Heinrich von Gagern

Eduard von Heuss: Heinrich von Gagern , 1848

Heinrich von Gagern, 1848

Grave of Heinrich von Gagern in the old cemetery in Darmstadt

Heinrich Wilhelm August Freiherr von Gagern (born August 20, 1799 in Bayreuth , † May 22, 1880 in Darmstadt ) was a liberal German politician . The participant in the wars of liberation and the fraternity in the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Hessen-Darmstadt) was first an administrative officer and then an opposition member of the state parliament. In the revolution of 1848 he served as Prime Minister of Hesse for two and a half months and became President of the Frankfurt National Assembly on May 19, 1848 .

President Gagern advocated centralized power and negotiated with the German states. When it became more and more hopeless to integrate Austria into the German Reich that was to be formed , he took over the office of Prime Minister (December 1848 to May 1849). In this function, he brought the parliamentary negotiations to an end that led to the Frankfurt constitution of March 28, 1849. However, it did not succeed in bringing the constitution and with it German unity and freedom into effect.

After the National Assembly, Gagern reluctantly participated in the Prussian attempt to achieve German unity as the Erfurt Union and was a member of the Volkshaus of the Erfurt Union Parliament (1850). He then served as a major in the Schleswig-Holstein Army in 1850/1851 . He remained politically interested and active, but did not take office until the 1860s.

From 1862 to 1864 he served on the committee of the German Reform Association , a greater German unification movement, because in the meantime Gagern had once again been disappointed by Prussia. From 1864–1872 he served as the Hessian envoy in Vienna and was again a member of parliament in Hessen-Darmstadt. He welcomed the founding of the empire by Bismarck , as did many other members of parliament from 1848/1849.

Family and childhood

Heinrich von Gagern came from the noble von Gagern family and was one of six sons of the politician, diplomat and cultural historian Hans Christoph Ernst Freiherr von Gagern . He came from a noble family whose ancestors had served in wars for Venice or France, for example. He thought nationally, conservatively and federalistically, was a member of the government council in the Principality of Nassau-Weilburg at a young age and later served as an envoy to the Bundestag. The Catholic mother Karoline, called Charlotte, was a maid of honor in Mannheim and married her Protestant husband at the age of 17. The couple had ten children.

The family fled from the Hessian Weilburg but before the French revolutionary troops. Heinrich von Gagern was born on August 20, 1799 in the New Hermitage in Bayreuth, which at that time belonged to Prussia. A year later the family went back to Weilburg, where they first had an apartment in Weilburg Castle and then until 1809 in the city of Weilburg.

1812–1814 Heinrich attended the cadet school in Munich, which he later judged to be useless because it did not correspond to the level of education of the family. On April 2, 1815, he became a second lieutenant and, at the age of 15, went to war in a Nassau regiment against Napoleon's rule of the hundred days . At Waterloo he was slightly wounded in the foot before the advancing Prussians brought victory. Before and during the march into Paris, he met his father, who was an envoy during the negotiations, and the brothers Fritz (in the Dutch army) and Karl (in the Bavarian army). This participation in the Wars of Liberation was formative for Heinrich von Gagern; some authors like the father turned it into a heroic story.

Studies 1816–1819 and career as a civil servant

Extract from the “ Stamm-Buch ” of the original fraternity in Jena with the entry of Gagerns

The 16-year-old accompanied the older brother Fritz to Heidelberg and participated in a constitution for a general fraternity there; for a duel he was in the dungeon for ten days . A year later, the law student went to Göttingen and later to Jena (1818/1819) and Geneva (1819). His father supported him annually with a sum that corresponded to the annual earnings of a professor, but Heinrich couldn't manage it and doesn't seem to have studied intensively either. The fraternity activities and a duel scar ensured that the previously benevolent father moved the son to Jena.

Jena, where Heinrich met the poet prince Goethe , was the center of the fraternity movement in Germany. Here he became a member of the original fraternity in 1818 . In 1818 he helped organize the commemoration festival for the Leipzig Battle of the Nations , behind the scenes of which the Allgemeine Deutsche Burschenschaft was founded, a national political organization. For Heinrich, nationalism was inextricably linked with “folklore”, with democratic principles and a constitution. One can speak of a generation of liberation wars: Although his fellow students did not take part in these wars because of their youth, they made them their own myth. He gave them the right to realize the national and liberal idea, which was not realized in 1815. They were also directed against the fathers who bowed to Napoleon.

