Wilhelm Schaffrath

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Wilhelm Schaffrath (around 1873)
Wilhelm Schaffrath (around 1848)
Residential house in Neustadt in Saxony
Memorial plaque on the residential building

Wilhelm Michael Schaffrath (born May 1, 1814 in Schöna ; † May 7, 1893 in Dresden ) was a German lawyer and politician . He was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly , a member of the Reichstag and a member of the Saxon state parliament .

Childhood, school in St. Afra, studies in Leipzig

Birthplace of Wilhelm Schaffrath in Schöna

Wilhelm Michael Schaffrath was born on May 1st, 1814 in Schöna in Saxon Switzerland . In 1816 the family moved with their ten children to Lauterbach near Stolpen for professional reasons : Father Schaffrath became a village school teacher there. Wilhelm's eagerness to learn was noticed and encouraged: A vacancy in the city of Stolpen enabled him to receive a first-class education at the Meißner Fürstenschule St. Afra .

The Saxon Crown Prince Friedrich - who later became King Friedrich August II - became aware of Wilhelm Schaffrath, allegedly because he had a Latin textbook with him during a maneuver. The Crown Prince made it possible for the inquisitive boy to study law at the University of Leipzig . He completed this in three years, a year later he received his doctorate and was qualified to teach.

Schaffrath wanted to start his scientific career at the age of 23. But things turned out differently, as the law newcomer took on the defense of 19 fraternity members who had been sentenced to several years in prison for "participating in secret and revolutionary associations" (membership in a fraternity was sufficient for this charge). In the second instance he succeeded in acquittal against the judges of the Royal Saxon Higher Appeal Court in Dresden. Since he now also reported publicly on the trial ("Critique of the verdict given in the first instance against nineteen members of the Leipzig fraternity", Altenburg 1839), he was denied a career in college or a position in the civil service.

Live and act

Wilhelm Schaffrath received his doctorate as Dr. phil. and was based in Leipzig as a lawyer . There he became friends with Robert Blum , with whom he published the opposition newspapers Verfassungsfreund and Sächsische Vaterlandsblätter . In 1848 he was a member of the preliminary parliament . He was present at the meetings of the Hallgarten Circle and was elected to the Paulskirche parliament in Frankfurt . Parallel to his work in the editorial office of the German Reichstag newspaper , he was also present in the Donnersberg as a radical democrat . After the end of the March Revolution , he emigrated to Switzerland , where he sought political asylum until 1852. After his return to Saxony, he was able to enforce his acquittal in court proceedings. From 1852 onwards he was a city court lawyer in Neustadt in Saxony . In 1856 he settled in Dresden, where he was also approved as a notary in 1872.

In 1865, Schaffrath was one of the founders of the Saxon Progress Club , the regional association of the left-liberal German Progressive Party in the Kingdom of Saxony. From 1865 to 1872 he was a member of the Dresden city council and was subsequently active in changing representative bodies of the Saxon royal seat until the mid-1870s. In February 1867 he was elected to the constituent Reichstag of the North German Confederation for the Progressive Party . From 1871 to 1874 and from 1878 to 1879 he was a member of the parliament of the German Empire . In 1871 he also entered the Saxon state parliament as a representative of the third urban constituency ( Bischofswerda , Pulsnitz , Stolpen , Radeberg , Radeburg , Großenhain ) and exercised this mandate until 1879. Supported by the left and right-wing liberal camp, he was also chairman of the second chamber of the Saxon state parliament from 1871 to 1875 . From 1883 until his death he was elected judge of the Saxon State Court of Justice by the Second Chamber . He has held various positions in local and national lawyers' associations.

Schaffrath was buried in the Trinity cemetery in Dresden; his grave has not been preserved.

Honors

In 1873 he received the title of judicial councilor and in 1891 that of a senior judicial councilor. In 1887 he was made an honorary citizen of Neustadt in Saxony .

