Wilhelm von Fircks (politician)

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Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Baron von Fircks (born August 14, 1870 in Rettingen in the Kovno governorate , † December 10, 1933 in Riga ) was a German-Baltic mining engineer and politician.

origin

Wilhelm von Fircks ' parents were the German-Baltic poet Karl Ferdinand von Fircks (1828–1871) and his wife Lucie, born Baroness von Grotthuss (1837–1917).

Life

After attending the Dannenberg School and from 1884 to 1891 the Gouvernementsgymnasium in Mitau , Wilhelm von Fircks did voluntary military service in a dragoon regiment from 1891 to 1892. From 1892 to 1897 he studied mining at the Bergakademie Freiberg . At the beginning of his studies he became a member of the Corps Montania . In 1896 he took part in the Irangi expedition in German East Africa as a geologist and mineralogist . He completed his studies in 1897 as a qualified mining engineer. After working as an assistant for geology and mineralogy in Freiberg, he went in 1898 as mine director to the lead-antimony-silver mines of the Société minière en Serbie in Serbia. In 1901 he became director of the 2nd division of the Compagnia d'Aguilas , which operated lead, silver and iron mines in the province of Almería in Spain. In 1903 he became general director of the Compagnie Industrielle du Platine , which operated platinum and gold mines in the Urals . From 1911 to 1916 he was a member of the company's supervisory board and the general management of Demidov's platinum plants in the Urals. From 1911 to 1916 he was the owner of the Livonian manor Wattram. In 1917, after the outbreak of the October Revolution, he returned to his Baltic homeland, where he acquired the Varwen estate in Courland in 1917, which he owned until 1920.

In the summer of 1919 he was elected President of the German-Baltic National Committee and President of the Courland Charitable Association, the association of the Courland knightly nobility. He was chairman of the cooperative of the owners of the goods expropriated by the agricultural law. In 1920 he was elected chairman of the German-Baltic People's Party . He was a member of the Presidium of the Central German-Baltic Work and was chairman of the Association of German Farmers in Latvia since 1929.

From 1920 to 1933 he was a member of the Latvian parliament, first to the Constituent Assembly and then to the Saeima in the following four terms until immediately his death . In 1933 he was appointed chairman of the German parliamentary group and deputy chairman of the committee of the German-Baltic parties . In his political and parliamentary work, together with Paul Schiemann , he succeeded in winning the German-Baltic population for political cooperation in the young Latvian republic. One of his political concerns was the national and cultural independence of the Baltic Germans in Latvia.

family

In 1899 he married Marie Adolphi (* 1870), a daughter of the senior teacher Heinrich Adolphi from Mitau. The couple had a son and three daughters.

Fonts

  • Foreword. In: The Baltic Landeswehr in the fight for liberation against Bolshevism. 1929.
  • My travel blanket, memories. 1934.

He was also the author of geological treatises and essays on minority policy and Latvian agricultural policy.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fircks, Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fircks, Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Baron von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Baltic mining engineer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Rescue in Kovno governorate
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1933
Place of death Riga