Hermann von Orges

Hermann Ritter von Orges (born April 12, 1821 in Braunschweig ; † June 9/10, 1874 in Vienna ) was a German publicist .

Life

Military career

Hermann Ritter von Orges attended grammar school in Braunschweig . Since father was an artillery officer from Braunschweig, who served in the Westphalian army. Orges also embarked on a military career in Prussia ; It was advantageous for him that his father was a friend of General Joseph von Radowitz .

In April 1838 he joined the 4th Artillery Brigade of the Prussian Army stationed in Erfurt as a gunner and in the autumn, after passing various exams, he was ordered to attend the artillery and engineering school in Berlin , but returned to his brigade in 1842.

Long trips and participation in German and French war exercises served for his further training. He volunteered to attend the general war school in Berlin, which he was admitted to in 1845 after passing the exam.

He performed the prescribed service in the other weapons with the 4th Dragoon Regiment in Deutz and with the 10th Infantry Regiment in Breslau , where he made a special contribution through the introduction of an independently devised gymnastics system. He was a lieutenant in Berlin when the revolution broke out in 1848 , which threw him from his military career.

On March 19, he submitted his resignation, and left Berlin. He went to Rendsburg , where he was assigned to the Schleswig-Holstein artillery. Here he got into a conflict with the Prussian officers; this caused him to give up military service entirely. Instead of being granted his resignation request, he was struck from the lists of the Prussian army because he had gone abroad without permission.

As a writer, he mainly dealt with military matters. It was a strong inclination that drove him to the sea and to foreign countries, forced to renounce his military career. In the autumn of 1848 he went to Hamburg to prepare for a course in the local navigation school.

He then served as a volunteer sailor on a Hamburg ship, the “Volga”, which sailed under the Russian flag and went to Rio de Janeiro . The following years consisted of voyages on different ships and in different parts of the world; Orges trained as a writer on these trips.

Career as a publicist

He wrote articles for the Allgemeine Zeitung , a. a. "From Australia", "On a trip around the world" and "About the industrial exhibition in London 1851". The Allgemeine Zeitung used it from then on for important jobs: Johann Friedrich Cotta sent him to the coup of December 2, 1851 after Paris and at the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853 by Konstantin Opel , today's Istanbul , where he acquainted with the then k. k. Internuntius Karl Ludwig von Bruck made.

Orges later wished to work in the editorial office of the Allgemeine Zeitung. At first without a permanent job, he entered Augsburg in 1854 . He had come at a time when the collaboration of a younger person was particularly desirable. No sooner had he entered than Karl August Mebold , the main editor, died of cholera ; Kolb, the head of the editorial office, already had a serious illness, had a stroke in September 1856 from which he could never fully recover, although he continued to work and also kept the line.

Under these circumstances, Orges' influence grew. The weakened Kolb gradually lost its influence. Orges corresponded with the owners of the newspaper in Stuttgart; he maintained influential connections abroad, on his own he made contact with political personalities and with state chancelleries, and his urge for reform also brought innovations to the newspaper.

In doing so, he encountered tradition as a strong obstacle. In particular, it was the Cotta that was reluctant to set up certain items on the program. A formulated political program - that was completely against the previous editorial line . Orges saw this as a means of influencing general opinion as well as governments in a certain sense.

Now his ideas were essentially in line with Cotta's views as well as those of his editors. The largest and most important part of the newspaper's content was made up of reports from abroad, from the focal points of European politics and from German and foreign cultural sites.

The inspection, order and processing of this material had been the main business in Augsburg, and the personalities of the editors had stayed in the background. A change in this essentially anonymous activity was not desired either in Stuttgart or in Augsburg.

Orges' actual working area in the editorial office was France , followed by Belgium and the Iberian Peninsula . Through his stays in Paris he had his hatred of Napoleon III.

He had never forgiven him for the coup d'état of December 2nd, the immediate effects of which he witnessed on the spot. The internal corruption of the empire and the dangers that threatened world peace from its foreign policy were tirelessly held up to contemporaries by his pen. He saw the whole Romance world in decline. The "decline of the Romanesque peoples" was also one of his slogans. In contrast, he said the Germanic world had a great future. The increase in the means of transport was for him the most essential lever of progress in the life of nations. In Vienna he was found to be an uncomfortable reminder, which is why Cotta was confronted with many accusations from there.

His motto was "penna et ferro" .

In a memorandum that Orges addressed to Cotta in 1856 on the tasks of the Allgemeine Zeitung, two basic ideas were put forward: freedom as a function of education and the unity of Germany through the unification of material interests. Cotta agreed with the contents of the memorandum, but kept it in his archives without making public use of it.

The Allgemeine Zeitung, wrote Orges in 1858, was not a Greater German newspaper, but, if you understand the expression, a High German one. From 1858 on he was allowed to put his name under the newspaper alongside Kolb and Altenhöfer. The owners in Stuttgart had given their consent.

