Anton Martin Schweigaard
Anton Martin Schweigaard " Anton Martinus Schweigaard " (* April 11, 1808 in Kragerø, Telemark, † February 1, 1870 in Christiania ) was a Norwegian lawyer, economist and politician.
Life
Schweigaard was the son of the merchant Jørgen Fredrik Schweigaard (1771-1818) and his wife Johanne Marie Dahll ( 1785-1818 ).
He grew up in Kragerø, where his father ran a not particularly thriving general store. He and his three sisters grew up in very modest circumstances. Both parents died when he was 10 years old, and from then on he was cared for by his grandmother Dahll. Actually, he was intended for the acquisition of his father's general store.
But he was first sent to Westerholt in Lower Saxony to learn languages. There was a pastor Koeppen, who noticed the boy's special talent and the parents which urged to send him to the Latin school in Skien. He was next to Peter Andreas Munch soon top of the class and passed the exam of Arts in 1828 with the previously best result in Norway. After a short Vicariate in Norwegian and Greek at his old school, he began studying law at the University of Christiania in 1832 and put the state exam with honors from what was even reported to the king. In 1835 he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Law. In 1840 he became a professor of law, economics and statistics.
He married on 24 September 1835 in Kragerø Caroline Magnine Homann ( 1814-1870 ), daughter of district physician Horrebow Christian Homann ( 1782-1860 ) and his wife Boel (actually " Bodil " ) Catharine Biorn ( 1796-1865 ). It was a happy marriage, and he died just five days after her death. The joint funeral service was held at the Holy Trinity Church held in Christiania, and they were buried " Vår Frelsers Gravlund " ( Redeemer Cemetery ). It was collected donations for a monument that has been run by Julius Middel tuna and unveiled at the University Square. The new link road between Christiania and the former Oslo suburb (now Gamlebyen ) received in 1879 the name " Schweigaards gate".
Effect
The academic beginnings
As a student, he joined the student group " Intelligensen " and soon became the central figure. There I acted around a circle students who had resigned in protest against Henrik Arnold Wergeland from the student organization " Det norske Studenterforbund ". In this circle included the famous later Christian Birch - rich forest, Johan Sebastian Welhaven, Peter Andreas Munch and Frederik Stang. This coveted students against the established bureaucracy on, later occupied the main switching points of the state and tried to implement their ideas.
Schweigaard wrote several articles in the student newspaper Vidar, among other things, he argued for back the classical languages at the Latin school in favor of scientific subjects. In another, he turned against the chaos in the Norwegian coinage. As in 1836, the newspaper The Constitution Elle was founded, he published there long treatises. In 1833 he was awarded a scholarship by the Storting for a stay abroad. He went to the academic milieu in Germany and France. The result was 1835 a biting critique of the German idealistic philosophy and speculative philosophy in general in the French La France Literaire. The same biting criticism hit the German jurisprudence, which he published under the title "over Betragtninger Retsvidenskabens nuværende Tilstand i Tyskland " ( Reflections on the present state of the law in Germany ) in the Danish Yuri Disk Tidsskrift, Volume XXIII. He rejected any natural law justification of law. In the journal Revue étrangère of Législation he published an article on the status of women in Danish and Norwegian law.
As Schweigaard 1835 got a job as a lecturer in Law, he had already published his fundamental conceptions in many articles. He advocated a strict empirical orientation in science and a new foundation of law, which was fed by the utilitarianism English mindset. This had refraining from a philosophical foundation of law in the following lawyers generations consequences: They were good practitioners, but the scientific literary production was negligible. In 1837 he lectured in the subject " Economics and Statistics " and received the 1840 Chair. This led to a public attack on his person by Ludvig Kristensen Daa, who had also applied to the chair.
The national culture should include the international currents. This development had to be initiated by a social renewal. With this starting point, he inveighed against Henrik Wergeland and his circle and against the established government. Counter Wergeland he argued that with its seal an opening to the world can not be achieved, against the officials that she was too passive and initiativlos.
During his teaching career he wrote several textbooks. The most important are commentary over the Norske Criminallov (Commentary on the Norwegian Criminal) ( 1844-46 ) and Den norske Proces ( The Norwegian process ) (3 volumes, 1849 and 1858 ). But there is also a transcript of its lectures by students. At the most influential was his socio-economic lecture of 1847, whose transcript was submitted later printed. In it, he turned against the extreme forms of liberalism. He represented as the view that the state should play an important role in the economy, especially in such a small country like Norway. This work is also important because it reveals the relationship between the scientists and the politicians Schweigaard Schweigaard.