The father persuaded Heinrich to spend a year studying in Geneva because he could improve his French in Switzerland (and was protected from persecution in the German Confederation ). Here Heinrich got to know the rule of democratic elites. He later described that it was here, as a nobleman in a democratic, bourgeois society, that he discovered his individuality. In November 1821 he passed the second state examination in Giessen.

Heinrich von Gagern made a civil servant career in the Grand Duchy of Hesse , sponsored by the Minister of State Karl Ludwig Wilhelm von Grolman and the Darmstadt District President Kaspar Josef von Biegeleben . As a young reform official, the prospects for promotion were slim, he could do little, and in 1826 he was thinking of a mandate in the state parliament.

Opposition politicians in the pre-March period

Member of the State Parliament 1832–1835

The July Revolution of 1830 in France and the Belgian Revolution , against the brothers Fritz and Max fought in the Dutch services, the liberal opposition in Germany could be more pressure on governments to encourage so hoped Heinrich von Gagern. He got to know liberals like Karl von Rotteck , Adam von Itzstein and Carl Theodor Welcker and toasted the oppressed Poles publicly. In 1832 he ran successfully in the Lorsch constituency for the state parliament, where he became chairman of the finance committee and soon became leader of the opposition.

The government reacted to the opposition by dissolving the state parliament on November 2, 1833, retired the civil servant Gagern and dismissed him as chamberlain. On November 6th, he asked to be released from civil service in order to maintain his independence in the eyes of the public. Although Gagern was elected president in the new state parliament in 1834, the government rejected him. Gagern headed the finance committee again. In the new elections in December 1834, his old constituency of Lorsch did not elect him, but the constituency of Hungen and the city of Worms. Citizens of the city feared economic repression by the government and asked Gagern not to accept his mandate. In the end, Gagern stayed in the state parliament, but the liberals were now in the minority there. The disappointed Gagern came to the conclusion that a politician needs a larger base, as the dispute with Worms showed, and that the non-free system in the individual states could not be overcome.

At that time, the opinion was also formed that Prussia should play the leading role in German unification. This would ultimately also mean the dissolution of Prussia. Should the German states oppose unity and freedom, Gagern thought of a revolution, though probably led by bourgeois leaders, since he made derogatory comments about the lower classes. Extra-parliamentary pressure should support the parliamentary opposition. In 1846 he came up with the idea of ​​a closer (under Prussian leadership) and another (with Austria) alliance. Such a double alliance would even be favorable for Austria because Prussia-Germany would then keep its back free for the Balkans.

Landowner 1838–1846

Gagern subsequently stayed at his family's Monsheim estate . He later stylized himself as a hermit in emigration who did not give in to external circumstances, which, however, may be exaggerated. In any case, he had thought of returning to politics from the start. He did not make any progress with the planned writings, but he made contacts with dignitaries in the Rhine Palatinate and built up a political base for himself.

Gagern became president of the Agricultural Association for Rheinhessen, but in 1842 he refused the invitation to run for the state parliament again, and in 1846 his father's attempts to bring him back into civil service. The question was whether he would forgive the government at all, he replied to his father. Only a revolution or something like that would bring him back.

Return to Parliament in 1847

The government wanted to introduce a uniform code of law for the entire Grand Duchy of Hesse and, among other things, de facto abolish civil marriage. At the end of 1846 Gagern headed the resistance from Rheinhessen, and at the end of January 1847 thirteen of the 25 electors in Worms elected him to the state parliament in a by-election without Gagern even knowing about it. He feared he would be captured by the city, but under the suffrage he had to accept the mandate.

Gagern led a sharp opposition policy and became known outside the Grand Duchy. He got into such an argument with the conservative court judge Konrad Georgi , next to whom he was to sit in the chamber, that he was asked to a duel. Georgi's excessive demands on the terms made it possible for Gagern to reject it. So he escaped the dilemma of either offending his aristocratic peers or endangering his life and political career.

