Carl Wunibald Otto

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Carl Wunibald Otto (born February 4, 1808 in Weißenfels an der Saale, † after 1862) was a German chemist and pharmacist , accused in the Cologne communist trial .

Life

Carl Wunibald Otto was baptized on February 14, 1808 in the Marienkirche in Weißenfels. His father was the lawyer Carl Ferdinand Otto († July 13, 1813 in Freyburg ) and his grandfather the city chronicler Georg Ernst Otto . He probably learned his profession as a pharmacist in Weißenfels. After 1828 he was in Erfurt, from 1831 to 1833 in Magdeburg. In 1842 he moved to Cologne. On October 13, 1847, he married Elisabeth Hubertina Pütz (* 1824), with whom he had two children. His brother, the doctor Carl Ottomar Otto (* 1802), was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his participation in the Dresden May uprising in 1849. His mother was living in Schneeberg when he was arrested .

Since December 1842 Otto worked as a chemist for the Cologne mineral water processing institute. On April 14, 1844, he was granted a patent "for a new and peculiarly considered locomotive apparatus for steamships" for a period of eight years in Prussia. In April 1845 he was with Roland Daniels , Carl d'Ester a . a. active in the “General Aid and Educational Association” in Cologne. During the unrest in Cologne on August 3rd and 4th, 1846, which took place during the Brigitten Kirmes in the parish of St. Martin , he witnessed the police attacking young people and children with sabers drawn. In the Cologne address book of 1846 it is entered as follows: “Otto, Carl Wunibald; Chemists at the artificial mineral water facility, Maximinstr. 41 "

With Karl Marx he was engaged in the Democratic Society in Cologne in 1848 . Otto was also a member of the Cologne gymnastics club, whose president was Johann Ludwig Albert Erhard . Together with Marx, Wilhelm Wolff , Karl Schapper , Friedrich Anneke a . a. he called for the congress of the "workers' associations of the Rhine Province and Westphalia". and was inducted into the elected committee. Otto was also one of “the electors of the city of Cologne for the election of the members of the second chamber” for the “27. District". He gave lectures on “industrial chemistry” in the Cologne workers' education association and was also one of two librarians in this association. During the stay of Heinrich Bauer from the central authority of the Union of Communists in Cologne, he copied the “March Address” several times for distribution. At the end of September 1850 he became the treasurer of the Cologne Central Authority of the League of Communists . He was federal emissary for Saxony and Berlin. In Berlin he distributed the leaflet “German Men and Prussian Subjects!” In December 1850 he processed several copies of the December address of the central authority.

Communist Trial 1852

When he was arrested on July 25, 1851, he was employed as a chemist at the Cologne Mineral Water Processing Establishment. The Cologne police made a profile of him in 1851: "42 years old (...) tall, 5 feet 9 inches, with red hair, oval forehead, black eye, ordinary nose and mouth, oval chin and reddish beard."

On November 8, the authorities had partially completed the investigation and wanted to indict Peter Gerhard Roeser , Johann Heinrich Bürgers , Peter Nothjung , Hermann Becker , Carl Wunibald Otto, Roland Daniels , Wilhelm Joseph Reiff , Johann Jacob Klein , Abraham Jacobi and Johann Ludwig Albert Erhard . The prosecution of the 'Cologne Appelhof' rejected this. Charges were not brought until May 12, 1852, and the trial began on October 4, 1852. The accused were charged with a "plot" with the "purpose" of "overturning the state constitution" and "arming" the citizens for a "civil war". On the ninth day of the meeting, October 14, 1852, Otto was interrogated. “The seventh defendant, Carl Wunibald Otto, admits that he was a member of the workers 'association and the workers' education association, but not of the federal government. (...) A trip he made in October 1850 to Dresden and Berlin he had taken on neither as an emissary nor in the interests of this union at all, rather he was commissioned to do so by the administration of the local Struvenschen Mineralwasseranstalt, in which he was employed as a chemist His superior Karl Friedrich August Stucke declared in court on October 29, 1852 that this trip to Dresden and Berlin was made on behalf of the company. The process lasted until November 17, 1852. Otto was represented by the lawyer Arthur Nacken , who said in the plea: “That the plot to overthrow the constitution must be directed towards direct and violent overthrow if it is to be criminal. (…) Otto's actions can easily be explained from his familiar relationship with Roeser and, moreover, cannot be removed under the category of participation in a crime. ”He came to the conclusion that Otto was innocent in the sense of the indictment.

