Oskar von Wydenbrugk

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Wilhelm Eberhard Oskar Freiherr von Wydenbrugk (born October 7, 1815 in Aschenhausen , † June 9, 1876 in Kiefersfelden ) was a German liberal politician. He was March Minister in Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach and a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly . During the New Era he was one of the leading figures in the Greater German Reform Association . He was also the author of numerous articles and publications.

Oskar von Wydenbrugk

Pre-march

His father was the tenant Wilhelm Peter Alexander von Wydenbrugk, the mother was Ernestine Dorothea Auguste (née Sternberger). In an accident in his youth, he suffered a curvature of the spine that disfigured him for the rest of his life. He attended grammar school in Eisenach and then studied law in Jena , Heidelberg and Berlin . In Jena he was a member of the Society on the Burgkeller fraternity since 1835 .

After completing his studies, he became an official advocate in Eisenach. In addition to his legal practice, he also gave public political lectures. He published political and legal writings. In his "Letters on German National Legislation" (Jena 1848) he advocated an all-German code of law. In the pre- March period he belonged to the Hallgarten circle as a liberal . Before the revolution, he spoke at a festival of the Thuringian Choir Association in the presence of the grand ducal family without prior notice and pleaded for the unity and freedom of Germany.

In 1847 he was elected member of the state parliament of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach for the city of Eisenach. He maintained the mandate until 1854. There he made a name for himself as a liberal politician. He was particularly committed to the unification of the chamber and landscape assets, which brought him great popularity.

Revolution 1848/49

Wydenbrugk acted in this sense at the beginning of the March Revolution of 1848. He pleaded in the state parliament for the abolition of the Carlsbad resolutions . In the meeting of the estates he made this an important factor in the fight for the fulfillment of the March demands. He also demanded the dismissal of old members of the government. Despite his role in the opposition, he also tried to give advice to the Grand Duke. At a people's meeting on March 8, 1848, which warned Grand Duke Karl Friedrich that the March demands should be met, Wydenbrugk tried to intervene moderately. There was public demand that he be appointed to the State Ministry. The Grand Duke appointed him a secret Council of State and appointed him to the State Ministry.

Wydenbrugk recommended himself for a mandate in the Frankfurt National Assembly through a pamphlet “The New Design of the German Fatherland” and was elected as a member of Weimar on April 26, 1848 - at the same time he remained a member of the State Ministry. In parliament he was close to the Democrats . He was a member of the Württemberger Hof . Since October 1848 he was chairman of the parliamentary group. He also belonged to the Central March Association .

He was a member of the Committee on International Law and International Affairs and was its chairman from July 22nd. Since July 1, 1848, he was also a member of the committee that was supposed to draft a law on ministerial responsibility . In the autumn of 1848 he was appointed plenipotentiary of the Weimar government at the provisional central authority . He held this position until May 27, 1849. In February 1849 he was a member of the Greater German Constitutional Committee.

At first he was set up in large German . Against the background of developments in Austria, he became a representative of a small German solution under Prussian leadership. He therefore elected Friedrich Wilhelm IV as Emperor of the Germans. Since April 11, 1849 he was chairman of the committee for the implementation of the imperial constitution.

After the emperor's deputation was unsuccessful, Wydenbrugk tried to find a solution to the now confused situation. On May 4, 1849, he submitted the motion, according to which the National Assembly should call on the governments and the German people to recognize and enforce the Frankfurt Constitution . It was to determine the day of the first Reichstag meeting and the day of the elections for the People's House on the basis of the constitution. If the King of Prussia has not yet recognized the constitution by the time the Reichstag meets, the prince who is closest to him in power (with the exception of Austria) should temporarily take his place as head of the Reich. This initiative became known as the Wydenbrugk motion. The motion was accepted, but could not change the failure of the National Assembly.

Wydenbrugk left Frankfurt without having formally resigned from the National Assembly. In June of that year he took part in the Gotha post-parliament . He refused to be elected to the Erfurt Union Parliament in 1850 because he considered it incompatible with his official duties.

