Benedikt Waldeck
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Franz Leo Benedikt Ignatz Waldeck (born July 31, 1802 in Münster , † May 12, 1870 in Berlin ) was a German politician and is considered one of the leading left-wing liberals in Prussia during the revolution of 1848/49 . After the forced withdrawal from politics in the reaction era, he became a leading figure of the Progress Party and one of Otto von Bismarck's most important domestic political competitors in the 1860s .
Family, education and work
Waldeck's grandfather was a composer and cathedral organist , his father, Johann Peter Waldeck, professor of natural and criminal law at the Münster Academy. After the actual end of the Münster academy, he was involved in the establishment of a higher provincial, community and trade school in 1822; in addition, he was active as an author of religious and philological writings. The mother Gertrudis, née Lindenkampf, came from an old patrician family in Münster .
Waldeck graduated from high school Paulinum in Münster in 1817 and began his studies in the same year at the "Rumpfuniversität" in his hometown, until in 1819 he moved to the Georg August University in Göttingen . There he became a member of the Corps Guestphalia II in 1825. He studied with Jakob Grimm , whom he helped with the collection of fairy tales and legends.
Waldeck does not seem to have been literarily gifted, as his poetic attempts met with praise even from Heinrich Heine , whom Waldeck met at Guestphalia. In his main subject, however, he studied law . At the age of 20, Waldeck received his doctorate as Dr. jur. Probably also influenced by Jakob Grimm, but above all by Karl Friedrich Eichhorn he was close to the historical school of law .
After a brief flirtation with a German lecturer career, Waldeck decided to become a lawyer after completing his studies. Nevertheless, he remained connected to the literary and philosophical world.
After completing his legal studies, Waldeck initially returned to Münster. There he was appointed auscultator in 1822 , and two years later he was trainee at the higher regional court. In 1828 he passed the great state examination in law and was appointed assessor . Then Waldeck worked at the Higher Regional Court in Halberstadt . Shortly afterwards he moved to Paderborn, where he married Julia Langen (1809–1890), who was born there. From this marriage came nine children, four of whom died early.
From 1832 to 1836 Waldeck was city and district court director in Vlotho ; In 1836 he was appointed higher regional judge in Hamm . There he also took over the chairmanship of the city council and represented the city in the district council. Waldeck successfully campaigned for the city to have a train station for the Cologne-Minden Railway . In 1844 he moved to Berlin, where he served as senior tribunal counselor at the highest Prussian court .
Political socialization
Due to his family origins, he was still associated with the cosmopolitan era of Franz von Fürstenberg, which was shaped by the ideals of the Enlightenment and an undogmatic Catholicism . The end of the French era and the beginning of Prussian rule were just as important for his political socialization. It was not forgotten in Münster that in 1803 the Prussians were responsible for the secularization of the Münsterland. Nonetheless, Waldeck saw in Prussia an engine of social and political progress. Waldeck and others were all the more disappointed that the promised constitution after the Karlovy Vary resolutions (1819) did not materialize and that journalism was determined by censorship. He stayed away from oppositional student connections during his studies. However, he was outraged by the execution of the fraternity member Karl Ludwig Sand after his politically motivated murder of the popular theater dramaturge and mockery writer August von Kotzebues with a subsequent suicide attempt. Waldeck tried to set a memorial to Sand with a folk song-like poem.
Waldeck worked intensively with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , Johann Gottlieb Fichte , Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau . At times he was strongly influenced by the conservative Karl Ludwig von Haller . Especially since the July Revolution of 1830 in France, Waldeck began to grapple with French social theories. These included the early socialist Henri de Saint-Simon and the Catholic-liberal-minded Félicité de Lamennais . Waldeck supported its connection between Catholicism and liberal ideas, but rejected the demand for a republican form of government.
