Friedrich Lange (publicist)

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Friedrich Lange

Friedrich Lange (born January 10, 1852 in Goslar , † December 26, 1917 in Detmold ) was a German journalist. He was one of the leading publicists of the Volkish movement of the Wilhelmine Empire . Lange represented a decidedly racial anti-Semitism and devoted himself above all to colonial politics , the fight against social democracy and the rallying movement in the right-wing party spectrum. In 1894 he founded the Deutschbund, one of the first organizations of the nationalist movement to propagate his ideology.

Live and act

The son of a master potter studied philology and philosophy in Göttingen , where he met Paul de Lagarde . During his studies, Lange found his political home with the fraternities . He became a member of the Brunsviga fraternity . After receiving his doctorate , he taught at high schools in Wolfenbüttel and Hamburg from 1873 to 1876 . In 1876 he became a journalist. After five years with the Braunschweiger Tageblatt , he went to the Berlin Daily Rundschau as the editor in charge .

Long was interested in colonial politics, school reform and "Germanness". In 1884/85 he was one of the founders of the Society for German Colonization and was a leader in the German-East African Society . Between 1885 and 1890 he published three plays. In 1889 he founded the Association for School Reform in order to popularize his nationalist educational concept and, as an association organ, published the magazine for the reform of secondary schools . He obtained 240,000 signatures for a petition to “Germanize” grammar schools and standardize the higher education system.

In 1890, Lange became the editor of the Daily Rundschau . Under his leadership, the newspaper developed from a largely apolitical entertainment paper to an anti-Semitic, downright political newspaper of the national right. In his programmatic collection of essays Reines Deutschtum , he developed the program of German economic reform and a new medium- sized business policy in 1893. In 1895 he fell out over the course of the Daily Rundschau with the publishing director Paul Hempel and was fired. As early as September 1, 1894, Lange founded the Volksrundschau as a medium-sized newspaper in Saxony and Pomerania , which he managed from then on until March 1896. From April 1896 he published the Deutsche Zeitung. Independent daily newspaper for national politics . His political program of "national socialism" committed to economic peace, demanded colonies and propagated an ideology of the "Aryan race".

He also founded the Deutschbund in 1894 , which he understood as the "German-Völkisch brotherhood" and "Burschenschaft for adults". After modest beginnings, after the turn of the century, Lange stabilized the association with an anti-Semitic and racist ideology, also organizationally. The Deutschbund became one of the strongest member associations of the nationalist movement and gained around 1,500 members by the First World War. There were close ties to the Pan-German Association , of which Lange was a managing member.

Supported by the Pan-German Georg von Stössel , Lange founded the Deutsche Zeitung in April 1896 , which he also published until 1912 and which became the leading daily newspaper of the extreme right. Long attempt in 1896 to unite the German Conservative Party , National Liberals , the German Social Reform Party and the Farmers' Federation into a "German Cartel" failed due to the resistance of the German Social Reform Party. In 1902, Lange organized the National Electoral Association with an anti- ultramontane and anti-social democratic program. By 1905 there were 23 local groups with 2,500 members and joined the Reich Association against Social Democracy , of which Lange was a member until 1912. Against the social democracy, Lange also founded the committee, which existed until 1913, to promote the efforts of patriotic workers' associations . In 1905 he initiated the Committee on National Politics . However, the hoped-for establishment of a "National Party in the Reichstag" could not be realized.

In 1912 Lange retired to Detmold into private life. He published until a mental illness made it impossible for him to work during the First World War.

Fonts

  • About the sensualism of the sophist Protagoras and the sketches made by Plato in the first part of the "Theaetet". , Göttingen 1873 (= dissertation). ( Digitized version )
  • and Th Peters: Memorandum for the establishment of an association for school reform. , Berlin 1889.
  • The next. Social drama in 5 acts. Verl.-Anst. & Dr, Hamburg 1890.
  • Pure Germanism. Basics of a national worldview. Lüstenöder, Berlin 1893. ( digitized version )
  • From the German Empire to the German Fatherland. 11th edition. H. Lüstenöder, Berlin 1893.
  • German politics. 33rd edition. H. Lüstenöder, Berlin 1894.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Hans Bohrmann:  Lange, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , pp. 554 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 3: I-L. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0865-0 , p. 230.
  3. ^ Gregor Hufenreuter: German Association . In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.): Handbook of Antisemitism. Hostility to Jews in the past and present . Vol. 5. Organizations, institutions, movements . De Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2012, pp. 131–133, here p. 131.
personal data
SURNAME Lange, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German national journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Goslar
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 1917
Place of death Detmold