hay, fruit and grain. In 1805 he sold a 15 quintals bull. His oxen were so big and heavy that he had to buy smaller ones for field work. His horse and sheep breeding was widely praised as exemplary. Contemporaries even described his agriculture as “the non plus ultra in economics”.

With the aim of eliminating the backwardness of agriculture and increasing yields, the “Agricultural Association of Bavaria” was founded in 1810, the forerunner of the Bavarian Farmers' Association . Simon Rottmanner was a founding member.

He was often asked for advice. Then he helped even the smallest farmers with his vast forest and agricultural experience and did not skimp on recommendations and practical advice. As a judge, he settled countless disputes without trial. He invested a considerable amount of his own fortune in building a school house. He played a pioneering role when it came to countering superstitions , such as B. with the introduction of the lightning rod .

In a kind of land consolidation, he rounded off his own land, always taking the needs of the farmers into account. He practiced flat hierarchies towards his servants, which added to his natural authority. He also gave them more free time than usual. Relations with his farmers and day labor families were excellent. In 1791 his efforts to buy the Hofmark Ast and his six rural properties from the church tithe were successful. With compensation payments and negotiations, Rottmanner was able to limit the consequences of the war to a tolerable level for his village. All of this contributed to the fact that he and his wife were only called "the father" and "the mother mother" in the whole area.

Its library contained 3300 volumes. Their spectrum ranged from manuscripts, such as the legal book for the Bavarian Oberland from 1364, to prints from the 15th century and contemporary non-fiction. A closed chain of international political and economic literature ran through his bookshelves from antiquity. Their compilation shows that there were no national or denominational barriers in his way of thinking.

The University of Landshut awarded Simon Rottmanners an honorary doctorate for his life's work in 1802 . It was the first honorary doctorate ever awarded in Germany.

family

He and his wife Barbara had eight daughters and two sons. Franziska married Karl Sebastian Heller von Hellersberg . Therese became the wife of Wilhelm Anton Vogt, owner of Hofmark Vagen , Marianne married the district court doctor Anton Hazzi and Johanna married the lawyer Wolfgang von Fernberg. Nothing is known of the other daughters Constantia, Barbara, Josepha and Elisabeth. The eldest son Karl made a name for himself as a writer and philosopher at a young age. He became a member of the Bavarian state parliament. Son Max became an officer and fell during Napoleon's Russian campaign on the Beresina .

Simon Rottmanner was buried in Ast. "The corridors owe their blessings to him, the oppressed their rights, the unfortunate their salvation" this text was written on his tombstone. The grave no longer exists. The inscription can now be read again on a memorial plaque on the church that descendants put up for him in 2006.

Other members of the family were the composer Eduard Rottmanner (1809–1834), the poet Karl Wilhelm Vogt (1810–1874) and Odilo Rottmanner (1841–1907), librarian and preacher of the Abbey of St. Bonifaz in Munich.

Works

• • 1778 Notes on the Bavarian mandate, which in the subject of the game shooters, 36 pages
  • 1780 Necessary knowledge and explanations of forestry and hunting in Baiern, 660 pages ( digitized version )
  • In 1883 and 1887 an old civil servant gave lessons to young civil servants, candidates and interns. 3 volumes, 698 pages
  • 1784 On the illegality of the little toe, 127 pages
  • 1794 treatise on fallow land, or the Latin landlord, 127 pages
  • 1795 Ofellus rusticus abnormalis sapiens crassaque Minerva, 363 pages
  • 1796 Ofellus Rusticus or the defender of the fallow land, 133 pages
  • 1797 Collection of assessments of some Bavarian political pamphlets, From a spectator in the country, 202 pages
  • 1798–1800 addendum to the history of the Frone or Scharwerke, 191 pages
  • 1799 Notes on Laudemial and Other Landlord Rights, 206 pages
  • 1799 About the harmfulness of the beer compulsion and the Nothwirthe in Bavaria, 220 pages
  • 1801 On Freedom and Property of the Old Bavarian Nation, 86 pages
  • 1801 letter from the honorable Mr. Magnus, Baron von Herkomman to his faithful servant Magister Theophilus Neumann, 86 pages
  • 1801 Most submissive and obedient reply from Magister Theophilus Neumann to the gracious letter of Magnus Freiherrn v. Herkomman on the maintenance of the current class privileges in Bavaria, 342 pages
  • 1801 Zwey price questions about jurisdiction,?
  • 1802 remarks on various abuses in bourgeois relationships, 217 pages
  • 1803 latest cultural process, 132 pages
  • 1810 The supplemented Baierische Ofellus Rustikus, 234 pages

