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PUTTKAMMER, ROBERT VON (1828-1900)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 673 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PUTTKAMMER, See also:ROBERT VON (1828-1900) , Prussian5Ittiksman, was See also:born at See also:Frankfort-on-the-See also:Oder on the 5th of May7tfa8. His See also:father, Eugen von Puttkammer, Oberprasident of See also:Posen, belonged to a widely extended See also:noble See also:family, of which See also:Bismarck's wife and Robert von Puttkammer's own wife were also members. Robert von Puttkammer, after a See also:short course of See also:law, began his See also:official career in 185o as Auskultator in the courts at See also:Danzig, but in 1852 entered the See also:civil service, receiving after his promotion to the See also:rank of See also:Assessor in 1854 a See also:post in the railway See also:department' of the See also:ministry for See also:trade and See also:industry. In 1859 he became a member of the presidial See also:council (Oberprasidialrat) at See also:Coblenz, See also:capital of the Prussian See also:Rhine See also:province, and from 186o to 1866 was Landrat at See also:Demmin in See also:Pomerania. During the See also:war with See also:Austria he acted as civil See also:commissary in See also:Moravia. From 1867. to 1871 he was a councillor in the See also:chancery of the See also:North See also:German See also:Confederation. In 1871 he was appointed See also:president of the governmental See also:district of See also:Gumbinnen in See also:East See also:Prussia, in 1875 district president (Bezirksprasident) in See also:Lorraine, and in 1877 Oberprasident in See also:Silesia. From 1874 onward he was frequently elected to the Reichstag and the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, in which he attached himself to the German Conservative party. Puttkammer was the chosen See also:instrument of the Clerical Conservative policy initiated by Bismarck when the Socialist peril made it expedient to conciliate the See also:Catholic Centre. As Oberprdsidenl of Silesia he had already done much to mitigate the rigour of the application of the " May See also:Laws," and as See also:minister of public See also:worship and of the interior he continued this policy. He is also remem. bered as the author of the See also:ordinance of the 21st of See also:January 188o on the simplification of German See also:orthography. This was at first vigorously opposed, not least by Bismarck, himself; but its convenience soon became evident, it was increasingly put into practice, and was so well based that later reformers have only needed to follow the lines laid down by Puttkammer.

As minister of the interior Puttkammer's activities were less commendable. His reactionary conservative See also:

temper was in See also:complete See also:harmony with the views of Bismarck and the See also:emperor See also:William, and with their powerful support he attempted, in See also:defiance of See also:modern democratic principles and even of the spirit of the constitution, to re-establish the old Prussian See also:system of rigid discipline from above. He was above all concerned to nip in the bud any tendencies in the bureaucracy to revolt, and it was on his initiative that, on the 4th of January 1882, a royal ordinance laid it down as the See also:duty of all officials to give the See also:government their unconditional support at See also:political elections. Similarly though he carried out many useful administrative reforms, in a vain effort to combat Social See also:Democracy he seriously interfered with the See also:liberty of public See also:meeting and attempted the forcible suppression of strike movements. This " Puttkammer regime " was intensely unpopular; it was attacked in the Reichstag not only by Radicals like See also:Richter and Rickert, but by See also:National Liberals like See also:Bennigsen, and when the emperor See also:Frederick III., whose Liberal tendencies were notorious, succeeded to the See also:throne, it was clear that it could not last. In spite of Bismarck's support Puttkammer was forced to resign on the 8th of See also:June 1888. Under William II., however, whose principles were those of his grandfather, Puttkammer was largely rehabilitated. On the 1st of January 1889 he received the See also:Order of the See also:Black See also:Eagle. He was appointed a See also:secular See also:canon (Domherr) of See also:Merseburg, and in 1891 became Oberprasident of Prussian Pomerania. In this See also:office, which he held till 1899, he did very useful See also:work in collabor ation with the provincial estates. He died on his See also:property at Karzm In Pomerania on the 15th of See also:March 1900. (J.

End of Article: PUTTKAMMER, ROBERT VON (1828-1900)

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