Heinrich Philipp Osterrath

Heinrich Philipp Otto Osterrath (born December 13, 1805 in Arnsberg ; † January 28, 1880 there ) was a Prussian civil servant and parliamentarian.

Origin and career advancement

He was the son of the Hofkammeraccesite Johann Osterrath and attended elementary school and the Laurentianum grammar school in Arnsberg . Between 1823 and 1827 he studied law and camera studies in Bonn and Berlin . He then became an auscultator at the regional and municipal court in Brandenburg before moving to the court in Arnsberg. There he worked as an actuary and assistant judge. As such, he was used in various lower courts. In 1831 he switched from the judiciary to the administrative service and became a trainee lawyer with the Arnsberg government . Osterrath moved to Frankfurt (Oder) in 1834 as an assessor . There he was commissioned by the government to sell land belonging to the royal domains in Cottbus . Since 1835 he was a member of the government council in Frankfurt as a domain department council. In 1838 Osterrath went to Merseburg as a councilor and in 1839 to Magdeburg . In 1847 he was appointed senior councilor and head of the finance department of the government in Gdansk .

Parliamentarians 1848/49

There Osterrath was chairman of the local Pius Society during the revolution of 1848/49 . He was elected to the Frankfurt National Assembly from the Konitz constituency. There he belonged to the casino faction and the Paris court . Within the parliamentary groups he belonged to a Catholic-oriented group. He played a not unimportant role in the economic committee. In plenary he spoke only once during the fundamental rights debate. He campaigned vehemently for legal equality and freedom of religion for Jews. After the recall of the Prussian MPs, Osterrath also resigned from his seat.

Osterrath then became a member for the Schwetz-Konitz constituency in the second chamber of the Prussian state parliament . He took an active part in the constitutional debates. The focus was on questions about the divisibility of property and school and church issues. He was in opposition to Prime Minister Otto von Manteuffel . In particular, his efforts to achieve a constitutional guarantee for the non-German-speaking population groups failed.

Member of the state parliament

In the electoral period from 1850, Osterrath represented the Westphalian district of Paderborn - Büren as a member of the Catholic party . During this time he made a name for himself as an expert in financial and economic policy issues. In addition, he campaigned for the protection of church rights. In 1852 Osterrath was one of the founders of the Catholic faction in the Prussian parliament. He wrote the statutes of the parliamentary group and became one of its spokesmen alongside August Reichensperger . Sometimes it was also called the Osterrath fraction.

Because of his job-related transfer to the government in Opole , Osterrath resigned his mandate in 1853, but returned to the Prussian House of Representatives for the constituency of Opole in 1855. There he belonged to the factions of the right and the Centrum. In the following years he was one of the leading parliamentarians in Prussia who participated in the most important legislative measures. In particular, he was an important expert on the state budget and as such appeared several times as a speaker in parliament. When Osterrath was transferred to Minden as deputy district president in 1861 , he resigned his mandate, not least because he considered his professional position to be incompatible with that of a parliamentarian. Upon repeated insistence, he accepted another mandate for the Heinsberg - Erkelenz district in 1863 . After he was transferred to Arnsberg in 1866, he rejected re-election. After Osterrath had retired in 1875, he now accepted a seat in the Prussian House of Representatives for the Center Party from 1876 to 1879.

Osterrath was buried in the Eichholzfriedhof in Arnsberg.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mann, Bernhard (edit.): Biographical manual for the Prussian House of Representatives. 1867-1918 . Collaboration with Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh and Thomas Kühne . Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1988, p. 291 (handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties: vol. 3); for the various constituencies and the election results see Thomas Kühne: Handbook of elections to the Prussian House of Representatives 1867–1918. Election results, election alliances and election candidates (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 6). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5182-3 , p. 909.

literature

• Hans Becker: Joseph von Eichendorff's relationship to the Arnsberg and Sauerland personalities . In: Heimatblätter Arnsberg , vol. 28/2007, p. 32.
• Karl Wippermann:  Osterrath, Heinrich Philipp . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 515 f.

Web links

• Acta Borussica vol. 4 / II p.620