Julius Vogel

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Julius Vogel (disambiguation) .

Julius Vogel (before 1877)

Sir Julius Vogel , KCMG (born February 24, 1835 in London , † March 12, 1899 in East Molesey , Surrey ) was a British-New Zealand politician, newspaper editor and the eighth Prime Minister of New Zealand . He had two terms; the first time from April 8, 1873 to July 6, 1875, the second time from February 15, 1876 to September 1, 1876. To this day Vogel is the only head of government in New Zealand who was a practicing Jew . He also founded the country's oldest surviving daily newspaper and was the first New Zealander to write a science fiction novel.

Life

Julius Vogel, whose father came from the Netherlands , attended University College School in the London borough of Hampstead . At 16, he was an orphan and was by his grandfather, a merchant in the City of London , hired. He also studied chemistry and metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines (now part of Imperial College London ).

Australia

At the end of 1852 he wanted to profit from the gold rush in Australia and emigrated there. In Melbourne he initially worked as a metal tester with a partner. They later sold alcohol and medicine to prospectors in various mining towns in Victoria . After his partner moved back to England in mid-1856, Vogel tried his hand at being a journalist . Until 1859 he was editor-in-chief of the Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser , the most important newspaper in the gold region, then the Inglewood Advertiser . In August 1861, Vogel ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the legislative assembly, the lower house of the colony. As there was a recession in Victoria at the time , he decided in October of the same year to move to Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand, where the gold rush had started shortly before in the Otago region .

New Zealand

Just a few weeks after his arrival in New Zealand, Vogel started his own newspaper. The first edition of the Otago Daily Times , the country's first and oldest surviving daily newspaper , first appeared on November 15, 1861. Julius Vogel was active in local politics and was elected to the Provincial Council of Otago Province in June 1863 . In September 1863, he successfully ran for a seat in the New Zealand House of Commons. In November 1866 Vogel became chairman of the executive branch of Otago and also took over the office of provincial treasurer. On March 19, 1867, he married Mary Clayton . The marriage resulted in three sons and a daughter. In April Vogel resigned his mandate in the provincial parliament and shortly afterwards moved to the North Island in Auckland .

From June 1869 Julius Vogel belonged to the government of William Fox . As Minister of Finance, he had ambitious plans for New Zealand's economic development. Tens of thousands of new settlers poured into the country, the infrastructure was significantly expanded, and the economy experienced an unexpected boom. The government easily won the 1871 election. But as Vogel pushed Prime Minister Fox more and more into the background, the government appeared to the outside world without leadership and was overthrown in September 1872.

But only six months later Vogel was back in government, this time as Prime Minister himself. As finance minister he had traveled to London several times to secure funding for his daring projects, and as prime minister he was often out of the country. In 1874 he pushed through the dissolution of the provincial governments because, in his opinion, they hindered the development of the country. Vogel's frequent absence meant that he had to give up the post of prime minister in July 1875, but he nonetheless remained a member of the cabinet. From February to September 1876 he was again head of government.

From 1876 to 1880 Vogel was New Zealand's diplomatic representative in Great Britain and often traveled back and forth in this capacity (he also kept an eye on his private financial affairs). The British Conservative Party nominated Vogel for the general election in 1880, but lost in the constituency of Falmouth . In 1884 he returned to New Zealand and was re-elected to parliament. In the government of Robert Stout he was once again Minister of Finance. The country was in recession and Vogel tried unsuccessfully to get the economy going again. His fortune, which was mainly based on risky investments, melted away.

In 1887 Julius Vogel introduced a bill according to which women should be able to vote under the same conditions as men. The proposal was adopted in the House of Commons with 41 votes to 22 and then referred to the committee. Opponents urged that the right to vote be restricted to wealthy women, some supporters of the bill left the meeting, and opponents entered the hall. A short-term vote on an essential part of the bill resulted in a defeat and Vogel was forced to withdraw his proposal.

In the parliamentary elections in 1887, the government was voted out and Vogel lost his office.

England

In 1888 Vogel finally turned its back on New Zealand. He settled in the small village of East Molesey in the county of Surrey down and wrote articles for a number of British newspapers. Vogel suffered more and more from gout and was dependent on a wheelchair. He died in 1899 at the age of 64.

Literary work

Vogel is known for being the first New Zealander to write a science fiction novel. The book Anno Domini 2000 - A Woman's Destiny was published in 1889. It describes a utopian world with achievements such as airships, a World Bank and air conditioning, in which women have achieved full equality and are often found in high positions.

His vision, which was very radical at the time, turned out to be astonishingly accurate. New Zealand was the first independent state to introduce women's suffrage . At the beginning of the 21st century, the highest government offices were held by women (Head of State, Governor General, Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament, Chair of the Supreme Court), and one woman, Theresa Genus , was CEO of the largest company, Telecom New Zealand .

The New Zealand science fiction literature prize, the Sir Julius Vogel Award , is named after Julius Vogel .

expenditure

• Anno Domini 2000 - A Woman's Destiny . Longman, Auckland 1889.
• Anno Domini 2000 - A Woman's Destiny . Exisle, Auckland 2001, ISBN 0-908988-16-8 .
• Anno Domini 2000 - A Woman's Destiny . University of Hawaii Pres, Honolulu 2002, ISBN 0-8248-2501-2 .

literature

• BE Kennedy: Vogel, Sir Julius (1835-1899) . In: Douglas Pike (Ed.): Australian Dictionary of Biography . Volume 6. Melbourne University Press, Carlton (Victoria) 1976, ISBN 0-522-84108-2 (English).

Web links

• Julius Vogel in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• Works by and about Julius Vogel at Open Library
• Raewyn Dalziel : Vogel, Julius . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , July 4, 2012, accessed August 19, 2012 . 
• Sir Julius Vogel Awards . SFFANZ, July 4, 2012,accessed on August 19, 2012. 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 110.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 111.