Joseph von Sonnenfels

Joseph Freiherr von Sonnenfelsgasse (* 1732/1733 in Mikulov, Moravia, † April 25, 1817 in Vienna) was an Austrian writer of the Enlightenment and Josephinism, administrative reformer and professor of political science.

Life

Joseph's of Sun Rock ' father Lipman Perlin (1705-1768), a son of the country Rabbi of Brandenburg was, first as a translator and teacher of oriental languages ​​in Mikulov been active. 1734 he went to Vienna and converted the following year with his three sons to Catholicism. He took the name of Alois Wienner and was knighted in 1746 for Baron Sun Rock.

Joseph of Sun Rock learned Hebrew from his father and then attended the School of Piaristen in his native city, initially with the intention of becoming a clergyman. Later he decided on a career as a soldier and served from 1749 to 1754 in the German champion regiment in Klagenfurt and Vienna. After his release he studied from 1754 to 1756 in Vienna Law and worked as an assistant to Count Hartig, Councillor of the Supreme Judicial office.

At the same time undertook Sonnenfelsgasse first literary attempts and first made her ( futile ) hopes of a professorship for German Literature at the University of Vienna. Appointed in 1763 as Professor of " Polizey and Kameralwissenschaft " the University of Vienna, Sun Rock unfolded a rich journalistic work in the spirit of the Enlightenment, which also touched on literary concerns in part. So the young scholar wrote weeklies ( The Man Without prejudice, 1765-1767 ) and tried through his letters on the Viennese stage (Vienna 1768, 4 volumes) to contribute to the reform of the Viennese theater life, whose artistic and moral condition ( dominance of impromptu comedy in form of obscene Hanswurstiade ) he criticized as degenerate. On the stage he was ridiculed for it. Although the imperial theater censorship in 1790 had largely political reasons, wore sun rock ' criticism with their introduction at.

Meritorious and successful Sonnenfels showed in his contributions to the judicial and administrative reform. After the reconnaissance had decided in his treatise On the abolition of torture ( Zurich 1775) opposed the torture, this was actually abolished in early January 1776 in the whole of Austria - a pioneer for Europe. In the same year 1776 reformed Sun Rock as director of the Institute Illumination public lighting of the city of Vienna with oil lamps. Later he became of Maria Theresa to the council, appointed to the real Councilor at the Secret Bohemian and Austrian chancellery and as an associate judge of the study and censorship Commission, and in 1810 as President of the K. k Academy of Fine Arts, 1779.

Sun Rock was a member of the Masonic lodges Baldwin in Leipzig and later True Harmony in Vienna. In 1784 he was Grand Master of the Distriktloge to charitable concord. He was also a member of the Viennese Illuminati by Ignaz von Born, and is considered the head of Vienna.

Among his most important friend counted Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonnenfelsgasse his Piano Sonata in D major, Op 28 dedicated, which appeared in 1802 in the print.

Relationship with the dialect

Joseph of Sun Rock was a strong advocate of the new High German written language, as it had been established by Johann Christoph Gottsched 1748, and condemned the use of dialect in both the official and the private sector. So he complained about in 1784 with respect to the Wiener that "the best dressed lady of high society so vulgar talk like their kitchen maid ".

Only in 1774 was in the Austrian crown lands after a heavy academic dispute involving, among other things Gottsched on one side and Johann had Balthasar Antesperg and Johann Sigismund Popovich participated on the other side, with the general compulsory education was the political decision to launch the rather Prussian Gottsched ' between high German fallen. Antesperg and Popovich had it put forward not only practical, but also enlightening arguments - for example, that the written language should be as close as possible to the spoken language in order to ensure better access to education. The attempt on the part of the Jesuits before even been made to establish a southern German writing language that was rejected as a Catholic Jesuit German of Protestant countries. This was probably also the reason why Maria Theresa but in the end decided against the " Kayserliche grammar " of a tutor of her son, Johann Balthasar Antesperg, and the proposal Gottscheds. 1780 Gottsched'sche German was finally introduced in public administration as a mandatory standard under Emperor Joseph II.

