Wilhelm Eduard Wiggers

Wilhelm Eduard Wiggers (born February 23, 1815 in Rendsburg ; † February 14, 1892 ibid) was a German lawyer, notary and politician. From 1848 to 1865 he was one of the leading liberal politicians in Schleswig-Holstein.

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Wilhelm Eduard Wiggers was a son of the businessman and deputy Hans Friedrich Wiggers († January 28, 1821 in Rendsburg) and his wife Ernestine Johanna Dorothea, née Seyer. He attended the Rendsburg School of Academics and enrolled at Kiel University in 1883 to study law. In 1837 he passed the law exam. From 1838 he worked as a notary and lawyer in Rendsburg.

In 1838 Wiggers spoke at a public event in Rendsburg. He advocated bringing the Schleswig and Holstein assemblies together, giving them their own tax approval rights and separating the finances of the duchies from those of Denmark.

On November 28, 1842, Wiggers married Clara Catharina Söndergaard in Rendsburg (born January 28, 1821 in Rendsburg, † January 6, 1884), with whom he had no children.

Like Karl Lorentzen and other people, Wiggers got into fiscal processes in 1846 that were related to political events in the Vormärz . On January 30, 1847, he was elected as the deputy chief auditor Brackel for the Holstein meeting of estates. In the election of July 11, 1850, he received a direct mandate for the state assembly, in which he worked as a follower of Theodor Olshausen until its dissolution on January 17, 1851 . He was supported by a citizens' association that he founded himself on January 2, 1848.

Due to his political attitude, Wiggers had to give up his appointment as a lawyer in 1853 and got it back in 1860. In the meantime he was allowed to continue working as a notary. On December 19, 1857 he became a member of the Rendsburg city council. The members elected him on January 20, 1863 as deputy, on January 19, 1864 as the first citizen spokesman.

From 1861 Wiggers represented Rendsburg in the Holstein Estates Assembly . At the same time he received a mandate for the management level of the Holstein National Association. Wiggers spoke at numerous gatherings, organized events, and presided over them. This included the Schleswig Festival in Kiel in the summer of 1861 and the gymnastics meeting in Rendsburg in the same year.

Theodor Lehmann , who was also a member of the management of the Holstein National Association, founded the Landescomité of the National Association for building a fleet in October 1861. Wiggers took on a leading position in this committee. On October 31 and November 1, 1864, he attended the meetings of the National Association in Eisenach . Together with Count Ludwig Reventlow, he demanded that Schleswig-Holstein should work closely with Prussia. During the split of the liberals in Schleswig-Holstein in 1864/65, Wiggers tried, together with Wilhelm Ahlmann and Friedrich Magnus Steindorff , to mediate. He unsuccessfully proposed a Schleswig-Holstein state based on Prussian hegemony under the leadership of the House of Augustenburg.

On February 26, 1865, Wiggers refused to be re-elected as chairman of the delegates' assembly of the Schleswig-Holstein associations and thus withdrew from further participation in the associations. In 1875 he joined the provincial administrative committee, but had only a few public appearances. In 1879 he was appointed to the judiciary. The city of Rendsburg recognized his commitment on May 24, 1885 with an honorary citizenship and had a memorial erected for him after his death.

literature

• Rainer S. Elkar: Wiggers, Wilhelm Eduard . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 3. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1974, pp. 281-283