The chief procurator August Heinrich von Seckendorff applied for "six years" for Otto without taking into account the pre-trial detention suffered. The court ruled for "five years" imprisonment. With the judgment of November 12, 1852 Otto was deprived of his civil rights for five years according to § 63 of the Prussian Criminal Code of 1851. In addition, lifelong police supervision and, together with all other convicts, the costs of the process. He served the full sentence at the Cosel Fortress together with Heinrich Bürgers.

After imprisonment

While in prison, Wilhelm Stieber published his The Communist Conspiracies of the 19th Century . He thought he was giving a damning verdict on Carl Wunibald Otto when he wrote:

"The investigative authority characterizes him as an insignificant personality who seems to have only served as a subordinate tool to the Communist League, at least could not have been qualified for an important role according to his intellectual powers."

- Wermuth / Stieber, pp. 93-94.

Otto's wife was also monitored by the police during his imprisonment (1853): “Otto's wife still lives in sad circumstances today, she lives on sewing and knitting, works from early in the morning until late at night, does her domestic work herself and fetches the water from the well itself early in the morning ”. In the spring of 1854 Heinrich Bürgers's sister went to the United States to collect money for those arrested in Cologne. Adolf Cluss wrote to Marx on March 16, 1854: “Miss. Citizen in New York received $ 36 under the heading 'Families'; for each prisoner there is about 45 dollars and for each of the 2 families (Otto and Röser?) the same amount. ”On September 22nd, 1856 a petition for clemency that Otto's wife had submitted on April 30th, 17856 because he fell seriously ill, was successful was. Otto was released from prison on October 1, 1856. The remainder of the sentence was waived, but he remained under police supervision. Since Otto's mother had died and he inherited 2000 thalers from her, the inheritance was offset against the legal costs imposed. The board of directors of the Cologne mineral water establishment assessed Otto on April 16, 1856: “We hereby give Mr. Carl Wunibald Otto the testimony that he was the chemical conductor of the local artificial mineral water establishment according to Dr. From December 1, 1842 to July 1851, Struve has proven himself to be skillful, hardworking, orderly, moral and honest ”. The Otto family lived in Cologne until 1862. After that it is no longer mentioned in the Cologne address books. The track is lost and the date of his death is therefore still unknown.

Documents

  • Freedom, brotherhood, work . No. 22 April 22, 1849
  • Invitation of the provisional committee of the workers' associations of the Rhine province and Westphalia to a provincial congress .
  • Copy of the address given by Otto in March 1850 to the Central Authority of the League of Communists
  • Copy of the address of the central authority of the League of Communists to the Bund on December 1, 1850 by Otto
  • Copy of the statutes of the League of Communists from December 1, 1850 by Otto

literature

  • A. Junge: The Weißenfelser Otto . In: Local and home calendar of the city and district of Weißfels . Lehmstedt, Weißenfels an der Saale 1913, pp. 51–56.
  • Karl Wermuth , Wilhelm Stieber : The Communist Conspiracies of the Nineteenth Century. In the official order for the use of the police authorities of all German federal states on the basis of the relevant judicial and police acts . 2 parts. AW Hayn, Berlin 1852–1854 (Reprint: Klaus Guhl, Berlin 1976)
  • Karl Bittel : The Communist Trial in Cologne 1852 in the mirror of the contemporary press. Edited and introduced . Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1955
  • The League of Communists. Documents and materials. 1836-1849 . Vol. 1, Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1970
  • The League of Communists. Documents and materials. 1849-1851 . Vol. 2, Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1982
  • Kurt Kranke : On the effectiveness of a member of the Dresden community of the Union of Communists . In: Sächsische Heimatblätter, vol. 29, 1983, issue 5, pp. 201-202.
  • The League of Communists. Documents and materials. 1851-1852 . Vol. 3, Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1984
  • Ingo Bach: Otto, Carl Wunibald . In: Publications of the International Society for the History of Pharmacy e. V. , Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1986, p. 343
  • Jürgen Herres: The Cologne Communist Trial of 1852 in: History in Cologne. Magazine for town and regional history . 50/2003 online version (PDF)
  • Ingo Bach: Carl Wunibald Otto - communist, pharmacist and chemist . In: The Pharmacy . Journal for scientific and practical, professional and economic issues in pharmacy and pharmacology . 44. Vol. Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin, 1989. Issue 11, pp. 787-789.