He had shifted his main work into the night.

The passionate zeal increased with the fateful year 1859. What he had long prophesied of Napoleon's attacks, was now beginning to come true. The conspiracy against the peace of Europe, the resumption of the Napoleonic tradition, the overthrow of the treaties of 1815 were now revealed to everyone. And now it was necessary to call on all forces, above all the entire power of Germany, to fight the peacebreaker.

When the war really broke out, the debate revolved around when Prussia should take action, with what reservations and what conditions. Neutrality or even a Great Prussian policy of action based on the friendship of the French emperor - voices in this sense were only very sporadic at the time.

In May Heinrich von Sybel himself came to Augsburg to discuss the politics of Prussia with the editors and to speak up about the reluctance of his statesmen.

The meeting took place in Kolb's garden and was mainly held between Sybel and Orges. Its contents can be seen in a letter that Sybel wrote to Kolb on May 19, prompted by a letter that he had written to Justus von Liebig and that of Ed. Heyck was published. Sybel protested against the "Gotha convictions" that Kolb assumed.

"Mr. Orges will perhaps remember that our conversation consistently revolved around the question of whether it would be desirable for the Rhine to strike within six weeks. I recognized the weight of his reasons, but could still only consider my counter-reasons to be predominant. These consisted essentially of the opinion that (in the German and Austrian sense) the position in Italy was strong, that on the Rhine was weak, that it was in the interests of all of us to let the French bleed to death from the strong position before one the weak open the fight ... I took part in Gotha and Erfurt politics in 1850, but don't hesitate to declare that my views on it have long since changed. My Gothaism has consisted for years in the simple wish that every Protestant in Europe shares with me, that as far as one of the great powers can have predominant influence in and within the Federation and the Federal Constitution, it should be with Prussia and not with Austria. In today's crisis I see as well as you, from your point of view, that Prussia cannot gain such a dignified and influential position by quarreling against Austria, but only by supporting it, not by lazy sitting still, but only by praising the national enemy . Wherever I was able to work, I worked in this direction, and three weeks ago in Berlin I preached on all sides the creation of an observation army on the Rhine. Wherever I could, I got in the way of every symptom of Gotha desires, but luckily I didn't see much of Gothaism ... As far as I can see, you are generally along with the Gotha people, as with me in particular. If you watch seriously, you will find little material for these Gotha activities. It seems to me that the polemicism, on the other hand, does little to promote the cause of German unity, and that it will rather bring the denounced plans into being. "

- Heinrich von Sybel

Sybel's attempt to gain a more dispassionate assessment of the situation in Augsburg only served to increase mutual alienation and irritability. In the brochure, which Sybel published anonymously at the end of the year, it was said, “The falsification of the good cause by the Allgemeine Zeitung” he primarily blamed Orges for the attitude of the paper and the whole mood in southern Germany.

Orges followed the war events in Italy with great interest. But the Austrians could not be defeated, and when they lost the battles he did everything to stop history. He cut up the war reports at his discretion, resisted the pessimism that was soon to break out, presented things as he saw them through “colored glasses”, and defended this entirely by saying that the daily writer where patriotic interests are at stake have other tasks and duties than historian or military critic.

For the policy that was being made in Augsburg, the sudden conclusion of peace was a serious disappointment. For Orges it was almost a personal fiasco. Orges resisted it with desperate tenacity. Even after the armistice was concluded, he implored the Emperor of Austria to continue the war, after Franz Joseph and Napoleon had already agreed, obliging Prussia to declare war immediately, in submission to the Federal Constitution, “which also Austria and the purely German states submit. "

From then on, Orges became more involved in a dogged polemic against Prussia. The preliminary peace of Villafranca was followed by the mutual accusations between Austria and Prussia, the heated conflict of opinion about the improvement of the German Federal Constitution and the attempts to organize public opinion in the national sense, while the Allgemeine Zeitung increasingly unilaterally took its position on the greater German side and thus lost many old friends.

A violent attack on Karl Vogt in Geneva had taken place from refugee circles in London, who was accused of having been bribed with French money and trying to bribe others, Prince Napoleon's personal journalist. In the refugee camp of 1848 there was a rift that broke out on the occasion of the Italian war. Some stood by France and favored its policy in Italy, while the others had cast an ineradicable hatred of Napoleon, which they also fought against in his nationality policy.

That attack on Vogt, which was circulated in a London leaflet, had been copied by the Allgemeine Zeitung by reprinting it, and this prompted Vogt to file a lawsuit with which he intended to hit the main organ of Austrian politics. The court hearing took place on October 21st in Augsburg. Orges of the three editors sued had appeared in person. The sick Kolb had contented himself with a public statement and Altenhöfer acted as if the matter was none of his business. Orges, however, gladly seized the opportunity to develop the Allgemeine Zeitung's program in detail, to defend its policy and to highlight the patriotic motives behind its attack on the imperial regent of 1849. It was found that his demeanor was not devoid of complacency and celibacy. Later Vogt also advanced him to overuse ice cream gloves.

