Friedrich Daniel Bassermann
Encyclopedia
Friedrich Daniel Bassermann (born in Mannheim
on February 24, 1811; died July 29, 1855) was a German liberal politician who is best known for calling for a pan-German Parliament at the Frankfurt Parliament
. He emphasized the value of a national self-esteem based on progress and freedom.
He was one of the most popular representatives in the Second Chamber of the Assembly of the Estates of Baden and played an important role in the creation of the first freely elected parliament for a German nation-state, the Frankfurt Parliament. As chairman of the constitution committee and under-secretary of state in the Interior Ministry of the Provisional Central Power, he contributed greatly to the Paulskirchenverfassung
of the Parliament. As a publisher he founded the Deutsche Zeitung, one of the most influential newspapers in the period leading up to the Revolution of 1848/49.
, which was to be the foundation of the rise of the Bassermann family. His father Friedrich Ludwig Bassermann, after marrying Wilhelmine Reinhardt, daughter of the Lord Mayor of Mannheim and clothier Johann Wilhelm Reinhardt, was one of the most prominent businessmen of Mannheim as a merchant and banker and was most active in the wine, tobacco, grain, and textile trades. The family home was on the Mannheim market place. Friedrich Daniel, who had been named after his grandfather, was the second oldest child out of the six children who survived to adulthood, and the oldest son.
Friedrich Daniel Bassermann was married to Emilie Karbach (1811–1872), the daughter of a priest, and they had 5 children, one of whom was Emil Bassermann-Jordan, owner of the vineyard Weingut Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan in Deidesheim
.
and Le Havre
. Starting in 1829, at the University of Heidelberg he attended lectures in physics
, chemistry
and botany
, followed by a practical apothecary's training in Nuremberg
. After recovering in Nuremberg from a case of typhus
, he finished his education through time spent at the firms Julius Stettner in Trieste
and Faber & Cie. in London
. In late 1833 he established himself independently, when, with financial support from his father, he acquired the Drogengeschäft, wholesaler of groceries and pharmaceuticals, from the Giulini brothers in Mannheim. When Baden the German Customs Union (Zollverein
), he was able to significantly expand his business in a short space of time and thus became a respected merchant in his home city, and a well-known participant in public life.
This is also reflected in his commitment to the cultural life of Mannheim. He was appointed to the Theaterkommittee of the National Theatre Mannheim and was a member of the Mannheim art society, and the music society. In 1835 he was among the founding members of the Casino, a reading society.
in Aachen, Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen
in Cologne or August von der Heydt
in Elberfeld he was one of those liberal politicians who had their political origins in the communes. In the larger cities, with the exception of a few Hanseatic
cities, they had largely displaced the traditional notables.
Already in the following year, he belonged to the Hallgartenkreis around Johann Adam von Itzstein. In 1841 Bassermann became a member of the Second Chamber of the Assembly of Estates in Baden, as representative for Mannheim. There, due to his speeches, he soon was counted among the most distinguished opposition politicians and counted among his friends various other well-known deputies, such as for example the popular Mannheim lawyer Friedrich Hecker (elected in 1842 to the Second Chamber), with whom he was to come to fundamental political disagreements with later, however. The witticism uttered by Bassermann in a speech in the Second Chamber, "The people is not there for the government, the government is there for the people", became famous in the German Confederation
. In the Second Chamber, Bassermann became influential not only through his fight for civil liberties, but as an authority on the customs
, budgetary
and transport policy of Baden, in the last case pressing particularly for the construction of railway lines in the Grand Duchy. Bassermann also worked on the first and second editions of the Rotteck-Welckersches Staatslexikon of Karl von Rotteck
and Carl Theodor Welcker
, a political encyclopedia of the time.
Already in 1841, he sold his firm to his younger brother Julius Bassermann, as his political career left him no time for his business, and became a professional politician. In 1843, the Urlaubsstreit ("Leave Crisis") took place: the government of Baden sought to deny granting leave to civil servants who had been elected to the Second Chamber for the opposition, in order to prevent them from taking up their mandate. In this context, Bassermann organised the rejection of the government budget, and used the first parliamentary motion of no confidence in German history to force the resignation of the conservative government under Friedrich Landolin Karl von Blittersdorf. The more flexible position of Blittersdorf's successors, Christian Friedrich von Boeckh, Karl Friedrich Nebenius
and especially Johann Baptist Bekk enabled the Grand-Duchy of Baden's return to the progressive politics of Ludwig Georg von Winter, and Bassermann's further growth as an opposition politician.
together with Karl Mathy
, that would later become known as Bassermann'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. Its most well-known publication was the Deutsche Zeitung, which was led since 1 July 1847 by Georg Gottfried Gervinus
, Ludwig Häusser
, Gustav Höfken, Karl Mathy and Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier
, and was oriented towards liberal politics and argued for a German nation-state.