But that was as close as possible to the people the Enlightenment principle, which read and write and thus the formation, have been abandoned, at least for Austria and Bavaria against a political argument. In this respect, the enlightened motives Joseph of Sun Rock ' in this context can doubt, because from his hometown Nikolsburg he must have the "common Austrian jargon " well understood, both the Bavarian dialect of Lower Austria and the Yiddish. Even with his stance against the impromptu theater he worked with it to prevent this is mainly based on dialect form of art.

Unlike Gottsched but Sonnenfelsgasse advocated a more pragmatic and less purist approach and thus has certain foundations for an independent Austrian officials and set the language of administration, which started some elements from the vocabulary and the grammar of the languages ​​spoken in Austria Bavarian dialects. On the other hand, was just this " verösterreichischte " German again a language policy instrument that was later imposed on non- German-speaking subjects of the Habsburg Empire and thus led to tensions.

Relationship to Judaism

Joseph of Sun Rock came from a Moravian Jewish family. His father had temporarily lived in the Jewish community of Eisenstadt before with his three sons in 1735 converted to Catholicism, and was ennobled in 1746 as Baron of Sun Rock.

As a result, Joseph of Sonnenfelsgasse already felt by family page neither Jewish traditions nor the Yiddish language connected, as he might have perhaps experienced as a child still in the Moravian Mikulov. The Moravian and Bohemian Jews, however, also held during the wars of Maria Theresa against Prussia contact with their co-religionists in the Prussian Kingdom, such as Moses Mendelssohn, causing her to become suspicious subjects in Vienna. In the course of further military conflict in 1774 Prussian troops marched into Bohemia and besieged Prague. The Bohemian Jews came out in suspicion of conspiring with the Prussians, and were therefore driven by Maria Theresa of Bohemia. 1778, this measure was withdrawn at the insistence of her advisors, especially since this tax revenues had declined. Whether and to what extent Joseph of Sun Rock has been one of these consultants, but is not known.

As a Freemason and a university teacher and with his designs for the State Reform Joseph of Sun Rock has undoubtedly contributed to the emancipation of the Jews in Austria. Nevertheless, the Jews were equal footing with other subjects not under Maria Theresa still under Joseph II. Some historians call the Austrian Enlightenment even pedantic and not at all libertarian, but driven by a well-organized police force. That Sonnenfelsgasse the " Staatspolizey " rose to the top supervisory body in the state and not just done under Metternich, is seen both in the perspective of the Jewish posterity as well as by an enlightened circles as a dark spot of his biography. One of his cameral principles was also quite the sense of absolutism: Polizey, action and finance.

Honors

In 1862 in Vienna Inner City (1st district) was named Sonnenfelsgasse after him. The street name was changed to Johann- Sebastian -Bach -Gasse 1938, 1945, the designation was reversed.

In his memory was erected on the Elisabeth Bridge in Vienna a statue of Hanns Gasser, which was erected after the demolition of the bridge in the town square. During the time of National Socialism, it was removed due to Sun Rock ' Jewish origin.

The place with the roundabout at the Karl- Franzens- University of Graz in the district Geidorf was named Sun Rock Place. Furthermore, there was until 1938 in Graz, in the district of Gries a Sonnenfelsgasse but which has been renamed the annexation of Austria for the Jewish ancestry of Sun Rock.

Student

• Joseph Ignatius Buček, Czech University professor and author of the national economy works

Works

• Mr. Joseph of Sun Rock ... Introduction Speech In His academic lectures, Vienna 1763 ( digitized )
• Principles of Polizey, action and financial - to the guidelines of political studies, 3 parts, 1769-76
• About the love of the fatherland. Kurzböck, Vienna 1771, 44 pp. ( digitized )
• Letters on the Viennese stage. ( Originated from 1767 to 1769. ) Edited by Hilde Haider- Pregler. Academic Printing and Publishing Company, Graz 1988. ( = Reprint of Konesen, Vienna 1884. )
• Essay on the principles of style in private and public business 2 vols Gerold, Vienna 1781
• Collected Writings. 10 volumes. Baumeister, Vienna 1783-1787
• About the business style. The first baseline for aspiring austrian Kanzleybeamten. Vienna 1784th From 1787 strong second revised edition.
• Sleep Rock: Mr. .. by wholesalers in Regensburg .... 1783 ( digitized )