Hückeswagen
Hückeswagen ) is a town in the north of Oberbergischen Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is part of the governmental district of Cologne.
Geography
Hückeswagen is situated on the river Wupper. Two dams, Bevertal dam and Wupperta ...
– December 29, 1890, in Ath, Belgium) was a German advocate and theorist of
direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate decides on policy initiatives without elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are repres ...
, an early socialist and a politician.
Rittinghausen lived in Belgium temporarily during the period before the March Revolution and emerged there as a leading thinker on social politics. He took an active part in the
German revolutions of 1848–49
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
as a democrat. After leaving the country during the Reaction following the Revolution, he later returned to Germany and began to take a role in the labor movement. He was among the founders of the
Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, SDAP) was a Marxist socialist political party in the North German Confederation during unification.
Founded in Eisenach in 1869, the SDAP ...
, before he was thrown out of the party over political differences.
Early life and pre-Revolutionary Period
He was born into an influential family in Hückeswagen, in the
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
. His grandfather already had been mayor; his grandmother was descended from the old, originally French de Blois family. His father also served as mayor and as a court official Hückeswagen. Moritz Rittinghausen attended Gymnasium; sources offer different details about his early life. According to Wilhelm Heinz Schröder, after his graduation he was a merchant in
Köln
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...
. According to Fäuster he studied
legal science
Legal science is one of the main components in civil law tradition (after Roman law, canon law, commercial law, and the legacy of the revolutionary period).
Legal science is primarily the creation of German legal scholars of the middle and late ...
and lived in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
. There he already appeared as a thinker and activist in social politics; in 1837, he composed an open letter to the King, in which he denounced the social problem in the country.Ulrike Fäuster, p. 54 After his release he returned to Germany.
From the 1840s on, he emerged as a writer on politics and national economy, representing
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
ideas. Beginning in 1846, he lived in Köln. In September 1847, he took part in a free trade congress in Brussels, acting as a defender of the
protective tariff
Protective tariffs are tariffs that are enacted with the aim of protecting a domestic industry. They aim to make imported goods cost more than equivalent goods produced domestically, thereby causing sales of domestically produced goods to rise, ...
.
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels" '' Kölnischen Zeitung'', the ''Aachener Zeitung'', the ''Trierer Zeitung'' and the ''Kölner Gewerbeblatt''.
German Revolutions of 1848-49
In 1848 Rittinghausen was a member of the Vorparlament in Frankfurt, where he belonged to the Left wing. He agreed with
Friedrich Hecker
Friedrich Franz Karl Hecker (September 28, 1811 – March 24, 1881) was a German lawyer, politician and revolutionary. He was one of the most popular speakers and agitators of the 1848 Revolution. After moving to the United States, he served as ...
's proposal that the Vorparlament should remain in place until the meeting of an actual National Assembly. Instead, the liberal majority came to favor the formation of the Committee of Fifty (''Fünfzigerausschuss''). Rittinghausen also belonged to this committee.
In Köln Rittinghausen belonged to the
Democratic Society
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose go ...
(''Demokratische Gesellschaft''), which developed into an influential political group in the city. Most of the leading figures came from the educated bourgeoisie or ''
Bildungsbürgertum
''Bildungsbürgertum'' () is a social class that emerged in mid-18th-century Germany, as the educated social stratum of the bourgeoisie, men and women who had received an education based upon the metaphysical values of Idealism and Classical ...
'' class. Members of the
Communist League
The Communist League (German: ''Bund der Kommunisten)'' was an international political party established on 1 June 1847 in London, England. The organisation was formed through the merger of the League of the Just, headed by Karl Schapper, and t ...
, such as
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
und Friedrich Engels, also took part.
During the
German revolutions of 1848–49
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
he was a contributor to the ''
Neue Rheinische Zeitung
The ''Neue Rheinische Zeitung: Organ der Demokratie'' ("New Rhenish Newspaper: Organ of Democracy") was a German daily newspaper, published by Karl Marx in Cologne between 1 June 1848 and 19 May 1849. It is recognised by historians as one of t ...
'', which brought him into closer contact with Marx. By his own statements, Rittinghausen sometimes supported and sometimes fought Marx's efforts, depending on whether he took them to be reasonable or misguided. Usually the latter was the case. On at least one occasion, he attempted to save Marx from deportation.
