Johann Smidt

Who was Johann Smidt?

Johann Smidt was an important Bremen politician, theologian, and founder of Bremerhaven.

Smidt was a son of the Reformed preacher Johann Smidt sen., pastor at St. Stephen Church in Bremen. Smidt jun. studied theology in Jena, and was one of the founders of the Gesellschaft der freien Männer. He was ordained Reformed preacher in Zürich in 1797. He then became Professor of History at the Gymnasium illustre in his hometown. He then became 'Syndikus' for the Älterleute and in 1800 'Ratsherr', a position in which he exerted considerable influence on the governmental and commercial development of the cities of the Hanseatic League.

In particular as he acted as Bremen's diplomatic representative at the Congress of Vienna and preserved the independence of the Hanseatic cities and put through their acceptance into the German Confederation of sovereign states after the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.