The significance of the Deutsche Zeitung lay not only in its strong political influence, but also above all in its role as a central network for liberals from different German states, who worked for the newspaper as correspondents, reporters, members of the board and in other functions. Thus, the liberal movement had an organ for the formation of shared political positions. The newspaper was seen as an intellectual one, and as a leading publication due to its high standards of quality, but it also constantly ran at a financial loss due to deliberately gearing its business towards the entire German Confederation. As its co-founder, publisher and most important financial backer, Bassermann definitively became the mouthpiece of the liberal movement in the states of the German Confederation, and a champion of the German unification movement.
On 15 April 1844, in connection with a motion by Welcker from 1831, Bassermann gave a speech in the Second Chamber, in which he demanded for the first time that an all-German parliament should be set up, to create a German nation-state. This demand was rejected as by the Baden government under Alexander von Dusch as being outside its scope, but it corresponded to sentiments widely held in practically all the states of the German Confederation. Subsequently, Bassermann was much in demand as a speaker at political gatherings, and was feted as one of the most popular politicians of southern Germany.
Bassermann's political programme, which, apart from the question of German unity, concerned itself especially with matters of economic, trade and fiscal policy, was also echoed at the Heppenheim conference on 10 October 1847, which Bassermann as well as Mathy, Itzstein and Hansemann played an important role in organising.
The results of the conference, which Mathy published in the Deutsche Zeitung, advocated the support and expansion of the customs union as a means of achieving political unity of Germany (which Bassermann supported only after initial reluctance), and more generally, an economic programme that emphasised personal freedoms and clearly supported the processes of change associated with the Industrial Revolution.
In the revolutionary mood shortly before the start of the French Revolution of 1848, Bassermann made a speech to the Second Chamber of Baden on 12 February 1848, justifying the motion that he had made a week beforehand, asking for an indirect representation of the people at the level of the German Confederation, as this would secure political freedoms and strengthen the feelings of German unity. In relation to the German Confederation, the German nation was feeling an overwhelming aversion towards its highest authority, and a good relationship could only be restored through a constitution. Thus, Bassermann partly triggered the March Revolution in Germany. The movement that resulted from this demand led to the Heidelberg meeting of 5 March 1848, which in turn led to the Vorparlament of 31 March – 5 April in the Frankfurt Paulskirche. Bassermann participated in both events, where, together with other moderate liberals, he could work towards ensuring that the majority of those present regarded the creation of a constitution in consultation with the German Confederation and in the context of a national constitutional assembly as the highest priority, and not the formation of a revolutionary government as demanded by Hecker und Struve. Bassermann was then nominated by the Baden government as vice-chairman of the "committee of seventeen", which prepared the way to a new German constitution.
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
on February 24, 1811; died July 29, 1855) was a German liberal politician who is best known for calling for a pan-German Parliament at the Frankfurt Parliament
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Assembly was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. Session was held from May 18, 1848 to May 31, 1849 in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main...
. He emphasized the value of a national self-esteem based on progress and freedom.
He was one of the most popular representatives in the Second Chamber of the Assembly of the Estates of Baden and played an important role in the creation of the first freely elected parliament for a German nation-state, the Frankfurt Parliament. As chairman of the constitution committee and under-secretary of state in the Interior Ministry of the Provisional Central Power, he contributed greatly to the Paulskirchenverfassung
Paulskirchenverfassung
The Constitution of the German Empire of 1849, more commonly known as the Frankfurt Constitution or Paulskirchenverfassung , was an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to created a unified German state under an Emperor...
of the Parliament. As a publisher he founded the Deutsche Zeitung, one of the most influential newspapers in the period leading up to the Revolution of 1848/49.
Family
Bassermann came from a well-known merchant family from Baden and the Palatinate. His great-grandfather Johann Christoph Bassermann married the propertied widow Katharina Parvinci in 1736 and acquired from his mother-in-law the inn "Zu den drei Königen" in HeidelbergHeidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, which was to be the foundation of the rise of the Bassermann family. His father Friedrich Ludwig Bassermann, after marrying Wilhelmine Reinhardt, daughter of the Lord Mayor of Mannheim and clothier Johann Wilhelm Reinhardt, was one of the most prominent businessmen of Mannheim as a merchant and banker and was most active in the wine, tobacco, grain, and textile trades. The family home was on the Mannheim market place. Friedrich Daniel, who had been named after his grandfather, was the second oldest child out of the six children who survived to adulthood, and the oldest son.
