Hermann Wamhoff

Hermann Wamhoff as a member of the Reichstag in 1912

Hermann Wamhoff (born October 18, 1849 in Natbergen ; † October 17, 1915 in Schledehausen near Osnabrück ) was a Protestant farmer, agricultural functionary and politician (member of the Reichstag and the Prussian House of Representatives for the National Liberal Party ).

Professional background

After attending primary school in Natbergen, the farmer's son received private lessons and graduated from the Osnabrück agricultural school in 1865/66. After doing military service as a one-year volunteer and participating in the Franco-German War in 1870/71, Wamhoff received practical agricultural training. In 1874 he took over his father's farm in Schledehausen. After the start of the cooperative movement in the Osnabrück area, Wamhoff quickly became heavily involved in these peasant self-help organizations. In addition to a number of agricultural and cooperative honorary posts in the Osnabrück region, the farmer also took on the role of director of the Sparkasse Schledehausen and chairman of the local agricultural consumer association. Outstanding among these honorary positions, however, was the chairmanship of the Central Agricultural Cooperative Osnabrück ( Zegeno ). In 1906, due to his extensive agricultural and party political activities, he handed over the management of his approximately 30 hectare farm to his son Friedrich, who became head of the Osnabrück district farmers as a DVP member during the Weimar Republic . In 1909, Hermann Wamhoff, together with Friedrich Wachhorst de Wente from the neighboring district of Bersenbrück, founded the "German Farmers' Union", an interest group for small and medium-sized farmers at the national level that was close to the National Liberal Party. There Wamhoff acted as a board member. In addition, Wamhoff was a board member of the war club in Schledehausen.

Political functions

Due to his cooperative activities, Wamhoff quickly won the trust of the farmers in his region and ended up in the Osnabrück district council . In the Osnabrück area, the Protestant population was divided into decided supporters of the Guelph kingship, which had been driven out by the Prussians, who had allied themselves with the Catholic minority, and the pro-government and Prussian-friendly national liberals. Wamhoff joined the Prussian friends who were close to the government and joined the Osnabrück district and Hanover provincial board of the National Liberal Party. From 1898 until his death, the farmer was also a member of the central board (Reichsvorstand) of the National Liberals.

Parliamentary activity

Wamhoff first got into the Reichstag in 1893 by winning a runoff election against a candidate from the Welfen ( German-Hannoversche Party ) for the constituency of Osnabrück ( Province of Hanover 4). In 1898 he lost the constituency against the Guelph Baron Balduin von Schele zu Schelenburg, but in a by-election in 1899 he captured the neighboring constituency of Hanover 5 (Melle-Diepholz) from the Guelphs. In 1903, however, he was defeated by the Guelph Hermann Colshorn . In the meantime, Wamhoff was able to win back his old constituency Hannover 4 as early as 1904 against the Welfs. In the Reichstag election of 1907, the so-called “ Hottentot election”, he was again subject to the alliance of Guelphs and the Catholic Center Party , with the center representative Franz Bitter now representing the constituency. In 1912 Wamhoff ran successfully in the constituency of Merseburg 6 (Sangerhausen-Eckartsberga), where the German farmers' union had many supporters. From 1912 until his death Wamhoff was a member of the executive committee of the national liberal parliamentary group in the Reichstag.

As early as 1888, Wamhoff had applied for the Prussian House of Representatives , albeit unsuccessfully, in the Osnabrück constituency, which consisted of the city of Osnabrück and the Wittlage district . The Prussian constituency of Osnabrück was a stronghold of the National Liberals, so that in 1888 an internal party competitor won. But from 1894 to 1913 Wamhoff represented the constituency in the Prussian House of Representatives, popularly known as the Landtag, although in 1898 and 1903 he no longer had an opponent and in 1908 he won against Franz Bitter, a member of the Central Reichstag. In 1913, Wamhoff handed over the constituency to his party friend and fellow campaigner in the German Farmers' Union, Friedrich Wachhorst de Wente.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Imperial Statistical Office (Ed.): The Reichstag elections of 1912 . Booklet 2. Berlin: Verlag von Puttkammer & Mühlbrecht, 1913, p. 89 (Statistics of the German Reich, vol. 250)
2. ↑ Bernhard Mann (arrangement) with the assistance of Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh , Thomas Kühne: Biographisches Handbuch für das Prussische Abrafenhaus 1867–1918 (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 3). Droste, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-7700-5146-7 , p. 402.

literature

• Bernd Haunfelder : The Liberal Members of the German Reichstag 1871-1918. A biographical manual. Aschendorff, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-402-06614-9 , p. 416.
• Thomas Kühne: Handbook of the 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), Düsseldorf 1994, pp. 517-518.
• Bernhard Mann (arrangement) with the collaboration of Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh , Thomas Kühne : Biographisches Handbuch für das Prussische Abrafenhaus 1867–1918 (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 3). Droste, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-7700-5146-7 , p. 402.
• Organization manual of the National Liberal Party of the German Reich . 4th year, 1911. Edited by H. Kalkhoff. Edited by the Central Bureau of the National Liberal Party, Berlin (1911), pp. 71, 76, 77.

Web links

• Hermann Wamhoff in the database of members of the Reichstag