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GNEIST, HEINRICH RUDOLF HERMANN FRIED...

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 151 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GNEIST, HEINRICH See also:RUDOLF See also:HERMANN See also:FRIEDRICH VON (1816-1895) , See also:German jurist and politician, was See also:born at See also:Berlin on the 13th of See also:August 1816, the son of a See also:judge attached to the " Kammergericht " (See also:court of See also:appeal) in that See also:city. After receiving his school See also:education at the gymnasium at See also:Eisleben in Prussian See also:Saxony, he entered the university of Berlin in 1833 as a student of See also:jurisprudence, and became a See also:pupil of the famous See also:Roman See also:law teacher von See also:Savigny. Proceeding to the degree of See also:doctor See also:juris in 1838, See also:young Gneist immediately established himself as a Privatdozent in the See also:faculty of law. He had, however, already chosen the judicial See also:branch of the legal profession as a career, and having while yet a student acted as Auscultator, was admitted See also:Assessor in 1841. He soon found leisure and opportunity to fulfil a much-cherished wish, and spent the next few years on a lengthened tour in See also:Italy, See also:France and See also:England. He utilized his Wanderjahre for the purposes of See also:comparative study, and on his return in 1844 was appointed extraordinary See also:professor of Roman law in Berlin, university, and thus began a professorial connexion which ended only with his See also:death. The first-fruits of his activity as a teacher were seen in his brilliant See also:work, See also:Die formellen Vertrage See also:des heutigen romischen Obligationen-Rechtes (Berlin, 1845). Pari passe with his See also:academic labours he continued his judicial career, and became in due course successively assistant judge of ' the See also:superior court and of the supreme tribunal. But ,to a mind constituted such as his, the want of See also:elasticity in the See also:procedure of the courts was galling. " Brought up," he tells, in the See also:preface to his Englische Verfassungsgeschichte, " in the laborious and rigid school of Prussian See also:judges, at a See also:time when the See also:duty;of formulating the See also:matter in litigation was entailed upon the judge who personally conducted the pleadings, I became acquainted both with the advantages possessed by the Pruslsian See also:bureau See also:system as also with its weak points." Feeling the See also:necessity for fundamental reforms in legal procedure, he published, in 1849, his Trial by See also:Jury, in which, after pointing out that the origin of that institution was See also:common to both See also:Germany and England, and showing in a masterly way the benefits which had accrued to the latter See also:country through its more extended application, he pleaded for its freer See also:admission in the tribunals of his own country. The See also:period of " See also:storm and stress " in 1848 afforded Gneist an opportunity for which he had yearned, and he threw himself with ardour into the constitutional struggles of See also:Prussia. Al-though his candidature for See also:election to the See also:National See also:Assembly of that See also:year was unsuccessful, he See also:felt that " the die was See also:cast," and deciding for a See also:political career, retired in 185o from his judicial position.

Entering the Yanks of the National Liberal party, he began both in See also:

writing and speeches actively to See also:champion their cause, now busying himself pre-eminently with the study of constitutional law and See also:history. In 1853 appeared his Adel and Ritterschaft in England, and in 1857 the Geschichte and heutige Gestalt der Antler in England, a pamphlet primarily written to combat the Prussian abuses of See also:administration, but for which the author also claimed that it had not been without its effect in modifying certain views that had until then ruled in England itself. In 1858 Gneist was appointed See also:ordinary professor of Roman law, and in the same year commenced his See also:parliamentary career by his election for See also:Stettin to the Abgeordnetenhaus (See also:House of Deputies) of the Prussian Landtag, in which assembly he sat thenceforward uninterruptedly until 1893. In every country where the lowest and See also:oldest rocks have come to the See also:surface and been exposed by the See also:long.continued See also:action of denudation in stripping away the overlying formations, gneisses are found in See also:great abundance and of many different kinds. They are in fact the typical rocks of the Archean (Lewisian, Laurentian, &c.) See also:series. In the See also:Alps, Harz, See also:Scotland, See also:Norway and See also:Sweden, See also:Canada, See also:South See also:America, See also:Peninsular See also:India, Himalayas (to mention only a few localities) they occupy wide areas and exhibit a See also:rich diversity of types. From this it has been inferred that they are of great See also:geological See also:age, and in fact this can be definitely proved in many cases, for the oldest known fossiliferous formations may be seen to See also:rest unconformably cn these gneisses and are made up of their debris. It was for a long time believed that they represented the See also:primitive crust of the See also:earth, and while this is no longer generally taught there are still geologists who hold that these gneisses are necessarily of pre-See also:Cambrian age. Others, while admitting the See also:general truth of this See also:hypothesis, consider that there are localities in which typical gneisses can be shown to penetrate into rocks which may be as See also:recent as the See also:Tertiary period, or to pass into these rocks so gradually and in such a way as to make it certain that the gneisses are merely altered states of comparatively recent sedimentary or igneous rocks. Much controversy has arisen on these points; but this is certain, that gneisses are far the most common among Archean rocks, and where their age is not known the presumption is strong that they are at least pre-Cambrian. Many gneisses are undoubtedly sedimentary rocks that have been brought to their See also:present See also:state by such agents of See also:metamorphism as See also:heat, See also:movement, crushing and recrystallization. This may be demonstrated partly by their mode of occurrence: they accompany limestones, graphitic See also:schists, quartzites and other rocks of sedimentary type; some of them where least altered may even show remains of bedding or of See also:original pebbly See also:character (See also:conglomerate gneisses).

