eternal and immutable laws of beauty, wisdom and strength, of order and harmony. He is free who is guided by sensible reasons and not by outside force. Freedom in the state does not mean independence from the laws, but safety from unreasonable laws and arbitrary interference in our rights by the authorities." "Freiheit ist eben nicht Gesetzlosigkeit: Selbst der erhabene Baumeister des großen Weltalls, der das freieste aller Wesen ist, wird in jeder seiner Handlungen durch die ewigen, unveränderlichen Gesetze der Schönheit, Weisheit und Stärke, der Ordnung und Harmonie regiert. Frei ist der, welcher in seiner Wahl durch vernünftige Gründe und nicht durch fremde Gewalt bestimmt ist. Freiheit im Staate heißt nicht Unabhängigkeit von den Gesetzen, sondern Sicherheit vor unvernünftigen Gesetzen und eigenmächtigen Eingriffen der Obrigkeit in unsere Rechte". Sieveking and his friends saw their ideals put into practice when the French Revolution started in 1789, at least until the revolutionary idea of freedom was taken to absurd lengths by the Terreur of Robespierre. Freedom celebration in Harvestehude Whilst the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille was celebrated in Paris on the Champ de Mars, in Harvestehude in front of the gates of Hamburg a freedom festival took place, organized by Georg Heinrich Sieveking. The most prominent amongst the 80 guests were Adolph Freiherr Knigge and Sieveking's idol Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. Reactions The celebration caused a furore far beyond the borders of Hamburg – even the leader of the Girondists, Jacques Pierre Brissot, praised it in his "Patriot Français" – but remained without consequence for the political culture of Hamburg. The Senate of Hamburg did not take account of it, and Sauveur Joseph Gandolphe, the French chargé d'affaires in Hamburg, declined to attend, claiming that "the celebration in Harvestehude could have led to the excitement of a population that was at this point the calmest in all of Europe". He even suspected merely commercial motives in Sieveking's and Voght's activities. The firm had greatly profited from grain exports to France, and Gandolphe suspected that the celebration of Harvestehude had merely been staged to please the French and pave the way for further exchanges. An meine Mitbürger After the Revolution in France had grown increasingly radicalised and the French King Louis XVI had been executed in January 1793, Sieveking came under increasing pressure in Hamburg. He finally countered the accusation that he was a Jacobin with an open letter