Ferdinand von Radziwill

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prince Ferdinand von Radziwill (1834–1926). Photograph by Heinrich Graf, Berlin. around 1874

Ferdinand Fürst Radziwill (actually Ferdynand Fryderyk Wilhelm Aleksander Radziwiłł ) (born October 19, 1834 in Berlin , † February 28, 1926 in Rome ) was the owner of Fideikommiss and one of the leading politicians of the Polish minority in Germany.

Family and personal life

He was the son of Boguslaw Prince von Radziwill and his wife Leontyna Countess of Clary and Aldringen. One of the brothers was Edmund Prince von Radziwill .

Radziwill studied law and completed the usual preparatory service . In 1855 he became a member of the Catholic Reading Association Berlin, now KStV Askania-Burgundia in the KV . Radziwill left the Prussian civil service as a government trainee. He then managed the family property. As majorate of Olyka and other estates he was a large landowner.

In 1864 he married Princess Pelagia Sapieha (1844–1929). The couple had five children. One of the sons was the future Polish politician Janusz Radziwill . The family lived in Berlin and at Antonin Castle in the Adelnau district.

Radziwill had family connections to the house of the Hohenzollern (cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm I) and contact to important dignitaries in Germany and Russia. Militarily he was lieutenant colonel in the reserve before he was appointed major general of the cavalry à la suite in 1879 .

politics

From 1874 to 1918 Radziwill was a member of the Reichstag as a member of the constituency of Posen 10 administrative district (Adelnau - Schildberg). There he was chairman of the Polish parliamentary group for many years . He belonged to the Prussian manor house since 1879. He had a hereditary seat due to the possession of the Przygodzice estate .

During the time of the Kulturkampf , Radziwill, as a Catholic, was a staunch opponent of Otto von Bismarck . His house in Berlin was at times considered the center of opposition to the government's church policy. Fearing social disadvantages, parts of the Catholic and even Polish upper classes kept their distance from Radziwill.

During his almost thirty years leadership of the Polish faction, Radziwill always worked closely with the Center Party . Because of the small number of group members, it was dependent on the support of other groups, especially the center. In parliament, Radziwill took a moderate course and tried to preserve the rights of minorities to practice their religion freely and to speak their own language.

In 1917, Radziwill once again made a pledge of loyalty by the Poles to Germany in the manor house, but also called for a fundamental change in Prussian Poland policy. On behalf of the government, Paul von Breitenbach promised to repeal the expropriation laws and facilitate the use of the Polish language.

After the end of the First World War and the re-establishment of the Polish state, Radziwill was a member of the Sejm . In 1919 he was the senior marshal of the congregation.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Specht, Paul Schwabe: The Reichstag elections from 1867 to 1903. Statistics of the Reichstag elections together with the programs of the parties and a list of the elected representatives. 2nd Edition. Carl Heymann Verlag, Berlin 1904, p. 61; see also Carl-Wilhelm Reibel: Handbook of the Reichstag elections 1890–1918. Alliances, results, candidates (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 15). Half volume 1, Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-7700-5284-4 , pp. 299-301.
  2. ^ Kurt Riezler: Diaries, Articles, Documents. Göttingen, p. 413 ( digitized version )

literature

  • Minutes of the Prussian State Ministry. Volume 10 ( digital version ; PDF; 2.9 MB)
  • Hermann Krüger (ed.): Chronicle of the Prussian manor house. A commemorative book to commemorate the manor's 30th anniversary . Berlin 1885, p. 195
  • Eligiusz Janus: Ludwig Windthorst from a Polish perspective. An inventory. ( PDF file )

Web links

Commons : Ferdynand Radziwiłł  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Radziwill, Ferdinand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Radziwill, Ferdinand Fürst; Radziwill, Ferdynand Fryderyk Wilhelm Aleksander (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish-German Majoratsherr and politician, MdR, member of the Sejm
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1926
Place of death Rome