Maximilian Dortu

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Max Dortu

Johann Ludwig Maximilian Dortu (born June 29, 1826 in Potsdam , † July 31, 1849 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) took part in the armed struggle for the establishment of a republic in Germany in the revolution of 1848/49 . Dortu became known as the originator of the designation " Kartätschen prinz" for the Prince of Prussia , later King and Emperor Wilhelm I , and because of his execution by the Prussian military justice .

Life

Origin and education

The commemorative plaque attached to Maximilian Dortu's birthplace in Potsdamer Dortustraße 28/29 in 1948

Dortu was the son of Judicial Councilor Ludwig Wilhelm Dortu (1794-1858) from Berlin . The father had taken part in the wars of liberation and was a member of the Jena Urburschenschaft . After he had made a fortune in Hamburg, he married the Potsdam bourgeois daughter Pauline Schlinke (1802–1861) in 1825, who, like him, came from a Huguenot family. The family settled in Potsdam after Ludwig Dortu bought two houses here on the city ​​canal . (The Dortu elementary school later moved into one of them.) He was elected to the Potsdam city council, where he presented a reform program on March 6, 1848, which included freedom of the press, freedom of speech and assembly, and an end to arbitrary police force.

Their only child was Maximilian Dortu. In Potsdam, after attending a private school at the Grand École (in the 21st century the Potsdam evening school on Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse), he passed his Abitur at the age of 17 . Then Max began to study law at the Berlin University , while at the same time doing his military service as a one-year volunteer until October 1845 . Dortu, who could easily have been considered unfit for service for health reasons, justified his voluntary report with the "serious duty of every Prussian subject" not to be allowed to evade the military year. In October 1845 he was dismissed with the rank of NCO of the 24th Landwehr Regiment .

Then Dortu enrolled at Heidelberg University for the winter semester of 1845/46 . There he immediately joined the Allemannia fraternity . In 1845, under Karl Blind, the radical democratic Neckarbund split from Allemannia , which Dortu also joined. Blind was of the opinion that the fraternity " paid too little attention to social, especially communist, aspirations". In the Neckarbund, Dortu met the later revolutionaries Gustav Struve , Karl Mittermaier , Gustav Adolph Schlöffel , Ludwig Eichrodt and the Hexamer brothers .

Participants in the March Revolution in Potsdam and Berlin

In the fall of 1847, Dortu returned to the University of Berlin, where in March 1848 he passed the first of the three state examinations within the legal training. He began a legal clerkship as an auscultator at the Potsdam City Court . At the same time, Dortu supported the revolutionary movement. He joined the Potsdam Political Association , soon became its most important spokesman and worked with Schlöffel in Berlin. On May 12th, in a speech, he gave the Prince of Prussia , the exponent of the militant reactionary party at court, Wilhelm , the famous nickname “ Grape Prince” . Dortu said that he had commanded the troops during the fighting in Berlin on March 18 and 19, 1848 , ordered the use of grapeshots and thus committed “high treason against the people”. Dortu was therefore sentenced in June 1848 to fifteen months' arrest and removed from his position for personally insulting the Prince of Prussia . Until his early release in October 1848 he was imprisoned in the Berlin house bailiwick. The discharge came because Dortu went to the second instance. Then he stayed in Potsdam. The Political Association delegated Dortu to the Second Democratic Congress , which took place in Berlin from October 26 to 30, 1848, a few days before the counter-revolutionary turnaround.

When counterrevolutionary troops under General Wrangel occupied Berlin on November 9, 1848 , Dortu made revolutionary speeches in Potsdam and Nowawes on November 12th, causing workers, "but also well-dressed men", to damage the tracks of the Berlin-Potsdam railway and the electric ones To interrupt telegraph . The Potsdam troops destined to support Wrangel now had to walk a bit instead of going to Berlin unhindered. For Dortu, the act of sabotage resulted in an arrest warrant including a profile from the Potsdam City Court on November 18, 1848. He escaped being arrested again by fleeing to Belgium .