Moderate liberals and democrats began to separate at this time, but it would be an exaggeration to describe the Heppenheimer gathering of opposition politicians as "liberal" and the one in Offenburg as the "army of democrats" who wanted to abolish the monarchy. Rather, both meetings at the end of 1847 demanded something similar. Gagern distanced himself from the moderates in Baden, where they support the government, but did not see themselves as radical. He praised the German people, who were too conservative and organizational for a French, anarchic revolution and was optimistic about the future.

Revolution time

Hessian Minister March to May 1848

Heinrich von Gagern, 1848

When the news of the February Revolution in Paris triggered the German Revolution, Gagern called for a German head with a national government and a national parliament in the state parliament on February 28. During this time Germany expected a possible attack by revolutionary France. The public would support a national parliament for the impending war, it said in a chamber report on Gagern's request. The liberals wanted to instrumentalize the emerging popular assemblies and get the revolution of the masses under control.

On March 5, Gagern took part in the Heidelberg assembly , where the opposition between monarchical-constitutional liberals and the republican left around Friedrich Hecker and Gustav Struve arose. On the same day a regent was installed in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and Gagern was appointed head of government. He only changed the most reactionary of the officials, also to keep the financial burden of pensions low.

Gagern was against the pre-parliament because he feared Welcker's coup with the radicals and was generally angry that Welcker had put Gagern's name on the list for the Committee of Seven without authorization . From March 7th, Gagern and his friends traveled through southern Germany to promote the plan that the German princes would appoint the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV as head of the federal government. The Grand Duke of Baden and the King of Württemberg agreed to the idea, the Bavarian finally formally approved, but he resigned on March 20.

The fact that the King of Prussia surrendered to the people on March 18 seemed to promote Gagern's plan. But with the dwindling Prussian authority, so did the rejection of Prussia in the rest of Germany, and in an audience it was learned that the king showed no will to a national policy. The king also had no inclination to follow Max von Gagern's suggestion that Prussia restore Poland and wage war against reactionary Russia. The calculation of the Gagern brothers and others was that such a war would have placed Prussia on the side of the liberal and national movement. Heinrich von Gagern became more skeptical of agreements with the princes and chose a parliament.

Gagern's firm stance towards the determined left in the pre-parliament, who wanted to establish a republic immediately, increased his reputation among the liberals enormously. He also became known throughout Germany. While he was campaigning for the National Assembly in April, the Hecker uprising broke out in Baden. Fritz von Gagern, commanding officer of a Baden operations corps, died in the crackdown. The circumstances are not exactly clarified, but the thesis arose that he was shot from behind during a negotiation with Hecker. Heinrich von Gagern spoke of a murder in his memoirs.

President of the National Assembly May to December 1848

Torchlight procession in honor of Heinrich von Gagern, May or June 1848

Elected in the third constituency of Hessen-Darmstadt (Zwingenberg), Gagern accepted the suggestion of liberal friends that he should be elected President of the National Assembly. Otherwise the leftist Robert Blum might have become president. On May 19, 1848, Gagern received 305 of 397 votes. The president should be re-elected every month, which Gagern managed seven times in a row (with between 75 and 91 percent). He had reluctantly given up his Hessian ministerial office on May 31, as the two were not compatible for practical reasons and time constraints. Officially, he was not a member of the right-wing liberal casino faction , but it was his faction, although he was also supported by other factions such as the left-wing center.

When the National Assembly thought of an executive in June , the committee report had presented a board of directors with three people. It was generally assumed that the Directory would appoint Gagern Prime Minister. The Left had suggested that the Prime Minister should come from Parliament - to get Gagern out of Parliament. On June 24th, however, Gagern surprisingly called on the National Assembly for a “bold move”: to appoint an individual, an imperial administrator , namely Archduke Johann of Austria . On June 28, the National Assembly voted for the corresponding central power law and elected Johann the next day.

Depiction of Eduard Mayer from the Paulskirche with the faces of well-known MPs. Standing in the middle, towering over everyone else, President Gagern was marked with the handle on the bell.

