Hans Daniel Ludwig Friedrich Hassenpflug
Encyclopedia
Hans Daniel Ludwig Friedrich Hassenpflug (February 26, 1794 – October 15, 1862), German statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...

, was born at Hanau
Hanau
Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...

 in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

.

He studied law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 at Göttingen, graduated in 1816, and took his seat as Assessor in the judicial chamber of the board of government (Regierungskollegium) at Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

, of which his father Johann Hassenpflug was also a member, in 1821 he was nominated by the new elector, William II
William II, Elector of Hesse
-Biography:William was the eldest surviving son of William I, Elector of Hesse and Wilhelmina Caroline of Denmark and Norway. He succeeded as Elector of Hesse on his father's death in 1821.-Marriage and issue:On 13 February 1797 in Berlin, William married Princess Augusta of Prussia, fourth...

, fustisrat (councillor of justice); in 1832 he became Ministerialrat and reporter (Referent) to the ministry of Hesse-Kassel
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel was a state in the Holy Roman Empire under Imperial immediacy that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1567 upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half and the...

, and in May of the same year was appointed successively minister of justice and of the interior.

It was from this moment that he became conspicuous in the constitutional struggles of Germany. The reactionary system introduced by the elector William I
William I, Elector of Hesse
William I, Elector of Hesse was the eldest surviving son of Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Princess Mary of Great Britain, the daughter of George II.-Early life:...

 had broken down before the revolutionary movements of 1830, and in 1831 Hesse had received a constitution. This development was welcome neither to the elector nor to the other German governments, and Hassenpflug deliberately set to work to reverse it. In doing so he gave the lie to his own early promise; for he had been a conspicuous member of the revolutionary Burschen-schaft at Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

, and had taken part as a volunteer in the War of Liberation
War of liberation
A War of liberation is a conflict which is primarily intended to bring freedom or independence to a nation or group. Examples might include a war to overthrow a colonial power, or to remove a dictator from power. Such wars are often unconventional...

.

It is unnecessary to enquire into the causes of the change. Hassenpfiug by training and tradition was a strait-laced official; he was also a first-rate lawyer, and his naturally arbitrary temper had from the first displayed itself in an attitude of overbearing independence towards his colleagues and even towards the elector. To such a man constitutional restrictions were intolerable, and from the moment he came into power he set to work to override them, by means of press censorship, legal quibbles, unjustifiable use of the electoral prerogatives, or frank supersession of the legislative rights of the Estates by electoral ordinances.

The story of the constitutional deadlock that resulted belongs to the history of Hesse-Kassel and Germany; so far as Hassenpflug himself was concerned, it made him, more even than Metternich, the Mephistopheles of the Reaction to the German people. In Hesse itself he was known as "Hessens Hass und Fluch" (Hesse's hate and curse). In the end, however, his masterful temper became unendurable to the regent (Frederick William). In the summer of 1837 he was suddenly removed from his post as minister of the interior, and he thereupon left the elector's service.

In 1838 he was appointed head of the administration of the little principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, an office which he exchanged in the following year for that of civil governor of the grand-duchy of Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

. Here, too, his independent character suffered him to remain only a year: he resented having to transact all business with the grand-duke (king of the Netherlands) through a Dutch official at the Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

; he protested against the absorption of the Luxembourg surplus in the Dutch treasury; and, failing to obtain redress, he resigned (1840).

From 1841 to 1850 he was in Prussian service, first as a member of the supreme court of justice (Obertribunal) and then (1846) as president of the high court of appeal (Oberappellationsgericht) at Greifswald
Greifswald
Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...

. In 1850 he was tried for peculation and convicted; and, though this judgment was reversed on appeal, he left the service of Prussia.

With somewhat indecent haste (the appeal had not been heard) he was now summoned by the elector of Hesse once more to the head of the government, and he immediately threw himself again with zeal into the struggle against the constitution. He soon found, however, that the opinion of all classes, including the army, was solidly against him, and he decided to risk all on an alliance with the reviving fortunes of Austria, which was steadily working for the restoration of the status quo overthrown by the revolution of 1848.

On his advice the elector seceded, from the Northern Union established by Prussia and, on September 13, committed the folly of flying secretly from Hesse with his minister. They went to Frankfort, where the federal diet had been re-established, and on the 21st persuaded the diet to decree an armed intervention in Hesse. This decree, carried out by Austrian troops, all but led to war with Prussia, but the unreadiness of the Berlin government led to the triumph of Austria and of Hassenpflug, who at the end of the year was once more installed in power at Kassel as minister of finance.

His position was, however, not enviable; he was loathed and despised by all, and disliked even by his master. The climax came in November 1853, when he was publicly horse-whipped by the count of Isenburg-Wächtersbach, the elector's son-in-law. The count was pronounced insane; but Hassenpflug was conscious of the method in his madness, and tendered his resignation. This was, however, not accepted; and it was not till October 16, 1855 that he was finally relieved of his offices. He retired to Marburg
Marburg
Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...

, where he died on 15 October 1862. He lived just long enough to hear of the restoration of the Hesse constitution of 1831 (June 21, 1862), which it had been his life's mission to destroy.

Of his publications the most important is Actenstücke, die landständischen Anklagen wider den Kurfurst/ir/ien hessischen Staatsminister Hassenpflug. Ein Beiträg zur Zeitgeschichte und zum neueren deutschen Staatsrechte, anonym. (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1836). He was twice married, his first wife being the sister of the brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

. His son Karl Hassenpflug (1824–1890) was a distinguished sculptor.

See the biography by Wippermann in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie is one of the most important and most comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language....

, with authorities.
----
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK