Karl Ludwig von Haller

Karl ( also: Carl ) Ludwig von Haller ( born August 1, 1768 in Bern, † May 20 1854 in Solothurn ) was a Swiss constitutional lawyer, politician, journalist and economist in Bern.

Karl Ludwig von Haller became known through his work restoration of political science ( 1816-1834 ). He calls in the period after the Congress of Vienna of 1815, which was named after his book Restoration period, the resurgence of the princely power and their legitimacy and thus became the representative of the extreme conservatism.

Life

Haller came from a long-established and reputable Bernese patrician family, he was the grandson of Albrecht von Haller ( 1708-1777 ). 1786, he joined the Civil Service of the Canton of Bern, for which he was also diplomatically active soon. A little later he worked also as a journalist and writer; In 1798 he edited after the French invasion of Switzerland for one year the opposition Helvetic annals. 1799 Haller fled to southern Germany and Austria, where he was a member of the Registry of the Archduke Charles of Austria -Teschen ( 1771-1847 ) in Vienna.

In 1806 he returned to Bern and was due to its publications, although he had never attended a university, appointed at the local Academy ( the predecessor of the University of Bern ) as professor of general constitutional law, patriotic history and Kameralistik. 1814 gave Haller professor and devoted himself after his election to the Grand Council of the City of Bern the elaboration of his theoretical magnum opus " restoration of state science or theory of natural- social state of the chimera of artificially bourgeois entgegengesezt ", the six-volume appeared 1816-1834. In October 1820 Haller secretly converted to Catholicism, in which his friend, the Bavarian ambassador Johann Franz Anton, played a crucial role of Olry ( 1769-1863 ). The change of faith but was soon known and he defended himself in 1821 in a widely-read brochure. In the same year went Haller, whose position in the reformed Bern had become untenable, to Paris, where he worked as a publicist of the ultra - royalist press. In 1824 he was " Publiciste attaché au Ministère of Foreign Affairs ." Appointed in May 1830 a professor at the École des Chartes, he had after the July Revolution left the country, returned back to Switzerland and went to live in Solothurn, where he was in 1833 elected to the Grand Council and was one of the leaders of the ultramontane party. Until his death, he was a conservative journalist and writer.

Work

Haller's political thinking, which he developed with many repetitions and at times tiring fussiness in his principal work, and in many smaller fonts, passes from the basic theory that the " state of nature" had not been eliminated among the people by a domination or social contract, but unabated was continuing and all political conditions determine directly. All legal relationships are Haller by private law; a therefrom abhebendes state law can not exist. The " natural law " the rule of the strong over the weak is willed by God, every ruler is God's vicegerent and rule by divine right. Nevertheless, the right of the ruler is not an absolute right: The stronger is obliged by the law of God for the support and protection of the weak and also do not own the right to violate the divine morality and value system. Therefore, the often levied against Haller accusation that he had a " blatant power naturalism " paved the way inaccurate. Against any ruler who violates the laws of God, have the subject, as Haller's doctrine, a right of resistance.

Of importance for the further development of German conservatism was Haller's doctrine of the patrimonial state. After that, each state emerges from the family: Because only the independent heads of families could be free land owners, developed from their rule with the time the monarchy as " in accordance with nature " form of government. In the other volumes of his major work Haller developed a typology of the different genera State; it is different here with the patrimonial state, the military states, the priests States, making the pure theocracy is meant, as well as the Republic. Haller's theory has been rejected primarily due to his failure to recognize the fact of the modern state of most contemporary political thinkers and jurists as soon as it begins obsolete; to his sharpest critics counted Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel ( 1770-1831 ). On the other hand, came from Haller strong and important suggestions on almost all the leading conservative politicians, thinkers and writers of his era, such as on Carl Ernst Jarcke, Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach and Carl Wilhelm von Lancizolle. He had a variety of contacts and connections throughout Europe and can be viewed in a sense as the center of the "International of the ultras ' in the era of restoration 1815-1848.

Works (selection)

• Manual of the general state customer, Winterthur, 1808.
• Political religion or biblical teaching on the States, Winterthur, 1811.
• Restoration of state science or theory of natural- social state of the chimera of artificially bourgeois entgegengesezt, 6 volumes (in two editions), Winterthur, 1817-1834.
• Lettre de M. Charles -Louis de Haller, membre du conseil souverain de Berne, à sa famille, pour lui déclarer son retour à l' église catholique, apostolique et romaine [ dt, writing of Mr. Carl Ludwig von Haller to his family; Your order to open his conversion to the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church ], Paris / Lyon, 1821.
• Freymaurerey and their impact on Switzerland, Schaffhausen: Hurter, 1840.