With this, Gagern and the casino parliamentary group broke away from the agreement principle , because the governments were not involved in the appointment of Johann, even if they later transferred the powers of the Bundestag to him. Gagern himself was not available for the imperial government appointed by Johann.

After the National Assembly had accepted the unpopular Malmö ceasefire , the September riots broke out in Frankfurt and Baden . The President showed cold blood when angry people tried to storm St. Paul's Church at a meeting on September 18. While inside the outside door could be heard bumping into the door, Gagern successfully asked the excited MPs to remain in their seats and resumed negotiations.

Gagern traveled to Berlin on November 24th with fellow MPs Eduard Simson and Georg Vincke from Westphalia to speak to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. They learned that the king was not thinking of close cooperation and would not accept an imperial dignity from the hands of the National Assembly, as this would have to come from the agreement of the states. Gagern indicated that the princes could be induced or compelled to accept the constitution, and received the impression that the king would, as so often before, withdraw his statement. He succeeded in preventing Prussia from breaking with the National Assembly, unlike Austria, which two days later reaffirmed its state unity and thus made greater Germany impossible.

Reich Minister President December 1848 to May 1849

→ Main article : Cabinet Gagern

Caricature from 1849: Gagern has to peddle basic rights . In the summer of 1851 the Bundestag declared them ineffective.

The attitude of Austria led to the resignation of the Reich Prime Minister Anton von Schmerling on December 15, 1848 . Two days later, the Reichsverweser instead appointed Gagern as head of government and minister of the interior and foreign affairs. Gagern's program of the closer and wider federation, which linked Austria with Germany only through a confederation of states, led to the departure of many Greater Germans from the casino. Gagern had to seek support elsewhere, but on January 11, 1849, he received a majority for his program in the National Assembly.

Gagern's little German course was confirmed when Austria demanded a Greater Austria at the beginning of March , with the whole of Austria in the German Confederation with an organ that was only to be composed of members of the individual states - with 38 votes for Austria against 32 others. For Gagern it seemed that the non-Austrian Greater Germans were coming into his camp and the left was not necessary for majorities, for example on the electoral law.

This turned out to be wrong during the important votes on the constitutional principles at the end of March. After a vote defeat on March 21 (Welcker's motion), with 283 votes against and 252 votes in favor, Gagern's government resigned. In the absence of an alternative, she remained “temporarily” in office. An agreement with the moderate left Heinrich Simon , the Simon-Gagern pact of March 26th, brought a majority in favor of Gagern's program, with concessions to the left. On March 28, the constitution of the German Empire was promulgated.

Emperor's deputation in front of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. , Far left Heinrich von Gagern

An emperor's deputation under Eduard Simson and with Heinrich von Gagern informed the Prussian king of his election as emperor. But on April 2nd the king refused, on April 28th it was finally rejected. During this time Gagern tried unsuccessfully to change the king's mind or to bring the constitution into effect in another legal way. While there was a broad popular movement in favor of the constitution, in May the king went over to openly fighting the National Assembly. He also illegally called on the deputies from Prussia to resign from their mandate.

The next steps were considered in the National Assembly, with parts of the left advocating the use of force. The Austrian ruler showed no interest in standing firmly behind the constitution, and the long smoldering conflict between him and Gagern broke out openly. On the evening of May 9th, Gagern presented the following plan to the cabinet and the representatives of the state governments who were present : The left-leaning National Assembly was to be dissolved, the right-leaning Reich Administrator removed and central power transferred to Prussia, so that Prussia still had its role in the unification process to give. Contrary to Gagern's unrealistic idea, Johann did not resign; on May 10th, the Ministry-Gagern had to ask for release. Ernst Rudolf Huber: “The leader of the liberals had reached the end of his possibilities. Fate failed him to go down in history as the founder of the empire and creator of the imperial constitution. The 'bold grip' he had dared was a grip on nothing. ”

At that time Gagern suffered from a "nervous headache", but said the casino should continue to advocate the German issue in the National Assembly. On the evening of May 19, a parliamentary group majority voted to leave the National Assembly because they feared civil war, and Gagern submitted to the majority when he co-signed the declaration from his sickbed. He resigned from office on May 20.