More conclusive, however, is the chemical See also:

composition of these rocks, which often is such as no igneous masses possess, but resembles that of many impure argillaceous sediments. These sedimentary gneisses (or paragneisses, as they are often called) are often rich in See also:biotite and See also:garnet and may contain kyanite and See also:sillimanite,orlessfrequently See also:calcite. Some of them, however, are rich in See also:felspar and See also:quartz, with See also:muscovite and biotite; others may even contain See also:hornblende and See also:augite, and all these may See also:bear so See also:close a resemblance to gneisses of igneous origin that by no single character, chemical or mineralogical, can their original nature be definitely established. In these cases, however, a careful study of the relations of the See also:rock in the See also:field and of the different types which occur together will generally See also:lead to some See also:positive conclusion. Other gneisses are igneous (orthogneisses). These have very much the same composition as See also:acid igneous rocks such as See also:granite, See also:aplite, hornblende granite, er intermediate rocks such as See also:syenite and quartz See also:diorite. Many of these orthogneisses are not equally well foliated throughout, but are massive or granitoid in places. They are some-times subdivided into granite See also:gneiss, diorite gneiss, syenite gneiss and so on. The sedimentary schists into which these rocks have been intruded may show contact alteration by the development of such minerals as cordierite, See also:andalusite and sillimanite. In many of these orthogneisses the foliation is primitive, being an original character of the rock which was produced either by fluxion movements in a highly viscous, semi-solid See also:mass injected at great pressure into the surrounding strata, or by folding stresses acting immediately after consolidation. That the foliation in other orthogneisses is subsequent or superinduced, having been occasioned by pressure and deformation of the solid mass long after it had consolidated and cooled, admits of no doubt, but it is very difficult to establish criteria by which these types may be differentiated. Those gneisses in which the minerals have been crushed and broken by fluxion or injection movements have been called protoclastic, while those which have . attained their gneissose state by crushing long after consolidation are distinguished as cataclastic.

There are also.many examples of gneisses of mixed or synthetic origin. They may be metamorphosed sediments (granulites and schists) into which See also:

tongues and thin See also:veins of granitic character have been intruded, following the more or less parallel foliation planes already present in the country rock. These veinlets produce that See also:alternation in See also:mineral composition and banded structure which are essential in gneisses. This intermixture of igneous and sedimentary material may take See also:place on the finest See also:scale and in the most intricate manner. Often there has been resorption of the older rocks, whether sedimentary or igneous, by those which have invaded them, and movement has gone on. both during injection and at a later period, so that the whole complex becomes amalgamated Joining the See also:Left, he at once became one of its leading spokesmen. make her See also:free institutions, in which he found his ideal, the common heritage of the two great nations of the See also:Teutonic See also:race. Gneist was a prolific writer, especially on the subject he had made peculiarly his own, that of constitutional law and history, and among his See also:works, other than those above named, may be mentioned the following: See also:Budget and Gesetz nach dem constitutionellen Staatsrecht Englands (Berlin, 1867) ; Freie Advocatur (ib., 1867) ; Der Rechtssteat (ib., 1872, and 2nd edition, 1879); Zur Verwaltungsreform in Preussen (See also:Leipzig, 188o) ; Das englische Parlament (Berlin, 1886) ; in See also:English See also:translation, The English See also:Parliament (See also:London, 1886; 3rd edition, 1889) ; Die Militar-Vorlage von 1892 and der preussische Verfassungsconflikt von 1862 bis 1866 (Berlin, 1893) ; Die nationale Rechtsidee von den Standen and das preussische Dreiklassenwahlsystem (ib., 1895) ; Die verfassungsmassige Stellung des preussischen Gesamtministeriums (ib., 1895). See O. Gierke, See also:Rudolph von Gneist, Gedachtnisrede (Berlin, 1895), an In Memoriam address delivered in Berlin. (P. A. A.) His See also:chief oratorical thump & are associated with the See also:early period of his membership of the House; two noteworthy occasions being his violent attack (See also:September 1862) upon the See also:government budget in connexion with the reorganization of the Prussian See also:army, and his See also:defence (1864) of the See also:Polish chiefs of the (then) See also:grand-duchy of See also:Posen, who were accused of high See also:treason. In 1857–1863 was published Das heutige englische Verfassungsund Verwaltungsrecht, a work which, contrasting English and German constitutional law and administration, aimed at exercising political pressure upon the government of the See also:day.

