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{{Short description|German jurist and politician (1795–1877)}}
[[Image:Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg.jpg|thumb|August von Bethmann-Hollweg]]
'''Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg''' (8 April 1795 – 14 July 1877) was a German [[jurist]] and [[Prussia]]n politician.

== Early life ==
Bethmann-Hollweg was born on 8 April 1795 in [[Frankfurt am Main]], He was the son of the banker [[:de:Johann Jakob Bethmann-Hollweg|Johann Jakob Bethmann-Hollweg]] and [[Bethmann family|Susanne Elisabeth von Bethmann]].<ref name="Perthes1898">{{cite book |title=Gothaisches genealogisches Taschenbuch der gräflichen Häuser |date=1898 |publisher=Justus Perthes. |page=795 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gothaisches_genealogisches_Taschenbuch_d/t8UTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA795 |access-date=25 January 2024 |language=de}}</ref> As a child he was tutored by [[Carl Ritter]] and [[Georg Friedrich Grotefend]].<ref name="Klötzer1994"/>

Later he studied at [[Göttingen University]], and then [[Humboldt University|Frederick William University]] in Berlin, where he was especially influenced by [[Friedrich Carl von Savigny]]. While still a student, he participated in the deciphering of the works of the Roman jurist [[Gaius (jurist)|Gaius]] discovered at Verona by [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr|Niebuhr]].<ref name="Americana1920">{{cite Americana|wstitle=Bethmann-Hollweg, Moritz August von|year=1920}}</ref>

==Career==
On New Year's Eve, 1817, he was transformed by a conversion experience into a [[born-again]] Christian. In the [[German Table Society]], an exclusive society restricted to ethnic German Christians from birth, he met the brothers [[Ludwig Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach|Leopold]], [[Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach|Ernst Ludwig]] and [[Otto von Gerlach]] as well as [[:de:Ernst Senfft von Pilsach|Ernst Senfft von Pilsach]] and conversed with the [[Friedrich Wilhelm IV|Crown Prince]], who would later, as king, elevate him to nobility. In 1819 he attained his [[habilitation]] in Berlin and became a tenured professor there in 1823. In 1824 he cofounded the [[Berlin Missionary Society]] with Leopold von Gerlach, [[August Neander]] and others in Berlin.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zöllner |first1=Linda |last2=Heese |first2=J.A. |title=The Berlin Missionaries in South Africa and their Descendants |date=1984 |publisher=Human Sciences Research Council, Institute for Historial Research |location=Pretoria |isbn=0796900108 |page=14 |ref=Zollner}}</ref> From 1827 to 1828 he also served briefly as [[rector (academia)|rector]] of his alma mater. He specialized in the history of civil legal procedure and made many pioneering contributions demonstrating a deep grasp of his subject and an independence from received doctrine, and showing the value of the historical viewpoint. He had an ongoing concern to reconcile his religious convictions with the rest of his life. He stayed away from politics and was repelled by the persecution of the so-called demagogues.<ref name="Klötzer1994"/>

{{History of Brandenburg and Prussia|right}}
From 1829 he taught at [[Bonn University]]. The beneficial influences of this small community permitted him to reconcile his religious and professional lives and understand the moral foundations of the law. In 1840, on the death of [[Frederick William III]], who had much appreciated his work, he was elevated to the hereditary [[nobility]]. In 1842, he was appointed as the government authority ({{langx|de|Regierungsbevollmächtigten}}) at Bonn and as university trustee. Now his primary concern became the welfare of the university. This represented a departure from his life of academic research, and gave him more access to the government in Berlin, and he turned his attention more to religious and political developments. In 1845 he was appointed to the Prussian council of state. In 1848, as a result of the dissolution of the Prussian ministry, he gave up his university offices.<ref name="Klötzer1994"/>

The frightfulness of the [[Revolutions of 1848|1848 revolution]], and the moral damage it revealed in many areas, decided von Bethmann-Hollweg for devoting himself to the moral and political well-being of the country. He was much opposed to the democratizing tendencies of the time, though still repelled by the reactionary elements. In 1848 he founded the [[Evangelical Church Conference|Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag]] and served as its president or co-president until 1872. In addition he served as president of the [[Inner Mission (Germany)]] founded by [[Johann Hinrich Wichern]]. Within the ambit of the [[Frankfurt Parliament]] he struck a friendship with [[:de:Dietrich Wilhelm Landfermann|Dietrich Wilhelm Landfermann]]. Like the latter he tried to maintain a centrist political position: von Bethmann-Hollweg's aim, which he also publicized from 1852 onward in the ''Wochenblatt'' together with ''Graf von der Goltz'', was to argue for a controlled expansion of a constitutional state in a conservative-liberal framework.<ref name="Schurz1907">{{ws|[[Carl Schurz]], [[s:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz|''Reminiscences'']] (3 volumes), New York: The McClure Company, 1907.  Schurz mentions von Bethmann-Hollweg in [[s:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz/Volume One/05 Revolutionary Days|Chapter V of Volume One]] in his role as "government authority" at the [[University of Bonn]] at the beginning of the [[Revolutions of 1848 in Germany]]:  "This office had been created at the time of the 'persecution of demagogues,' after the [[Carlsbad Decrees|notorious ministerial conferences at Carlsbad]], and was therefore in bad odor with liberal-minded men. The officer in question was at that time Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg. More on account of his duties than of his personal qualities he was highly unpopular with the students. We thought that such an officer, a product of the period of deepest degradation, did not fit the new order of things and must speedily be abolished." Consequently, a large group of students met and ultimately marched to the rector's home with an appropriate petition}}</ref>