Erfurt Union

Entry ticket from Heinrich von Gagern for the Volkshaus of the Erfurt Union Parliament

The Prussian king wanted to implement an " Erfurt Union " under a more conservative auspices (initially called the German Empire , then called the German Union ). The right-wing liberals met with Gagern on June 26-28, 1849 in the so-called Gotha post-parliament to discuss their participation in it. Gagern feared that this would lead to a loss of public image, possibly without achieving German unity. A declaration prepared by Gagern and Dahlmann then placed the goal above the form in which it is achieved. Gagern was a member of the central committee of the “Gotha Party” that was emerging.

In the Erfurt Union Parliament (March / April 1850), which discussed the new constitution to be agreed, the Liberals formed the majority on questions of principle. Gagern was a member of the People's House of Parliament. When it became apparent that Prussia's commitment to the Union was weakening, he called it legitimate for the Prussian government to want to renounce the constitutional catalog of fundamental rights. However, he refused because it would damage the state. He also said that the subsequent revision of the constitution would be carried out in accordance with it. Nonetheless, he supported the Liberals' proposal to adopt the constitution in its entirety as it was at that time, and reminded the Prussian government that it had proposed this constitution itself on May 26, 1849. After the autumn crisis of 1850 at the latest , Prussia, threatened by Austria, had to give up the union project anyway.

After the unification efforts

Schleswig-Holstein

Since the Schleswig-Holstein uprising , these two duchies have been at war with Denmark, supported at times by German troops and mainly by Prussian troops. After the Peace of Berlin on July 2, 1850, the Schleswig-Holsteiners were on their own. Gagern traveled from his native Monsheim to Berlin to research the background of Prussian behavior.

The Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Manteuffel met with Gagern, but brought in a young conservative politician, Otto von Bismarck . The latter described in his memoirs how Manteuffel left her alone under a pretext. Bismarck allegedly presented his political point of view soberly and objectively, but made Gagern his "Jupiter face" and showered him with phrases like in a popular meeting. Bismarck later said to Manteuffel that he was out of the question.

Gagern as major, drawing from March 20, 1851

This shows not only a difference in political opinion, according to Gagern's biographer Frank Möller, but also in relation to political speech. Bismarck's drastic judgment probably also resulted from a bad conscience, because he himself was the "babbler", while Gagern immediately went to Schleswig-Holstein and joined the army there. He did this not only with a view to public opinion, in order to rehabilitate himself, but because he felt responsible for the country after long hesitant in favor of Prussia on this question.

As a major in the Schleswig-Holstein army , Gagern was a kind of liaison officer between the military command and the governorship , i.e. the provisional government that had been installed by the central authorities. His wife was appalled by his military service and asked him to think of his children; and the public saw in him above all a noble who let himself be carried away by a sense of honor. But for Gagern, the time was a kind of vacation from politics. Due to weather reasons, among other things, there was no battle with the Danes in winter, and finally the governorship gave up in favor of federal commissioners. Gagern asked for his departure on January 13, 1851.

reaction time

Gagern looked back and experienced suffering in the family, especially the death of his mother, but stayed in contact with his political friends. In April 1851, for example, southwest German liberals met in Deidesheim, where Wilhelm Beseler , Gervinus and Ludwig Häusser spoke out in favor of republic and revolution, while Gagern continued to strive for a constitutional monarchy, perhaps with transitional forms.

After the death of his wife, Hans Christoph von Gagern rediscovered writing and wanted to look back on the revolution in a work. In his opinion, one should be satisfied with the current situation. The son Heinrich was outraged by the surviving script, saw his father betraying the ideas of the Wars of Liberation and an attack on his son's policy, and threatened to publicly oppose it if it were published. The father died on October 22, 1852.

In August 1851 Heinrich von Gagern sold Gut Monsheim for around 150,000 guilders and went to Heidelberg in Baden , because of the educational opportunities for his children, but also to escape Hessian politics. But the Heidelberg liberals were at odds, and his friend Friedrich Daniel Bassermann died of suicide and Alexander von Soiron of a stroke (1855) while he was walking with Gagern. In 1856/1857 Heinrich and Max von Gagern published a biography of their dead brother Fritz.