In Spring 1848, he involved himself in the development of a Democratic Society election platform for the
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Parliament (german: Frankfurter Nationalversammlung, literally ''Frankfurt National Assembly'') was the first freely elected parliament for all German states, including the German-populated areas of Austria-Hungary, elected on 1 Ma ...
elections. He also took part in drafting addresses to the King and the government. Later he wrote a petition to the Parliament on the nationality policy. In the same year he also published the work ''Über die Organisation der Staatsindustrie'' (On the Organization of State Industry), in which he promoted, among other things, the nationalization of railroads.
In 1849, he was co-editor of the ''Westdeutschen Zeitung'' in Köln, until it had to cease publication as a result of the triumphant Counter-Revolution. After the defeat of the Revolution, Rittinghausen emigrated next to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
. In the wake of
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...
's later coup d'état, Rittinghausen moved to
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, where he continued to work as a journalist.Ulrike Fäuster, S. 55
Politician in the Labor Movement
Rittinghausen returned in 1858 after the beginning of the New Era, and lived as an author in Köln, where he cofounded the democratic Political-Social Club (''Politisch-Geselligen Vereins'').
Rittinghausen observed the developing labor movement with sympathy, but he rejected the centralist organization of the
General German Workers' Association
The General German Workers' Association (german: Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Verein, ADAV) was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony by Ferdinand Lassalle. It was the first organized mass working-cla ...
. He occasionally gave talks in the party.Ulrike Fäuster, p. 56. In 1867, he ran, unsuccessfully, as a candidate for the
Reichstag of the North German Confederation
The Reichstag () of the North German Confederation was the federal state's lower house of parliament. The popularly elected Reichstag was responsible for federal legislation together with the Bundesrat, the upper house whose members were appoi ...
. At the beginning of 1868, together with adherents of the
First International
The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and trad ...
, he founded a social-democratic electoral club, and in 1869 became one of the co-founders of the
Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, SDAP) was a Marxist socialist political party in the North German Confederation during unification.
Founded in Eisenach in 1869, the SDAP ...
(SDAP).
Besides this, he concerned himself with municipal affairs for the city of Köln. He demanded the abolition of
census suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to ...
and petitioned for the incorporation of the town of Deutz, and succeeded in collecting over a thousand signatures in favor. Later, he campaigned for the purchase of Köln's city fortifications from the military administration, with the support of delegates from other political parties.
In 1869 and 1872 he served as a German delegate to the congresses of the First International in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
. Due to his knowledge of languages he also acted as an interpreter in Basel. During the congress in Basel, he took part in an arbitration committee that attempted to mediate a conflict between
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary s ...
and
Wilhelm Liebknecht
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).Edmund Silberner, "
Moses Hess
Moses (Moritz) Hess (21 January 1812 – 6 April 1875) was a German-Jewish philosopher, early communist and Zionist thinker. His socialist theories led to disagreements with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He is considered a pioneer of Labor ...
* ''Über die Organisation der Staatsindustrie''. Bachem, Köln 1848.
* ''Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. Paris 1850.
* ''La législation directe par le peuple ou la véritable démocratie''. Librairie Phalanstérienne, Paris 185 Digitalisat bei: ''books.google.de.''
* ''La législation directe par le peuple et ses adversaires''. Lebégue, Bruxelles 185 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital
* ''Le système protecteur et le libre échange devant le Congrès des Économistes de 1847''. Bruxelles 1856 (Aus: ''Revue Trimestrielle'', Vol. XII).
* ''Die Philosophie der Geschichte''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1868 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 1).
* ''Ueber die Nothwendigkeit der direkten Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1869 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 2).
* ''Die unhaltbaren Grundlagen des Repräsentativ-Systems''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1869 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 3 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital
* ''Ueber die Organisation der direkten Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1870 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 4 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital
* ''Widerlegung der gegen die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk gerichteten Einwürfe''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1872 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 5).
* ''Die Festungswerke communalen Ursprungs der ehemaligen Freien Reichsstadt Köln. Eine Eigenthumsfrage''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1877.
* ''Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. 4. Aufl., Selbstverlag, Köln 1877.
* ''La législation directe par le peuple et ses adversaires''. Nouv. éd., augm. d’une notice biographique . Lebègue, Bruxelles 1892.
* ''Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. 5. Aufl. Kommissionsverlag der Buchhandlung des Schweiz. Grütlivereins, Zürich 1893.