In terms of legal policy, Waldeck, together with Johann Friedrich Joseph Sommer, advocated freedom of the judiciary. Together with the latter, Waldeck organized a meeting of Westphalian lawyers in Soest in 1843 , which was met with suspicion by the authorities as an attempt to found a professional association. Waldeck received an official reprimand without this, however, having harmed his legal career. Waldeck made a name for himself in Vormärz as an expert on regional property and inheritance law . He pleaded for the divisibility of property. His advocacy for rural interests, especially the small owners, earned him the nickname “ peasant king ” among the population . Against this background, his work “ About the peasant succession law in Westphalia. "
Waldeck during the revolution of 1848/49
Political positioning
Until the revolution of 1848 Waldeck had not emerged further politically. In 1848 Waldeck was elected from four constituencies (Lippstadt, Borken, Paderborn, City of Münster) to the Prussian National Assembly in Berlin, which met in the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin . Of course, he accepted the mandate of a Berlin district for which Rudolf Virchow had proposed him. In his constituency, Waldeck spoke out in favor of a “democratic monarchy” in the tradition of the French Constituante from 1789. His demand was a one-chamber system without a mansion dominated by the nobility. However, Waldeck also demanded that the constitutional framework should be filled with reforms in the judiciary, agricultural organization, the municipal constitution, the military and other areas. The demand for state social policy played only a minor role for him. Waldeck was not a republican, but advocated a constitutional monarchy with a strong role for parliament. He was one of the group of MPs who stayed away from the opening ceremony of the National Assembly in the White Hall of the Berlin City Palace. They protested against the attempt of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. To place the assembly in the continuity of the pre-March development and to deny the revolutionary character. Due to his appearance and his pathetic style, he became a figurehead of the Left Group , even if some uncertainties were noticed and critics wanted to deny him "the political head and statesmanlike intelligence."
Waldeck was proposed as president at the beginning of the parliamentary negotiations, but was defeated by a liberal politician. Although he hardly took part in the democratic club life in Berlin and the corresponding Prussian organizational efforts, he was still considered the leading political head of the Prussian democrats . The Left comprised a core of 40 MPs and stood in resolute opposition to the March Ministry around Camphausen and Hansemann . Within the left, Waldeck, in contrast to the democrat Johann Jacoby, belonged to a right-wing liberal tendency.
At first, Waldeck hardly spoke in the plenary, instead concentrating on the committee work. But when he did speak it was evidently quite impressive. " ... he stormed into the stands [...] the eye flashed, the whole figure his life and movement, with a sonorous voice in flowing lectures he puts forward his reasons and never closes without thundering applause, to which the members of the right are often carried away . “ Wolfgang J. Mommsen even thinks that Waldeck, together with Jodocus Temme , both from the parliamentary left, determined the course of the negotiations in many ways. In the debates, only Karl Rodbertus from the left center and Georg von Vincke as spokesman for the liberal right were up to them.
The differences in the camp of the left became clear during the debate on Julius Berends' motion on June 8, 1848, which said that the National Assembly should decide, “ in recognition of the revolution, to declare on record that the fighters of the 18th and 19th March would have made a contribution to the fatherland. “In the debate, the Democrats tried to use this to enforce the principle of popular sovereignty . This went too far for the Liberals. Waldeck, who chaired the meeting, finally withdrew from Johann Jacoby as a representative of the Democrats.
Not dissimilar to the view of the Camphausen government, Waldeck and many other moderate democrats saw the era of revolutionary unrest as over. The restructuring of the state is now the task of parliament. “ The revolution was the armed [sic!] Protest of the people against the old military and feudal state. Carrying out this process organically is a matter for the people's representatives. “The constitutional question played a central role in this context and Waldeck excelled in this area.