In exile in France

After a clash with the Brussels police, Dortu escaped to Paris in January 1849 . He frequented emigrant circles , where he made friends with Gustav Rasch and met Ernst Dronke and Arnold Ruge . Dortu supported needy refugees from Germany with the means of maintenance that his father sent him. He lived rather unsociable and devoted himself to military studies. Dortu was enthusiastic about the Roman Republic , founded in February 1849, and wanted to take part in its defense against an impending counter-revolution . He had Giuseppe Mazzini personally recruit him for an officer position in their army. Arrived in Marseille in April , Dortu had to give up his plan because of France's successful counter-revolutionary invasion of Italy.

Fighters in the Baden Revolution

The outbreak of the military revolt in Rastatt on May 13, 1849

In the meantime the Baden Revolution and the Palatinate Uprising took the form of armed struggle in the imperial constitution campaign . In mid-May all of Baden was in the hands of the rebels. At the instigation of the expelled Grand Duke, who had applied for federal aid , an imperial army marched on the borders to suppress the revolution. It consisted mainly of Prussian troops and was under the command of the Prince of Prussia. The uprising in Baden, which had become known as the scene of revolutionary endeavors as early as 1847 and 1848, became “a matter for the entire radical left in Germany, indeed in Central Europe; Radical rioters and refugees came from everywhere. "

Dortu traveled with a group of Swiss via Geneva to Karlsruhe , where he arrived at the end of May 1849. Radical forces prevailed there that went beyond the demand for recognition of the imperial constitution and strove for a German republic. Gustav Struve, who was released from custody, recommended Dortu to the head of the People's Armed Forces, Johann Philipp Becker, with the words "... an ideal nature, daring lions in battle, impetuous and enthusiastic on the speaker's platform, full of the noblest patriotism at all times". Becker, who led the determined Democrats who demanded swift military measures against the approaching counterrevolution, appointed Dortu as a staff adjutant in the General Command of the People's Armed Forces . On June 5, 1849, Dortu was one of the founders of the Club of Decisive Progress around Struve, Becker and Tschirner .

In June 1849, Dortu organized the revolutionary armed forces in Gernsbach and, after the Prussian invasion from the Palatinate had begun in Baden on June 19 and Karlsruhe had to be evacuated, as a major commanded a battalion of the people's armed forces in the defense of the Murg line . After the lost battle near Gernsbach, part of the revolutionary army escaped to the Rastatt fortress , while the majority withdrew to the south. Now Freiburg became the capital of the Baden Republic .

Capture

Dortu spent his last days in the Freiburg District Court
(state in the 21st century)

At the beginning of July 1849, the revolutionary army in Freiburg disbanded without having fought a decisive battle, through desertion , march to Switzerland or conversion to the Grand Duke, while the party loyal to the duke gained the upper hand in the city. Only the Sigel column was still able to escape into Hell Valley in an orderly manner. On July 3rd, Sigel and a member of the revolutionary government had given Dortu the task of gathering and equipping all of the conscripts in the rural district around Freiburg (“Landamt Freiburg”). On July 4th, Dortu spread threatening appeals around Freiburg and got down to business.

When the citizens of Freiburg had already agreed the handover with the Prussian General Moritz von Hirschfeld on July 5th, Dortu was still in town. His fate was a requisition that he had made on July 4th at Hugstetten Castle , the property of the absent Baron von Andlau . Dortu had entered the castle under the "impetuous threat of violence", but then withdrew peacefully when he discovered that, contrary to his expectations, "money, silver, weapons, wine and horses" were not available. Following a report from a witness who accused Dortu of looting , a vigilante guard arrested him the following day on Kaiserstrasse in Freiburg. The judge did not recognize the authority of the revolutionary government, which Dortu relied on, and detained him in the official prison. After the occupation of the city on July 7th, the city court transferred Dortu to the Prussian military justice as a "Prussian Landwehr NCO" after an extradition request on July 8th.

process

In the preliminary investigation by the court martial, Dortu freely admitted that he had requisitioned and fired at Prussia to fight against Prussia. He knew that he was betraying war , but justified this with his political convictions. Dortu decided not to have a defense attorney because he was of the opinion that there were "two parties facing each other in the process, one of which wanted the other to be destroyed".

