Göttinger Sieben
The Göttinger Sieben (The Seven of Göttingen) were a group of seven professors at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, who on 18 November 1837 protested against the abolition of the constitution of the Kingdom of Hanover.
In 1833 a new—relatively liberal—constitution was introduced in the Kingdom of Hanover, ruled at the time by the British King William IV. After his death in 1837, William was succeeded by Ernest Augustus.[1] Almost immediately after accession to the throne, King Ernest announced on November 1 that he abolished the new constitution.
The Göttingen professor of history, Dahlmann, who was one of the authors of the 1833 constitution, convinced six of his colleagues to side with him in refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to the new king. On December 12 they were all discharged, and Dahlmann, Jacob Grimm and Gervinus were banned from the country.
The Göttinger Sieben were:
- Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht, Constitutional law
- Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, History
- Heinrich Georg August Ewald, Orientalism
- Jacob Grimm, Germanistics
- Wilhelm Grimm, Germanistics
- Georg Gottfried Gervinus, Literature History
- Wilhelm Eduard Weber, Physics.
Note
- ↑ Queen Victoria, who succeeded William in the UK, was not allowed to rule Hanover because of her gender.