Moritz Elsner

Carl Friedrich Moritz Elsner (born November 20, 1809 in Kortnitz , Sprottau district , † August 8, 1894 in Breslau ) was a German high school teacher, journalist and democratic parliamentarian in the Prussian National Assembly .

Origin and education

Moritz Elsner was the son of a miller and mill owner. He attended high school in Hirschberg and began studying in Breslau in 1831 . He first studied philosophy, but switched to the natural sciences . Elsner also attended legal and medical lectures.

As a member of the old Breslau fraternity Arminia (1832) he was sentenced in 1835 to six years imprisonment and incapacity to hold an office. A review process only brought confirmation of the judgment. A pardon led to the reduction of the sentence to six months of imprisonment. Elsner served them between 1838 and 1839.

He was able to complete his training with the support of the botanist Julius von Flotow with a dissertation on the flora of the Giant Mountains in 1839 as Dr. phil. to lock.

Then Elsner published a pamphlet against Karl Ernst Schubarth in defense of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel . Elsner still avowed himself to the constitutional monarchy . In particular, he considered the development of Prussia to a constitutional state to be urgently needed.

Editor and teacher

Elsner settled in Breslau and worked as a correspondent for various newspapers from 1839. After the incapacity for office was lifted, he completed a probationary year as a school candidate in 1841/42 and from 1843 became a teacher at the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium . There he mainly taught science.

In addition, he initially worked as a publicist on behalf of the Silesian district government, which considered him to be a moderate liberal with a monarchical attitude . However, the collaboration was short-lived. In 1843 Elsner became editor-in-chief of the Silesian Chronicle . This was founded in 1836 as a supplement to the Breslauer Zeitung . Under Elsner's direction, it initially became a moderately political and finally a radical opposition newspaper. Many of the employees were rural elementary school teachers. The political spectrum ranged from left-wing liberal, democratic to early socialist views. This was held together by anti- feudalism . The paper supported the criticism of the rural population against the Junkers . The manorial police sovereignty or the patrimonial jurisdiction were attacked . The paper also published the first scientific studies on the origins and position of the rural proletariat. Overall, it played an important role in the development of the democratic movement in the province of Silesia .

In 1847 Elsner became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . His academic name was Schwenkfeld , his membership number 1572.

Parliamentarians in the revolution of 1848/49

After the March Revolution of 1848, the paper, under the leadership of Elsner, sided with the revolution. The unrest and riots among the rural population were regretted, at the same time Elsner and his colleagues pointed out the feudal causes.

Elsner's election agitation was clearly democratic. He defended the concerns of the rural population and attacked the Junkers. In contrast to the Liberals, Elsner and the Democrats demanded the lifting of the feudal burden without compensation. Elsner played a leading role in founding a democratic association at the end of March 1848 and in its activities in Breslau. He was also involved in founding a workers' association. Elsner himself was elected to the Prussian National Assembly.

In parliament he was one of the leaders of the determined left and represented republican positions. He was a good speaker and made a name for himself as an avid debater. He worked particularly closely with the other two democratic Silesian MPs Julius Schön and Eduard von Reichenbach . On May 30, 1848, these three suggested that the fighters on the barricades should officially confirm that they had rendered services to the fatherland. This sparked a lively debate, which culminated on June 8 with a motion from Julius Berends .

Elsner was a member of the constitutional commission. As a speaker for teaching questions, he called for the separation of state and church and advocated free teaching. During the constitutional discussion, he passed a motion that led to the abolition of the king's absolute veto in the draft constitution. As head of the Petions Committee, Elsner set up a special commission to investigate the situation of the weirdos and weavers in the Silesian emergency areas. In September he successfully applied for immediate state aid.

Together with Johann Jacoby , Elsner criticized in mid-July the election of an irresponsible imperial administrator by the German National Assembly in Frankfurt. After the military attacks in Schweidnitz , Elsner helped trigger the debate, which ultimately led to the decision that the war minister should forbid officers from participating in reactionary activities and oblige the soldiers to pursue constitutional developments.

In the constitutional debate Elsner also pleaded for the abolition of the death penalty , for the symbolic abolition of the monarchical suffix “ by the grace of God ” and for the abolition of titles of nobility and orders.

At the center of Elsner's parliamentary activity, however, was the endeavor to abolish feudal burdens. Elsner's initiatives in this matter were blocked by the Liberals for months before the question came on the parliamentary agenda thanks to Elsner's persistence. For parliamentary employment, however, the increased pressure, especially from the rural Silesian population, also played an important role. With the rustic associations , a rural mass movement even emerged. The Left's initiative was partially successful. The application for the free cancellation of feudal hunting rights was accepted. Elsner and his supporters could not prevail on various other questions with their maximum demands. Even if not all tithe were repealed without compensation, a number of these feudal rights did so.