In 1868 Gneist became a member of the See also:

North German parliament, and acted as a member of the See also:commission for organizing the federal army, and also of that for the See also:settlement of ecclesiastical controversial questions. On the See also:establishment of German unity his See also:mandate was renewed for the Reichstag, and in this he sat, an active and prominent member of the National Liberal party, until 1884. In the Kulturkampf he sided with the government against the attacks of the Clericals, whom he bitterly denounced, and whose implacable enemy he ever showed himself. In 1879, together with his colleague, von Hanel, he violently attacked the See also:motion for the See also:prosecution of certain Socialist members, which as a result of the vigour of his opposition was almost unanimously rejected. He was parliamentary reporter for the committees on all great See also:financial and administrative questions, and his profound acquaintance with constitutional law caused his See also:advice to be frequently sought, not only in his own but also in other countries. In Prussia he largely influenced legislation, the reform of the judicial and penal systems and the new constitution of the Evangelical See also:Church being largely his work. He was also consulted by the See also:Japanese government when a constitution was being introduced into that country. In 1875 he was appointed a member of the supreme administrative court (Oberverwaltungsgericht) of Prussia, but only held See also:office for two years. In •1882 was published his Englische Verfassungsgeschichte (trans. History of the English Constitution, London, 1886), which may perhaps be described as his magnum See also:opus. It placed the author at once on the level of such writers on English constitutional history as See also:Hallam and See also:Stubbs, and supplied English literature with a See also:text-See also:book almost unrivalled in point of See also:historical See also:research. In 1888 one of the first acts of the See also:ill-fated See also:emperor See also:Frederick III., who had always, as See also:crown See also:prince, shown great admiration for him, was to ennoble Gneist, and attach him as instructor in constitutional law to his son, the emperor See also:William II., a See also:charge of which he worthily acquitted himself.

The last years of his See also:

life were full of See also:energy, and, in the See also:possession of all his faculties, he continued his wonted academic labours until a See also:short time before his death, which occurred at Berlin on the 22nd of See also:July 1895. As a politician, Gneist's career cannot perhaps be said to have been entirely successful. In a country where parliamentary institutions are the living exponents of the popular will he might have risen to a foremost position in the state; as it was, the party to which he allied himself could never See also:hope to become more than what it remained, a parliamentary See also:faction, and the See also:influence it for a time wielded in the counsels of the state waned as soon as the Social-Democratic party See also:grew to be a force to be reckoned with. It is as a writer and a teacher that Gneist is best known to fame. He was a jurist of a See also:special type. To him law was not See also:mere theory, but living force; and this conception of its See also:power animates all his schemes of See also:practical reform. As a teacher he exercised a magnetic influence, not only by See also:reason of the clearness and cogency of his exposition, but also because of the success with which he See also:developed the talents and guided the aspirations of his pupils. He was a See also:man of See also:noble bearing,' religious, and imbued with a stern sense of duty. He was proud of being a " Preussischer See also:Junker " (a member of the Prussian squirearchy), and throughout his writings, despite their liberal tendencies, may be perceived the See also:loyalty and See also:affection with which he clung to monarchical institutions.

End of Article: GNEIST, HEINRICH RUDOLF HERMANN FRIEDRICH VON (1816-1895)

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