Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen
Encyclopedia
Geilenkirchen
Geilenkirchen is a town in the district Heinsberg, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated near the border with the Netherlands, on the river Wurm, approx. 15 km north-east of Heerlen and 20 km north of Aachen....
- 1890 in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
)
In 1848, Ludolf Camphausen stepped suddenly from his banker's desk
at Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
to the presidential chair of the Ministry of State at Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
,
being called by King Frederick William IV. to succeed Count Arnim-Boitzenburg
Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg
Adolf Heinrich Graf Arnim-Boitzenburg was a German statesman, and the first Prime Minister of Prussia.After finishing his studies, he joined the Prussian civil service and soon became Landrat in the Uckermark. In 1833 he became Regierungspräsident in the Regierungsbezirk Stralsund...
as prime minister, on the 29th of March. Ludolf
availed himself largely of his younger brother's (Otto
Otto von Camphausen
Otto von Camphausen was a Prussian statesman.-Biography:Camphausen was born at Hünshoven, part of Geilenkirchen on the right bank of the River Wurm, in the Rhine Province...
) splendid business
talents, and the two might, indeed, have succeeded at the time in tiding over
this most critical epoch in the constitutional history of the land, had they
not had to encounter the deep insincerity of the monarch on the one side,
and the (very excusable) profound distrust of the Radical and Progressist
majority of the Assembly on the other side.
Both Ludolf and Otto Camphausen were moderate Liberals —
too honestly Liberal
to suit the views of the king and of the reactionary feudalist clique
around him, and too honestly Conservative for the impatience of the men
of progress. Less than three short months sufficed to convince Ludolf
Camphausen of this fact, and already on the 20th of June he tendered
his resignation to the king.
One month after, at the end of July, 1848,
Ludolf Camphausen was sent as Prussian representative to 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...
. Here he remained till April, 1849,
when he finally resigned, and went back to his banking business at Cologne,
a wiser and sadder man, thoroughly disenchanted of the alluring illusions of
power and office.