Theodor Schuster (politician)

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Carl Wilhelm Theodor Schuster (born September 18, 1808 in Lüne near Lüneburg , † 1872 ) was a German lawyer and doctor . As a revolutionary , he was one of the leading representatives of the League of Outlaws .

Life

Theodor Schuster attended school in Hildesheim . Since 1826 he studied law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg and the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . In 1827 he became a member of the Corps Guestphalia Heidelberg and Lunaburgia Göttingen with Gerlach von dem Knesebeck . In Göttingen doctorate he 1829 Dr. iur. With other private lecturers such as Johann Ernst Arminius von Rauschenplatt he protested against censorship measures by the dean of the law faculty. In addition, they founded a circle of readers who, in addition to German and French magazines, also had political publications. Against the background of the constitutional movement in the Kingdom of Hanover , the Göttingen unrest (1831) took place , in which Schuster and five others - later called the six troublemakers - played a leading role. The town hall was occupied, a civil guard formed and a local council installed. Against this, the government mobilized the army. The citizens had to capitulate to this. Schuster had to flee.

He first went to Strasbourg and turned to Paris in 1832 . There he became a leading member of the German People's Association and the League of Outlaws . After Jacob Venedey, he was editor of the federal magazine “Der Geächtete” from 1835. Alfred Stern reports on Schuster's fate in Paris.

Like Jacob Venedey , he opposed a disorderly revolution from below. However, there were significant ideological differences between the two. While the political changes were in the foreground for Venedey, Schuster saw the basic problem in the economic structure. A republican constitution alone does not fix the causes of the evil:

"If there is to be light for the people, the next revolution must be about supporting not just the monarch, but the monarchy. The monarchy, however, does not consist in the coats of arms nor in the royal crown - it consists in privilege - the privilege of all privileges, however, is wealth. The revolutionary ax fells this enemy, and the throne, nobility and grocer's court will bow with him like a wall with its foundation. Leave them intact, and everything else will rise again on his shoulders until a new ray of weather shattered the new building. " - Theodor Schuster, The fight for a better future, in: Der Geächtete 1 (1834), no. 5, p. 217.

Schuster therefore demanded a sensible economic program from a revolutionary party in the event of a victory. He himself conducted extensive economic studies. He came to a program in which he called for an equality-based organization of work and industry. In the future society, work should no longer be possible without a corresponding fair wage. In contrast to Venedey, for example, he demanded that a revolutionary movement should primarily address the workers. It was important for him to win this group not only during a revolution, but first through educational measures. Because of the different positions, there was a split in 1836. Schuster was at the foundation of the proletarian and early socialist oriented League of the Just played a key role.

He later retired from political life. He also turned away from law and became a doctor.

In 1847 he provided information about the activities of the Association of Communists to the Mainz Central Investigation Commission . However, it is likely that this information was intended to set the wrong track.

Fonts

  • “Property”, from: Thoughts of a Republican (Paris, 1835), in: Fritz Brügel , Benedikt Kautsky (ed.): The German Socialism from Ludwig Gall to Karl Marx. Hess & Co., Vienna 1931, pp. 59-64

literature

  • Alfred Stern: Theodor Schuster as an alleged political secret agent (April 1847). A contribution to the history of the German and French secret societies in Paris . Sources and representations on the history of the fraternity and the German unity movement, 3rd volume, p. 228 ff.
  • Antje Gerlach: German literature in exile in Switzerland. The political propaganda of the associations of German refugees and journeymen in Switzerland from 1833 to 1845 . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ( Studies on Philosophy and Literature of the Nineteenth Century 26), (At the same time: Dissertation, Free University of Berlin, Department of German Studies, 1972).
  • Egbert Weiß : Corps students in the pre-March period - “persecuted” and “persecutors” . Einst und Jetzt 33 (1988), pp. 47-63; Supplements Vol. 34 (1989), p. 264 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Korps-Lists 1910, 112 , 263; 79 , 67 and 75
  2. ^ Oesterley: History of the University of Göttingen in the period from 1820 to its first secular celebration in 1837. Göttingen 1838, p. 361
  3. ↑ Göttingen. History of a university town. Vol. 2, Göttingen 2002, p. 166 f.
  4. ^ Richard Faber (ed.): Liberalism in past and present. Würzburg 2000, p. 27
  5. ↑ In the Kösener Corps lists 1910 he is as “Dr. jur. et med. "
personal data
SURNAME Schuster, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schuster, Carl Wilhelm Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, doctor and revolutionary
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Lüne near Lüneburg
DATE OF DEATH 1872