The Waldeck Charter and Parliamentary Work
Waldeck rejected the constitutional draft published by the moderate-liberal Camphausen-Hansemann cabinet on May 22, 1848, because it guaranteed civil rights, but did not sufficiently restrict the power of the king and further codified special professional rights. The draft met with rejection, especially among the Democrats, but also in parts of the liberal camp. On June 15, 1848, Waldeck succeeded in convincing the majority of the House of his motion that the National Assembly had the right to discuss the draft constitution presented by the government, to amend it or, if necessary, to introduce its own motion. A constitutional commission was then set up, chaired by Waldeck. But Waldeck also announced initiatives by the National Assembly in the area of concrete reform legislation. “ I think I can promise one thing: we will submit those laws that the Ministry does not submit to us [...] because we all want the revolution to bear fruit. "
He himself participated primarily in the drafting of the basic rights section. His influence on the drafting of the National Assembly's constitution was so great that it was commonly referred to as the Charte Waldeck . This was ultimately a compromise between liberal and democratic ideas; but went much further than the draft of the Camphausen-Hansemann cabinet. All noble privileges were to be abolished and personal freedoms, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly guaranteed. A clear separation of church and state was planned , as well as a reorientation of the primary school system. However, the attempt by the Democrats to pass the constitution purely on the basis of popular sovereignty, against the liberal principle of an agreement with the monarch, failed. The moderate constitutional majority also opted for a bicameral system and indirect voting rights. In this respect, the term Charte Waldeck is a bit misleading because it was not a one-stop draft constitution, but the result of an intensive discussion process. Nonetheless, the charter meant overall a success for the democrats and radical liberals, as they had succeeded in enforcing a comprehensive catalog of basic rights and preventing the king from having a comprehensive right of veto. In addition, the appeal to the divine right of the king was deleted from the draft.
In addition, Waldeck was involved, among other things, in a liberal community, district and district order, which, however, never received practical significance. He also participated in the reform of press and judicial law. In addition, at his suggestion, the National Assembly adopted a Habeas Corpus Act in anticipation of a future constitution . Waldeck and the Democrats could not prevail against the Liberals on the question of the military constitution. The vigilante law passed by the Liberals was not enough for those in favor of a general armed forces. In cooperation with the Liberals, however, the Democrats abolished the feudalist residuals, for example in hunting law.
Waldeck's position on the German question is remarkable: he firmly rejected a Greater German solution under Austria's leadership and, despite all the disappointments after 1819, still saw Prussia as something like the engine of progress. In agreement with the Prussian conservatives and liberals, but in contrast to many democrats, Waldeck also refused to cede any powers to the provisional central power in Frankfurt. He was convinced that “ we are still the people who lead the top of Germany and who alone can bring about the unity of Germany. "
Waldeck and the counter-revolution
Like many 48ers, Waldeck initially had illusions about the old forces' willingness to reform. Together with other democrats and radical liberals, he even hoped for a ministry under Waldeck and Johann Karl Rodbertus after the resignation of the Auerswald-Hansemann government . King Friedrich Wilhelm IV put an end to these speculations when he appointed a cabinet of officials under the moderate constitutional General Ernst von Pfuel . After this decision had been made, Waldeck's concern about the strengthening of the counter-revolutionary forces increased. He turned against the order of General Friedrich von Wrangel that the army should only obey the commander in chief. He also fought encroachments on freedom of assembly and the freedom of the press . On the other hand, Waldeck, meanwhile one of the most popular politicians of the moderately democratic faction, made use of all his influence to prevent new revolutionary, violent actions. Wherever there was a conflict, such as the canal workers' strike in Berlin, he tried to mediate. It is true that, contrary to his inner conviction, he supported the demand that the government should, if necessary, intervene violently in Vienna against the military suppression of the revolution by Alfred zu Windisch-Graetz ; however, it was also an attempt to alleviate the pressure from the streets by dealing with the issue in parliament.
