Andreas Gottschalk

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Andreas Gottschalk (born February 28, 1815 in Düsseldorf , † September 8, 1849 in Cologne ) was a doctor and politically active in the emerging labor movement.

Andreas Gottschalk , posthumous portrait painting by Wilhelm Kleinenbroich , 1849
Andreas Gottschalk , 1848

Life

Gottschalk was born in Düsseldorf as the son of a butcher and Talmudist . After the family moved to Cologne , he attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium there . After graduating from high school, Gottschalk mainly studied medicine, alongside classical philology, philosophy and English literature. He finished his medical studies with a dissertation on the rush of blood to the brain and was awarded a doctorate in medicine.

In 1842 he opened his own practice in Cologne and wrote a number of medical articles. As a recognized physician, Gottschalk was a corresponding member of the Medical Society of Brussels . From the outset, he mainly treated poorer patients, often free of charge. Gottschalk, originally from a Jewish family, converted to Protestantism in 1844.

Political activity

For the first time joined Gottschalk 1841 in the pre-March politically publicly out. He kept the minutes when the Rheinische Zeitung for politics, trade and industry was founded. Above all, the writer and journalist Moses Hess exerted a strong political influence on Gottschalk. These influences became evident in 1846 when Gottschalk and several other colleagues made various demands at a medical congress. This included the abolition of compulsory doctorates for doctors, but also better support for the poor. Together with the barber Egelbert Bedorf and the geodesist Jean Jansen, before 1848 he was one of the founders of the Cologne community of the League of Communists .

March Revolution 1848

At the beginning of the March Revolution in Cologne, Gottschalk became a leader in the emerging democratic movement. On March 3, 1848, he was one of the organizers of a mass meeting in front of the Cologne City Hall demanding political reforms such as universal suffrage , freedom of the press and freedom of assembly, but also the protection of work. Gottschalk is granted access to the city ​​council , to which he presents the demands of the people. The Council does not want to accept this. Then the military moves in, part of the crowd seeks refuge in the town hall, which makes two councilors jump out the window. An event known as the Cologne Lintel . With the crowd pushing in, riots began that were violently ended by the military. Gottschalk was among those arrested. After the revolution also prevailed in Berlin , he was released again.

Immediately after his release, Gottschalk played a leading role in founding the Cologne workers' association and was elected its chairman on April 13, 1848. As President of the Cologne Workers' Association, with over 8,000 members after a few weeks, one of the largest of its kind in Germany, Gottschalk excelled at the beginning with very specific social reform demands. As a result of his commitment, Gottschalk soon came into conflict with people from the Protestant community, dominated by educated and business citizens , who accused him of wanting to rob the poor of hope in the afterlife through his materialistic attitude .

In June 1848, Gottschalk was one of the founders of the Central March Association , the union of democratic associations on a national level. In July 1848 he was arrested again along with Fritz Anneke and Christian Joseph Esser . But it was not until October of the same year that there was a trial for inciting violent changes to the state order . It came as a complete surprise to the public prosecutor that the jury pleaded not guilty . Immediately afterwards Gottschalk was released. At first he went to Paris and Brussels , but soon returned to Cologne. In the meantime Karl Marx had taken over the leadership of the workers' association there. Gottschalk called him a "learned sun god" and accused him: "The misery of the worker, the hunger of the poor is only of scientific, doctrinal interest for you."

Grave in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne

1849

Reference to the restoration of the grave slab

As the defeat of the revolution became more and more apparent, he considered at times to pursue a scientific career. But he continued to work as a doctor in Cologne. When a cholera epidemic broke out in the summer of 1849 that killed more than 10,000 people in the city, Gottschalk tried to help the sick poor in particular. He contracted the patient and died of the disease.

At his funeral in September 1849 in the Melaten cemetery (location: lit. K between HWG and lit. P), thousands of Cologne residents took part and paid their last respects to Gottschalk. However, the funeral took place without a pastor, as the evangelical pastor in charge initially only offered a funeral date at 5.30 a.m. and then stayed at home to protest against the views of the religious socialist Gottschalk. Friedrich Lessner gave the funeral speech . The gravestone reads: “One thing is necessary that the good always happens, whether you fall or stand, is and then remains the same.” The gravestone was restored in 1998 at the instigation of the German Trade Union Confederation .

Gottschalkstrasse in Cologne-Bocklemünd is named after him.

Publications

literature

  • Hans Stein : The Cologne workers' association (1848–1849). A contribution to the early history of Rhenish socialism . Gilsbach, Cologne 1921
  • Karl Stommel : The poor doctor Dr. Andreas Gottschalk, the first Cologne workers' leader in 1848 . In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine. Issue 166, Cologne 1964, pp. 55-105
  • Dr. Andreas Gottschalk . In: Helmut Dressler: Doctors around Karl Marx . Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin 1970, pp. 73–84
  • Arno Herzig : Andreas Gottschalk and the Cologne workers' association . In: Cologne and Rhenish Judaism. Festschrift Germania Judaica 1959–1984 . Bachem, Cologne 1984, pp. 177-182
  • Klaus Schmidt : Andreas Gottschalk. Doctor for the poor and pioneer of the labor movement. Jew and Protestant. Greven, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-7743-0336-3 .
  • Alexis Heitmann: Workers on the Rhine and Elbe. Comparison of two centers of the early German labor movement. Hamburg and Cologne 1845–50. Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-89975-816-0
  • Armin Beuscher / Asja Bölke / Günter Leitner / Antje Löhr-Sieberg / Anselm Weyer: Melaten tells of Protestant life. A tour. Published by Annette Scholl on behalf of the Evangelical Community of Cologne. Cologne 2010. ISBN 978-3-942186-01-8

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Statement by Peter Gerhard Roeser about the Bund der Kommunisten in Cologne ( Der Bund der Kommunisten. Documents and materials , p. 967.)
  2. ↑ Hans Stein: The Amsterdam workers' association . EJ Brill, Leiden 1937, p. 112.
  3. ^ Rüdiger Schünemann-Steffen: Cologne Street Names Lexicon , 3rd exp. Ed., Jörg-Rüshü-Selbstverlag, Cologne 2016/17, p. 294
personal data
SURNAME Gottschalk, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1849
Place of death Cologne