The Crimean War of 1854 brought him into contact with the moderate weekly newspaper party in Prussia; Although he was skeptical as to whether this opposition could reach the government, the war seemed to be able to spread to many European countries and thus to stir the German question. Other liberals also believed that war would create the political leader who would bring about unity.

Later career and end

While the Liberals became more active again, Gagern remained more passive in the second half of the 1850s. When Prussia did not intervene in the Sardinian War of 1859 in favor of Austria , he left the small German course disappointed. But the time of those born around 1800 like Gagern was over, especially the younger generation followed the Prussian realpolitik like some disappointed leftists . In 1863 he welcomed the Austrian plans for federal reform , which led to the Frankfurt Reform Act , which failed because of Prussia. However, unlike Austria, he still demanded a national parliament.

Afterwards he said that a dualistic leadership of Germany by Austria and Prussia was impossible, only a war could bring the decision between the two great powers. From 1862 to 1864 he was a member of the committee of the Greater German German Reform Association , but remained aloof from it, and resigned when he was Hesse's ambassador in Vienna in 1864. With that he lost his independence as a politician, but he needed a paid job, had no contact with his old party friends, saw his brother Max in Vienna and felt very comfortable there.

Gagern accepted the Prussian victory in 1866 with serenity, as did Upper Hesse's membership of the North German Confederation after the Prussian annexation . The Hohenzollern candidacy in Spain was Prussian chauvinism for him, but he welcomed the Franco-Prussian War and its result, including the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. The war of his youth had been happily repeated. Like many other liberals, even former leftists from 1848, he agreed to the establishment of an empire. When Bismarck informed him during this time that they were aware of Gagern's contributions to the founding of the empire, he replied:

"Even if some things turned out differently, differently than I wished, for myself I am completely reconciled with the overall result, which in some directions exceeds everything that was previously hoped and believed possible, and I welcome the new German Rich with patriotic joy and devotion. "

After he had raised his children as Catholics, Heinrich von Gagern converted to Catholicism in July 1870. His uncle Ernst von Gagern was also a convert and a Catholic priest.

Like many other Frankfurt MPs, he sought a seat in the Reichstag in 1871. But he turned down the offer of the Catholic Center Party and ran as an independent in several constituencies. Attacked by opponents because of the recommendation by the Catholics, he narrowly lost to candidates of the National Liberals in all constituencies . He wanted to be dismissed from his Hessian civil service at the end of 1870, but this did not happen until 1872. He had concerns about the structure of the new Reich, he expected that the rights of the Reichstag would be better defined.

In January 1877 Heinrich von Gagern fell seriously ill and asked his brother Max to write his biography. He consciously took up the news that Bismarck had formed the dual alliance with Austria and called this the realization of "Gagernian dreams". Heinrich von Gagern died on May 22, 1880 and was buried in the Darmstadt cemetery between his two wives (grave site: I Wall 111/112).

family

In 1828 Heinrich von Gagern fell passionately in love with the 23-year-old Louise von Pretlack, the daughter of a forester. They married on September 28th. After serious illness she died already on 24 February 1831. From 1839 in Freinsheim closed second marriage to Barbara Tillmann (1818-1889), cousin of the nobles Anna von Szent-Ivanyi and the Bavarian state parliament Philipp Tillmann , walked five sons and two daughters among them:

• Luise (* 1840)
• Friedrich Balduin (1842–1910), member of the Bavarian state parliament and the Reichstag
• Maximilian (1844–1911), Hessian Real Privy Councilor and authorized representative at the Federal Council
• Ernst (August 8, 1849 - December 21, 1928), Prussian major general
• Heinrich (1856–1942), Vice President of the Court of Auditors
• Amalie (1846–1924) ∞ Baron Ludwig von Edelsheim (1823–1872)

Effect and afterlife

Caricature from 1848. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn is mocked as a donkey, while President Gagern covers his ears and Vice-President Alexander von Soiron runs away.