Activity as minister

Since October 1, 1849, an organizational reform of the Weimar state authorities had come into force. Wydenbrugk has since been head of the second department of the State Ministry and responsible for culture, school affairs and the judiciary. He actively supported efforts towards closer cooperation between the Thuringian states. However, these efforts have had limited success. A cooperation between Weimar and the two Black Burg states was agreed. A joint appeal court in Eisenach and two joint district courts in Sondershausen and Arnstadt should be established. Jury courts and public and oral proceedings were also introduced in these states in accordance with the March demands . In 1851 work began on a common code of civil procedure based on the example of the Kingdom of Saxony .

Wydenbrugk also tried to push through some progressive reforms in the area of ​​education policy. The training of elementary school teachers was improved through a reorganization of the teachers' seminars . The social position of the teachers was raised by the fact that they were no longer sextons in the churches. Your wages have been guaranteed. Furthermore, secondary schools and advanced training schools were founded. A new parish order was introduced for the parishes in 1851. This relied on a stronger participation of the parishioners. The election of church councils was introduced and the right of the congregation to reject unsatisfactory pastor candidates was strengthened. Wydenbrugk has already pleaded for the introduction of a synodal church order without being able to enforce it.

Time of reaction

The liberal policy in Weimar was called into question by the reaction policy of the newly established German Confederation . The Federal Assembly , which met again in 1851 , also demanded the repeal of German basic rights in Weimar, as well as a revision of state legislation, the repeal of democratic suffrage in favor of the indirect electoral law of 1852.

As a result, the left resigned from the state parliament in protest. A new, strictly conservative state parliament without liberal opposition was elected on the basis of the new electoral law. Initially, Wydenbrugk continued to hold on to his ministerial office out of a sense of duty and was attacked by the opposition press for this. In 1854, Grand Duke Karl Alexander accepted the resignation that was finally submitted. This marked the end of one of the longest terms of office of a March Minister.

Wydenbrugk, who had been married to the daughter of the engineer colonel von Hörmann since December, withdrew to his acquired property Deiblerhof am Tegernsee . Several daughters were born to the couple. In order to provide them with adequate training, the family moved to Munich in 1859 . There he again came into close contact with scientists, artists and liberal politicians. He began to be politically active again with political writings. In 1861 he wrote “The transformation of the feudal state into the modern state.” A year later he published “The German Nation and the Empire” as a counterpart to the work of the same name by the historian Heinrich von Sybel .

New era

In the New Era , which was politically in flux again after Wilhelm I took over the government, the small German national association had already been formed in 1859 and negotiations between the governments took place. Wydenbrugk was now back on the greater German side. In 1862, in Frankfurt am Main, he largely organized a meeting of the Greater German direction with 500 participants. The Greater German Reform Association was founded there as a counterpart to the National Association . Wydenbrugk became second chairman. Since it seemed impossible to him at that time to bring about a freely elected all-German parliament, he spoke out in favor of an assembly of delegates from members of the individual states to the German Confederation. Like the national association, the reform association, headed by Wydenbrugk, spoke out in support of the Schleswig-Holsteiners after the death of King Friedrich VII of Denmark at the end of 1863.

Wydenbrugk became the authorized representative of Duke Friedrich von Augustenburg in 1863 , initially in Munich, and from 1864 in Vienna . He held this office until 1867. In this position he was one of the opponents of Otto von Bismarck , who aimed at an annexation of the two duchies. After these efforts failed, he retired to Gut Schöffau near Oberaudorf . In the following years he worked as an author for various newspapers and magazines. He was no longer able to realize a planned history of the German nobility.

Honors

In 1945 the city administration of Eisenach ordered the renaming of a street in the western part of the old town to Wydenbrugk-Straße .

Fonts (selection)

  • To my fellow citizens near and far! The days are approaching when Germany's future is to be decided ... [Pamphlet for the election to the National Assembly on April 14, 1848] Pamphlets 1848, Goethe University
  • The German nation and the empire. A reply to the work by Heinrich von Sybel that appeared under the same title . Munich 1862. ( digitized version )
  • Reichstag or parliament . Jena 1862. ( digitized version )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wydenbrugk, Oskar von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wydenbrugk, Wilhelm Eberhard Oskar Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German liberal politician and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Aschenhausen
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1876
Place of death Kiefersfelden