Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|German diplomat and jurist (1830–1896)}}

|birth_date={{birth date|1830|12|09|df=y}}

|death_date={{death date and age|1896|05|01|1830|12|09|df=y}}

'''Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken''' (9December 1830 – 1 May 1896) was a German diplomat and jurist, born in [[Hamburg]], of which city his father was senator.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Geffcken, Friedrich Heinrich |volume=11 |page=549 |inline=1}}</ref>

After studying law at [[Bonn]], [[Göttingen]] and [[Berlin]], he was attached to the [[Hamburg|Hanseatic]] legation at [[Paris, France|Paris]] in 1854.<ref name=EB1911/> In 1856 he was appointed Hamburg's [[Chargé d'affaires]] to Prussia in Berlin, and then raised in 1859 to [[Minister-Resident]] in Berlin of the Hanseatic states (i.e. [[Bremen]] and [[Lübeck]] as well). In 1866 he was succeeded in that post by [[Friedrich Krüger (diplomat)|Friedrich Krüger]], a native of Lübeck, and moved to London to become the Hanseatic Minister-Resident there, replacing [[:de:Rudolf Schleiden|Rudolf Schleiden]]. However, with the coming of the [[North German Federation]], Hamburg lost control over its foreign affairs outside of Germany and his post in London was abolished in 1869.<ref name=ADB_Geffcken>Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken in General German Biography (ADB ), Vol. 55, publ. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 763–770 de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Geffcken,_Heinrich_(Jurist) Retrieved Feb 2018</ref>

Geffcken returned home and was appointed a [[Syndic]] of the [[Senate of Hamburg]], a position analogous to a government minister. The senior Syndic was [[Carl Merck]] who had charge of foreign affairs, while [[Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer|Kirchenpauer]] was Hamburg's representative at the new [[Bundesrat of Germany|Federal Council]] in Berlin. Geffcken's activities covered education and poor relief, and he also spoke on commercial, coin and tax matters. Wishing to turn more to literary endeavours, he resigned as Syndic spring 1872.<ref name=ADB_Geffcken/>

Appointed in 1872 professor of constitutional history and public law in the reorganized [[University of Strassburg]], Geffcken became in 1880 a member of the council of state of [[Alsace-Lorraine]]. Of too nervous a temperament to withstand the strain of the responsibilities of his position, he retired from public service in 1882, and lived henceforth mostly at [[Munich]], where he died, suffocated by an accidental escape of gas into his bedchamber, in 1896.<ref name=EB1911/>

Geffcken was a man of great erudition and wide knowledge and of remarkable legal acumen, and from these qualities proceeded the personal influence he possessed. He was moreover a dear writer and made his mark as an essayist. He was one of the most trusted advisers of the Prussian [[crown prince]], [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Frederick William]] (afterwards the emperor Frederick), and it was he (it is said, at [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]]'s suggestion) who drew up the draft of the New German federal constitution, which was submitted to the, crown prince's headquarters at [[Versailles (city)|Versailles]] during the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. It was also Geffcken who assisted in framing the famous document which the emperor Frederick, on his accession to the throne in 1888, addressed to the chancellor. This memorandum gave umbrage, and on the publication by Geffcken in the ''[[Deutsche Rundschau]]'' (Oct. 1888) of extracts from the emperor Frederick's private diary during the Franco-Prussian war, he was, at Bismarck's insistence, prosecuted for [[high treason]]. The Reichsgericht (supreme court), however, quashed the indictment, and Geffcken was liberated after being under arrest for three months.<ref name=EB1911/>

Publications of various kinds proceeded from his pen. Among these are ''Zur Geschichte des orientalischen Krieges 1853–1856'' (Berlin, 1881); ''Frankreich, Russland und der Dreibund'' (Berlin, 1894); and ''Staat und Kirche'' (1875), [[English language|English]] translation by E. F. Fairfax (1877). His writings on [[England|English]] history have been translated by S. J. Macmullan and published as ''The British Empire'', with essays on [[Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]], Palmerston, Beaconsfield, Gladstone, and reform of the [[House of Lords]] (1889).<ref name=EB1911/>

==Honors==

* Knight of the [[Legion of Honour]] (1863).<ref>The London gazette: the appointed organ for all announcements of the Executive, August 4, 1863 p. 3899 [https://books.google.com/books?id=XzxEAAAAcAAJ Google Books]</ref>

==External links==

* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hanseatic diplomats]]

[[Category:Diplomats from Hamburg]]

[[Category:SyndicsofHamburg]]

[[Category:Jurists from Hamburg]]

[[Category:Academic staff of the UniversityofStrasbourg]]

[[Category:Knights of the Legion of Honour]]