Waldeck took a considerable part in the debates about the impending counter-revolution and the unrest in the capital. When Friedrich Wilhelm IV had made the decision to bring the revolution to a close in a compromise with the liberals, but with the exclusion of the democrats, and thus appointed Count Brandenburg as Prime Minister, Waldeck was one of Johann Jacoby, Jodocus Temme and others those MPs who called for countermeasures within the " framework of the powers of the National Assembly ". When the Prussian troops marched into Berlin under Wrangel, who were supposed to regain control of the streets for the government, Waldeck offered passive resistance to the very end. Although he refused a call to the Berlin vigilante group to take up the fight against the military, he supported the initiation of the tax refusal campaign, as did the call to the soldiers to refuse unconstitutional orders. He called the forced relocation of the Prussian assembly to the city of Brandenburg illegal and accused the Brandenburg Ministry of high treason. Waldeck expressly supported Parliament's decision to call on the population to refuse taxes. When the military wanted to clear the hall he shouted: “ Get your bayonets and stab us! A traitor to the state who leaves this hall . ”As a result, Waldeck did not go to the new conference location in the city of Brandenburg . The constitution , imposed on December 5, 1848 , agreed in many points with the Waldeck Charter and indirectly it became the basis of Prussian constitutionalism until 1918. However, the charter also became decisive through the revision of democratic elements in favor of the absolute right of veto of the king and three-class suffrage changed. The new constitution was rejected by Waldeck himself as not being legally established. However, after the dissolution of the National Assembly in 1849, he entered the second chamber of the Prussian state parliament. Here he immediately turned against the state of siege in Berlin. In connection with the debate about the imperial crown proposed to the Prussian king by the Frankfurt parliament, Waldeck once again emphasized his conviction that German unity was Prussia's “historical mission”, but warned that this was only in connection with the ideas of freedom and militarism is not possible. For the Democrats, Waldeck spoke out against the empire of the Prussian king. In view of the actual counter-revolutionary development, he conjured up the image of a “people's emperor” dependent on popular sovereignty. The motion to lift the state of siege was accepted by the majority, thereupon the parliament was dissolved again on April 27, 1849.
Ultimately, this meant the victory of the counter-revolution in Prussia and Waldeck was arrested on May 16, 1849, but as the investigative authorities found it difficult to find evidence of illegal behavior, he was not brought to justice until six months later. The indictment was ultimately complicit in a conspiracy and a planned assassination attempt on the king. In court, witnesses such as the head of the Prussian secret police, Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey, got caught up in contradictions. The majority of the middle-class jury and ultimately the liberal judges did not consider your statements to be valid. Ultimately, Waldeck was released and hailed by a large crowd as a martyr of the revolution. The disciplinary proceedings against him also had to be stopped.
Opposition Politics in the 1860s
During the reaction era under the Manteuffel government , Waldeck and a large part of the Prussian Democrats were no longer able to be politically active; personally, however, he remained unmolested. He was allowed to continue to hold his position as judge at the highest Prussian court; in addition, he withdrew into private life, had a sociable life in a small group and published writings on legal subjects.
Waldeck and the Progress Party
Only when the reign of the later King Wilhelm I came to an end and the opposition hoped for the beginning of a new era did Waldeck begin to become more active again. In 1861 he was elected to the state parliament for the constituency of Bielefeld in a by-election. Other prominent democrats and liberals from the time of the revolution of 1848 were now active again. The leader of the conservatives, Moritz von Blankenburg, said that one had to "live with Waldeck and his friends again". Waldeck became one of the leading politicians in the Progress Party . In the party he belonged more to the constitutional-liberal wing, although he occasionally referred to himself as a “ democrat in disguise ”.
Like Waldeck in 1848/49, she advocated a Prussian leadership role in shaping German unity and extensive domestic reforms. Since the new party wanted to be a reservoir for both liberals and democrats, it has left some controversial points - such as the question of electoral law - out of its program. A "state aid according to socialist and communist terms", i. H. He and the Progress Party rejected an active social policy by the state. This attitude was a decisive factor in the separation of bourgeois and social democracy.