Friedrich Daniel Bassermann was married to Emilie Karbach (1811–1872), the daughter of a priest, and they had 5 children, one of whom was Emil Bassermann-Jordan, owner of the vineyard Weingut Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan in Deidesheim
Deidesheim
Deidesheim is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with some 3,700 inhabitants.The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim. The most important industries are tourism...
.
Education and career
After attending the Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium, in 1826 Bassermann started as an apprentice at the Mannheim iron trading company under his uncle Johann Ludwig Bassermann and continued his business training at trading companies with which the family had good relations, in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
. Starting in 1829, at the University of Heidelberg he attended lectures in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, followed by a practical apothecary's training in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
. After recovering in Nuremberg from a case of typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
, he finished his education through time spent at the firms Julius Stettner in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
and Faber & Cie. in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. In late 1833 he established himself independently, when, with financial support from his father, he acquired the Drogengeschäft, wholesaler of groceries and pharmaceuticals, from the Giulini brothers in Mannheim. When Baden the German Customs Union (Zollverein
Zollverein
thumb|upright=1.2|The German Zollverein 1834–1919blue = Prussia in 1834 grey= Included region until 1866yellow= Excluded after 1866red = Borders of the German Union of 1828 pink= Relevant others until 1834...
), he was able to significantly expand his business in a short space of time and thus became a respected merchant in his home city, and a well-known participant in public life.
This is also reflected in his commitment to the cultural life of Mannheim. He was appointed to the Theaterkommittee of the National Theatre Mannheim and was a member of the Mannheim art society, and the music society. In 1835 he was among the founding members of the Casino, a reading society.
Second Chamber of Baden
In 1838 Bassermann for the first time became active in local politics when he was elected to the Small Committee of Citizens, which he chaired after 1839. Like David HansemannDavid Hansemann
David Justus Ludwig Hansemann was a Prussian politician and banker, serving as the Prussian Minister of Finance in 1848.- Life :...
in Aachen, Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen
Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen
Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen In 1848, Ludolf Camphausen stepped suddenly from his banker's deskat Cologne to the presidential chair of the Ministry of State at Berlin,...
in Cologne or August von der Heydt
August von der Heydt
August von der Heydt was an influential German economist.Von der Heydt was born in Elberfeld in the Duchy of Berg. During the Revolution of 1848 he was appointed as Minister to the newly created Ministry of Commerce and Industry in the Kingdom of Prussia, serving during the reigns of kings...
in Elberfeld he was one of those liberal politicians who had their political origins in the communes. In the larger cities, with the exception of a few Hanseatic
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
cities, they had largely displaced the traditional notables.
Already in the following year, he belonged to the Hallgartenkreis around Johann Adam von Itzstein. In 1841 Bassermann became a member of the Second Chamber of the Assembly of Estates in Baden, as representative for Mannheim. There, due to his speeches, he soon was counted among the most distinguished opposition politicians and counted among his friends various other well-known deputies, such as for example the popular Mannheim lawyer Friedrich Hecker (elected in 1842 to the Second Chamber), with whom he was to come to fundamental political disagreements with later, however. The witticism uttered by Bassermann in a speech in the Second Chamber, "The people is not there for the government, the government is there for the people", became famous in the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
. In the Second Chamber, Bassermann became influential not only through his fight for civil liberties, but as an authority on the customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
, budgetary
Budgetary policy
Budgetary policy refers to government attempts to run a budget in equilibrium or in surplus. The aim is to reduce the public debt.It is not the same as a fiscal policy, which deals with the fiscal stimulus to the economy, the repartition of taxes and the generosity of allowances....
and transport policy of Baden, in the last case pressing particularly for the construction of railway lines in the Grand Duchy. Bassermann also worked on the first and second editions of the Rotteck-Welckersches Staatslexikon of Karl von Rotteck
Karl von Rotteck
Karl von Rotteck was a German historian, and a prominent advocate of freedom of the press.-Biography:...
and Carl Theodor Welcker
Carl Theodor Welcker
-Biography:He was a member of the Baden legislature, and a colleague of Karl von Rotteck's in the editing of The Independent . He also joined Rotteck in writing the Staatslexikon . He was a member of the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848....
, a political encyclopedia of the time.
