Hans Georg von Oppersdorff

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Hans Georg von Oppersdorff

Hans Georg Graf von Oppersdorff (born October 8, 1866 in Oberglogau , † March 21, 1948 in Lourdes ) was a German Fideikommissherr , representative of the association and a Catholic politician. As one of the main representatives of the integralist , anti-modern “Berlin direction” within the Catholic milieu , he was one of the most controversial Catholic personalities before the First World War. In addition, he advocated a settlement with the Polish population in the Prussian eastern provinces.

Family and education

Oberglogau Castle , Upper Silesia

He came from the old Silesian noble family von Oppersdorff . After the early death of his parents, his father Hans von Oppersdorff and his mother Elisabeth (née de Talleyrand-Périgord ), he was raised by his grandfather Eduard von Oppersdorff . He attended the Stella Matutina (Jesuit college) in Feldkirch . Afterwards Oppersdorff studied law in Bonn , Berlin and Leipzig . In 1889 he took over the family property from his grandfather, Count Eduard von Oppersdorff, which also included the Oberglogau Castle. In total, the property was 6500 hectares. In 1895 he married Dorothea (Leotine Maria) Radziwiłł . The eldest son Wilhelm Hans was born that same year. It followed: Eduard (1896), Dorothea (1897), Maria and Mathias (1899), and Elisabeth and Franz (1900), Anton (1902), Josef Ludwig (1903), Hedwig (1904), Candida (1907) and Ignatius (1910).

Association representative

Oppersdorff was involved in the organization of the Catholic milieu. In 1899 he was the first vice-president of the German Katholikentag in Neisse . In 1904 he became a member of the Central Committee of German Catholics . However, his candidacy for the chairmanship of the German Katholikentag in 1908 in Düsseldorf failed. In the Central Committee of German Catholics he came forward with maximum demands, such as the restoration of the Papal States.

From 1900 he was chairman of the Silesian Farmers' Association. In addition to representing agricultural interests, it was monarchist and Christian under the leadership of Oppersdorff. In Silesia he tried to expand the agricultural cooperative system and in 1906 was a co-founder of the Central Office of Christian Farmers' Associations in Germany.

Parliamentary mandates

Oppersdorff had belonged to the Prussian manor house since 1897. There he belonged to the conservative faction. In the manor house he spoke in 1908 against the anti-Polish expropriation law, but also against a Prussian electoral reform in 1910 and against the possibility of cremation in 1911.

He was a member of the Reichstag for the Center Party from 1907. He represented the constituency of Glatz-Habelschwerdt. Because, according to Friedrich von Praschma , he ran an expense for his parliamentary office and his library that exceeded his assets, Oppersdorff got involved in financial speculation.

Turning towards integralism

Oppersdorff came into a political opposition to Felix Porsch and parts of the Center Party in Silesia when he advocated that the Center Party should meet the Poles. According to Karl Bachem's information , at this time he was still on the side of the more progressive "Cologne direction" within the Center Party. After that he would even have sought a seat on the board of the People's Association for Catholic Germany .

But that soon changed. In 1910 he caused considerable unrest in the Center Party with his resistance to a Reichstag candidacy by Martin Spahn , who was considered a modernist. After he became a member of the Reichstag in a by-election, Oppersdorff tried to keep him out of the center faction and ran a real campaign to do so. Above all, Spahn was accused of his commitment to equal rights between Protestantism and Catholicism. Oppersdorff even sent a pamphlet to the Pope. The center's parliamentary group, which shied away from a conflict with Rome, then dealt in ten sessions with the question of whether or not to accept Spahn. Oppersdorff finally went one step further and published the brochure: “A question of conscience: Is Martin Spahn a center man?” This was of no use, because the parliamentary group finally accepted Spahn.

