Julius Dickert (25 June 1816 – 12 August 1896) was a teacher from

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 ...

who later entered into politics. After the Unification, he served as a Progressive member of the

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

Reichstag between 1871 and 1878.

Life

Julius Dickert was born in Neuteich,This is the birth location according to the "Album amicorum", Wilhelm Schmiedeberg's album of portraits of his friends. Other sources give Dickert's birth location as Elbing, roughly 25km (16 miles) to the east of Neuteich. a small town then in

. He attended the protestant Gymnasium (secondary school) at Elbing, a short distance to the east, before progressing to the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...

where, starting in 1837, for three years he studied

Protestant Theology Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

then moving on to include

Philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

. There is a water-colour portrait of Dickert included in the contents listing Pages of Memory, a compilation of student portraits by Wilhelm Schmiedeberg who was a contemporary at Königsberg, although the portrait itself is now missing. For some time after this he taught at the city's prestigious Burgschule (Castle School). In 1859 he became a city councillor: he then served as leader of the council for the ten years between 1861 and 1871. Julius Dickert participated in the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

which opened the way for German political unification after 1870. Dickert was a founder member of the

Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to: Active parties * Progressive Party, Brazil * Progressive Party (Chile) * Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus * Dominica Progressive Party * Progressive Party (Iceland) * Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...

, established in 1861 to try and preserve the hopes for political liberalism that had been disappointed after the revolutionary stirrings of 1848. The first general election of a united Germany was held in March 1871 and Dickert was elected as the member for Königsberg with nearly 55% of the constituency vote. The

ended up with 45 of the 382 seats in the Reichstag and Dickert served on the 7th parliamentary committee during the lifetime of the parliament, which lasted till the start of 1874. He was re-elected for his

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

seat in the 1874 general election, this time with more than 56% of the constituency vote, although nationally the

's share of the vote was barely changed. He won the seat again in the 1877, now aged 60, with a further increase in vote share. However, the life of the 1877 parliament was cut short at the instigation of the

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

, and after the 1878 general election

was represented in the Reichstag not by a Progressive but by Otto Stellter of the

Free Conservative Party The Free Conservative Party (german: Freikonservative Partei, FKP) was a liberal-conservative political party in Prussia and the German Empire which emerged from the Prussian Conservative Party in the Prussian Landtag in 1866. In the federal ele ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickert, Julius 1816 births 1896 deaths People from Nowy Staw People from West Prussia German Protestants German Progress Party politicians Members of the 1st Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the 2nd Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the 3rd Reichstag of the German Empire German schoolteachers