Web links

  • Karl Marx: Revelations about the Communist Trial in Cologne . Boston 1853 Online
  • The Becker trial . In: The great conversation lexicon for educated stands . First supplement, Vol. Hildburghausen 1853, pp. 1505-1519 online
  • Wermuth, Wilhelm Stieber: The Communist Conspiracies of the 19th Century , Berlin 1854, p. 93 f. On-line

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Information from the Weißenfels city archive, February 27, 2012.
  2. ^ History and topography of the city and the office of Weißenfels in Saxony. Drawn from authentic documents . Severin, Weißenfels 1796.
  3. ↑ Born in Weißenfels. Since March 28, 1821 mountain doctor in Schneeberg.
  4. ^ Wermuth / Stieber, p. 93.
  5. ^ Official Journal of the Government of Aachen . No. 295, Aachen 1844, p. 133. Online
  6. ^ Report on the events in Cologne on August 3 and 4, 1846 and the days that followed . Heinrich Hoff, Mannheim 1846, p. 9.
  7. ↑ p. 296.
  8. ↑ Karl Bittel, p. 88.
  9. ↑ Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 282 and No. 285 of April 26 and 29, 1849.
  10. ↑ Freedom, brotherhood, work . No. 24 of April 29, 1849.
  11. ↑ Neue Rheinische Zeitung . Extra supplement No. 204 from January 25, 1849.
  12. ↑ The League of Communists . Vol. 2, pp. 312-315.
  13. ^ Wermuth / Sieber, p. 93.
  14. ↑ Karl Bittel, p. 21.
  15. ↑ Karl Bittel, p. 48.
  16. ^ Karl Bittel, p. 82.
  17. ↑ Karl Bittel, p. 148.
  18. ^ Lawyer and judicial advisor Arthur Nacken (1819–1883).
  19. ^ Karl Bittel, pp. 287 and 290.
  20. ^ Karl Bittel, p. 298.
  21. ^ Karl Bittel, p. 298.
  22. ↑ § 63 pr. StG Online
  23. ↑ "Of the people convicted in the communist trial are (...) Bürgers and Otto in Kosel". In: Bayerische Landbötin . No. 11, January 13 , 1853.
  24. ↑ Ingo Bach (1989), p. 789.
  25. ↑ Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe, Department III, Vol. 7, p. 371.
  26. ↑ Kölnische Zeitung October 11, 1856.
  27. ↑ "I do not know whether you have read the day before yesterday in Cologne, and in it the message dated by Kosel that Otto was on the 1st of d. M. has been pardoned. I think he would have had to sit for another two years. If this fact is correct, how does it get along with the previous confiscation of the inheritance that had fallen to Otto? "Ferdinand Freiligrath to Karl Marx October 13, 1856 (Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe. Department III Vol. 8, p. 347)
  28. ↑ "Otto is pardoned". Karl Marx to Friedrich Engels October 16, 1856 ( Marx-Engels-Werke Vol. 29, p. 79).
  29. ↑ "Prussian amnesty is expected October 15, Otto mother died, left 2,000 thalers behind, confiscated by the Prussian government to pay the 'costs of the Cologne trial'" Karl Marx to Friedrich Engels September 22, 1856. (Marx-Engels-Werke. Vol. 29, p. 72)
  30. ↑ Ingo Bach, p. 787 f.
  31. ↑ Publications of the International Society for the History of Pharmacy e. V.
  32. ^ League of Communists . Vol. 1, p. 930.
  33. ^ League of Communists . Vol. 1, pp. 933-934.
  34. ^ League of Communists . Vol. 2, p. 123 ff.
  35. ^ League of Communists . Vol. 2, p. 323 ff.
  36. ^ League of Communists . Vol. 2, p. 331 ff.
  37. ↑ Biography, Note 737, pp. 696-697.
personal data
SURNAME Otto, Carl Wunibald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist, member of the Association of Communists
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Weissenfels
DATE OF DEATH 19th century