August Semrau

August Semrau (born September 25, 1816 in Groß Jenznick , Schlochau district , † September 12, 1893 in Breslau ) was a German journalist .

Life

Born as the son of a high school student and a Polish woman , Semrau studied philology in Berlin and Breslau after attending grammar school in Kulm . During his studies in 1841 he became a member of the Raczek Breslau fraternity . As a student he wrote theater reviews in the Breslau newspaper . After his studies he became a journalist, first with the Schlesische Zeitung and then from 1844 on with the Bremer Zeitung. He published numerous articles with liberal and democratic content. Since 1845 he was involved in the Breslau liberal-opposition movement, took part in spontaneous "train station meetings" and protested when they were banned. Initially together with Julius Stein , then as sole editor , he brought out the Breslauer Ressourcen-Zeitung , which appeared from September 1846 to the end of 1847 . He was one of the speakers at the Fürstensteiner Festival in June 1846, where he defended the right to public assemblies and turned against the Silesian knighthood. In 1847 he was suspected of having freed Poles imprisoned in the Neisse fortress together with Eduard von Reichenbach . At the beginning of 1848 he published the democratic-opposition monthly Der Staatsbürger and had been one of the leading forces in Breslau since the beginning of the revolution in 1848/49 . He was a member of the people's deputation, was elected to the board of the workers' association and belonged to the Democratic Club . From summer 1848 to April 1849 he was editor of the newspaper Die Reform published by Arnold Ruge . He was convicted of his activities in 1850 and served his three-year imprisonment until 1853 in the Neisse fortress in Glatz . Then he was placed under police supervision until 1856, worked as a photographer and opened a cigar shop . In 1855 he published again under the pseudonym Ps. Gustav . From 1859 to 1890 he was editor-in-chief together with Moritz Elsner of the Breslauer Morgenzeitung . He was a member of the Liberal People's Party .

His son was the art historian and professor of art history Max Semrau .

Publications (selection)

• Eleven chapters against Professor Dr. JB Baltzer or the "good" press on the poor sinner's bench. 4th edition Breslau 1845.
• Low German poems. Konitz 1845. Several editions in 1873, 1891, 1908.
• The Fürstenstein Festival, its description and its consequences, together with a description of the investigation into the escape of Polish insurgents. Bremen 1847.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 8: Supplement L – Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8253-6051-1 , pp. 286-288.