Waldeck as a political opponent of Bismarck
Waldeck's return to politics was based on the hope of being able to implement central political reforms from parliament under the new king. This position began to falter with the appointment of Otto von Bismarck as Prime Minister. Bismarck had been expressly appointed to use all means to break the resistance of the liberal majority in parliament to an army reform advocated by the conservative side. Waldeck was at the head of the opposition, which fought Bismarck's gap theory as a breach of the constitution.
Constitution theory, the arguments on the part Waldeck were. He remained uncompromising in denying the government the funds until it recognized the rights of parliament on the question of the military budget.
Bismarck's unification policy became a stress test for the Progressive Party. The goal of German unity and Prussia's leadership role was shared by the party, but the way in which it would proceed was disputed. Waldeck's attitude was clear, however. Prussia could not do anything for Germany's unity and freedom “ as long as it did not achieve freedom internally ”. During the German-Danish War and the German War , the Progressive Party persisted in refusing the government funds.
Opponents of the party such as the reform conservatives around Bismarck, but also groups of the German bourgeoisie with a small German national mind, accused Waldeck of short-sighted doctrinalism. After Prussia's victory over Austria, not only did the Progress Party emerge from the elections weakened, Waldeck's influence and popularity also declined steadily against this background. He was unable to prevent the split in liberalism and the founding of the National Liberal Party , which was ready to compromise with the government to achieve freedom of concessions. Liberalism as an opposition movement thus lost a lot of its importance.
In the generally and equally elected Reichstag of the new North German Confederation , Waldeck represented the constituency of Bielefeld. As in 1848, Waldeck distinguished himself as a constitutional politician in the constituent Reichstag. His aim was to change the draft submitted by Bismarck at the expense of the executive and in favor of the legislature.
Waldeck's criticism was directed against the restrictions in the right to budget approval and the non-anchored ministerial responsibility. However, with this adherence to the previous line of the Progressive Party, in view of the changed majorities, he was unsuccessful. At least he made it clear that the left-wing liberals were not fundamentally against the policy of unity, but merely criticized the way it was structured. " ... if we are therefore not able to [...] agree, we do so with the awareness that regardless [...] the alliance and the unity are completely fixed in themselves. "
Death and afterlife
Waldeck died on May 12, 1870 at the age of 67 in Berlin. His popularity was still not completely broken, as tens of thousands of people took part in his funeral procession. The national newspaper wrote somewhat exaggeratedly: “ Since March 22, 1848, the day of the burial of the March victims, the city had not seen such a spectacle. Well over half of the capital's population vied to pay their last respects to a loved one. "
Waldeck was buried in the St. Hedwig cemetery in Berlin on Liesenstrasse . The tomb has not been preserved.
In 1889, after long disputes with the authorities, a park, the Waldeckpark in Berlin-Kreuzberg , was named after him and a marble statue created by Heinrich Walger was erected there. It shows Waldeck as a speaker in parliament, holding a scroll in his hand. Under the National Socialists , the park was redesigned from 1936 to 1937, then renamed Lobeckpark because of the "Jewish infiltration" of Waldeck , and the Waldeck memorial was removed and rebuilt in the New Hedwigsfriedhof in Berlin-Reinickendorf . The Waldeckpark has been called that again since 1947, but the memorial was only returned to its old location at the end of the 1970s.
A plant genus Waldeckia Klotzsch from the family of the golden plum family (Chrysobalanaceae) is named after him.
Fonts (selection)
- About the peasant succession law for the province of Westphalia. Arnsberg 1841 ( ULB Münster ).
- All speeches in the National Assembly and in front of the electors. Berlin 1849.
- Letters and poems by Benedickt Waldeck. Edited by Chr. Schlueter, Paderborn 1883 ( ULB Münster ).
literature
- Manfred Botzenhart : Franz Leo Benedikt Waldeck . In: Westfälische Lebensbilder Vol . XIII . Münster 1985.
