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HECKER, FRIEDRICH FRANZ KARL (1811-1881)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 194 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HECKER, See also:FRIEDRICH See also:FRANZ KARL (1811-1881) , See also:German revolutionist, was See also:born at Eichtersheim in the See also:Palatinate on the 28th of See also:September 1811, his See also:father being a See also:revenue See also:official. He studied See also:law with the intention of becoming an See also:advocate, but soon became absorbed in politics. On entering the Second Chamber of See also:Baden in 1842, he at once began to take See also:part in the opposition against the See also:government, which assumed a more and more openly See also:Radical See also:character, and in the course of which his talents as an agitator and his See also:personal See also:charm won him wide popularity and See also:influence. A speech, denouncing the projected See also:incorporation of See also:Schleswig and See also:Holstein with See also:Denmark, delivered in the Chamber of Baden on the 6th of See also:February 1845, spread his fame beyond the limits of his own See also:state, and his popularity was increased by his See also:expulsion from See also:Prussia on the occasion of a See also:journey to See also:Stettin. After the See also:death of his more moderate-minded friend Adolf Sander (See also:March 9th, 1845), Hecker's See also:tone towards the government became more and more See also:bitter. In spite cf the shallowness and his culture and his extremely weak character, he enjoyed an ever-increasing popularity. Even before the outbreak of the revolution he included Socialistic claims in his See also:programme. In 1847 he was temporarily occupied with ideas of See also:emigration, and with this See also:object made a journey to See also:Algiers, but returned to Baden and resumed his former position as the Radical See also:champion of popular rights, later becoming See also:president of the Volksverein, where he was destined to fall still further under the influence of the agitator Gustav von See also:Struve. In See also:conjunction with Struve he See also:drew up the Radical programme carried at the See also:great Liberal See also:meeting held at See also:Offenburg on the 12th of September 1847 (entitled " Thirteen Claims put forwardby the See also:People of Baden"). In addition to the Offenburg See also:pro-gramme, the See also:Sturm See also:petition of the 1st of March 1848 attempted to extort from the government the most far-reaching concessions. But it was in vain that on becoming a See also:deputy Hecker en deavoured to carry out its impracticable provisions. He had to yield to the more moderate See also:majority, but on this See also:account was driven still further towards the See also:Left.

The See also:

proof lies in the new Offenburg demands of the 19th of March, and in the See also:resolution moved by Hecker in the preliminary See also:parliament of See also:Frankfort that See also:Germany should be declared a See also:republic. But neither in Baden nor Frankfort did he at any See also:time gain his point. This See also:double failure, combined with various energetic See also:measures of the government, which were indirectly aimed at him (e.g. the See also:arrest of the editor of the Constanzer Seeblatt, a friend of Hecker's, in See also:Karlsruhe station on the 8th of See also:April), inspired Hecker with the See also:idea of an armed rising under pretext of the See also:foundation of the German republic. The 9th to the 11th of April was secretly spent in preliminaries. On the 12th of April Hecker and Struve sent a See also:proclamation to the inhabitants of the Seekreis and of the See also:Black See also:Forest " to summon the people who can See also:bear arms to Donaueschingen at See also:mid-See also:day on the 14th, with arms, See also:ammunition and provisions for six days." They expected 70,000 men, but only a few thousand appeared. The See also:grand-ducal government of the Seekreis was dissolved, and Hecker gradually gained reinforcements. But friendly advisers also joined him, pointing out the risks of his undertaking. Hecker, however, was not at all ready to listen to them; on the contrary, he added to violence an absurd See also:defiance, and offered an See also:amnesty to the German princes on See also:condition of their retiring within fourteen days into private See also:life. The troops of Baden and See also:Hesse marched against him, under the command of See also:General Friedrich von See also:Gagern, and on the loth of April they met near Kandern, where Gagern was killed, it is true, but Hecker was completely defeated. Like many of the revolutionaries of that See also:period, Hecker retired to See also:Switzerland. He was, it is true, again elected to the Chamber of Baden by the circle of Thiengen, but the government, no longer willing to respect his See also:immunity as a deputy, refused its ratification. On this account Hecker resolved in September 1848 to emigrate to See also:North See also:America, and obtained See also:possession of a See also:farm near See also:Belleville in the state of See also:Illinois.

During the second rising in Baden in the See also:

spring of 1849 he again made efforts to obtain a footing in his own state, but with-out success. He only came as far as See also:Strassburg, but had to See also:retreat before the victories of the Prussian troops over the Baden insurgents. On his return to America he won some distinction during the See also:Civil See also:War as See also:colonel of a See also:regiment which he had himself got together on the Federal See also:side in 1861 and 1864. It was with great joy that he heard of the See also:union of Germany brought about by the victory over See also:France in 1870-71. It was then that he made his famous festival speech at St See also:Louis, in which he gave an animated expression to the See also:enthusiasm of the German Americans for their newly-See also:united fatherland. He received a less favourable impression during a journey he made in Germany in 1873. He died at St Louis on the 24th of March 1881. Hecker was always very much beloved of all the German democrats. The See also:song and the See also:hat named after him (the latter a broad slouch hat with a See also:feather) became famous as the symbols of the See also:middle-classes in revolt. In America, too, he had won great esteem, not only on See also:political grounds but also for his personal qualities. See F. Hecker, See also:Die Erhebung See also:des Volkes in Baden far die deutsche Republik (Baden, 1848); F.

Hecker, Reden and Vorlesungen (Neerstadt a. d. H., 1872); F. v. Weech, Badische Biographien, iv. (1891); L. See also:

Mathy, Aus dem Nachlasse von K. Malty, Briefe aus den Jahren .1846-1848 (See also:Leipzig, 1898). (J.

End of Article: HECKER, FRIEDRICH FRANZ KARL (1811-1881)

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