Theodor Barth (politician)

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Theodor Barth

Wilhelm Theodor Barth (born July 16, 1849 in Duderstadt ; † June 3, 1909 in Baden-Baden ; pseudonyms: Ferdinand Svendsen and Junius ) was a German politician ( NLP , LV , DFP , FVg , DV ) and publicist at the time of German Empire . From 1881 to 1884, from 1885 to 1898 and from 1901 to 1903 he was a member of the German Reichstag and from 1898 to 1903 also in the Prussian House of Representatives .

Life

As the son of the pharmacist Carl Barth and his wife Mathilde Juliane (née Plathner, widowed Wenkebach), Barth spent his childhood in Bremerhaven from 1853 . He attended the Andreanum grammar school in Hildesheim and then studied economics and law in Heidelberg , Leipzig and Berlin from 1868 to 1871 . At the age of 21, Barth was promoted to Dr. jur. doctorate , a year later he passed the state examination in law. After completing his academic training, Barth first worked as a lawyer in Bremen , then as an official assessor in Bremerhaven and finally in 1876 became in-house counsel for the Bremen Chamber of Commerce .

Political career

As a determined opponent of Bismarck's protective tariff policy , he represented the Hanseatic cities in the Federal Council's Customs Tariff Commission in 1879 , which, under the chairmanship of Baron von Varnbuler, discussed new tariffs.

Barth began his actual political career as a national liberal , but soon switched to left-wing liberalism . There he gradually turned away from Manchester liberal positions and propagated the social responsibility of liberalism. As a consequence, he increasingly sought cooperation with the Social Democrats and repeatedly came into opposition to the respective leadership of his own party. In the German Freedom Party , to which he had belonged since 1884, he gradually developed into the "soul of the opposition" against chairman Eugen Richter . When they split up in 1893, he joined the Liberal Association and not the Liberal People's Party led by Richter . At times he worked closely with Friedrich Naumann , who joined the Freethinking Association in 1903. However, the ways of the two parted again in 1908 when Barth founded the Democratic Association together with Rudolf Breitscheid and Hellmut von Gerlach , which split off from them in protest against the participation of the Liberals in the Bülow Block . In his new party, however, Barth was unable to achieve anything significant, as he died a year after it was founded.

Emancipation of women

Theodor Barth was one of the first male supporters of women's emancipation .

editor

From 1883 to 1907, Barth was the editor of the journal Die Nation , which he founded , a liberal weekly magazine in which not only politicians and writers, but also scientists such as Lujo Brentano and Theodor Mommsen published.

Web links

Commons : Theodor Barth (politician)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Entry there largely mixed with Marquard Adolph Barth

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wegner 1968, p. 10.
  2. ↑ Bernhard Mann (edit.): Biographical handbook for the Prussian House of Representatives 1867-1918 (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 3). Droste, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-770-05146-7 , p. 55.
  3. ↑ Helene Lange: Memoirs. Berlin: Herbig, 1925, chap. 23, URL: https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/langeh/lebenser/chap022.html
personal data
SURNAME Barth, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barth, Wilhelm Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician, MdR and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Duderstadt
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1909
Place of death Baden-Baden