Since then, at the latest, Oppersdorff has been one of the strict anti-modernists in the Center Party. At times in alliance with Matthias Erzberger , he was one of the supporters of the conservative Bishop of Breslau Georg von Kopp . Oppersdorff was under the code name "Thomsk" member of a lay group of prelates from the Umberto Benigni directed Vatican secret organization " Sodalitium Pianum ."

Conflicts with the Center Party

Oppersdorff came into conflict with large parts of his party in 1911 when he was one of the few center deputies to speak out against a constitution for Alsace-Lorraine because he did not agree with the provisions on denominational schools and the language issue. Oppersdorff took legal action against leading journalists against critical reports in the Catholic press. There were other public disputes about statements by Father Albert Maria Weiß . This dispute escalated to the point that center papers such as the Kölnische Volkszeitung demanded that Oppersdorff be excluded from the party. The Augustinus Association, as an association of the Catholic press, excluded him in 1911 for insulting the chairman Eduard Hüsgen . Oppersdorff ultimately successfully took action against this before the Reichsgericht.

In his previous constituency, he had little chance of being elected again after the conflict. The constituency Fraustadt-Lissa in the province of Poznan finally set it up. In addition, he was put up as a candidate for the Reichstag election in various constituencies in and around Berlin. In the Fraustadt-Lissa constituency, Oppersdorff was able to prevail in the runoff election. He was supported by the Polish electorate and the farmers' union . However, there have been reports of election bribery.

The mouthpiece of the integralists

For the center press it was clear that Oppersdorff would no longer be part of the center faction. He was also not invited to the constituent meeting.

As a result, he no longer had to take the discipline of parliamentary groups into account and, as the editor of the magazine “Klarheit und Truth”, made himself the spokesman for the integralist Berlin trend within the Catholic milieu from the beginning of 1912. In his magazine, Oppersdorff rejected all approaches between the denominations and all modern influences in Catholicism. The main opponents were the "Cologne direction" and the interdenominational Christian unions . Julius Bachem and Felix Porsch in particular were attacked, but also numerous others. In the meantime Matthias Erzberger no longer supported Oppersdorff's positions. Instead, he publicly opposed this. Among other things, he accused Oppersdorff of inconsistency. When he criticized the interdenominationalism of the Christian trade unions, he forgot that he himself was a member of the predominantly Protestant conservative faction in the manor house and chairman of the interdenominational Silesian farmers' association.

Oppersdorff used not only his magazine, but also newspapers that were extremely hostile to the center to attack Porsch in particular. All of this led to Oppersdorff being voted out of the Central Committee of German Catholics in 1912 and the Silesian Center Party expelled him from the party.

In 1914, Oppersdorff's struggle against Christian unions reached its climax when he published an exchange of letters with Cardinal Kopp. In doing so, however, he achieved the opposite of the intended effect. Instead, there were large gatherings of center supporters who demonstrated against integralism and for the Christian trade unions.

Last years

With the inauguration of Pope Benedict XV. he completely lost support in Rome as well. Oppersdorff, who had fought against interdenominationalism, tried successfully in 1916 to be accepted into the Protestant-dominated conservative faction in the Reichstag. During the First World War he served in the War Ministry.

After the war he again drew attention to himself: On March 20, 1921, a referendum was to decide whether Upper Silesia would remain a state. Only the eastern part of the Neustadt OS district with Oberglogau belonged to the Upper Silesian voting area. Hans Georg Graf von Oppersdorff spoke out in favor of an assignment to Poland, since Upper Silesia "is better protected in Catholic Poland than in Protestant, unbelieving Northern Germany." Nevertheless, 4995 votes (95.9%) in Oberglogau were in favor of remaining with Germany cast and 215 votes were in favor of joining Poland.

In 1930 he handed over his property to his son Wilhelm Hans von Oppersdorff and retired to a castle in France.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Oppersdorff, Hans Georg von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oppersdorff, Hans Georg Graf von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Fideikommissherr, association representative and politician (center), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Upper Logau
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1948
Place of death Lourdes