Johann Stephan Pütter

Portrait of Johann Stephan Pütter by Carl Lafontaine

Johann Stephan Pütter (25 June 1725, Iserlohn – 12 August 1807, Göttingen) was a German law lecturer and publicist. He was professor of law at the university of Göttingen from 1746 until his death. He exerted great influence on the law institutions of his time. His principal work is Historische Entwicklung der heutigen Staatsverfassung des Deutschen Reichs (Historical development of the current constitution of the German Empire;1786–99).

Life

Johann Stephan Pütter was born to a merchant from Iserlohn, with his mother coming from the Varnhagen family of pastors from the same town. He received his only pre-university education at home from a local priest, learning Latin, ancient Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaean and Syriac and so almost becoming an orientalist. Instead, however, on his father's death, he followed family tradition and went into law.

Pütter began his legal studies aged nearly 13 at the University of Marburg under tutors who included Christian Wolff. In 1739 he joined the University of Halle (where he became friends with Gottfried Achenwall) and completed his legal studies at the University of Jena. In 1744 he habilitated at Marburg and in 1746 he was appointed associate professor of law at University of Göttingen, where he remained until his death, not least thanks to the advocacy and protection of David Georg Strube. This was despite many requests from other universities - he even turned down offers to become a minister in the electorate of Hanover, a member of the 'Reichshofrat' in Vienna or a law-reformer in St Petersburg. However, he did serve three times (1764, 1790 and 1794) as the electorate of Hanover's representative at the Imperial elections in Frankfurt (Hanover then being in personal union with the king of England).

According to Achenwall, Pütter was established in 1743 as a member of the Masonic lodge named "Zu den drey Löwen" in Marburg.

The Pütterstraße in Iserlohn's city centre is named after him.

Work

Title page of Historische Entwicklung der heutigen Staatsverfassung

Books

Notes

    References

    External links