Dirk Donker Curtius

Dirk Donker Curtius ( * October 19, 1792 in Rotterdam, † July 17, 1864 in Spa, Belgium ) was a Dutch liberal, later Conservative politician and editor. Short term he was chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Life

Donker Curtius was the son of the President of the Supreme Court. After secondary school education at the Atheneum Illustre in Amsterdam, he studied law in Leiden, where he also received his doctorate. From 1812 he was a lawyer in The Hague. To be due to the refusal, a member of the Legion of Honour for Emperor Napoleon, he was imprisoned in 1813, but was able to escape disguised as a servant from prison in Metz to The Hague.

In 1848 he was a member of the Basic Law Commission and Minister of Justice. For a short time he was from 17 May to 4 June 1849 Chairman of the Council of Ministers. Donker Curtius argued as a lawyer, politician and editor for basic rights such as freedom of the press, abolition of corporal punishment (for example, stigmatization ) and Ministerial responsibility to Parliament and its direct election. Because defeats at corresponding draft laws he resigned in 1848 as a minister in 1849 and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. From February 1849 to August 1850, he represented the constituency of Almelo in the Second Chamber of the States General in the Dutch Parliament. When he again became Minister of Justice 1853-1856, he could peddle his laws entries yet successful.

1856 the honorary title of Minister of State, he was awarded.

As an editor he wrote for the Arnhemsche Courant and the Dutch opposition newspaper De Standaard. His brother Willem Boudewijn, also a deputy in the Second Chamber, broke up with him because of his oppositional stance to the king.