Robert Viktor von Puttkamer

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Robert Viktor von Puttkamer (* May 5, 1828 in Frankfurt (Oder) ; † March 15, 1900 at Gut Karzin near Stolp in Pomerania ) was a Prussian statesman who was responsible for the political " Purification ”of the Prussian judges and civil servants was of considerable importance for the further administrative history of Prussia and the German Empire .

The historian Eckart Kehr first pointed out in 1929 that the extensive and permanent penetration of the Prussian state apparatus with conservative "opinion officials" must be associated with the long neglected work of Puttkamer. More recent research on regional history has shown, with a view to East Prussia , “that Puttkamer sought to enforce political conformity down to the level of the head of office .” Under him, the “ liberal civil service tradition that has never been lost since the reforms of the years after 1807” broke off.

origin

Puttkamer belonged to the Pomeranian noble family of Puttkamers on. His father Eugen von Puttkamer was police chief of Berlin from 1839 to 1847 and chief president of the province of Posen from 1851 to 1860. His mother Emilie (1803-1852) was born from Zitzewitz . His siblings also made careers in the Prussian state: Richard became district administrator, Bernhard became a politician and Jesco became district president. His sister Johanna became Bismarck's wife.

Life

Robert Viktor von Puttkamer

He studied law in Heidelberg, Geneva and Berlin. After completing his studies in 1854, he entered the civil service. From 1860 to 1866 he was district administrator in the Demmin district . In this function, he gained the personal trust of Otto von Bismarck , who appointed him as a lecturer in the newly created Federal Chancellery in 1866, before he became President of the Gumbinnen district in 1871 . In 1874 he became district president in the Lorraine district of the realm of Alsace-Lorraine .

From 1873 to 1891 Puttkamer was a member of the Reichstag for the Reichstag constituency of Gumbinnen 7 , where he joined the German conservatives .

In 1877 he took over the function of the Upper President of the Province of Silesia before becoming Prussian Minister of Education on July 14, 1879 . In this function he contributed to defusing the culture war between the empire and the Catholic Church. Between the two German Orthographic Conferences of 1876 and 1901 , by decree of January 21, 1880, the “simplified German spelling ” was introduced in the schools of Prussia . On June 18, 1881, Puttkamer became the Prussian Minister of the Interior. On October 11, 1881, he became Vice President of the Prussian State Ministry . In these functions he tried above all to remove liberal officials from civil service and to replace them with conservative ones. In addition, he strictly implemented the socialist laws, which earned him opposition from left and liberal forces. His “strike decree” of April 11, 1886 should be mentioned here.

Under Emperor Friedrich III. he was released on June 8, 1888. Puttkamer then became canon of Merseburg and from 1889 a member of the Prussian manor house . In 1891 he was appointed President of the Province of Pomerania under Kaiser Wilhelm II ; he held this office until 1899.

Robert von Puttkamer was the great-grandfather of the political scientist and writer Christian Graf von Krockow .

family

He married his cousin Ida von Puttkamer (1830–1920) in Posen in 1854 , who was a daughter of the Prussian district administrator Albert von Puttkamer (1797–1861) and his wife Auguste von Pape (1795–1834). The couple had five sons and 2 daughters, one of whom died early:

  • Jesko Albert Eugen (1855–1917), Governor of Cameroon ⚭ 1914 Elisabeth Passow
  • Wilhelm (1857–1895), Prussian officer
  • Bernhard (1858–1941), police chief of Kiel and Stettin ⚭ 1886 Magarethe Johanna Karoline Elisabeth von Puttkamer (born January 21, 1863)
  • Albert August Wilhelm (1861–1931), 1906–1917 District President of Colmar ⚭ Magarethe Elisabeth Marie von Eickstedt-Peterswald (* 23 August 1872)
  • Maximilian Albert August (1865–1920), Lord of Klein-Machmin, Prussian District Administrator ⚭ 1900 Raisin von Wessely (* 1883)
  • Hedwig Karoline Eva Maria (1869–1923) ⚭ Oscar von Chelius (1859–1923), Prussian lieutenant general

literature

Web links

Commons : Robert Viktor von Puttkamer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eckart Kehr: The social system of reaction under the Puttkamer Ministry. In: Society. Vol. 6 (1929), No. 2, pp. 253-274.
  2. ↑ Patrick Wagner: Farmers, Junkers and officials. Local rule and participation in East Elbe in the 19th century. (= Modern Times. Vol. 9), Göttingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89244-946-1 , p. 512.
  3. ^ Werner Conze (ed .: Ulrich Engelhardt, Reinhart Koselleck and Wolfgang Schieder): Society-State-Nation. Collected Essays. Stuttgart 1992, p. 291.
  4. ↑ Printed in: Collection of sources for the history of German social policy 1867 to 1914 , Section II: From the Imperial Social Message to the February Decrees of Wilhelm II (1881–1890) , Volume 4: Workers' Law , edited by Wilfried Rudloff, Darmstadt 2008, No. 39


personal data
SURNAME Puttkamer, Robert Viktor von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician, MdR
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt (Oder)
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1900
Place of death Good carcinoma , Pomerania