Of course, the proof that Vogt had been bribed could not be provided, but the public prosecutor requested that the complaint be dismissed because the district court was not competent and the matter should be brought before the jury if it was to be pursued further. That was the judgment of Solomon's judgment that was proclaimed on October 29th.

Vogt, who was only concerned with raising the issue, did not pursue it any further and contented himself with publishing and commenting on the files of the trial. The outcome had been the most favorable conceivable for the Allgemeine Zeitung and the process was soon forgotten about more important things, especially since the celebration of Schiller's centenary took place shortly afterwards, which for a while pushed all political arguments into the background.

But the standstill brought about by the celebration did not last long; soon mutual accusations and suspicions began again, aggravated by the formation of the German national association.

As early as April 1859, when Austria was seeking federal aid, Orges got in touch with Duke Ernst of Saxe-Coburg . Through Von Meyern's head of cabinet, he had expressed the wish that the duke would get the post of federal general and offer him the services of the Allgemeine Zeitung for this purpose.

The Duke resisted this lure, but the connection with Orges remained intact afterwards. "I had more precise relationships with Mr. Orges, saw him frequently and had my cabinet chief conduct a more intimate correspondence with him," says Von Meyern. At the beginning of 1860, Orges went on a tour of the courts as a voluntary diplomat in order to investigate or consolidate their attitudes towards the peace-threatening plans of December 2nd, which were now being revealed anew in the Swiss-Savoyard trade.

He sent continuous reports to Coburg from this trip from Berlin via Warsaw to Vienna, which were published in Bettelheim's Biographische Blätter .

In Berlin, the officer, who had once been struck from the lists of the Prussian army, was received by the Prince of Prussia, the Prime Minister and Prince Anton von Hohenzollern and other statesmen. In the meantime he received assurances from the Prince of Hohenzollern: No ambitious plans, joining forces with Austria on all external questions, fighting the preponderance of Napoleon, therefore better military organization in Prussia and in the armed forces and finally backing by Russia. He should send these statements to Vienna. There, however, there was resentment about Prussia's non-action, which had forced Austria to conclude peace, and the Prussian diplomacy's behavior did not correspond to the unselfish assurances of its government. Nonetheless, he found everything here as well: Napoleon believed that he had divided Austria and Prussia, but he was mistaken if he believed that Austria would stand idly by an attack on the Rhine.

Reconciliation with Prussia, said the emperor, was his deepest wish. “It is obviously the best and most German will in the highest circles, but it is missing in the other circles. Fifty-year-old grievances cannot be remedied overnight and capable forces cannot be stamped out of the ground. "

Orges didn't think much of the ministers, with the exception of Bruck. Most of his genius can be hoped for in the internal restructuring of the empire. “He is the refuge of Austria and, above all, of the Germanness in it.” “One thing is certain that the government will never give up Germany. Austria is working diligently and steadily towards a level approaching the German situation in order to defeat the nationalities in their isolation through the power of traffic and the power of education. "

Orges himself was evidently very pleased with the success of his trip. "If you now make a distinction in Vienna between what the Prince-Regent wanted and what his political agents did, it is partly thanks to me." In March he also reports in Coburg about an audience that he had had from King Maximilian II Joseph of Bavaria , to whom he also developed his view of the political situation "in the sense of internal unity and peace and struggle outwards". He was in constant contact with Coburg.

On March 27, he sent a letter to Rudolf von Bennigsen , which tried to win over the founder of the national association to the Greater German program with lengthy rhetoric. Orges introduced himself to him as a “real Saxon”, the heir of Justus Möser , but at the same time as a positivist, as a supporter of August Comte.

The strange letter, which put "the development of our nationality" as the top priority, contained the following characteristic sentences:

“We Germans are still in the youth of our national development (urge to emigrate - peoples' wanderlust - colonies), the time of fertility. This period is long behind the novels, they are dying out. The Portuguese are dead, Spaniards and Italians in agony and the French are well on their way there ... They want to make Germany great under Prussia's leadership. In this way it will never become a world power, because only one world mission is open to us, that is the cultivation and assimilation of the lower Danube countries and thereby the revival (exploitation) of the Orient. We need maritime development, but we do not have a world mission to the west. With Prussia's hegemony they give up world power ... If Prussia conquers us, we become Prussian instead of German, because our nationality can easily be distracted by the ruling spirit. If we conquer the Danube Empire, it must become German. Everything great in Prussia that Scharnhorst, Aster, Stein, Hardenberg, Vincke, created, is German, not Prussian. Real Prussia is a Germanism soaked in slavery, which, precisely because of the Slavic mixture, creates and will always create real bureaucraticism, the Tschin. It is alienated from self-government, from actual Germanness. It will certainly annex it, formulate it, be able to use it, but it cannot create anything, Prussianism is not a creative moment because it is not an original, not an original ... Austria is a great wild land for German culture. What, we Germans have won half of North America for German culture and should give up what belongs to us! You, the little German, reckon with forces that are, with the conditions that exist, I reckon with those that will, I speculate on the future. "

