Oskar von Reichenbach (politician)

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Oskar Heinrich Carl Graf von Reichenbach (born January 17, 1815 in Olbersdorf; † March 28, 1893 in London ) was a German democratic politician during the revolution of 1848 and later lived as an emigrant writer in London and the USA.

Pre-march

The family tree of the von Reichenbach family can be traced back to the 13th century. The father Heinrich Erdmann Graf Reichenbach was Rittmeister and son of Carl Heinrich Fabian Graf Reichenbach , the ancestor of the Zessel line. The mother Caroline Johanna Elenora came from the Silesian noble family of the Seherr-Thoss . Oskar von Reichenbach was the brother of Eduard von Reichenbach .

Between 1833 and 1839 von Reichenbach studied philosophy in Berlin and Paris . Then he was the manor owner of the Dometzko estate near Opole until 1849 .

Politically, he had already emerged in 1837 with a pamphlet to Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm , in which he spoke out in favor of a reorganization of Germany under Prussian leadership. From 1839 he belonged to the Hallgarten circle . In 1846 he was refused a mandate in the Silesian Provincial Parliament because he had not been a landowner for ten years.

Revolution 1848/49

In March 1848 he was one of the leading figures in a delegation of landowners from the Opole district who asked the king to hold primary elections for a Prussian national assembly. He was a member of the preliminary parliament in Frankfurt. Since October 18, 1848, he was the successor to Melchior Freiherr von Diepenbrock member of the Frankfurt National Assembly for the constituency of Opole. He belonged to the left faction Deutsche Hof and the Central March Association . He was one of those MPs who elected Friedrich Wilhelm IV as Emperor of the Germans. In addition, in 1848 he periodically wrote pamphlets under the title "Truths of a People's Friend". Reichenbach was also a member of the Central Committee of the Democrats of Germany.

emigration

Because von Reichenbach had participated in the Stuttgart rump parliament , he was arrested in 1849 and charged with treason . Several courts were not ready to take over the proceedings, so that he was able to flee to London after his release in 1850. In his absence he was sentenced in 1851 to ten years in prison and the loss of the national cockade. Reichenbach lived in London as a scientific writer. There he was a member of the executive committee of the Emigration Club. He was also a member of the European Central Democratic Committee. In 1853 Reichenbach was trustee of the German National Loan to promote the revolution in London. In the same year he emigrated to the USA and, in addition to his writing activities, was also the owner of a farm. In 1863 he returned to London, where he lived again as a writer until 1893.

Support of Bismarck

Politically, he did not come out again until 1866 on the side of Otto von Bismarck . On his behalf and following instructions from Robert von Keudell , Reichenbach undertook a trip through southern Germany in 1866 to counter the impending war, in which the southern German states would likely support Austria. In August 1866 Otto von Bismarck asked politicians from various camps to draft constitution for the North German Confederation to be founded . In addition to the liberal Maximilian Duncker and the conservative Hermann Wagener , Reichenbach also presented a draft as a democrat. He leaned closely on the Paulskirche constitution . The Prussian king was to become hereditary "King of the North Germans and Prussians". In order to solve the problem of the coexistence of the Prussian Landtag and Reichstag , he proposed that the Landtag be abandoned.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Plant: Bismarck. The founder of the empire. Munich, 1997, ISBN 978-3-406-54822-2 , p. 329
  2. ↑ Bardo Fassbender: The open federal state. Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149218-1 , p. 96, p. 98

Fonts (selection)

  • Contribution to the draft of the constitution to be agreed: The electoral law: whether primary election? - whether choice according to stands? - whether Census? : Dedicated to His Majesty the King and a Supreme National Assembly. Digitized

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Reichenbach, Oskar von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reichenbach-Goschütz, Oskar Heinrich Carl Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Olbersdorf
DATE OF DEATH March 28, 1893
Place of death London