Hirschfeld tried Dortu on July 11th in the Freiburg official prison before a court martial . In relation to his criminal record, Dortu declared that he had "mistakenly" called the Prince of Prussia the grape prince. He was not aware that the prince had no command during the March days in Berlin and therefore could not have given orders to pat the people down. He takes back the charge of "high treason against the people". Dortu stated that he was not doing this to please his judges, but only because he loved the truth. Nonetheless, he considers the prince to be one of the “first and most decisive opponents of democracy”. According to the report of the corps auditor Franz von Gaertner , Dortu appeared “modest, proud and manly” in front of the court, causing regret that “such a pleasant and determined young person had gotten so wrong by his father's false teachings .” The court condemned Dortu for war treason to death by shooting .

Hirschfeld had the death sentence examined by Gaertner. He found legal defects, deemed it void and Hirschfeld sent the files to the auditor general Karl Friedrich Friccius in Berlin for examination . Hirschfeld's actions caused the displeasure of his King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. On July 18, he wrote to his brother and presumptive successor Wilhelm, Hirschfeld's superior: “Dortü [sic!] Had to be cold 12 hours after his Kaptur. Instead, Hirschfeld has a democratic auditor make an appraisal, and the whole effect falls into the well. ”The general auditor only partially accepted Gärtner's objections and, because Dortmund's“ treasonous activity was highly suitable, was the enemy’s enterprise to promote ", the death sentence is" entirely "justified.

Requests for mercy

At the beginning of the campaign on June 14, 1849, the king ordered that it was not his brother who had to confirm the court martial, but rather the two corps commanders Hirschfeld and Groeben . He also wished to be approached only in mercy matters, assigning their assessment to the State Ministry . On July 20, Max Dortu's father was allowed to visit his son in the Freiburg official prison, but was not admitted to Hirschfeld and the Prince of Prussia. Ludwig Wilhelm Dortu did not make a petition for clemency for his son.

The mother had already done this to Friedrich Wilhelm on July 17th in Potsdam. The next day, her neighbor, the factory owner Ludwig Jacobs , who was a friend of Friedrich Wilhelm , and probably other Potsdam citizens also asked for mercy for Dortu. Jacobs reminded the king that it was Dortu who had rescued one of his three sons from Jungfernsee the previous year at risk of death when they were caught in a hurricane while sailing in front of Villa Jacobs . The other two had drowned.

On July 29th, on the recommendation of the State Ministry, the king refused to exercise his right of grace. The reasons are unknown. The decisive factor could have been the endangerment of the desired deterrent effect if the first death sentence is already "turned off".

Execution and its immediate consequences

The grave of the Dortu family in Freiburg's Wiehre cemetery

On July 30, Hirschfeld confirmed the death sentence. As Dortu was offered a plea for clemency to ask, he refused and decided excited from to ask for mercy. This, he said, referring to the father's visit, was what the family wanted to do. Dortu wrote to his parents: "Anyone who has the courage to confess a conviction and fight for it must also have the courage to die for it." At 3:45 am he asked in writing for a respite in order to make a petition for clemency. But as early as 4:00 am he was told that this was "inadmissible" and the firing squad picked him up. For the third time, Dortu harshly refused spiritual assistance. In the early morning of July 31, 1849, a Prussian peloton shot him in the cemetery in the Freiburg district of Wiehre . A drum roll should drown out his last words. Nevertheless, the soldiers heard Dortu's call: “I am dying for freedom. Brothers, aim well! ”Although he was anonymously buried in accordance with the orders , Prussian militia men placed a wooden cross on his grave that same day.

In large parts of the German public, Dortus' democratic motives and his steadfast stance right down to the last resort were recognized. In contrast, his merciless execution aroused disgust at the Prussian military justice. Even in Potsdam he was called "first martyr of the Prussian court martial in Baden" at a mourning rally. With this in mind, press articles, leaflets and several publications appeared. The events surrounding the conviction and execution also aroused criticism in Switzerland and France. The public condemnation of Freiburg girls and young women who had decorated Dortmund's grave with flowers and laurel contributed to this. Despite the prohibition and punishment, what they did was imitated night after night for months.

The sympathy caused the Prince of Prussia to make a public statement. He apparently shared the view of the military tribunal and attributed the breach of the oath to his father's inducement to atheism. King Friedrich Wilhelm, made aware of accusations of judicial murder, had a report made and learned about Gärtner's trial report, which aroused his “special attention”. A semi-official publication on the campaign in 1853 gave details of the allegations against Dortu and contrasted them with his application from 1844.