In November 1848 Elsner was one of those who opposed the dissolution of parliament through the counterrevolution. As head of the Petitions Commission, he was responsible for spreading the protests against the measures of the government as well as the solidarity rallies for the parliament in public. Elsner was one of the supporters of the tax refusal campaign .

After the dissolution of the National Assembly, Elsner began in Silesia with a broad election agitation for the democratic left before the elections for the second chamber of the Prussian state parliament. He belonged again to the extreme left since February 1849 through the second chamber. However, the government dissolved parliament on April 27th.

Elsner campaigned for the adoption of the Paulskirche constitution . He participated in the Breslau survey in May 1849 as the author of a corresponding appeal and as a meeting speaker.

Life and work after the revolution

For this he was sentenced to two years in prison by the Breslau Higher Regional Court in June 1850 . He escaped punishment by fleeing to England. In 1851 he was acquitted after a nullity complaint and returned to Breslau. However, the authorities managed to prevent Elsner from resuming teaching at the grammar school. Because of "unauthorized removal from office" he was finally dismissed from school in 1851.

He remained connected to the school service as the author of a number of scientific textbooks. As a city councilor in Wroclaw, he campaigned for reforms in the city's elementary schools.

Professionally he was editor and co-editor of the Neue Oder Zeitung between 1851 and 1855 . This paper was one of the most influential democratic organs of the time, in which Karl Marx published at times . In 1856 he was a co-founder of the Breslauer Morgenzeitung . This developed into an important opposition newspaper in the 1860s. Elsner developed more and more into a liberal during this time. He became a member of the National Association and joined the Progress Party . He was aloof from the independent labor movement . After the German War of 1866 he became a national liberal and campaigned for German unification under Prussian leadership. In 1870 he even advocated the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine . Elsner finally moved away from these national liberal positions and joined the German Liberal Party in 1888 .

Fonts

• Synopsis Florae Cervimontanae. Praemissa est de speciei definitionibus quaestiuncula critica . Freund, Breslau 1839 (Phil. Diss. Inaug. Breslau 1839)
• Flora from Hirschberg and the adjacent Giant Mountains . Agarwood, Breslau 1837 digitized
• An accusation of high treason directed against Hegel was answered from his writings . F. Hirth, Breslau 1839
• Efforts and achievements of Breslau publicists in the years 1842, 1843 and 1844. Sixty articles. by O. Behusch, M. Elsner, CA Milde, F. von Sallet, L. Schweitzer, A. Semrau, J. Stein and R. Werner, collected and edited by Leopold Schweitzer . Opole, Breslau 1844
• Difference between empirical natural research and natural philosophy . Breslau 1845 (program of the high school of St. Maria Magdalena)
• The eleven-month theater administration of City Councilor Friebös . Lucas, Breslau 1857
• Comments on natural history teaching at higher educational institutions. To celebrate the hundred and fifty years of existence of the Hirschberg high school . Shepherd, Breslau 1862

literature

• Memorial ceremony for Dr. Moritz Elsner. In: Schlesische Schulzeitung. Educational weekly. 23 (1894), No. 39, p. 469 f.
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 1: A-E. Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8253-0339-X , p. 251.
• Walter Schmidt : Elsner, Moritz. In: Manfred Asendorf, Rolf von Bockel (eds.): Democratic ways. German résumés from five centuries . Stuttgart / Weimar 1997, ISBN 3-476-01244-1 , pp. 151-153.
• Walter Schmidt: Moritz Elsner and the 1848 democracy in Silesia . Leibniz Society / Meeting Reports. 63 (2004), pp. 19-53
• Rolf Hecker : The "discovery" of Marx letters in Moritz Elsner's estate and their first publication. In: Contributions to Marx-Engels research. New episode 2003. Hamburg 2003, pp. 200–225.
• Albert Teichmann :  Elsner, Moritz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 48, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, p. 339 f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Synopsis Florae Cervimontanae. Praemissa est de speciei definitionibus quaestiuncula critica .
2. ^ Flora von Hirschberg and the adjacent Giant Mountains
3. ↑ JDF Neigebaur : History of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the second century of its existence. Friedrich Frommann, Jena 1860, p. 273
4. ^ The collaboration of Marx on the 'Neue Oder-Zeitung'. In: Marx-Engels Complete Edition. Department I. Volume 14, Berlin 2001, pp. 911-924.