Peter Reichensperger

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Peter Reichensperger on a painting by Julius Schrader (1865)
Peter Reichensperger (1810-1892). Photograph by Leopold Haase & Comp., Berlin around 1874

Peter Franz Reichensperger (born May 28, 1810 in Koblenz , † December 31, 1892 in Berlin ) was a German politician ( Center Party ). In 1848, as a member of the Prussian National Assembly, he was significantly involved in the Prussian constitutional discussion. Together with his brother August Reichensperger , he founded the Catholic parliamentary group in the Prussian House of Representatives in 1852 and co-founded the Center Party in 1869/70. He remained a member of the Reich and Landtag until his death.

Life

Family and work

The father Franz Joseph was originally an Kurtrier judge and brought it to the prefectural council in Koblenz during the French period . The mother Margarethe Johanna Theresia was born Knoodt. She also came from a family of bourgeois electoral officials. Peter was the younger brother of August Reichensperger . Both had two sisters.

The father died in 1813. The family moved to Boppard and lived in the grandfather's house. There Peter spent a not so easy, but overall carefree youth. He passed his matriculation examination in 1829 at the Royal High School in Kreuznach .

Between 1829 and 1832 he studied law , camera studies , physics and chemistry in Bonn and Heidelberg . The father and his brother had also studied there. In Heidelberg Reichensperger came into contact with the theories of classical economic liberalism . In 1828 he became a member of the Germania Bonn fraternity .

After graduating, he did military service in Trier . He didn't have good memories of it later. Then he continued his education. Reichensperger worked as an auscultator and trainee lawyer at the Trier district court .

In 1837 he married Anna Maria Weckbecker. This was the daughter of the wealthy landowner Franz Georg Severus Weckbecker, who was called the "Moselle king" or "castles and goods butcher of the Maifeld". The marriage resulted in two sons and two daughters. Louise married the forest master Bernhard Danckelmann and Helene married the professor of legal history Hugo Loersch . He and his brother August had a lifelong friendship with his brother-in-law Peter Weckbecker .

From 1839 to 1841 he was assessor in Elberfeld , then until 1850 district judge in Koblenz and until 1859 councilor at the Appellhof Cologne. In 1859, Reichensperger moved to the Prussian High Tribunal as senior tribunal advisor, a position in which he worked until 1879. Reichensperger published a number of legal and political writings, particularly on the agricultural question.

politics

Political positions in the pre-march

Politically it was shaped by various factors. There was his work-related closeness to the state. He was later one of the most governmental politicians in the Rhineland. It was also shaped by the tradition of Rhenish law ( Code Napoleon ). Another aspect is economic liberalism. He became a proponent of the liberalization of society and the political constitution. He was convinced of the superiority of the Rhenish economy and its institutions over Prussia, which was perceived as backward.

As a Rhinelander, Reichensperger was Catholic, but he came from an enlightened and tolerant tradition. He wasn't pious and didn't really care about his religious duties. However, the event in Cologne in the 1830s had a political impact on him.

In 1842 he published the publication Public, Orality, Jury Courts , in which he demonstrated the superiority of Rhenish law. Should the rest of Prussia take over these institutions, that would strengthen the legitimacy of the state. His most important work in the Vormärz was The Agrarian Question from the Point of View of Economics, Politics and Law from 1847. In it Reichensperger pleaded for the free divisibility of the soil in view of the pauperism and industrialization debate. This was in contrast to the position in East Elbe Prussia. He did not see divisibility as a risk of property fragmentation, but as an incentive for profit. He had no doubt about the breakthrough of industrialization, but he hoped that development would be tamed. The industrial workforce could not be abolished again, but he hoped to be able to limit its further growth. The thoughts on freedom of the land were connected with a criticism of the nobility. He refused an artificial renewal of the estates, as Prussia tried to do with the provincial parliaments. Political institutions should not be derived from tradition but from expediency. However, he also had doubts about the liberal constitutional system. A strong parliament would weaken the king's position. He advocated a federal-corporate model. In it, municipalities and provinces should have as much power as possible and the king as much power as necessary. Guilds, estates and corporations should serve for political participation. From today's perspective, these positions differentiated him from the classical liberal. But in the political discussion at the time there were numerous similarly divergent concepts. After all, his theses made him known to the politically interested public.