Afterlife, honors and the tomb in Freiburg

Commemoration on the day and place of execution of Maximilian Dortu in the old Wiehre cemetery in Freiburg 2013

The death sentence against Dortu, passed in camera by a Prussian court martial in Baden, was the prelude to a series of a total of 26 further sentences against revolutionaries. Dortu did not only grow into the role of the victim of a judicial murder in Republican journalism. Theodor Fontane , who remembered Dortu from his service in the Franzregiment , wrote that Wilhelm was "when he was supposed to sign the judgment, [...] full of touching sympathy", "despite the fact that he knew, or perhaps because he knew that the young Dortu brought up the word 'grape prince' [...] ”. Fontane wrongly said that Prince Wilhelm had signed the death sentence, just as erroneously he called this “Prince Regent” and stated that the place of execution was Rastatt.

The Prussian state, on the other hand, tried to erase the memory. Dortmund's body was not allowed to be buried in Potsdam. The parents emigrated to France. In 1864 Wilhelm, now King of Prussia, prohibited the city of Potsdam from accepting a legacy from the widow Dortu, because it was associated with an honor for Max Dortu. With a donation of 1000 guilders, the mother had a mausoleum built for her son and husband at the place of execution in Freiburg in 1860 . She was also buried here in 1861. After the cemetery was closed in 1923, the mausoleum was the only burial site that remained. Since then, the city of Freiburg has been looking after Dortmund's grave “forever” according to a generous donation from his mother. In 2016 the tomb was restored for 7,000 euros.

On August 9 and 21, 1849, Prussian soldiers carried out two further death sentences for Friedrich Neff and Gebhard Kromer in the Wiehre cemetery , whose bones were later transferred to their home villages.

Since 2004, on the day of Dortmund's death, a commemoration ceremony in honor of the three killed and to reflect on their democratic ideals has taken place on the square in front of his tomb.

In Potsdam, Freiburg and Karlsruhe streets are named after Maximilian Dortu, in Potsdam there is also a primary school.

literature

  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 1: A-E. Winter, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8253-0339-X , pp. 217-218.
  • Karl Gass: Aim well, brothers! The short life of Maximilian Dortu . Märkischer Verlag, Wilhelmshorst 2000, ISBN 3-931329-24-0 .
  • Julius Haeckel: The revolutionary Max Dortu , in: Hans Hupfeld (Hrsg.): Potsdamer Jahresschau. Havelland Calendar 1932 , Verlag der Potsdamer Tageszeitung, Potsdam 1932, pp. 41–57. Haeckel's account is the only one that was able to rely to a large extent on the original files on the Dortu case, which were already incomplete in 1932.
  • Harald Müller: Dortu, Johann Ludwig Maximilian (Max) , in: Helmut Reinalter (Hrsg.): Biographical Lexicon for the History of Democratic and Liberal Movements in Central Europe , Vol. 2 / Part 1. Peter Lang, Frankfurt / M. et al. 2005, p. 68, ISBN 3-631-44356-0 .
  • Gustav Rasch: A wreath of immortelles on the grave of a martyr . In: Karl Blind et al. (Ed.): The German Confederation. Association "German Freedom and Unity" . Trübner, London 1865, pp 19–24 [1]
  • WB: Max Dortu from Potsdam first martyr of the Prussian war court in Baden. Shot on July 31, 1849; (together with a facsimile of his last letter); Dedicated to his parents and friends (= Berlin reminder sheets; 991). S. Weyl & Comp., Berlin 1849
  • Karlheinz Deisenroth: How heroes are made. Max Dortu and the design of his fame . In: Schau-ins-Land , Volume 122 (2003), pp. 113–120 online at the Freiburg University Library
  • Karlheinz Deisenroth: Potsdam in Freiburg. Dortus grave . In: Schau-ins-Land , Volume 115 (1996), pp. 143–158 online at Freiburg University Library

