Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach
Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach ( born November 14, 1775 in Hainichen at Jena, † May 29, 1833 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German legal scholar. He is considered the founder of modern German criminal law theory and the theory of psychological coercion and is the creator of the Bavarian Criminal Code of 1813. Became famous Anselm von Feuerbach as upper guardian and patron of Kaspar Hauser, of which he in 1832 the book Kaspar Hauser. Example of a crime on the mental life of man published.
Life
Paul Johann Anselm Feuerbach was the first child of Sophie Sibylle Christina Krause ( born August 18, 1751 † September 20, 1797 ) and Johann Anselm Feuerbach (* February 19, 1755, † March 1, 1827 ) on 14 November 1775 in Hainichen at Jena born out of wedlock. After completion of the paternal law studies at the University of Giessen, the family moved to Frankfurt, where his father worked as a lawyer. Paul Johann Anselm attended high school here. From 1792, he studied at the University of Jena philosophy, then the rights. He has habilitation honorably with his investigation of the crime of high treason (Erfurt 1798) and then worked as a lecturer.
In 1801 he received at the University of Jena as an associate professor of the rights with which the entry was connected in the local Schoepp chair, and soon after the full professorship of feudalism.
In 1802 he followed the call of the Christian-Albrechts -University of Kiel. In 1804 he joined the University of Landshut, where he was commissioned to prepare a draft to a Bavarian Criminal Code. He was then 1805 - added as a clerk in the Privy Ministerialjustiz and Police to Munich in 1806 appointed a full member of that department, and in 1808 the Privy Council - at the behest of Prime Montgelas. Already in 1806 did Feuerbach by his design for the Abolition of Torture the first step to eliminate the abuses in the Bavarian Criminal Justice.
The most important improvement in the administration of justice reasoned that he designed new Penal Code for the Kingdom of Bavaria (Munich 1813). It received royal assent after some changes on May 16, 1813 was based in Saxony -Weimar- Eisenach, Württemberg and other States in the processing of new country codes, adopted in Oldenburg as a law book and translated into Swedish. For Bayern this piece of legislation brought a humanization of criminal practice and the formal abolition of torture.
At the same Feuerbach since 1807 worked on royal command the Napoleonic Code in a civil code for Bavaria to which partly appeared in 1808 and 1809 in print, but not inkrafttrat.
The editors assigned him in 1812 the Codex Maximilianeus he procured jointly with Adam of Aretino and the Council of State Nicholas Thaddeus patron.
In the restoration of German independence Feuerbach expressed his National sense by several fonts, including through the German Freedom and German peoples representation by estates (Leipzig 1814).
In 1814 he was promoted to the second President of the Court of Appeal in Bamberg, in 1817 the first president of the Court of Appeals for the Rezatkreis in Ansbach and 1821 to the real State Council, after he had been knighted in 1813.
On May 29, 1833 by Anselm Feuerbach died in Frankfurt am Main on the effects of a stroke. His grave is located in the Frankfurt 's main cemetery.
From Feuerbach left five sons who have all distinguished by scientific activity in various fields, and three daughters:
- Joseph Anselm Feuerbach (1798-1851), archaeologist and philologist; whose son was the painter Anselm Feuerbach (1829-1880)
- Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach (1800-1834), mathematician
- Eduard August Feuerbach (1803-1843), legal scholar
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804-1872), philosopher and anthropologist
- Heinrich Friedrich Feuerbach (1806-1880), philologist and philosopher
- Rebecca Magdalene, called Helene, Feuerbach, divorced from Dobeneck (1808-1891)
- Leonore Feuerbach (1809-1885)
- Elise Feuerbach (1813-1883)
Work
Feuerbach's first literary attempts, philosophical treatises, are included in Meissner's magazine Apollo and Niethammer the philosophical journal of 1795. His first independent work: About the only possible arguments against the existence and validity of the natural rights ( Leipzig, Gera 1795) was directed against Rehberg.
Even greater acclaim found his works: criticism of the natural law ( Altona 1796); Anti- Hobbes, or beyond the limits of the civil power and the right of coercion of subjects against their overlords (casting 1798); Revision of the principles and basic concepts of positive embarrassing law ( 1799 Erfurt and Chemnitz in 1800, 2 Tle ), in which he, as in the treatise On the punishment as backup against future insults of the criminal (ibid., 1799) and in with him Karl Ludwig Wilhelm von Grolman and Ludwig Harscher of Almendingen issued library for the embarrassing jurisprudence and law Science ( Göttingen in 1800, casting 1803, vol 2 and 3), in contrast to Kant's theory of punishment as a purpose of punishment called deterrence.
In his textbook of general and applicable in Germany embarrassing law ( casting 1801) Feuerbach argued that not only the execution of a sentence, but already the threat of punishment deters before committing offenses ( deterrence theory or Feuerbach's theory). His postulate of nulla poena sine lege ( " no punishment without law "), which substantiated an enlightening requirement of Cesare Beccaria, was one of the core elements of the rule of law. This means:
- Laws must be generally known.
- Facts must be clear.
- The wrong consequences ( punishment ) must be fixed from the outset.
His Zivilistischen tests ( Giessen 1803, Part 1) followed by a detailed critique of the draft Kleinschrodschen an embarrassing Code of the Palatinate Bavaria States ( Giessen 1804, 3 volumes).
Through his collection Strange criminal law cases ( Giessen in 1808 and 1811, 2 volumes, casting 18393 ) He first described the psychological implications of such cases.
Smaller writings of this period are: About philosophy and empiricism in its relation to positive law ( Landshut, 1804); View of the German Law ( Munich 1810); Themis, or contributions to legislation ( Landshut, 1812).
In his reflections on the juries ( Landshut, 1813), the declaration joined about my supposed amended in respect of the conviction by jury ( Jena 1819) and over the public and oral court negotiations (casting 1821). 1825 appeared in casting the second volume: About the court system and the judicial process in France.
Later he published nor acts Moderate representation strange crimes (casting 1828-1829, 2 volumes, Frankfurt am Main 18493 ) and Small Fonts mixed content (Nuremberg, 1833, 2 divisions).
Kaspar Hauser, example of a crime on the mental life of man ( Ansbach 1832): Finally, the psychological study appeared.
In his leisure hours he worked on a metric translation and a commentary of the poem Gita Govinda Indian.
His son Ludwig Feuerbach wrote his biography: the life and work of A. von Feuerbach (Leipzig 1852, 2 vols ).