Peter Motzfeldt

Peter Motzfeldt ( born August 3, 1777 Orkdal, † April 1, 1854 ) was a Norwegian politician and the State Council. He was representative of the Artillery Corps during the national assembly on 17 May 1814 and Eidsvoll was the second Minister of Defence of Norway.

His parents were Ulrik Anton Motzfeldt Infanterikaptein (1738-1783) and his wife Birgitte Andrea Bull ( 1738-1815 ). On September 24, 1804 he married Erneste Birgitte Margrethe Stenersen (19 June 1789-13. January 1848 ), daughter of Byfogdes Bent Christian Stenersen ( 1748-1828 ) and his wife Margrete Birgitte Aarö ( 1768-1826 ).

Since his father died early, he was raised by his uncle Major Jacob Motzfeldt in Skaun. At 15, he came to the Artillery Academy in Copenhagen. In 1796 he was a second lieutenant and came to Fredrikstad. In 1802 he was stationed as a lieutenant in the Danish- Norwegian colony of St. Thomas. The island was occupied by the British in 1807 and Motzfeldt, who had meanwhile risen to captain, spent as a prisoner of war to Reading. After that, he was chief of artillery in Bergen. There he became a member of the intellectual club " Quodlibet ", which included William Frimann Koren Christie, Jonas Rein, both later deputies in the national assembly at Eidsvoll, and the poet - priest Lydians say, and did particularly distinguished with his humorous contributions.

Together with friends from " Quodlibet " Motzfeldt was delegated for mountains in the Imperial Assembly of Eidsvoll, where he played an important role as head of the independence party. He rejected any approach to Sweden as " ore - hereditary enemy " from, but nevertheless had a good relationship with its main opponents Count Wedel and Jacob Aall. As a member of the Constitution Committee, he was a guardian of the rights of the people and also contributed with his knowledge of the British constitution contribute to the design of the Constitution. With two votes he lost with his plan, and Odelsting Lagting as a bicameral shape. In the last week he was vice president of the national assembly, and he was at May 17, 1814 one of the three signatories of the Basic Law Decision. After returning to Bergen, he realized that it was not known where the development of things. The population believed under the call of Bishop Johan Nordahl Brun, to keep the Prince Christian Frederik as king of Norway, and had, when she learned the truth, no sympathy for the Peace of Moss, who had finished the Norwegian-Swedish War. Motzfeldt was then elected to the extraordinary Storting in October 1814, and he immediately realized that the union could not be prevented with Sweden. But he pushed through that the choice of the Swedish king will move to the Norwegian king to end the Union negotiations, and he became a member of the negotiating team. He succeeded it, that the Basic Law remained largely unchanged. Nevertheless, he had to vote against the Union in accordance with the imperative mandate of mountains.

When the king on a proposal from Count Wedel began the new government, Motzfeld was appointed State Council and initially appointed together with his colleague Christian Krohg in the Council of State Division in Stockholm. He was then released for 11 months to reorganize the customs budget in Bergen, but may in reality for health reasons. After that, he was at May 4, 1816 Chief of Army Department. In this capacity he had the law on the reduction of the armed forces to carry out of 1816, which led to internal tensions over the dismissal of soldiers and officers. Counter domestic opposition he had to resign due to financial and political reasons, the Union fortifications on the Swedish border. On the other hand, he succeeded in 1817, to impose a new army order against the resistance of the king. He used a good relationship with the Swedish governor Count Carl Carlsson Morner. He also took care of the internal trade between the two Union States. 1818 to 1819 he was again a member of the State Council department in Stockholm. As in 1822, the Court was established, he became its head and laid the foundation for accounting for the following period. But the most important was his determined opposition to anything that could be a Swedish interference in internal affairs of Norway. He admired Count Wedel very much and felt his farewell in 1822 as a great loss.

Motzfeldt remained until 1837 in the government. But his relationship with the king was so excited that this was about the son Ulrik Motzfeldt Anton in filling the Legal Department in the University of Christiania. He then took his leave. In 1840 he was the head of the Norwegian delegation to the first Union Committee. But this he soon left, partly for health reasons, partly because he doubted a portable result. After that, he took no further part in politics. But his descendants were influential in his sense also in Norwegian politics of the 19th century.

He received the Serafimerorden, Sweden's highest award.

Comments

The article is mainly based on the Norsk biografisk leksikon. Any other information will be shown separately.