Heinrich Edwin Rickert (27 December 1833 – 3 November 1902) was a German journalist and liberal politician. He was the father of the philosopher Heinrich Rickert.

Biography

Rickert was born in

Putzig Puck ( csb, Pùckò, Pùck, Pëck, formerly german: Putzig) is a town in northern Poland with 11,350 inhabitants. It is in Gdańsk Pomerania on the south coast of the Baltic Sea (Bay of Puck) and part of Kashubia with many Kashubian speakers in ...

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...

(Puck, Poland), his father was the head of the local post office and later a customs officer. Rickert attended school in Danzig (Gdańsk) and

Thorn Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...

(Toruń) and studied economics at the Universities of Breslau (Wrocław) and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. In 1858, he started to work as a journalist for the newfounded

Danziger Zeitung Danziger, being related to Danzig (disambiguation), Danzig (Gdańsk, Poland), may refer to: Danzig/Gdansk, Poland * Danziger bay, southeastern bay of the Baltic Sea * ''Danziger Deutsch'', Danzig German, Northeastern German dialects spoken in Gda ...

and soon became its editor and owner. In 1863, Rickert became a member of the City council of Danzig, he was a Co-founder of the National Liberal Party in 1866 and, next to Max von Forckenbeck,

Ludwig Bamberger Ludwig Bamberger (22 July 1823 – 14 March 1899) was a German Jewish economist, politician, revolutionary and writer. Early life Bamberger was born into the wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish Bamberger family in Mainz. After studying at Giessen, Heid ...

and

Eduard Lasker Eduard Lasker (born Jizchak Lasker) (14 October 18295 January 1884) was a German politician and jurist. Inspired by the French Revolution, he became a spokesman for liberalism and the leader of the left wing of the National Liberal party, which ...

, member of the party executive in 1867 and from 1877 to 1880.

Parliamentarian

Rickert was elected a member of the

Prussian House of Representatives The Prussian House of Representatives (german: Preußisches Abgeordnetenhaus) was the lower chamber of the Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag), the parliament of Prussia from 1850 to 1918. Together with the upper house, the House of ...

in 1870 and a member of the

German Parliament The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

in 1874. From 1875 to 1878 Rickert was also member and president of the diet of the Province of Prussia until the separation of the province into East and

in 1878. In a political conflict about the defense budget, fiscal bills and the

Kulturkampf (, 'culture struggle') was the conflict that took place from 1872 to 1878 between the Catholic Church led by Pope Pius IX and the government of Prussia led by Otto von Bismarck. The main issues were clerical control of education and ecclesiastic ...

policy Rickert left his party and founded the left-liberal Liberal Union ("Secessionists") in 1880, Rickert led the party and published their "Reichsblatt" since 1882. In March 1884 the Liberal Union merged with the German Progress Party and formed the German Free-minded Party. Rickert became the co-chairman next to Eugen Richter (1838–1906), but left the party again in a conflict regarding the defense budget in 1893. He and several other former "Secessionists" now formed the Free-minded Union, which was led by Rickert until his death in 1902.

Non-parliamentary activities

Rickert followed Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch as chairman of the Society for adult education ("Gesellschaft für Verbreitung von Volksbildung") and was a leading figure in the founding of the

Organization for combatting Anti-Semitism An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

("Vereins zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus") in 1890. Following the death of Rudolf von Gneist in 1895 Rickert became its president. In 1892, Rickert was a founding member of the

German Peace Society The German Peace Society (german: Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft (DFG)) was founded in 1892 in Berlin. In 1900 it moved its headquarters to Stuttgart. It still exists and is known as the ''Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte Kriegsdienstgegne ...

. Rickert strongly supported the foundation of the

Technical University of Danzig Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

, which was completed in 1904, and was the chairman of the supervisory board of the Danzig Bank Association (Danziger Bankverein).

Family

Rickert was married to Annette Stoddart (1839–1889), they had two sons, Franz (1872–1939) and the philosopher Heinrich Rickert. Rickert died on 3 November 1902 in

References

External links