Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen (10 January 1803 in

Geilenkirchen Geilenkirchen (, Ripuarian: ) 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 (9.3 mi) north-east of Heerlen and 20 k ...

– 3 December 1890 in

Cologne 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 millio ...

) was a Prime Minister of Prussia.

Life

During the Revolutions of 1848 in Germany, Ludolf Camphausen stepped suddenly from his banker's desk at

to the presidential chair of the Ministry of State at Berlin, being called by King Frederick William IV of Prussia to succeed Count Arnim-Boitzenburg as prime minister, on 29 March. Ludolf availed himself largely of his younger brother's (

Otto Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...

) proven business talents, and the two might have succeeded had they not to encounter the insincerity of the monarch on the one side, and the distrust of the Radical and Progressist majority of the Assembly on the other side. Both Ludolf and Otto Camphausen were moderate Liberals – too Liberal to suit the views of the king and of the reactionary feudalist clique around him, and too Conservative for the impatience of the men of progress. Less than three months sufficed to convince Ludolf Camphausen of this fact, and already on 20 June he tendered his resignation to the king. One month later Camphausen was sent as Prussian representative to 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 ...

. Here he remained until April 1849, when he finally resigned, and went back to his banking business at Cologne, thoroughly disenchanted of the alluring illusions of power and office.

References

*G. L. M. Strauss, ''Men Who Have Made the New German Empire'', Vol. II, London: Tinsley Brothers, 1875, pp. 289–290. 1803 births 1890 deaths People from Heinsberg (district) Members of the Prussian House of Lords People of the Revolutions of 1848 Member of the Prussian National Assembly {{Germany-politician-stub