From 1849 to 1855 he served as a deputy in Prussia's first and second houses of parliament, apart from a few brief interruptions. Notwithstanding its small size, his faction was significant through its political integrity and intellectual prominence. From 1858 (advent of the regency of [[Wilhelm I, German Emperor|Wilhelm I]]) to 1862 (advent of [[Otto von Bismarck|Bismarck]]'s ministry) von Bethmann-Hollweg served as the Prussian minister of education, culture and medicine. After his retirement he wrote the book for which he became chiefly known, ''Der Civilprozeß des Gemeinen Rechts in geschichtlicher Entwicklung'' (Civil Procedure in Common Law, A Historical Overview).<ref name="Klötzer1994">Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.), ''Frankfurter Biographie. Erster Band A–L'', Frankfurt am Main, Verlag Waldemar Kramer, 1994, {{ISBN|3-7829-0444-3}} {{in lang|de}}</ref>

===Legacy===
As a writer on jurisprudence he had a deep influence in the reforms of the German laws following the enactment of the [[German Civil Code]] in 1896.<ref name="Fischer1937">Fritz Fischer, ''Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg und der Protestantismus. Religion, Rechts- und Staatsgedanke.'' Berlin 1937 {{in lang|de}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Bethmann-Hollweg was married to Auguste Wilhelmine Gebser of the noble Prussian family dating back to the [[Teutonic Order of Knights]]. Her nephew was the philosopher [[Jean Gebser]]. Together, they were the parents of:<ref name="Pallmann1896">{{cite book |last1=Pallmann |first1=Heinrich |title=Gedenkbuch der Familie Bethmann |date=1896 |publisher=gedruckt von Carl Wallau |pages=7–10 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gedenkbuch_der_Familie_Bethmann/hLp1U_BimIoC&pg=PR7 |access-date=25 January 2024 |language=de}}</ref>

* Johann Philipp Karl ''Theodor'' von Bethmann-Hollweg (1821–1886), who married Countess Freda Anna Karoline von Arnim-Boitzenburg.<ref name="Pallmann1896"/>
* ''Felix'' von Bethmann Hollweg (1824–1900), who married French Swiss Isabella de Rougemont.<ref name="Pallmann1896"/>
* ''Anna'' Friederike von Bethmann-Hollweg (1827–1892), who married Count [[Albert von Pourtalès]], the Prussian Envoy to the [[Ottoman Empire]] and to the [[Second French Empire]], in 1847.<ref name="Pallmann1896"/>
* Elisabeth von Bethmann-Hollweg (b. 1834), who married Baron Hans Maximilian Robert von Dobeneck.<ref name="Pallmann1896"/>

Bethmann-Hollweg died 14 July 1877 on [[Rheineck|Rheineck castle]] near [[Bad Breisig|Niederbreisig]] on the [[Rhine]].<ref name="ADB">{{cite ADB|12|762|773|Bethmann-Hollweg, Moriz August von|Adolf Wach|ADB:Bethmann Hollweg, August von}}</ref>

===Descendants===
Through his son Felix, he was a grandfather of [[Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg]], who served as [[Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)|Chancellor of Germany]] from 1909 to 1917.<ref name="ADB"/>

== Publications ==
*''Grundregeln zu Vorlesungen über den allgemeinen Civilprozeß'', 1821 (1832)
*''Versuch über einzelne Teile der Theorie des Civilprozesses'', 1827
*''Die Gerichtsverfassung und der Prozeß des sinkenden Römischen Reiches'', 1834
*''Die Entstehung der lombardischen Städtefreiheit'', 1846
*''Der Civilprozeß des Gemeinen Rechts in geschichtlicher Entwicklung I-IV/1'', 1863–74
*''Ueber Gestezgebung und Rechtswissenshaft als Aufgabe unserer Zeit'' (On law making and jurisprudence as tasks for our time), 1876

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* Works by {{BBKL|b/bethmann-hollweg_m_a}}
* {{DNB portal|118510339|TYP=}}

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[[Category:1795 births]]
[[Category:1877 deaths]]
[[Category:Jurists from the Kingdom of Prussia]]
[[Category:Education ministers of Prussia]]
[[Category:Jurists from North Rhine-Westphalia]]
[[Category:German untitled nobility]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Humboldt University of Berlin]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Bonn]]
[[Category:Von Bethmann-Hollweg family]]
[[Category:Nobility from Frankfurt am Main]]