Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
legal scholar. His major work was a reform of the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n penal code which became a model for several other countries.
Biography
He was born in Hainichen, near JenaJena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
. He received his early education at Frankfurt on Main, where his family had moved soon after his birth. At the age of sixteen, however, he ran away from home, and, going to Jena, was helped by relations there to study at the university. In spite of poor health and the most desperate poverty, he made rapid progress. He attended the lectures of Karl Leonhard Reinhold
Karl Leonhard Reinhold
Karl Leonhard Reinhold was an Austrian philosopher. He was the father of Ernst Reinhold, also a philosopher.-Life:...
and Gottlieb Hufeland
Gottlieb Hufeland
Gottlieb Hufeland was a German economist and jurist.Born in Danzig , in the province of Royal Prussia, Hufeland was educated at the gymnasium of his native town, and completed his university studies at Leipzig and Göttingen. He graduated at Jena, and in 1788 was there appointed to an extraordinary...
, and soon published some literary essays of more than ordinary merit.
In 1795 he took the degree of doctor of philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
, and in the same year, though possessing little money, he married. It was this step which led him to success and fame, by forcing him to turn from his favourite studies of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and history to that of law
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
, which was repugnant to him, but which offered a prospect of more rapid advancement.
At 23 he came into prominence by a vigorous criticism of Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
' theory on civil power. Soon afterwards, in lectures on criminal jurisprudence he set forth his famous theory, that in administering justice judges should be strictly limited in their decisions by the penal code. This new doctrine gave rise to a party called Rigorists, who supported his theory.
Von Feuerbach was the originator of the famous maxim nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali
Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali
Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali is a basic maxim in continental European legal thinking...
: "There's no crime and hence there shall not be punishment if at the time no penal law existed"
In 1801 Feuerbach was appointed extraordinary professor of law without salary, at the University of Jena, and in the following year accepted a chair at Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
, where he remained two years.
His chief work was the framing of a penal code for Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. In 1804, he had moved from the University of Kiel
University of Kiel
The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today...
to the University of Landshut, but, on being commanded by King Maximilian Joseph to draft a penal code for Bavaria (Strafgesetzbuch für das Königreich Bayern), in 1805 he moved to Munich where he was given a high appointment in the Ministry of Justice and was ennobled in 1808. The practical reform of penal legislation in Bavaria was begun under his influence in 1806 by the abolition of torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
.
Out of his practical experience in the Ministry of Justice with evaluating death penalties by Bavarian courts for royal pardon he published the most notable cases 1808/11 in Merkwürdige Criminalfälle and 1828/29 a much enlarged collection Aktenmäßige Darstellung merkwürdiger Verbrechen (Notable crimes presented according to the court records). With this legal handbook of criminal cases in the tradition of the famous "Causes Célèbres" of the Franch lawyer Gayot de Pitaval (1673-1743) Feuerbach intend to establish a modern criminal psychology ("Seelenkunde") for crime investigation, criminal judges, etc.
In the course of time, his work has been misinterpreted merely as a literary collection of fictional sensational crimes and many of his court cases have been edited and published as trivial popular crime stories. However, Gerold Schmidt has newly researched that Feuerbach has recorded true historical events at true localities and persons with their real names etc. and that, therefore, his work is a rich historical source for Bavarian local and social history, mentality, biography etc.
In his Betrachtungen über das Geschworenengericht of 1811, Feuerbach declared against trial by jury, maintaining that the verdict of a jury was not adequate legal proof of a crime. Much controversy was aroused on the subject, and the author's view was subsequently to some extent modified.
The result of his labours on the Bavarian penal code was promulgated in 1813. The influence of this code, the embodiment of Feuerbach's enlightened views, was immense. It was at once made the basis for new codes in Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
and Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar.-Division of Leipzig:...
; it was adopted in its entirety in the grand-duchy of Oldenburg
Oldenburg
Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...
; and it was translated into Swedish by order of the king. Several of the Swiss cantons reformed their codes in conformity with it.
Feuerbach had also undertaken to prepare a civil code for Bavaria, to be founded on the Code Napoléon. This was afterwards set aside, and the Codex Maximilianus adopted as a basis. But the project did not become law.
During the war of liberation
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition , a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and a number of German States finally defeated France and drove Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on Elba. After Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, the continental powers...
(1813-1814), Feuerbach showed himself an ardent patriot, and published several political brochures. In 1814 Feuerbach was appointed second president of the court of appeal at Bamberg
Bamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
, and three years later he became first president of the court of appeal at Anspach
Anspach
Anspach may refer to:In places:* Neu-Anspach, Hesse, Germany* The former name of Ansbach, Bavaria, GermanyIn people:* Henri Anspach , Belgian épée and foil fencer* Paul Anspach , Belgian épée and foil fencer...
. In 1821 he was deputed by the government to visit France, Belgium, and the Rhine provinces for the purpose of investigating their juridical institutions. As the fruit of this visit, he published his treatises Betrachtungen über Öffentlichkeit und Mündigkeit der Gerechtigkeitspflege (1821) and Über die Gerichtsverfassung und das gerichtliche Verfahren Frankreichs (1825). In these he pleaded unconditionally for publicity in all legal proceedings.
In his later years, he took a deep interest in the fate of the strange foundling Kaspar Hauser
Kaspar Hauser
Kaspar Hauser was a German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Hauser's claims, and his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate and controversy....
who had excited so much attention in Europe. He was the first to publish a critical summary of the ascertained facts, under the title of Kaspar Hauser, ein Beispiel eines Verbrechens am Seelenleben (1832).
Family
He was the father of the philosopher Ludwig Andreas FeuerbachLudwig Andreas Feuerbach
Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach was a German philosopher and anthropologist. He was the fourth son of the eminent jurist Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach, brother of mathematician Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach and uncle of painter Anselm Feuerbach...
and the mathematician Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach
Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach
Karl Wilhelm von Feuerbach was a German geometer and the son of legal scholar Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach, and the brother of philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. After receiving his doctorate at age 22, he became a professor of mathematics at the Gymnasium at Erlangen...
; and the grandfather of the painter Anselm Feuerbach
Anselm Feuerbach
Anselm Feuerbach was a German painter. He was the leading classicist painter of the German 19th-century school.-Biography:...
.
Writings
- Feuerbach, Paul Johann Anselm, Ritter von: The Wild Child The unsolved mystery of Kaspar Hauser. Translated from the German with an Introduction by Jeffrey Moussaieff MassonJeffrey Moussaieff MassonDr. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is an American author, residing in New Zealand. Masson is best known for his conclusions about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis...
/ NY Free Press 1997 1st ppb ptg ISBN 0 684 83096 5 - Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach/Gerold Schmidt, "Alltag im Alten Bayern", Norderstedt (Books On Demand GmbH) 2006, 357 pages (with local register and index of names) ISBN 13 978-3-8334-6060-9