Theodore of Pistorius

Theodor Gottlieb Andreas Pistorius , since 1904 by Pistorius , (born November 12, 1861 in Tübingen , † January 31, 1939 in Stuttgart ) was a civil servant and university professor. From 1914 to 1918 he was Finance Minister of the Kingdom of Württemberg and from 1920 to 1932 Professor of Political Science and Economics at the TH Stuttgart .

Life and politics

Pistorius began his professional career in 1878 as an intern in the middle postal service. From 1881 to 1882 he served in the Württemberg Army and then returned to the postal service. From 1883 to 1886 he studied law and social sciences at the University of Tübingen . He passed the two financial service exams with excellent results and joined the financial services of the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1887 as a cameraman in Mergentheim . In 1890 he received his doctorate in Tübingen. sc. pol. Pistorius then worked for a few years at the domain management in Stuttgart . For the next few years he worked in the Finance Department at the Tax College and rose up the career ladder to Assessor in 1894, Finance Council in 1898 and Ministerial Council in 1902.

The Württemberg tax reform of 1903 came about under his decisive influence. The previous income tax was replaced by the general income tax , as it already existed in the Kingdom of Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Baden . As a tax expert for the government, he appeared several times during the budget debates at the lectern in the Chamber of Deputies of the Württemberg State Parliament .

When he was awarded the Cross of Honor of the Order of the Württemberg Crown in 1904, he was raised to the personal nobility . He was also commentator 2nd class of the Order of Frederick and Knight 2nd class of the Order of Merit of St. Michael .

In 1910 Pistorius became Ministerial Director and Deputy to Finance Minister Wilhelm von Gessler . On April 13, 1914, he succeeded him in the Weizsäcker government and also became an agent at the Federal Council .

In the following four years of the First World War , Pistorius knew how to keep the Württemberg state budget on course through iron discipline and the levying of a wealth tax introduced in 1915 with the consent of the state estates and not to let it get into a dangerous situation like in other countries. On November 7, 1918, at the request of King Wilhelm II , Pistorius joined the first parliamentary government in Liesching , which only remained in office for two days and was replaced by Blos' revolutionary government on November 9, 1918 . As a staunch monarchist, Pistorius left the government, although Wilhelm Blos had offered him to continue to head the finance ministry . From 1920 to 1932 he was full professor for political science and economics at the TH Stuttgart and from 1922 to 1929 he was also honorary professor for tax law and finance at the University of Tübingen. From 1928 to 1934 he was in charge of studies at the newly established Württemberg Administration Academy. For over forty years, Pistorius published numerous articles on tax issues and current political events in the Swabian Mercury . He was a member of the Württemberg History and Antiquity Association and was a member of the Württemberg Commission for State History from 1930 to 1937 .

family

Theodor Pistorius came from a simple background. The evangelical Pistorius family has been traceable in Württemberg since the Reformation . The grandfather Gottlieb Friedrich Pistorius (1797–1839) served as a military musician in the 4th Infantry Brigade in Ulm, the father Christoph Gottlieb Pistorius (1828–1907) worked as a master sack maker and bandagist in Tübingen. His wife Katharine Pistorius b. Karrer (1832–1889), the mother of Theodor Pistorius, came from a family of vineyards from Tübingen . In 1895, Theodor Pistorius married Mina Kuhn (* 1870), the daughter of Professor Wilhelm Kuhn, who taught at the secondary school in Stuttgart. Theodor and Mina Pistorius were married to three children.

Honors

• 1920 honorary citizen of the TH Stuttgart
• 1929 Dr. jur. hc from the University of Tübingen

Works

• The state courts and ministerial responsibility under today's German state law. Dissertation 1891.
• Law on income tax in Württemberg together with implementing provisions and an appendix on capital tax. 1903.
• The Württemberg tax reform . In: Finanzarchiv 21. 1904, pp. 1–114.
• Memoranda on the continuation of the tax reform. 1909 and 1913/14.
• Our tax law. 1919.
• Political and administrative studies. 1926.
• Franconian trips and other hikes and contemplations on German soil from a friend from home. 1933.
• The last days of the Kingdom of Württemberg, with memories and confessions. 1935.

literature

• Hermann Degener, who is it. 1912.
• Kürschner's German Scholar's Calendar. 1931.
• Swabian Mercury . No. 29, February 3, 1939, p. 5.
• K. Weller, In: Journal for Württemberg State History. 3, 1939, pp. 235-239.
• 150 years of doctorate at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tübingen. Biographies of doctors, honorary doctors and post-doctorates from 1830 to 1980. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, p. 32 and 711 (illustration)
• Frank Raberg :  Pistorius, Theodor Gottlieb Andreas. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 487 f. ( Digitized version ).