Göttingen Seven

The Göttingen Seven ( Göttingen " 7") were a group Göttingen professors who protested in 1837 against the abrogation of the Constitution in the Kingdom of Hanover and were therefore dismissed; some were expelled beyond the country.

Party

The names of these seven professors of the Georg -August- University were:

• Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht, constitutional law
• Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, historian
• Heinrich Ewald, Orientalist
• Georg Gottfried Gervinus, literary historian
• Jacob Grimm, a lawyer and specialist in German
• Wilhelm Grimm, a lawyer and specialist in German
• Wilhelm Eduard Weber, a physicist

History

After the 123 -year-old personal union between Great Britain and Hanover ended, Ernst August I. 1837, ascended the throne in the Kingdom of Hanover. Immediately after his accession he lifted the relatively liberal constitution, the Basic Law, 1 November 1837 again. On November 18, the year the Göttingen Seven ranged writing a protest.

End of November 1837 gave the vice-rector and the deans of four, without having a mandate from the university, the king in the hunting lodge Rothenkirchen an address at which the university " of all Community renounces the Seven" and their attitude reviles.

On December 12, 1837 Ernst August I dismissed the professors and referred three of them - Friedrich Dahlmann, Jacob Grimm and Georg Gottfried Gervinus - even in the country ( cf. exile ). These were then received in 1840 by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who rehabilitated politically persecuted in part. At the same time the great solidarity effect in the population who paid the three expelled her salary from donations showed. Here at last was seen that liberalism as a mass movement could no longer be suppressed by orders and regulations.

The protest, the protest letter, found throughout Germany proliferation and promoted a liberal attitude. Jacob Grimm later founded his decision on the protest in an apologia:

" History shows us noble and free men, who dared to tell the truth before the face of Kings; the Befugtsein belongs to those who have the courage. Often, their commitment has borne fruit, sometimes it has corrupted them, not their names. The poetry of history reflection, it does not neglect to weigh actions of princes for justice. Such examples solve the subjects of his tongue, as where the need is pressing, and comforted each output. "

In the Frankfurt National Assembly 1848 Jacob Grimm has held a place of honor, Albrecht, Dahlmann and Gervinus were co-authors of the legislative initiatives. The reputation of the University of Göttingen suffered for a long time on the release of this force as excellent teachers.

Commemoration

In the immediate vicinity of the Lower Saxony state parliament ( ⊙ 52.3696889.734084 ) on leash Castle in Hanover, a large bronze statue was placed at the site of the Göttingen Seven the Göttingen Seven, which was created by the Italian artist Floriano Bodini ( 1933-2005 ).

In Göttingen, the central campus of the Georg-August -Universität Göttingen also bears the name space of the Göttingen Seven. Since 2011, here is a designed by Günter Grass sculpture commemorating the Göttingen Seven.

On November 2, 2012, a German 55 -cent commemorative stamp was released for the 175th anniversary of the release of the seven men.