Although he was a nobleman, he was associated with bourgeois values ​​such as "individuality as identity with oneself, righteousness and honesty, sensitivity in friendship, love and hate." It was not even about the achievements, he was accorded virtues, not just bourgeois ones , but "German".

Compared to Bismarck's linguistic power, Gagern's speeches were not special, he worked with the externality and the voice (topos of " Jupiter "). Contemporaries unconsciously valued Gagern for how he combined a bourgeois form of communication, namely public speech, with a noble appearance. Eduard Simson said about him in 1850:

“Hundreds of people can talk like Gagern; I myself imagine that I can convey what little he said just as clearly and fluently. But this is not where the magic rests, but in the fact that a personality […] does not pursue any personal purposes, makes no personal claims, but lives full of modesty and self-denial in the service of a high idea. If the king of a great people were, what wonders of success he would have to work through the love that meets him alone, and what pleasure it would be to serve him, to help, to obey. "

Gagern, with a decidedly modest appearance, accepted no diets as President of the National Assembly and, as Prime Minister, only accepted 4,000 of the 7,000 guilders planned. He did so with a view to public opinion, although his debts grew. In the frequent cartoons about the National Assembly, Gagern comes off rather well, while the extremists and the allegedly incompetent and eloquent MPs are generally criticized. Gagern often appears only as a minor character, with the right demeanor that underscores the misconduct of the main character being mocked. Criticism came, however, from the left, which held Gagern against being an impartial president.

Memorial plaque at the Paulskirche

Heinrich von Gagern, as the most influential and popular politician of the revolutionary era, was made an honorary citizen of Berlin on March 29, 1849 and an honorary citizen of Braunschweig on April 12, 1849 . Several streets and schools in Germany still bear his name today, for example the Heinrich-von-Gagern-Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main.

His biographer Frank Möller thinks that Gagern is not suitable for finding the tradition of the Federal Republic, since Gagern, like Bismarck, ultimately advocated a power politics for German unification without being able to contribute anything himself. But he rejects Hans-Ulrich Wehler's assertion that there were no charismatic leaders in 1848 who dared a balancing act between the old and the new powers, because that is exactly what Gagern would do. The German bourgeoisie, however, adored him as the realization of the bourgeois individual; not power, but virtue sought it in him. His policy had failed not for reasons of his person, but because of the social conditions, because of the weak left and the old elite who were ready for civil war.

research

Jacob Seib : Heinrich von Gagern, photo from 1848

For a long time, little attention was paid to the life and work of practical revolutionary politicians like Heinrich von Gagern. Biographical works on him appeared in 1848/1849 and then again on the 50th anniversary in 1898. The research of the historian Paul Wentzcke was particularly influential . After 1945, Wentzcke received letters from the family estate and helped ensure that the family archive was deposited in the Federal Archives in 1958 . The following year it was expanded by the estate of his brother Max von Gagern. Wentzcke continued to publish, but it was not a large monograph, just a thin, sourceless volume. Gagern shortened his portrayal to his father's heir and thus to south-west German imperial patriotism.

The sources on Gagern are very good due to the family estate, which is now in the main state archive in Darmstadt. Paul Wentzcke and Wolfgang Klötzer published an unfinished source edition in 1959. In research on parliamentarism, liberalism and revolution, however, perspectives from structural and everyday history dominated, and the interest favored the democrats rather than the moderate liberals suspected of nationalism. Gagern's ideas were also considered to have failed. A Marxist representation by Hildebrandt and one by Michael Wettengel appeared, which Gagern describes as a prototype of a liberal. Gagern's program, on the other hand, was viewed by other authors as part of the history of the casino, and because of the better source situation it was treated in the context of other politicians such as Dahlmann, Droysen and Beseler.