Already in 1841, he sold his firm to his younger brother Julius Bassermann, as his political career left him no time for his business, and became a professional politician. In 1843, the Urlaubsstreit ("Leave Crisis") took place: the government of Baden sought to deny granting leave to civil servants who had been elected to the Second Chamber for the opposition, in order to prevent them from taking up their mandate. In this context, Bassermann organised the rejection of the government budget, and used the first parliamentary motion of no confidence in German history to force the resignation of the conservative government under Friedrich Landolin Karl von Blittersdorf. The more flexible position of Blittersdorf's successors, Christian Friedrich von Boeckh, Karl Friedrich Nebenius
Karl Friedrich Nebenius
Karl Friedrich Nebenius was a Baden minister and author of their 1818 constitution.- Life :Nebenius was born on 29 September 1784 in Rhodt in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany...
and especially Johann Baptist Bekk enabled the Grand-Duchy of Baden's return to the progressive politics of Ludwig Georg von Winter, and Bassermann's further growth as an opposition politician.
German unity as a political project
In the same year Bassermann, founded a publishing house in HeidelbergHeidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
together with Karl Mathy
Karl Mathy
Karl Mathy , was a Badensian statesman.He was born at Mannheim. He studied law and politics at Heidelberg, and entered the Baden government department of finance in 1829...
, that would later become known as Bassermann'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. Its most well-known publication was the Deutsche Zeitung, which was led since 1 July 1847 by Georg Gottfried Gervinus
Georg Gottfried Gervinus
Georg Gottfried Gervinus was a German literary and political historian.-Biography:Gervinus was born in Darmstadt. He was educated at the gymnasium of the town, and intended for a commercial career, but in 1825 he became a student of the university of Giessen...
, Ludwig Häusser
Ludwig Häusser
Ludwig Häusser was a German historian.-Biography:Häusser was born at Kleeburg, in Alsace. Studying philology at Heidelberg in 1835, he was led by F. C...
, Gustav Höfken, Karl Mathy and Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier
Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier
Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier was a German jurist.-Biography:He was born in Munich, and educated at the universities of Landshut and Heidelberg...
, and was oriented towards liberal politics and argued for a German nation-state.
The significance of the Deutsche Zeitung lay not only in its strong political influence, but also above all in its role as a central network for liberals from different German states, who worked for the newspaper as correspondents, reporters, members of the board and in other functions. Thus, the liberal movement had an organ for the formation of shared political positions. The newspaper was seen as an intellectual one, and as a leading publication due to its high standards of quality, but it also constantly ran at a financial loss due to deliberately gearing its business towards the entire German Confederation. As its co-founder, publisher and most important financial backer, Bassermann definitively became the mouthpiece of the liberal movement in the states of the German Confederation, and a champion of the German unification movement.
On 15 April 1844, in connection with a motion by Welcker from 1831, Bassermann gave a speech in the Second Chamber, in which he demanded for the first time that an all-German parliament should be set up, to create a German nation-state. This demand was rejected as by the Baden government under Alexander von Dusch as being outside its scope, but it corresponded to sentiments widely held in practically all the states of the German Confederation. Subsequently, Bassermann was much in demand as a speaker at political gatherings, and was feted as one of the most popular politicians of southern Germany.
Bassermann's political programme, which, apart from the question of German unity, concerned itself especially with matters of economic, trade and fiscal policy, was also echoed at the Heppenheim conference on 10 October 1847, which Bassermann as well as Mathy, Itzstein and Hansemann played an important role in organising.
The results of the conference, which Mathy published in the Deutsche Zeitung, advocated the support and expansion of the customs union as a means of achieving political unity of Germany (which Bassermann supported only after initial reluctance), and more generally, an economic programme that emphasised personal freedoms and clearly supported the processes of change associated with the Industrial Revolution.
In the revolutionary mood shortly before the start of the French Revolution of 1848, Bassermann made a speech to the Second Chamber of Baden on 12 February 1848, justifying the motion that he had made a week beforehand, asking for an indirect representation of the people at the level of the German Confederation, as this would secure political freedoms and strengthen the feelings of German unity. In relation to the German Confederation, the German nation was feeling an overwhelming aversion towards its highest authority, and a good relationship could only be restored through a constitution. Thus, Bassermann partly triggered the March Revolution in Germany. The movement that resulted from this demand led to the Heidelberg meeting of 5 March 1848, which in turn led to the Vorparlament of 31 March – 5 April in the Frankfurt Paulskirche. Bassermann participated in both events, where, together with other moderate liberals, he could work towards ensuring that the majority of those present regarded the creation of a constitution in consultation with the German Confederation and in the context of a national constitutional assembly as the highest priority, and not the formation of a revolutionary government as demanded by Hecker und Struve. Bassermann was then nominated by the Baden government as vice-chairman of the "committee of seventeen", which prepared the way to a new German constitution.