literature

• Joseph Socher: main features from the life of Simon Rottmanner. Aechten patriotic friends as a souvenir and memory. Landshut 1815.
• Clemens Alois BAADER, Lexicon of deceased Bavarian writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Vol. 2, Augsburg / Leipzig 1825 [Hildesheim / New York 1971], pp. 56–58.
• Pius Wittmann:  Rottmanner, Simon . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 53, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1907, p. 570 f.
• Max Endres: Simon Rottmanner, the first Bavarian forest writer . In: Supplement to "Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten", 1908, No. 14 and 18 and Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt 68, 1924, pp. 597–611.
• Otto Dachs, Dr. Simon Rottmanner, landlord at Ast Castle, Am stillen Herd, supplement to the Landshuter Zeitung, No. 22, 1935, pp. 2-5
• Heinz Haushofer: Dr. Rottmanner and his library. A contribution to the knowledge of the educational sources of the southern German Enlightenment. In: Journal of Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology. Vol. 1 (1953), pp. 119-125.
• Wendelin Hartmann: Simon Rottmanner. A pioneer of peasant liberation. In: Erdinger Land. 4: 40-49 (1980).
• Dietmar Schmitz: Simon Rottmanner. In 1200 years of Wörth. Woerth (1996), pp. 228-240
• Wilhelm Haefs, hunting criticism, education and the public in Bavaria. In: Joachim Reddemann (editor): The hunt in art and literature, Feldkirchen, 2001. Series of publications by the Landesjagdverband Bayern eV, p. 70.
• Carl Schmöller and Jacques Andreas Volland: Bavaria's forests. 250 years of the Bavarian State Forests Administration, Bavarian State Ministry for Science, Research and Art - House of Bavarian History, Augsburg 2002. P. 15 and P. 30
• Martin Knoll, Environment - Domination - Society. The sovereign hunt of spa Bavaria in the 18th century , dissertation University of Regensburg 2003
• Claudius Stein: State Church, Reform Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the Electorate of Bavaria of the Late Enlightenment. The Erdinger district judge Joseph von Widnmann and his environment, Munich 2007.
• Richard Hölzl, Contested Forests, The History of Ecological Reform in Germany 1760–1860 , Campus, 2010.
• Sophie Socher: Hunting review around 1780 - Simon Rottmanner. In: Eco Hunting. Vol. 17 (2014), no. 4, pp. 5-14 ( online ).
• Andreas Otto Weber:  Rottmanner, Simon. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , pp. 145 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Bavarian State Library , manuscript collection, Autogr. Rottmanner from February 15, 1785.

Web links

• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gde. Oberding: Buch am Buchrain family book approx. 1650 - approx. 1880 . S. 167 .
2. ^ Anton Huber: Genealogy Upper Bavaria. Accessed April 30, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Dietmar Schmitz:. In 1200 years of Wörth. Wörth: Simon Rottmanner . In: 1200 years of Wörth . Wörth 1996, p. 228-240 .
4. ^ Dietmar Schmitz: Simon Rottmanner . In: 1200 years of Wörth . Wörth 1996, p. 230 .
5. ^ Dietmar Schmitz: Simon Rottmanner . In: 1200 years of Wörth . Wörth 1996, p. 230 .
6. ^ Center of the administration of the Preysing'schen rule
7. ^ Dietmar Schmitz: Simon Rottmanner . In: 1200 years of Wörth . Woerth 1996.
8. ^ Dietmar Schmitz: Simon Rottmanner . In: 1200 years of Wörth . Wörth 1996, p. 230 .
9. ↑ Simon Rottmanner: "Notes on the Baierische mandate, which with regard to the game shooters and rural culture stole August 1, 1778, but from the churfürstl. Court councilor and court chamber were suppressed for the honor and benefit of the fatherland ”(ie: was not carried out) . 1778.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Das Kosmos Wald- und Forstlexikon, 4th edition, 2009 Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-440-12160-3 , p. 717, Large Bavarian Biographical Encyclopedia, German Biographical Encyclopedia, Gerhard Köbler: Who is who in German law. For the forest scientists Max Endres, Rector's speech from 1908, and Wilhelm Mantel, Bavarian forest science begins with Rottmanner.
11. ↑ BayHStA, Kurbayern, Oberlandesregierung 721 (25.9.1780).
12. ↑ Stein, Claudius, Staatskirchentum, Reformkatholizismus und Orthodoxie im Kurfürstentum Bayern der Späten Aufklaltung, 2008, CH Beck: The Oberlandesregierung split into a majority favoring Rottmanner's work and a minority rejecting it.
13. ^ Knoll, Martin: Environment - Dominion - Society. The sovereign hunt of Spa Bavaria in the 18th century . Scripta Mercaturae Verlag, 2004, p. 179, 181 .
14. ↑ Haefs, Wilhelm: hunting criticism, education and public in Bavaria . In: Hunting in Art and Literature, International Conference of the Bavarian State Hunting Association. 17/18 September 1999 . 1999, p. 74 .
15. ↑ Simon Rottmanner: Necessary knowledge . 1979.
16. ↑ Simon Rottmanner: Necessary knowledge . S. 17 (and 5th treatise).
17. ↑ the tax authority
18. ↑ Richard Hölzl: Contested forests, The history of an ecological reform in Germany 1760-1860 . Campus, 2010, p. 132 .
19. ↑ Otto Dachs: Dr. Simon Rottmanner, landlord at Ast Castle . In: Supplement to the Landshuter Zeitung . No. 22 , 1935, pp. 2 .
20. ↑ Hazzi: Statistical information about the Duchy of Baiern: drawn from genuine sources . Nuremberg 1803.
21. ^ Max Endres: Handbook of forest policy with special consideration of legislation and statistics . Berlin 1905, p. 221 .
22. ↑ Until then it had emerged through publications on the theory of the water screw and on solar eclipses.
23. ↑ He had previously taught math and written about calculating a solar eclipse
24. ↑ Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind wrote in his ADB article about Josef Utzschneider: "Because at that time good textbooks ... did not and could not exist"
25. ↑ Hölzl Richard: Contested forests . 2010, p. 130 .
26. ↑ Georg Anton Dätzel: "Textbook of practical forestry" . 2 volumes, 1802 (preface, unpaginated).
27. ↑ Simon Rottmanner: Comments on laudemial and other manorial rights .
28. ↑ Simon Rottmanner: Remarks on Laudemial and other landlord rights in Bavaria . S. XII ff .
29. ↑ Bosl's Bavarian biography .
30. ↑ The Preysing house was an exception here.
31. ^ Dietmar Schmitz: Simon Rottmanner . In: 1200 years of Wörth . 1996, p. 234 .
32. ↑ Heinz Haushofer: Dr. Rottmanner and his library. A contribution to the knowledge of the educational sources of the southern German Enlightenment. In: Journal of Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology . tape 1 , 1953, p. 119-125 .