Pre-parliament

His writings led to his being invited to the Frankfurt pre-parliament in March 1848 . Reichensperger viewed the outbreak of the revolution with skepticism. The progress it stood for could be destroyed by mass anarchy. It was then the task of the bourgeoisie to steer the unrest in an orderly manner. For Reichensperger as a lawyer, the revolution was primarily a problem of constitutional legitimation. In this respect he accepted the invitation to the pre-parliament, which had a revolutionary aftertaste for him, with a certain hesitation. He soon made a name for himself in the pre-parliament. He turned against the radicals around Gustav Struve and Friedrich Hecker . While these tried to make the pre-parliament a permanent institution, Reichensperger contradicted it. In his opinion, it could only last temporarily without legitimation through elections. The fear of developments that had led to the reign of terror in France after 1793 played a role . The question of the relationship between the crown and parliament was a crucial difference between the Rhenish liberals and the south-west German liberals. While the liberals of Reichensperger's stroke saw the focus on the king, the left saw parliament as the political center. This fundamental gap could hardly be bridged.

Prussian National Assembly

He ran for the Frankfurt National Assembly in the constituency of Mayen - Ahrweiler . Because of his commitment to a strong monarchy, his goal of a merely moderate reform policy and his criticism of the revolutionary processes in Berlin, he was unable to convince the electoral assembly. Without his knowledge, however, he was elected to the Prussian National Assembly in Kempen . His brother August was a member of the Frankfurt assembly.

Peter Reichensperger was one of the leaders of the constitutional right in the Berlin parliament. He was a member of the central constitutional committee and had considerable influence on the revision of the government's draft constitution. Various articles in the draft later called Charte Waldeck came from him and he defended them in plenary. It became clear that he had given up various socio-romantic ideas from the time of Vormärz and was now a clear constitutionalist. No longer guilds and estates, but parliament was now the decisive actor alongside the king. He insisted that the king's position should be as strong as possible. Among other things, this applied to the king's right to determine a government. However, he also wanted the king to be bound by the constitution and pushed for a constitutional oath. Reichensperger also wanted to expand the rights of parliamentarians and citizens based on the Belgian constitution. This applied, for example, to the accountability of the government or the immunity of MPs. His changes also included diets for MPs. As an advocate of elite rule, he advocated three-tier suffrage .

After the start of the counter-revolution in Prussia and the relocation of the National Assembly to Brandenburg, Reichensperger was commissioned by the new government to travel to Frankfurt as a representative of Prussia in order to promote the procedure there. He managed to get the German National Assembly to condemn the tax refusal campaign in Prussia and otherwise hold back. Reichensperger regarded the dissolution of the Prussian National Assembly as legitimate. He defended his position in a polemic against the leftist Karl Rodbertus . He also defended the constitution as a necessity. He pointed out that this would contain many liberal aspects.

In July 1849 he was elected to the second chamber of the Prussian state parliament. He was a member of the Prussian state parliament until 1856. As a result of the Democrats' abstention, Reichensperger belonged to the middle. He tried to defend the liberal achievements of the constitution against the right. In 1850 he was a member of the Erfurt Union Parliament . There he committed himself to the Greater German solution .

Political Catholicism

As a result, he became a co-founder of political Catholicism . The background was that the Prussian government tried to restrict the church's freedoms during the reaction era. In 1852, for example, a ban on popular missions in mixed denominational areas was issued. From then on Prussian subjects were forbidden to study at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome . These interventions were the trigger for the foundation of the Catholic faction in the Prussian state parliament by the Reichensperger brothers. The new grouping subsequently joined 63 MPs. The main objective was to preserve the rule of law, particularly in church matters. At the same time, the group stood loyal to the king. In Reichenspergerplatz the rule of law thought went there to demand not only equal rights for Catholics, but he also continued to ensure that Jews were allowed to hold public office, was on the other hand, so far quite still marked by reservations by Jews the blame on anti-Semitism was and called on them not to “draw the bow too tight”, otherwise “the day could come when the Christian German people forgets everything and with elementary violence in just indignation” washes the rights of the Jews “overboard”. In 1858 he was re-elected to the Prussian House of Representatives. Because the parliamentary group did not take a clear position during the Prussian constitutional conflict at the beginning of the 1860s, but tried to mediate, its members lost a massive amount of support.

