Rudolph Schramm

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Rudolph Schramm , also Rudolf Schramm (born January 8, 1813 in Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal ), † October 5, 1882 in Baden-Baden ), was a German publicist. During the revolution of 1848/49 he was a democratic politician. In contrast, when the Reich was founded , he supported Otto von Bismarck's policy .

Pre-march

Schramm came from a family of manufacturers in Krefeld . He studied philosophy and law in Bonn , where he joined the Corps Rhenania , and Berlin . Then he entered the Prussian judiciary and later the civil service. His brother was Conrad Schramm .

During his time as a trainee lawyer in Cologne , he was one of the initiators of the cathedral building association . As he was a Protestant himself, Schramm turned down the position of secretary offered to the association, but was active on the board of the cathedral building association. He was also politically active from an early age. When in the 1840s the citizens of Cologne asked the Rhenish provincial parliament to introduce freedom of the press, Schramm was commissioned to draft the petition, which Ludolf Camphausen was one of the first to sign. Schramm also excelled in promoting the railway system. He published several papers on this and joined the management of the Bonn-Cologne railway company. In 1845 Schramm went to Berlin to take his assessor exam. In the next few years, however, he was politically active in the opposition movement.

Revolution and exile

Schramm became chairman of the Democratic Club of Berlin after the beginning of the March Revolution of 1848. He was elected to the Prussian National Assembly for the constituency Striegau - Schweidnitz - Neumarkt . There he belonged to the left wing and stood out as an energetic and passionate speaker. After the victory of the counter-revolution, he was falsely accused of promoting the tax denial campaign in his constituency. For this he was six months imprisonment sentenced.

He fled into exile and returned in 1859 to undergo revision proceedings. He was acquitted. Nevertheless, he did not stay in Germany, but returned to his exile in England.

Time of the unification of the empire

In a publication “The North German State” he represented ideas that were actually implemented in 1866. In particular, he emphasized the need to fight with Austria. He pleaded for a national German Empire of the Hohenzollern . The theses met with the goodwill of the Prussian Foreign Minister Albrecht von Bernstorff in 1861 . With the aim of promoting the establishment of an empire, Schramm returned to Germany and, on behalf of the foreign minister, tried to convince liberal politicians and especially the national association of Wilhelm I's idea to create a small German nation-state.

For Schramm at that time, the focus was not on political freedom, but on creating unity. He therefore criticized the position of the Progressive Party and supported the government's proposals for army reform. Otto von Bismarck , whom he knew from his student days, saw Schramm not as an anti-liberal, but as a possible implementer of his national goals. Relations with Bismarck were very close during this time and Schramm managed to enable his friend Lothar Bucher to return to the civil service.

During the crisis around Schleswig-Holstein , he emphasized in his writings the importance of Kiel as a naval port for Prussia and advocated the Prussian claim to inheritance of the Elbe duchies . In the run-up to the war of 1866 , Schramm was appointed (unpaid) consul general in Milan . He was heavily involved in bringing about an alliance between Prussia and Italy . After the war Schramm gave up the post and went back to work as a publicist.

Because Schramm did not want a course of conflict with the Catholic Church in terms of church politics, he became estranged from Bismarck. However, he supported its policy during the establishment of the empire.

After the founding of the Reich, he criticized the power of ministers and insisted that all central questions be dealt with in public. In terms of foreign policy, he saw numerous common interests of Germany, France, Austria-Hungary and Italy vis-à-vis Great Britain, Russia and the USA.

Fonts (selection)

  • The standpoint of democracy in and on the governed second chamber. Berlin, 1849
  • Constitutional Truth. Milan, 1879
  • The International before the Reichstag and the social question. Milan, 1878
  • A Prussian water law case: The public. Interest in d. Thing; The Private Flow Act of 1843; The Fisheries Act of 1874; The Wupper River Right; Fridrichsthal; Rospatt; Hardt. Milan, 1877
  • Heroes and martyrs of German freedom. Milan, 1876
  • European diplomacy, the German parliament and general disarmament. Leipzig, 1870

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 15 , 145
personal data
SURNAME Schramm, Rudolph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schramm, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH October 5, 1882
Place of death Baden-Baden