- Hermann Ritter von Orges

Here, too, the praise of Bruck: “A statesman of the first order, probably the greatest statesman in Europe. He is a genius who wants to work out the great future of Austria. ”A few weeks before the tragic end of the minister, which for Orges was one of his worst disappointments. Perhaps an oral discussion with the leaders of the National Association was more effective than a correspondence.

The Duke, who at that time had in mind the unification of all parties in a large demonstration against Napoleon, wished it as Orges wished it, and so he appeared in Gotha on May 13 for a board meeting of the national association there. The meeting lasted several hours. She had no practical result. Nor was it a suggestion that Orges made shortly afterwards in the Allgemeine Zeitung that the association should change its program on the basis of the Prince Regent's speech on January 12th. On May 31, the ducal cabinet secretary Bollmann wrote to Bennigsen that Orges wanted to found a general German association “to preserve and promote the independence and freedom of Germany and the German people”, which was composed of 9 men, 3 Prussians, 3 Austrians and 3 “pure Germans” “As the last three he has in mind: the Duke, Heinrich von Gagern and Gustav von Lerchenfeld . On June 6th, Orges was in Heidelberg with August Ludwig von Rochau , the editor of the weekly journal of the national association, but who briefly wrote to Streit about it: "The human being is basically a cream puff and carnival."

Already in 1859, on a visit to Augsburg, Orges Meding noticed a "constant nervous irritation" in him, "which was also noticeable in his trembling, restless gesture and in his almost feverishly shining eyes".

The stressful editorial work with her night work did not remain without influence on his health. The owners of the newspaper in Stuttgart were puzzled when they saw where Orges was leading their old solid institute. Even after the outcome of the Northern Italian battles, they wanted more measure in support for Austria; even the personal pushing forward and the diplomatic voluntary service of their editor could not be pleasant to them; that he should seize power over the newspaper was against their will.

So it came to rifts that suggested the desire for a separation. In the spring of 1864 Orges severed his association with the newspaper.

After a career as a publicist

He had long since established relationships with influential people in Vienna. In May he was accepted into the Austrian Subject Association. There he could hope for thanks for his devoted and unselfish service. The thanks consisted in the fact that he was first employed in the Ministry of Commerce and then used in the Foreign Office of Beust for the press office .

Order of the Iron Crown III. class

On March 2, 1865 he was raised to the hereditary knighthood and on May 30, 1866 he was k. k. Councilor and received the Order of the Iron Crown III. Class. He had already received the Franz Joseph Order after the Vogt trial. He was also awarded medals from several middle states, u. a. with the Guelph Order .

With his move to Vienna he disappeared from the public. Orges worked in the service of the Danube Empire for a decade, but his name is rarely mentioned.

According to J. Froebel's reports, he kept it up there, as in his last years in Augsburg, with the absolutist military party, with the war-zealous Camarilla , who in 1866 had the most adventurous plans for reaction and restoration, of restoring the papal state, conquering back dreamed of Lombardy, annihilation of Prussian power and rule in Germany.

In 1868 he had declared an understanding between Austria and Prussia to be impossible and, even in the spirit of Emperor Franz Josef, unthinkable; Austria would never allow southern Germany to join the North German Confederation.

The warlike tone of the correspondence that he wrote for foreign newspapers was sometimes uncomfortable even for Beust. Nor did he find satisfaction in his position in Vienna.

death

An accident ended his life in June 1874. He was standing on a step on the platform in an overcrowded car on the tram from Dornbach to Vienna when he lost his walking stick. When he was about to grab it, he fell to the ground and got under the wheels that ran over both feet. He was taken to the General Hospital, where his left foot was amputated on June 8th . After 24 hours he died of severe blood loss at midnight between June 9 and 10, 1874.

The funeral was handled by the Foreign Office. At the request of the deceased, it took place without any church ceremony. Two married sisters had rushed to the death camp. The body was transferred to the family crypt in Osnabrück .

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Orges, Hermann Ritter von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 21st part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1870, pp. 92–96 ( digitized version ).
• Wilhelm Lang .:  Orges, Hermann Ritter von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 55, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 565-576.
• E. Life:  Orges, Hermann von (1821–1874), journalist. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 7, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7001-0187-2 , p. 245.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Ritter Orges: Introduction to the history of the Prussian military system of the present . 1898.