August Becker (journalist)

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August Becker

Heinrich August Becker (born August 17, 1812 in Hoch-Weisel near Butzbach , † March 26, 1871 in Cincinnati ) was a German writer , journalist , politician , theologian and friend of Georg Büchner .

After the March Revolution in 1848, Becker was actively involved in the revolutionary events in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, including working as a publicist. He was also a member of the Second Chamber of the Estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse . From 1853 he lived in the USA .

Life

Becker studied Protestant theology from 1829 to 1833 at the Ludoviciana in Gießen , where he was nicknamed Der Rote August . In 1829 he became a member of the old Gießen fraternity Germania . A fellow student, the later scientist and democratic politician Carl Vogt , later described him as a “lumpy and rotten genius”, a character study that can also be found in Friedrich Engels . Becker had brought about the acquaintance between Georg Büchner and Friedrich Ludwig Weidig, with whom he had been connected for a long time.

In 1833 he met Georg Büchner , who was also considered an outsider. In 1834 he became a co-founder of Georg Büchner's secret society Society for Human Rights . He also participated in the dissemination of revolutionary Vormärz -Schrift The Hessian Courier . He was arrested in 1835 and served four years of aggravated pre-trial detention and imprisonment before being pardoned in 1839. In 1839/40 he was the founder of a German craft training association in Zurich .

In the 1840s he came into contact with Wilhelm Weitling , the formative force of the League of the Just in Switzerland .

In the following years he became a popularizer of Weitling's communist ideas. A preface written by him to the publication of lectures by Georg Kuhlmann ( The New World, or the Kingdom of the Spirit on Earth. Annunciation. Geneva 1845) led to violent attacks by Moses Hess , Joseph Weydemeyer and Friedrich Engels.

In 1848 he returned to Giessen and became editor-in-chief and main author of the radical democratic Giessen daily newspaper Der Jüngste Tag . This newspaper first appeared on the day of the lifting of press censorship in the Grand Duchy, March 6, 1848. Becker took part in the March Revolution and had close contact with Alexander and Ludwig Büchner , the brothers of his old friend Georg Büchner. At the beginning of 1849 he changed the title of the newspaper Der Jüngste Tag to Wehr 'Dich! Organ of the democratic associations of Upper Hesse and the Lahnwehrbund .

After the revolution of 1848/1849 he was an elected member of the second chamber of the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse from 1849 to 1853 in the 12th to 14th electoral period for the constituency of Oberhessen 3 / Biedenkopf .

After the final victory of the reaction in 1853, Becker emigrated to the USA via Switzerland , where he first tried his hand at being an impresario and circus acrobat . From 1861 to 1865 he worked as a field preacher in the Steuben Regiment during the Civil War . He married in 1865. In his final years he was editor of several newspapers in Baltimore , New York , Washington and Cincinnati, among others .

Fonts

  • The popular philosophy of our day. Hess, Neumünster near Zurich 1843.
  • What do the communists want? A speech, given in extract, to a meeting held on August 4th, 1844, in the premises of the so-called Communist Association in Lausanne, by members of various workers' associations. Communist Association, Lausanne 1844 ( digitized version ).
  • History of early religious and atheistic socialism. First edition of the secret report written by August Becker in 1847 and submitted by Georg Kuhlmann to Metternich and von Vinets Rapport together with an introduction (= Christianity and socialism. Sources and representations. Vol. 6, ZDB -ID 537735-3 ). Edited by Ernst Barnikol . Mühlau, Kiel 1932.

literature

  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume 1: Politicians. Sub-Volume 1: A-E. Winter, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8253-0339-X , pp. 69-70.
  • Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 66.
  • D. Malik: Becker, August . In: History of the German labor movement. Biographical Lexicon . Dietz, Berlin 1970, pp. 32-33.
  • Gian Maria Bravo: Democrazia, socialismo e partito repubblicano. Il tedesco-americano August Becker (1814–1871) (= Studi storici Carocci. Vol. 29). Carocci, Rome 2002, ISBN 88-430-2397-7 .
  • Eberhard Kickartz: "Der Rote Becker". The political and journalistic work of the Büchner friend August Becker. (1812–1871) (= sources and research on Hessian history. Vol. 110). Self-published by the Hessian Historical Commission a. a., Darmstadt 1997, ISBN 3-88443-062-9 (also: Bochum, Universität, Dissertation, 1997).
  • Hans Georg Ruppel, Birgit Groß: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse (2nd Chamber) and the Landtag of the People's State of Hesse (= Darmstädter Archivschriften. Vol. 5). Verlag des Historisches Verein für Hessen, Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-922316-14-X , p. 61.
  • Marc Vuilleumier / AA: Becker, August. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Hans-Otto Schneider:  Weidig, Friedrich Ludwig. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 28, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-413-7 , Sp. 1551-1578.  ( Article / beginning of article in the Internet archive ) (there additional entry on Becker)
  • Klaus-Dieter Rack, Bernd Vielsmeier: Hessian MPs 1820–1933. Biographical evidence for the first and second chambers of the state estates of the Grand Duchy of Hesse 1820–1918 and the state parliament of the People's State of Hesse 1919–1933 (= Political and parliamentary history of the State of Hesse. Vol. 19 = Work of the Hessian Historical Commission. NF Vol. 29) . Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-88443-052-1 , pp. 148-149.

Web links

Commons : August Becker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On October 27, 1834, he stated about his personal details: “My name is August Becker, I am a son of the deceased Großh. Pastor Becker zu Biedenkopf, I live with my mother, who lives there [Gießen], I am 22 years old, Lutheran, studied theology at the local university, I left the university two years ago to take up a position as private tutor, which I have been doing since gave up a year; since then I have been living without a particular occupation. At first I was determined to go to America, and later I changed this decision to go to Switzerland, which I intend to take out as soon as I receive a passport, which I have been looking for months ago and which I expect every day "Quoted from: Friedrich Noellner: Actual presentation of the judicial proceedings initiated against Pastor D. Friedrich Ludwig Weidig for high treason with special regard to the legal principles of state crimes and German criminal proceedings, as well as to the public negotiations on the political processes in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in general. Leske, Darmstadt 1844, p. 250.
  2. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 1: A-E. Winter, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8253-0339-X , p. 69.
personal data
SURNAME Becker, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Becker, Heinrich August (full name); The Red Becker (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American writer, journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Hoch-Weisel
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1871
Place of death Cincinnati