Friedrich Ludwig Weidig

Weidig, Friedrich Ludwig, (Oberkleen nr. Wetzlar, 1791-1837, Darmstadt), a schoolmaster at Butzbach near Gießen and later pastor at Obergleen near Alsfeld, leader of the illegal Liberal party in Hesse. In the course of his subversive activities he had contacts with many movements, among them the Burschenschaften and the Frankfurter Gruppe, whose planned revolt came to the notice of the police and led to Weidig's arrest.

Weidig was the author of the clandestine pamphlet Leuchter und Beleuchter für Hessen. Early in 1834 G. Büchner joined his circle of conspirators, and Weidig helped him in the production of Der Hessische Landbote. Betrayed by one from his own ranks, Weidig was arrested again in August 1834 and kept in prison without trial. He committed suicide in his cell in 1837. His poems were published posthumously in 1847.