Movie

Web links

Commons : Maximilian Dortu  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. see Freiburg State Archives: Wiehre FR; Catholic community: registry register 1844-1870, image 201
  2. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 7: Supplement A – K. Winter, Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8253-6050-4 , pp. 254-255.
  3. Ildiko Röd: “I am dying for freedom”. The execution of the revolutionary Max Dortu took place 165 years ago. In: MAZ of July 11, 2014, page 18.
  4. Haeckel quoted from the application, p. 42.
  5. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 1: A-E. Winter, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8253-0339-X , p. 217.
  6. On the Neckarbund see Georg Heer: Die Zeit des Progresses. From 1833–1859 , Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1929, p. 46f. (= Herman Haupt (Hrsg.): History of the German Burschenschaft , Volume 3)
  7. Dortus formulations, quoted in Haeckel, p. 51.
  8. Across Gustav Rasch reported Dortu that he had been sentenced to six months fortress arrest. Based on his memoirs, quoted in Gass, p. 81f. According to representations that go back to court files (Haeckel, p. 45 and Staroste: Diary about the events in the Palatinate and Baden in 1849. A memory book for contemporaries and for everyone who took part in the suppression of that uprising . Volume II , Verlag der Riegel'schen Buch- und Musikalienhandlung (A. Stein), Potsdam 1853, p. 232), the court sentenced Dortu to 15 months' arrest.
  9. ^ Gass quotes a report in the "Berlinische Nachrichten" from November 15, 1848, p. 75f.
  10. ^ So Thomas Nipperdey: German History 1800–1866. Citizen world and strong state . CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-09354-X , p. 662.
  11. ^ Quotation in Gass, p. 106.
  12. Staroste: Diary about the events in the Palatinate and Baden in 1849. A memory book for contemporaries and for everyone who took part in the suppression of that uprising . Volume II, Verlag der Riegel'schen Buch- und Musikalienhandlung (A. Stein), Potsdam 1853, p. 5.
  13. Quotations from Haeckel, p. 50.
  14. ^ Indirect reproduction of the quotation in Haeckel, p. 50f.
  15. Quotes from Haeckel, p. 51, p. 52ff.
  16. ^ Quotes from Haeckel, p. 50 and p. 55.
  17. ^ Announcement of the judgment in facsimile in Gass, p. 24.
  18. ^ Wording from David E. Barclay: Monument and fear of revolution . In: Wolfgang Neugebauer (Ed.): Potsdam. Brandenburg. Prussia. Contributions of the State History Association to the millennium of the city of Potsdam (= Yearbook for Brandenburg State History, Volume 44), Berlin 1993, ISSN  0447-2683 , pp. 130–160, here p. 142, with evidence; on the process see also Jens Fachbach: Ludwig Simon von Trier (1819-1872). 48er, exile, European. A picture of life . Stadtmuseum Bonn , Bonn 2018, ISBN 978-3-931878-53-5 , pp. 203 f.
  19. Quotes from Haeckel, p. 51.
  20. To this Julius Haeckel: The revolutionary Max Dortu. In: Hans Hupfeld (Ed.): Potsdamer Jahresschau. Havelland calendar 1932. Verlag der Potsdamer Tageszeitung, Potsdam 1932, p. 51ff.
  21. For another version of this fatal accident see The Forgotten Sugar Baron (press article from April 23, 2011 on the Jacobs research by Gebhard Falk). Retrieved February 11, 2013 .
  22. Haeckel, p. 52.
  23. For Dortmund's last hours with documented citations, see Haeckel, pp. 51–54
  24. Excerpts from the funeral speech at Gass, pp. 136f., See also WB: Max Dortu from Potsdam. First martyr of the Prussian war court in Baden. Shot on July 31, 1849 (along with a facsimile of his last letter). Dedicated to his parents and friends . S. Weyl & Comp., Berlin 1849.
  25. ↑ On this, Gass, p. 138ff., Haeckel, p. 54f.
  26. Gass, p. 136
  27. ^ Haeckel doubts whether Friedrich Wilhelm would have refused the petition for clemency knowing the report, p. 55, on Wilhelm's speech on August 8 in Freiburg: Gass, p. 138.
  28. Staroste ( see above), pp. 232-234
  29. Gass cited, without page number, Theodor Fontane: From twenty to thirty. Autobiographical , F. Fontane & Co., Berlin 1910.
  30. Gass, pp. 150-153
  31. bz: Freiburg Süd: Obligation "forever". Badische Zeitung, December 23, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016 .