User:Evansknight/sandbox/Christian Hartmann Pfeiffer

Christian Hartmann Pfeiffer (11 January 1784 – 23 July 1844) was a German politician and legal scholar.

Early life and family
Christian Hartmann Pfeiffer was son of the reformed preacher, University of Marburg theology professor and Councilor of the Consistory Johann Jakob Pfeiffer and his wife, Luise Rebecke Rüppel. He and his brother Franz Georg Pfeiffer were identical twins, and their birth was so stressful on their mother that it led to her death shortly thereafter. Contemporary sources describe not only their identical appearance, but also their identical handwriting and mannerisms, which allowed them to play tricks on their friends and family from an early age. One anecdote even says that the brothers were so similar that their wives could sometimes not tell them apart. This penchant for mischief would follow them throughout their lives. The twins grew up in Marburg, and eventually both attended their father's alma mater and employer, the University of Marburg, where they studied law and graduated in 1803. At the University, they were taught by the esteemed scholars

Career
After leaving the University of Marburg, Christian was given a position as a secretarial assistant in the Hessian treasury (Oberrentkammer). In 1807, shortly before the fall of Hesse-Cassel to Napoleon I and the establishment of the Kingdom of Westphalia, he was reassigned as a government archivist, a position which several of his brothers held in the beginnings of their careers. With the upheaval of the French invasion and the new rulers, the Government was again altered, and in 1808 Christian was promoted to the position of greffier du tribunal de première instance, or clerk of the superior court. Following the collapse of Westphalia and the reinstatement of German authority in 1814, Christian was named Regierungssekretär in Marburg. In 1821, he was transferred back to the department of the treasury as a member of the ministerial council. During this time, Christian was also undertaking the work of editing Konrad Wilhelm Ledderhose's Kurhessisches Kirchenrecht, a historical treatise on the law of Hesse as they pertained to the independence and self-rule of the evangelical church there. The work was published n Marburg in 1821, and in 1827, on occasion of the 300th anniversary of the University of Marburg, Christian was made an honorary Dr. jur. for his work on the book.