Victor Aimé Huber (10 March 1800 – 19 July 1869) was a German

social reformer A reform movement or reformism is a type of social movement that aims to bring a social or also a political system closer to the community's ideal. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary move ...

, travel writer and a literature historian. Huber was born in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

, Germany. His parents, Ludwig Ferdinand and

Therese Huber Therese Huber (7 May 1764 – 15 June 1829) was a German author. She was one of the so-called , a group of five academically active women during the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. The group consisted of daughters of academics at Göttingen Un ...

, née Heyne, were both writers. After the early death of his father, Victor was sent to live with friends of his parents in

Hofwil Hofwil is a village in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, part of the municipality of Münchenbuchsee. The village of Hofwil was originally part of the lands owned by the Münchenbuchsee Commandery, a medieval commandery of the Knights Hospitaller in ...

, Switzerland. Victor was just six years old at the time. Huber graduated in medicine in 1820 and afterwards undertook several travels to France, Portugal, England, Spain and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. In 1828, Huber accepted a post as a teacher of history and modern

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

s at a gymnasium in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, Germany. In 1832 he became a professor of modern and oriental languages in

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

, in 1836 in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

and in 1843 professor for the history of literature in Berlin. Huber took part in the establishment of a

conservative party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

, from which he however withdrew after a short time because of the interests of

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

landlord A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, the ...

s. His real aim was to help the reintegration of workers into the civil society, and for this reason he gave up his professorship in Berlin in order to dedicate himself to the social questions of the day. Soon afterwards Huber was able to propose a new social model to improve the life conditions of low wage workers after visiting

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, in England, in 1844, where he acquainted himself with the housing and living conditions of factory workers. He named this model "internal occupation" (''innere Ansiedlung''). Huber was one of the intellectual predecessors of the

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

movement in Germany. He carried out his socio-political concepts in practice. From 1849 to 1852 Huber was active in the executive committee of the

not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

building firm of the 'Citizens of Berlin' which built six small houses for 15 families on a property at Schoenhauser Av. What was to become a showcase for his "internal occupation" model, however, had a short duration. In 1888/1889 the houses were demolished to make space to larger and denser buildings. Huber died, aged 69, in

Wernigerode Wernigerode () is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,041 in 2012. Wernigerode is located southwest of Halberstadt, and is picturesquely s ...

Works

* ''De lingua et osse hyoi deo pici viridis'', Dissertation Stuttgart 1821 * ''Die Selbsthilfe der arbeitenden Klasse durch Wirtschaftsvereine und innere Ansiedlung'', 1848 (anonym) * Concordia. ''Bll. d. Berl. gemeinn. Baugesellschaft'', Berlin 1849 * ''Reisebriefe aus Belgien, Frankreich und England im Sommer 1854, 1855''

Bibliography

* Ingwer Paulsen: ''Viktor Aimé Huber als Sozialpolitiker''. Berlin: Herbert Renner, 1956. (Friedewalder Beiträge zur Sozialen Frage, Bd. 7) * Michael Alfred Kanther: ''Victor Aimé Huber: Sozialreformer und Wegbereiter der sozialen Wohnungswirtschaft''. Berlin 2000.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Huber, V.A. 1800 births 1869 deaths Writers from Stuttgart People from the Duchy of Württemberg German cooperative organizers Converts to Protestantism from Roman Catholicism German male writers