See also

• Frankfurt National Assembly
• Cabinet Gagern

literature

• G. Kaufmann:  Gagern, Heinrich Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 49, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, pp. 654-676.
• Frank Möller : Heinrich von Gagern. The leader of the liberal revolution. In: Yearbook on Liberalism Research . 15 (2003), pp. 119-132.
• Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004.
• Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. Charisma and character. In: ders. (Ed.): Charismatic leaders of the German nation. Oldenbourg, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-486-56717-9 , pp. 43-62.
• Paul Wentzcke :  Gagern, Heinrich Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , pp. 32-36 ( digitized version ).
• Paul Wentzcke: Heinrich von Gagern. Champion for German unity and popular representation. Musterschmidt-Verlag, Göttingen 1957, (= personality and history , 4).
• Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses for the year 1861 , p. 188 .

Web links

Commons : Heinrich von Gagern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Heinrich von Gagern in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Heinrich von Gagern  in the German Digital Library
• Wolfgang Klötzer : Heinrich von Gagern (1799–1880). Letters and speeches. ( Memento from March 6, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) on ahf-muenchen.de
• German Historical Museum Foundation: Living Museum Online
• Heinrich von Gagern as a student in Jena
• Gagern, Wilhelm Heinrich August Freiherr von. Hessian biography. (As of January 21, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Entry on Heinrich von Gagern in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database

supporting documents

1. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 30 f., P. 33, p. 35.
2. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 29 f.
3. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 52–54, p. 56.
4. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 59–61.
5. ^ Peter Kaupp (edit.): Stamm-Buch of the Jenaische Burschenschaft. The members of the original fraternity 1815-1819 (= treatises on student and higher education. Vol. 14). SH-Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89498-156-3 , pp. 125–126.
6. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 61, p. 67, p. 70, p. 75.
7. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 86–88.
8. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 90, p. 95.
9. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 106-108.
10. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 112–114.
11. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 143–145.
12. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 146–148.
13. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 146–148, p. 157.
14. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 146–148, p. 161, p. 163.
15. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 146–148, p. 166 f.
16. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 170 f., P. 179.
17. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850. 3rd edition. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1988, p. 590.
18. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 101, p. 184.
19. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 189 f.
20. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 192–194.
21. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 204–207.
22. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 207 f., P. 210 f.
23. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 214, p. 222, p. 226.
24. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 233 f.
25. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 241, p. 243.
26. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 246 f.
27. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850. 3rd edition. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1988, p. 626 f.
28. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 259 f.
29. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 289.
30. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 298 f.
31. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 305, p. 309 f.
32. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 324 f.
33. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 326–328.
34. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 342 f.
35. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850. 3rd edition. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1988, p. 856.
36. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 349, 351.
37. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 354–356.
38. ↑ Peter Steinhoff: The "hereditary imperial" in the Erfurt parliament. In: Gunther Mai (Ed.): The Erfurt Union and the Erfurt Union Parliament 1850. Böhlau, Cologne u. a. 2000, p. 369-392, here p. 380 f.
39. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 373.
40. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 374.
41. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 374–376.
42. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 377–379, 382.
43. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 385.
44. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 387–389.
45. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 390 f.
46. ^ Paul Wentzcke: Heinrich von Gagern. Champion for German unity and popular representation. Musterschmidt-Verlag, Göttingen 1957, p. 65 f.
47. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 393.
48. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 396, 400 f., 403.
49. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 405, p. 407-409.
50. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 409-411.
51. ^ David August Rosenthal : Convertite pictures from the nineteenth century , Volume 1, Part 3, Schaffhausen 1872, p. 502.
52. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 411 f.
53. ^ Jörg-Detlef Kühne : The imperial constitution of the Paulskirche. Model and realization in later German legal life. Habil. Bonn 1983, 2nd edition. Luchterhand, Neuwied 1998, p. 120.
54. ^ Paul Wentzcke: Heinrich von Gagern. Champion for German unity and popular representation. Musterschmidt-Verlag, Göttingen 1957, p. 81.
55. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 413 f.
56. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 101, p. 104.
57. ↑ ADB biography on www.deutsche-biografie.de .
58. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 279.
59. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 275 f., 278.
60. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 271 f.
61. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 315, p. 318.
62. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 396, 415 f.
63. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, pp. 24–26.
64. ^ Frank Möller: Heinrich von Gagern. A biography. Habilitation thesis. University of Jena, 2004, p. 27 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
vacant	grand ducal Hessian envoy in Vienna 1864–1875	-