The political program
Schweigaard was throughout his life supporters of the constitutional government of 1814. With his articles, he presented his political vision and a program for the modernization and development of the Norwegian nation to the public. It included cultural, economic and social areas. He was like many of his contemporaries academic convinced that mankind will go higher and change for the better with the increase of the natural sciences. This was after him at all a common concern for all of humanity. In that regard it was adjusted cosmopolitan. He was also a supporter of liberalism in the economy. In his essay " Indførselstolden og dens History " ( The import duty and his story ) he advocated free trade. He was a supporter of the Scandinavianism and went for the closer union between Norway and Sweden. and turned decidedly against anti- Danish trends in cultural life.
His ideas were widely used in the international ideas. He represented the liberal optimism of progress, was convinced of the triumph of reason, defended private property, freedom of thought, argued for legal certainty and for more individual rights.
In education policy, he championed the active suppression of the classical languages in favor of the natural sciences, which led in 1857 to abolish the teaching of Latin in the high schools. He looked at the Danish literature and culture as trend-setting and turned so against a Norwegian nationalism, which strove for a literary- cultural separation from Denmark in the course of development of an independent nation. So he wrote an article about "Om the litterære Antidanskhet " (About the literary anti- Danish affect), which was a few years later picked up by Welhaven in his poem " Norges Dæmring ".
Political action
Schweigaard in 1842 elected to the Storting. 1845-1869 he was the most influential representative in the Storting. If he had wanted, he could at any time enter the government, but he pulled his life before the work in the Storting. Instead, he was most often prefer his comrades from the " Intelligensen " as Frederik Stang act in the government. One can say that in the period 1845 to 1870 the " Duumvirat " Schweigaard / Stang the fortunes of Norway's certain. As argued in its socio-economic lectures he turned against the extreme liberalism, ie against a minimization of state intervention. His practical sense of the role of the state is also reflected in his eloquent use for a state ban on alcohol expressed. His focus was on the liberalization of foreign trade. This should be accompanied by the expansion of merchant shipping, by which it thought was the driver of the boom in Norway. In parallel, the infrastructure should be improved and trading privileges are reduced in order to strengthen the internal market. He advocated for the improvement of education and agriculture. Schweigaard was at the forefront of the modernization strategy in the Storting. After tentative beginnings, the Storting began with an Act of 1839 to abolish the privileges of the craft guilds.
In 1840, deregulation was systematic. Internal trade was released by laws of 1842 and 1866: Trade Act of 1842 Customs Act of 1845, Maritime Law of 1860 and the spirits of laws from 1845 to 1848. 1854 saw mill privilege was abolished from 1860. At the same time protective tariffs were reduced or canceled against foreign countries. 1854 the first railway line of Christiania was taken to Eidsvoll in operation. In all these measures, he was the driving force. During the economic crisis of 1857, he had as a member of the management of the Bank of Oslo crucial role in ensuring that not brought about the ruin of the trade item. 1866, the craftsmen privileges were completely abolished.
All these initiatives have had a large economic boom in a short time. He had the majority in the Storting, the farmer group are always looking for collaborators, especially when it came to the allocation of funds for investment. The Bauer Group was set economically liberal.
Pure power politics, he was for a leadership role of the elite in the state within the possibilities of constitutional government. He defended the balance of power that had given the Constitution, and turned to the effect against any reform to further democratization, as well as in the vote on the amendment to the Constitution that instead of Stortingssitzungen take place every three years, nine months, meetings every three years months should. But at the end of his career in 1869 he had to experience that in the Storting an aggressive opposition, led by the radical Johan Sverdrup and Ole Gabriel Ueland took control of the group of farmers.
Importance
Anton Martin Schweigaard was Norway's " best son " ( Norges bedste Søn ) exclaimed when he was 25 years old. When he died, he was called the " country first citizen ". While there were him well-disposed citizens, especially his friend Johan Sebastian Welhaven and the newspaper Morgenbladet who named it so. But he was certainly the most important statesman of Norway and an intellectual Size in Norway the 19th century.