Heinrich von Gagern, 1848 lithography
Heinrich Wilhelm August Freiherr von Gagern (August 20, 1799 - May 22, 1880) was a statesman who argued for
the unification of Germany.
The third son of Hans Christoph Ernst, Baron von Gagern, a
liberal statesman from Hesse, Heinrich von
Gagern was born at Bayreuth, educated at the military academy at Münich, and, as an officer in the service of the duke of Nassau, fought
at Waterloo.
Leaving the service after the war, he studied jurisprudence at Heidelberg, Göttingen and Jena, where he
became a member of the Urburschenschaft, and in 1819 went for a while to
Geneva to complete his studies. In 1821 he began his official career as a lawyer in the
grand-duchy of Hesse, and in 1832 was elected to the second chamber. Already at the universities he had proclaimed his Liberal
sympathies as a member of the Burschenschaft, and he now threw himself into open opposition to the unconstitutional spirit
of the Hessian government, an attitude which led to his dismissal from the state service in 1833. Henceforth he lived in
comparative tiny a farm rented by his father at Monsheim, and occasionally publishing criticisms of public affairs, until the
February revolution of 1848 and its echoes in Germany recalled him to active political life. For a short while he was at the head
of the new Hessian administration; but his ambition was to share in the creation of a united Germany.
At the Heidelberg meeting and the preliminary convention (Vorparlament) of Frankfurt he deeply impressed the assemblies
with the breadth and moderation of his views; with the result that when the German
national parliament met (May 18), he was elected its first president. His influence was at
first paramount, both with the Unionist party and with the more moderate elements of the Left, and it was he who was mainly
instrumental in imposing the principle of a united empire with a common parliament, and in carrying the election of the Archduke
John as regent. With the growing split between the Great Germans (Grossdeutschen), who wished the new empire to include
the Austrian provinces, and the Little Germans (Klein deutschen), who realized that German unity could only be attained by
excluding them, his position was shaken.
On December 11, when Schmerling and the
Austrian members had left the cabinet, Gagern became head of the imperial ministry, and on December
18 he introduced a program (known as the Gagernsche Program) according to which Austria was to be excluded from the new
federal state, but bound to it by a treaty of union. After a severe struggle this proposal was accepted; but the academic
discussion on the constitution continued for weary months, and on May 20, realizing the
hopelessness of coming to terms with the ultra-democrats, Gagern and his friends resigned. Later on he attempted to influence the
Prussian Northern Union in the direction of the national policy, and he took part in the sessions of the Erfurt parliament; but, soon, realizing the hopelessness of any good results from the vacillating policy of
Prussia, he retired from the contest, and, as a major in the service of the Schleswig-Holstein government, took part in the Danish War of 1850. After the war he retired into
private life at Heidelberg. In 1862, misled by the constitutional tendency of Austrian politics, he publicly declared in favor of
the Great German party. In 1864 he went as Hessian envoy to Vienna, retiring in 1872 when the post was abolished. He died at
Darmstadt in 1880.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia
Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public
domain.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
