« Greening the Monk | Main | Pandora's Box once opened .... »

March 15, 2007

Ernst August II

Just in case you have wondered - Mausi has not expired, she's just buried under a huge workload at the moment. With the Easter hols approaching rapidly more and more things get heaped onto her desk. Like this business trip to Hannover a few days ago. It wasn't as bad as anticipated, the business part went smoothly in the morning and Mausi had a few minutes to sit outside beautiful Hannover Central Station in the warm spring sunshine enjoying the almost Mediterranean atmosphere of the street cafes all around her and renewing her aquaintance with Ernst August II, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover (since 1837).

070313_ernst-august.jpg
This equestrian statue was given to Ernst August by his people

Ernst August II was born in London in 1771 as a son of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland. He lived at a time when the Germany we know today was still an assortment of various little kingdoms. Mind you, with our 16 Federal States and the behaviour of the 16 Ministerpräsidenten (Heads of these states) I sometimes think not much has really changed. In 1837 Ernst August abolished the Constitution of Hanover which at that time was only four years old and became king.

The abolition of the Constitution was strongly opposed by seven professors from Göttingen University known as the "Göttinger Sieben" (The Seven of Göttingen). Ernst August simply dismissed them from their posts. Apparently life was a lot simpler in those days. All the same these professors and their "outrageous" behaviour as well as their apologias contributed decisively to the development of liberalism in Germany.

Ernst August died in 1851 in Hannover. He was probably not such a bad King after all.

Posted by Mausi at March 15, 2007 08:59 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mt3.mu.nu/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4957