Friedrich Wilhelm Schlöffel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friedrich Wilhelm Schloeffel (* 1800 in Brieg ; † 23. January 1870 in Goldberg ) was a German producer and democratic politicians in the pre-March period and the Revolution of 1848-49 .

Early years

Schlöffel studied natural sciences, and in the meantime joined a fraternity . Therefore, an investigation was initiated against him. After completing his studies, he ran a pharmacy in Landeshut between 1823 and 1831 , where he was promoted to head of the city council. After the pharmacy was sold, he and a partner owned a patent machine paper factory in Eichberg / Silesia.

He took an active part in the political activities of the Hirschberg Citizens' Association. He particularly sharply criticized the privileges of the nobility and the lack of representation of rural traders in the Silesian provincial parliament . He took part in the misery of the farm workers and tried to improve the material situation of the workers he employed. He corresponded with Bettina von Arnim on matters relating to the Silesian weavers . He was also in contact with Julius Stein , Eduard Pelz , Hoffmann von Fallersleben and other members of the opposition. Due to his strongly socially influenced thinking, he differed significantly from the majority of the liberals in Vormärz.

In 1845 he sent a petition to the Silesian provincial parliament which, among other things, opposed censorship and called for a law similar to the British Habeas Corpus Act. He backed up his criticism of the Prussian justice system with a detailed memorandum. Their distribution was forbidden by the authorities. The petition was rejected by the state parliament.

Affair Schlöffel

After the discovery of an amateurish conspiracy by a carpenter who stated that he wanted to spark a new peasant war with his comrades-in-arms, Schlöffel was suspected in 1845 by special investigator Wilhelm Stieber of having written a proclamation for the planned uprising.

He was then arrested while on a business trip in Wroclaw . He spent the next four months in custody. It was not until eight weeks after his arrest that an official investigation into high treason was initiated at the Berlin Higher Regional Court. However, no concrete evidence was found. He has distanced himself from radical letters from his son Gustav Adolph Schlöffel . In Silesia and beyond, the matter sparked protests and a debate in the provincial parliament. Bettina von Arnim defended Schlöffel in letters to Friedrich Wilhelm IV. And to Prince Wilhelm .

In the absence of any evidence, Schlöffel had to be released from prison and acquitted. He sold the paper mill and became a steel mill and estate owner in Halbendorf.

Revolution of 1848/49

In 1848 he was a member of the preliminary parliament . Between May 19, 1848 and May 30, 1849 he was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly for the Hirschberg electoral district. He belonged to the left wing of the assembly and belonged to the factions Deutscher Hof and Donnersberg as well as the Central March Association . In September 1848 he appeared as a speaker at a people's meeting on the Pfingstweide in Frankfurt am Main. In the same month he took part in the Frankfurt uprising . The Frankfurt Court of Appeal then applied for immunity in order to be able to initiate investigative proceedings. The request was rejected by the National Assembly. In October 1848 he took part in the second Democratic Congress and the counter-parliament in Berlin. In the Frankfurt parliament he did not elect Friedrich Wilhelm IV. As Emperor of the Germans.

In May and June 1849 he took an active part in the Baden-Palatinate uprising . He was Chief War Commissioner in the Baden Revolutionary Army in the Lower Rhine District. Among other things, Schlöffel was responsible for supplying von Rastatt . In May 1849 he also appeared as a speaker at the people's assembly in Neustadt ad Hardt and at the Offenburg assembly. In November 1848 he fled to Switzerland. Because of alleged political danger, he was expelled from Switzerland in 1850 and emigrated to the USA. In Philadelphia he worked as an innkeeper. In his absence he was sentenced to death in 1851. He did not return to Germany until 1866 as a result of an amnesty and lived in Goldberg.

Fonts (selection)

  • Prussia through its aristocracy. Germany's bigger enemy. Leipzig, 1830 digitized

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In all agreement with Dir. Bettina von Arnim's correspondence with her son Friedmund Edited by Wolfgang Bunzel and Ulrike Landfester Göttingen, 2001 p. 332

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schlöffel, Friedrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Entrepreneur and Democratic Politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH Brieg
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1870
Place of death Goldberg