Works

  • Novum legum controversarum practicarum interpretationes , Meissen 1837
  • Basic science of law and in particular of criminal law according to common German law and the new penal codes. Presentation of the joint German and Saxon civil and criminal process , Leipzig 1839
  • Critique of the verdict given in the first instance against 19 members of the Leipzig fraternity , Altenburg 1839
  • Basic science of law and especially of criminal law , Leipzig 1840
  • Codex Saxonicus or manual of the entire Saxon laws practically valid in the Kingdom of Saxony from the earliest times to the end of 1841 , Altenburg 1841 ( digitized version )
  • Basic science of law and in particular of criminal law according to common German law and the new penal codes , 3 vol., Leipzig 1841–1842
  • Codex Saxonicus. Chronological collection of all practically valid royal Saxon laws from the oldest times, from 1255 to the end of 1840 , 3 volumes, Leipzig 1842–1847
    (digital copies: Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 , register volume )
  • Theory of the Interpretation of Constitutional Laws , Leipzig 1842
  • The right to vote of the urban and rural communities against the clerkship in Saxony , Leipzig 1847
  • Sketch of a draft constitution for the German federal state , 1848
  • The legal validity of the constitution of March 28, 1849 , Leipzig 1850
  • Criticism of the reasons for the decision of the Royal Saxon Higher Appeal Court against the fighters for the imperial constitution OL Heubner and comrades. With a copy of the reasons for the decision , Leipzig 1851
  • Is the constitutionality of laws also part of the judicial decision? , Dresden 1863.

literature

  • Gerhard Baatz: 125 years of bar associations: Wilhelm Michael Schaffrath - first chairman of the board of the Saxony Bar Association in the Kingdom of Saxony from 1879–1891. In: BRAK-Mitteilungen . 35th vol., No. 5, 2004, pp. 204–207 ( PDF; 2.2 MB ).
  • Elvira Döscher, Wolfgang Schröder : Saxon parliamentarians 1869–1918. The deputies of the Second Chamber of the Kingdom of Saxony in the mirror of historical photographs. A biographical handbook (= photo documents on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 5). Droste, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-7700-5236-6 , p. 457 f.
  • Arthur Frey: Characters of the present - portrayed from authentic sources. Grohe, Mannheim 1848, pp. 279-301. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ingrid Grosse, Manfred Schober , Sebastian Schermaul: Wilhelm Michael Schaffrath (1814–1893) - a Saxon lawyer, politician and democrat of the 19th century. In: Sächsische Heimatblätter . 60th vol., No. 2, 2014, pp. 134–145.
  • Josef Matzerath : Aspects of Saxon State Parliament History. Presidents and members of parliament from 1833 to 1952. Sächsischer Landtag, Dresden 2001, p. 72 f.
  • Peter Reichel : Robert Blum. A German revolutionary 1807–1848. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-36136-8 , pp. 23, 127, 129, 187.
  • Sebastian Schermaul: The trial against the Leipzig fraternity 1835-38 - Adolf Ernst Hensel, Hermann Joseph, Wilhelm Michael Schaffrath and their work , Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 2015, ISBN 978-3-631-66259-5 .
  • Sebastian Schermaul (Ed.): Festschrift for Dr. Wilhelm Michael Schaffrath on the occasion of his 200th birthday on April 26, 2014 , Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2015, ISBN 978-3-96023-009-0 .

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Schaffrath  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Wilhelm Michael Schaffrath  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ingrid Grosse: An outstanding politician - Wilhelm Michael Schaffrath (1814-1893) for his 200th birthday. Pp. 16–17 in Landtag Courier Free State of Saxony , issue 3/2014
  2. ↑ Federal Archives: Members of the Pre-Parliament and the Fifties Committee (PDF file; 79 kB)
  3. ↑ April 25, 1863 - Foundation of the Saxon Progress Association ( Memento of December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), FDP Saxony
personal data
SURNAME Schaffrath, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schaffrath, Wilhelm Michael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and politician (DFP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Nice
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1893
Place of death Dresden