When the Center Party was founded in 1869/70, the Catholic Rhenish bourgeoisie had hardly any part in it. Exceptions were the Reichensperger brothers. Incidentally, both claimed the honor of having invented the party name. Before the founding, Peter Reichensperger pre-formulated important points of the party program by calling for elections. As a result, they remained far removed from the ultramontanes . Peter Reichensperger, for example, rejected the infallibility dogma . Although he belonged to the party's inner leadership circle, he was overshadowed by Ludwig Windthorst . He counted himself among the “heterogeneous elements” of the party. Reichensperger was a member of the North German Reichstag since 1867. Here he belonged to the faction of the federal constitutional association . After the establishment of the German Empire , he was a member of the German Reichstag until his death . For decades he represented the constituency of Arnsberg 2 Olpe-Meschede-Arnsberg in the Catholic Sauerland .

During the Kulturkampf he tried to defend the liberal foundations of the imperial constitution against anti-Catholic efforts, especially those of the liberals. He published the text Kulturkampf or Peace in State and Church . In this he campaigned for understanding, tolerance and respect for church freedoms by the state. On the other hand, he remained loyal to the state as much as possible. He did not always agree with his parliamentary group. In 1884 he voted against the majority in the parliamentary group for an extension of the Socialist Law . In 1887 he spoke out vehemently in favor of the septnate and could only with difficulty be persuaded to abstain. He later agreed to Bismarck's plans for social security.

In 1865 Reichensperger was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Papal Order of Gregory .

death

Peter Reichensperger died in Berlin in 1892 at the age of 82. He was buried in the local St. Hedwig's cemetery on Liesenstrasse . The tomb has not been preserved.

Fonts

  • The elections for the House of Representatives in Prussia. From a Catholic. Paderborn 1858 ( Digitalisat the ULB Münster ).
  • (with August Reichensperger) Parliamentary speeches by the brothers August Reichensperger and Peter Franz Reichensperger. As material for a characteristic of the Greater German and Catholic faction 1848–1857. GJ Manz, Regensburg 1858.
  • Kulturkampf or peace in state and church. Julius Springer Publishing House, Berlin 1876 ( digitized version ).
  • Experiences of an old parliamentarian in the revolutionary year 1848. Julius Springer publishing house, Berlin 1882

literature

Web links

Commons : Peter Reichensperger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 187
  2. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 5: R – S. Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1256-9 , pp. 32-33.
  3. ↑ Ulrich von Hehl:  Reichensperger, Peter Franz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 310 ( digitized version ).
  4. ↑ Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 186.
  5. ^ A b Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 196.
  6. ^ A b Ulrich von Hehl:  Reichensperger, Peter Franz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 311 ( digitized version ).
  7. ↑ Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 188 f.
  8. ↑ Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 190.
  9. ↑ Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 191.
  10. ↑ Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 192.
  11. ↑ Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 194.
  12. ↑ Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 194 f.
  13. ↑ Olaf Blaschke : Catholicism and anti-Semitism in the German Empire. Göttingen, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht 1999, p. 294.
  14. ↑ Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 197.
  15. ^ A b Thomas Mergel: The Catholic Liberal . In: Sabine Freitag (Ed.): The Forty-Eight. Life pictures from the German revolution 1848/49 . Beck, Munich 1997, p. 198.
  16. ^ Fritz Specht, Paul Schwabe: The Reichstag elections from 1867 to 1903. Statistics of the Reichstag elections together with the programs of the parties and a list of the elected representatives . 2nd Edition. Carl Heymann Verlag, Berlin 1904, p. 140; see. also A. Phillips (Ed.): The Reichstag elections from 1867 to 1883. Statistics of the elections for the constituent and North German Reichstag, for the customs parliament, as well as for the first five legislative periods of the German Reichstag . Verlag Louis Gerschel, Berlin 1883, p. 89; see. also: Georg Hirth (Ed.): German Parliament Almanach . 9th edition of May 9, 1871. Verlag Franz Duncker, Berlin 1871, p. 242.
  17. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. p. 55.
personal data
SURNAME Reichensperger, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reichensperger, Peter Franz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (center), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Koblenz
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1892
Place of death Berlin