Otto von Mirbach

Otto von Mirbach (* 1804 ; † 1867 ) was a Prussian officer and revolutionary. During the revolution of 1848/49 he was the leading democratic politician in Dortmund and in 1849 the commander of the security committee during the Elberfeld uprising .

Pre-march

Mirbach was originally an engineer officer in the Prussian army. In the pre-March period he was already a member of the democratic opposition. He took part in the Greek Revolution and the Polish uprising of 1830/1831. He may also have been in Paris during the Revolution of 1830 .

Since the mid-1830s he lived as an engineer for the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahngesellschaft in Dortmund. In the 1840s he founded the reading and discussion group "Gesellschaft Vorwärts" there. This openly represented early socialist views. As chairman of the association, he was involved in the formation of the first general citizens' assembly in Dortmund in 1845, which resolved a number of liberal reform demands and sent them to the Westphalian provincial parliament.

Revolution in Dortmund

During the revolution of 1848 Mirbach tried to realize his political goals. He joined the democratic organization in Dortmund ("Volksverein"). However, he criticized the moderate attitude of the association in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung . He soon managed to take the lead himself.

In December 1848 after the start of the counter-revolution, von Mirbach was arrested. This led to serious unrest in Dortmund. Only with the help of the vigilante was it possible to prevent the angry crowd from storming the town hall in order to free Mirbach. He was brought to Münster and imprisoned there without a trial. Mirbach was only released again in April 1849.

Elberfeld uprising

During the Elberfeld uprising of 1849 as part of the Reich constitution campaign , he had become the military supreme commander of the Security Committee on the recommendation of Friedrich Engels . Among other things, he had the troops subordinate to him obtain weapons in the surrounding cities in commando companies. But Mirbach did not succeed in disarming the politically moderate vigilante group. Even the Landwehr did not submit to his command. Some of the moderate members of the security committee, who feared a social revolution, had von Mirbach expel Engels from Elberfeld.

The delegation from Elberfeld, who was in Berlin, sent a misleading message from which one could incorrectly infer that the Prussian king had recognized the Paulskirche constitution . This, internal conflicts among the revolutionaries as well as an ultimatum from the Rhenish chief president soon collapsed the uprising. Most of the irregulars fled. The rest of about 400 to 500 men under von Mirbach stayed in the city. The banker Daniel von der Heydt , among others, was captured to raise funds . After receiving the money, the troops left the city in two units to join the revolution in the Palatinate. The irregulars were soon wiped out by Prussian troops.

After the defeat of the revolution, Mirbach was sentenced to two years in prison, but he was able to escape during a transport and went into exile in Paris and later in Greece.

literature

• Karin Schambach: Urban bourgeoisie and industrial upheaval: Dortmund, 1780–1870. Munich, 1996 partially digitized
• Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels Complete Edition (MEGA) Dept. 3: Correspondence, Vol. 11: Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels: Correspondence, June 1860 to December 1861. Berlin, 2005 p. 1406 Partial digitization

Web links

• Elberfeld 1848 (PDF file; 61 kB)