Friedrich Gerhard Oetken

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Friedrich Gerhard Oetken (* December 7, 1850 in Linswege, district of Westerstede ; † January 31, 1922 in Oldenburg ) was a German farmer, functionary and, as a politician, a member of the Oldenburg Landtag .

life and career

Oetken came from a Westerstede farming family. His parents were the farmer Johann Diedrich Oetken and his wife Almuth Elisabeth Dorothea geb. Orth. He first attended the high school in Delmenhorst and then completed an agricultural apprenticeship in his father's business or from 1866/67 at the agricultural school in Neuchâtel .

Between 1869 and April 1872 he held various functions in three domains in the Prussian provinces of Hanover and Brandenburg a . a. active as a volunteer, administrator and inspector. From April 1872 to April 1873 he served as a one-year volunteer in Berlin and became a lieutenant in the reserve . At the same time he had also enrolled at the local agricultural college . In the spring of 1877, Oetken went on a two-year study trip to the United States , where he worked as an agricultural assistant in Iowa and California . The impressions from this trip had a decisive influence on Oetken's further life.

In 1880 Oetken was elected chairman of the Ammerland department of the Oldenburg Agricultural Society. He held this position until 1893. In 1882 he also took over his father's court. From 1884 to 1887 he was a member of the Westerstede office in the Oldenburg state parliament, also in political life.

In 1891 Oetken became a member of the central board of the Oldenburg Agricultural Society. A year later, due to a kidney disease, he was forced to lease his business and move to Oldenburg. Here he was able to devote himself entirely to his association work as a functionary. He also worked as a writer and lecturer. In 1893 his main work, Agriculture in the United States of North America , appeared, and in 1894 the programmatic lecture The situation of our German agriculture, especially in relation to foreign competition, and what can we do to make this situation bearable? The publications and lectures show Oetken's objective, the modernization of Oldenburg agriculture under the conditions of the agricultural crisis that has preoccupied him since his trip to America. In 1895 he became general secretary of the Agricultural Society.

From 1895 to 1905 he edited the Oldenburgische Landwirtschaftsblatt , whose number of customers more than doubled from 3,600 to 8,800 during this time. As a supporter of the agrarian opposition, Oetken campaigned against the Caprivian trade policy and the lifting of protective tariffs on foreign grain. He supported the transformation of the Agricultural Society into the Chamber of Agriculture , which took place from 1900 , and which considerably increased the assertiveness of Oldenburg agriculture. In 1900 Oetken became general secretary ( syndic ) of this same chamber and in this function successfully promoted the implementation of his program from 1894. In 1905 he gave up the position of in-house. In 1913 he wrote another report in the journal Heimatkunde des Herzogtums Oldenburg, published by the state teachers' association, about the unprecedented rise of Oldenburg agriculture after the turn of the century.

family

Oetken married Mathilde Auguste Charlotte Francksen (1856–1938) from Tossens on May 25, 1882 . Two sons from this marriage, Werner and Friedrich, died in 1915 during the First World War .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BHGLO p. 557 (online)
personal data
SURNAME Oetken, Friedrich Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Oldenburg farmer, official, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Linswege, district of Westerstede
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1922
Place of death Oldenburg