- Klaus Herdepe : The Prussian Constitutional Question 1848 . ars et unitas, Neuried 2002, ISBN 3-936117-22-5 .
- Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim : Benedikt Franz Leo Waldeck, the leader of the Prussian democracy . Berlin 1880.
- Wilhelm Schulte: Westphalian heads . Münster 1977, ISBN 3-402-05700-X , p. 352 f .
- Christina von Hodenberg : The party of the impartial. The liberalism of the Prussian judiciary 1815–1848 / 49 . Göttingen 1995, p. 167 f .
- Nadja Stulz-Herrnstadt: Franz Leo Benedikt Waldeck. Parliamentarians in the constituent assembly in Berlin on the border between liberalism and democracy . In: Helmut Bleiber u. a. (Ed.): Men of the Revolution of 1848 Volume 2 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin (GDR) 1987, ISBN 3-05-000285-9 , pp. 327-356 .
- Alfred Stern : Waldeck, Benedikt . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 668-675.
Web links
- Literature by and about Benedikt Waldeck in the catalog of the German National Library
- Online biography of FLBWaldeck .
- Benedikt Franz Leo Waldeck in the Lexicon of Westphalian Authors
- Review of the Prussian National Assembly of 1848 and its luminaries. Eichler, Berlin 1849 (online edition)
- Benedikt Waldeck in the database of members of the Reichstag
- Acta Borussica Volume 4 / I (1848-1858)
- Acta Borussica Volume 4 / II (1848-1858)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Online biography on FLBWaldeck
- ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 69 , 160
- ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: Franz Leo Benedikt Waldeck (1802-1870). In: Westphalian pictures of life. Münster 1985. Volume 12. (quoted from the online edition) p. 3; Christina von Hodenberg: The party of the impartial. The liberalism of the Prussian judiciary 1815–1848 / 49. Göttingen, 1995. pp. 167f.
- ↑ Botzenhart, Waldeck, p. 3.
- ↑ Herdepe, p. 110, p. 135, retrospectives on the Prussian National Assembly and its luminaries . Berlin, 1849 p. 21
- ↑ contemporary characteristics from the Grenzbote, quoted in according to Stulz-Herrnstadt, p. 335
- ↑ Mommsen, Revolution, p. 252
- ↑ cit. after Wolfgang J. Mommsen: 1848. The unwanted revolution. The revolutionary movements in Europe 1830–1849. Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-10-050606-5 , p. 205
- ↑ cit. according to Stulz-Herrnstad, p. 336
- ↑ cit. according to Stulz-Herrnstad, p. 337
- ↑ Text of the "Charte Waldeck" of July 26, 1848 (on documentArchiv.de)
- ↑ cit. according to Stulz-Herrnstad, p. 338
- ↑ Botzenhart, Waldeck, p. 6.
- ↑ Botzenhart, Waldeck, p. 6f.
- ↑ cit. according to Stulz-Herrnstadt, p. 353
- ↑ Botzenhart, Waldeck, p. 8, on the Progress Party cf. Andreas Biefang: National-Prussian or German-national? The German Progressive Party in Prussia 1861–1867 . In: History and Society. 3/1997. Pp. 360-383.
- ↑ Botzenhart, Waldeck, p. 8
- ↑ cit. according to Stulz-Herrnstad, p. 355.
- ↑ cit. according to Stulz-Herrnstad, p. 356
- ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 56.
- ^ Frank Eberhardt: A Prussian lawyer and "high traitor". Franz Leo Benedikt Waldeck (1802-1870). In: Berlin monthly journal. 9/1996, pp. 15-21. Traces of Luisenstadt. In: Berlin monthly journal. 8/1996, pp. 76-81, here pp. 78-79.
- ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Waldeck, Benedict |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Waldeck, Franz Leo Benedikt Ignatz (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 31, 1802 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Muenster |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 12, 1870 |
| Place of death | Berlin |