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FEUERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM, RITTER...

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 304 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FEUERBACH, See also:PAUL JOHANN See also:ANSELM, See also:RITTER VON (1775-1833) , See also:German jurist and writer on criminal See also:law, was See also:born at See also:Hainichen near See also:Jena on the 14th of See also:November 1975. He received his See also:early See also:education at See also:Frankfort on See also:Main, whither his See also:family had removed soon after his See also:birth. At the See also:age of sixteen, however, he ran away from See also:home, and, going to Jena, was helped by relations there to study at the university. In spite of poor See also:health and the most desperate poverty, he made rapid progress. He attended the lectures of Karl Leonhard See also:Reinhold and Gottlieb See also:Hufeland, and soon published some See also:literary essays of more than See also:ordinary merit. In 1795 he took the degree of See also:doctor in See also:philosophy, and in the same See also:year, though he only possessed 150 thalers (f,22: tos.), he married. It was this step which led him to success and fame, by forcing him to turn from his favourite studies of philosophy and See also:history to that of law, which was repugnant to him, but which offered a prospect of more rapid See also:advancement. His success in this new and uncongenial See also:sphere was soon assured. In 1796 he published Kritik See also:des natlirlichen Rechts als Propddeutik zu einer Wissenschaft der natiirlichen Rechte, which was followed, in 1798, by See also:Anti-See also:Hobbes, See also:oder caber See also:die Grenzen der burgerlichen Gewalt, a dissertation on the limits of the See also:civil See also:power and the right of resistance on the See also:part of subjects against their rulers, and by Philosophische, juristische Untersuchungen fiber das Verbreclzen des Hochverraths. In 1799 he obtained the degree of doctor of See also:laws. Feuerbach, as the founder of a new theory of penal law, the so-called " psychological-coercive or intimidation theory," occupied a prominent See also:place in the history of criminal See also:science. His views, which he first made known in his Revision der Grundsdtze and Grundbegriffe des positiven peinlichen Rechts (1799), were further elucidated and expounded in the Bibliothek See also:fur die peinliche Rechlswissenschaft (1800-r8o,), an encyclopaedic See also:work produced in See also:conjunction with Karl L.

W. G. See also:

Grolmann and See also:Ludwig Harscher von Almendingen, and in his famous Lehrbuch des gemeinen in Deutschland geltenden peinlichen Rechts (18o1). These See also:works were a powerful protest against vindictive See also:punishment, and did much towards the See also:reformation of the German criminal law. The Carolina (the penal See also:code of the See also:emperor See also:Charles V.) had See also:long since ceased to be respected. What in 1532 was an inestimable blessing, as a check upon the arbitrariness and violence of the effete German See also:procedure, had in the course of See also:time outlived its usefulness and become a source of evils similar to those it was enacted to combat. It availed nothing that, at the commencement of the 18th See also:century, a freer and more scientific spirit had been breathed into See also:Roman law; it failed to reach the criminal law. The See also:administration of See also:justice was, before Feuerbach's time, especially distinguished by two characteristics: the superiority of the See also:judge to all law, and the blending of the judicial and executive offices, with the result that the individual was practically at the See also:mercy of his prosecutors. This See also:state of things Feuerbach set himself to reform, and using as his See also:chief weapon the Revision der Grundbegriffe above referred to, was successful in his task. His achievement in the struggle may be summed up as: nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege (no wrong and no punishment without a remedy). In 1801 Feuerbach was appointed extra-ordinary See also:professor of law without See also:salary, at the university of Jena, and in the following year accepted a See also:chair at See also:Kiel, where he remained two years. In 1804 he removed to the university of See also:Landshut; but on being commanded by See also:King.

See also:

Maximilian See also:Joseph to draft a penal code for See also:Bavaria (Strafgesetzbuch fur das Konigreich Bayern) , he removed in 1805 to See also:Munich, where he was given a high See also:appointment in the See also:ministry of justice and was ennobled in 18o8. Meanwhile the See also:practical reform of penal legislation in Bavaria was begun under his See also:influence in 18o6 by the abolition of See also:torture. In 18o8 appeared the first See also:volume of his Merkwurdige Criminalfdlle, completed in 1811—a work of deep See also:interest for its application of psychological considerations to cases of See also:crime, and intended to illustrate the inevitable imperfection of human laws in their application to individuals. In his Betrachtungen caber das Geschworenengericht (1811) Feuerbach declared against trial by See also:jury, maintaining that the See also:verdict of a jury was not adequate legal See also:proof of a crime. Much controversy was aroused on the subject, and the author's view was subsequently to some extent modified. The result of his labours was promulgated in 1813 as the Bavarian penal code. The influence of this code, the embodiment of Feuerbach's enlightened views, was immense. It was at once made the basis for new codes in See also:Wurttemberg and See also:Saxe-See also:Weimar; it was adopted in its entirety in the See also:grand-duchy of See also:Oldenburg; and it was translated into See also:Swedish by See also:order of the king. Several of the Swiss cantons reformed their codes in conformity with it. Feuerbach had also undertaken to prepare a civil code for Bavaria, to be founded on the Code See also:Napoleon. This was afterwards set aside, and the Codex Maximilianus adopted as a basis. But the project did not become law.

During the See also:

war of liberation (1813-1814) Feuerbach showed himself an ardent patriot, and published several See also:political brochures which, from the writer's position, had almost the See also:weight of state manifestoes. One of these is ent_ticd Uber deutsche Freiheit and Vertrel sng deutsche Volker durch Landstdnde (1814). In 1814 Feuerbach was appointed second presi- dent of the See also:court of See also:appeal at See also:Bamberg, and three years later he became first See also:president of the court of appeal at Anspach. In 1821 he was deputed by the See also:government to visit See also:France, See also:Belgium, and the See also:Rhine provinces for the purpose of investigating their juridical institutions. As the See also:fruit of this visit, he published his See also:treatises Betrachtungen fiber Of'entlichkeit and Miindigkeit der Gerechtigkeitspflege (1$21) and Uber die Gerichtsverfassung and das gerichtliche Verfahren Frankreichs (1825). In these he pleaded unconditionally for publicity in all legal proceedings. In his later years. he took a deep interest in the See also:fate of the See also:strange foundling Kaspar See also:Hauser (q.v.), which had excited so much . See also:attention in See also:Europe; and he was the first to publish a See also:critical See also:summary of the ascertained facts, under the See also:title of Kaspar Hauser, ein )3eispiel eines Verbrechens am Seelenleben (1832). Shortly before his See also:death appeared a collection of his Kleine Schriften (1833). Feuerbach, still in the full enjoyment of his intellectual See also:powers, died suddenly at Frankfort, while on his way to the See also:baths of See also:Schwalbach, on the 29th of May 1833. In 1853 was published the Leben and Wirken Ans. von Feuerbachs, 2 vols., consisting of a. selection of his letters and See also:journals, with occasional notes by his See also:fourth son Ludwig, the distinguished philosopher. See also, for an estimate of Feuerbach's See also:life and work, Marquardtsen, in Allgemeine deutsche Biographic, vol. vi.; and an " in memoriam " See also:notice in Die allgemeine Zeitung (See also:Augsburg), 15th Nov. 1875, by Professor Dr Karl Binding of See also:Leipzig University.

End of Article: FEUERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM, RITTER VON (1775-1833)

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