Friedrich Kapp
Friedrich Kapp ( born April 13, 1824 in Hamm, Westphalia, † October 27, 1884 in Berlin) was a German American lawyer, writer and politician.
Family
Friedrich Kapp was the son of the high school director Friedrich Kapp (1792-1866) and his wife Amalie Keck ( 1798-1836 ). He was also the nephew of educator and philosopher Ernst Kapp (1801-1896) and the philosopher and politician Baden Christian Kapp ( 1798-1874 ).
He married in New York Angel Louise, the daughter of Major General Friedrich Ludwig C. Engels (1790-1855), who was commandant of the city of Cologne 1847-1855. The couple had five daughters including: Luise (1852-1908) married Alfred Friedrich von der Leyen (1844-1934), Counsel d Bremen Chamber of Commerce and became the mother of German scholars Friedrich von der Leyen. The only son was the coup leader Wolfgang Kapp (1858-1922) (see also: Kapp Putsch ).
Life
Germany 1824-1850
The High School received Kapp at the high school Hammonense, educational institution, where his father held the post of director. In the years 1842-1844 Kapp studied law and philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and in 1842 a member of the fraternity Walhalla Heidelberg and in 1843 the Corps Suevia Heidelberg. There in the house of his uncle Christian Kapp (1798-1874), he met the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach know. Feuerbach was not only his close friend, but his criticism of religion, which also had a strong influence on Karl Marx, also influenced his life. Other acquaintances from Kapp's studies were later banker Ludwig Bamberger (1823-1899) and the writer Berthold Auerbach (1812-1882) in Heidelberg, or the writer Bettina von Arnim (1785-1859) in Berlin, where he from 1844 at the University of Berlin and studied his military service ableistete as a one-year volunteer. Even in Berlin, he worked as a journalist for the early socialist " Westfälische steam boat ".
In 1845 he came as a court clerk to the High Court of Appeal returned to his hometown of Hamm, where he remained until 1848. In Hamm Kapp founded a reading club in which " left Hegelian intellectuals [ ... ] foreign newspapers read to make up for the censorship of the Prussian press, to the writings of the Young Hegelians, the German and Western European socialists. " (Source: Hans -Ulrich Wehler ).
During his time at the top of Appeals in Hamm Kapp was not necessarily well liked: The president of the court, was forced to socialize Kapp's admission to the Assessor - examination of conditions: "Towards the end of last week makes me the president quote and makes me remonstrate about the fact that I as a royal official (!) dared to deal with a dismissed from service officers [meaning Fritz Anneke ( 1818-1872 ) ] I realized too well that the President, as a human and not bureaucratic man, not of their own accord against occurred me, but was prompted to do so. He said among other things that he had already addressed three times to take action against me and cause my dismissal from the judicial service, but he always had [ ... ] held my hand over his head. I would be considered in the Hamm region as the leader of atheists and communists, and he sees himself [ ... ] forced not to present myself more for the third exam, until I decided resp traces of change of mind. Improvement would have saved "(Source: Hans -Ulrich Wehler ). .
In April 1848 Kapp was as a journalist in the revolutionary Frankfurt am Main, where his uncle Christian Kapp was now deputy of the Frankfurt National Assembly in St. Paul Church. In Frankfurt, Kapp, however, was also active politically, by working on the part of the democratic- republican left and first secretary of the Frankfurt Democratic Congress was.
Kapp went as a political journalist to Frankfurt, but he had to flee for his involvement in the September uprising and went to Brussels, where he in the house of the Russian writer Alexander Herzen worked as a private tutor and his son in charge. In this employment he also lived in Paris and translated two books of his employer.
In July 1849, the French police told from the heart and Kapp from Paris. Both walked together to Geneva, where Kapp his acquaintance Ludwig Bamberger was reunited. There then matured for the first time arisen in the year 1846 decision to emigrate to the United States, where he arrived in New York in March 1850. He later married his fiancée Louise Angel, which was soon followed him to the United States.
America 1850-1870
Starting in 1852 Kapp worked as a journalist at the newly founded " Atlantic Studies" with who had the goal to correct the in Germany too enthusiastic reports on the U.S. and once to show the dark side of American reality.
After he became an American citizen in 1855, he practiced in New York until 1870, as a lawyer, worked as a correspondent for the " Cologne Gazette ", was with another from 1855 editor of the " New York Evening Newspaper " and wrote numerous books on the emerging country and the life of the Germans in the United States. He remained, however - in contrast to many other German Americans - always connected his home country. His home loyalty and his belief in a unified German state still certain his own life, but also the education of his son Wolfgang. "So who was born in a foreign country boy a heightened national feeling grew to; often enough he came home with a bloody head from the school or from the street, when he emphasizes his Germanness, and following his father's warning, had repelled every Unglimpf with his fist. "
Since 1856 Kapp had a house in Mansfield Square, was to become a popular social meeting place for the Germans in New York.
After a visit to Florida in 1852, he had become a resolute opponent of slavery and southern states (see abolitionism ), which is why he not only already in 1854 his book on the " question of slavery in the United States," wrote, but also a member of the Republican Party been. Both in 1856 and in 1860 he committed himself to his party active in the presidential campaign; In 1860 he was placed on even as an elector for Abraham Lincoln - the subsequent election winner. In 1867 he was appointed Commissioner of Immigration of the State of New York - a post which he held until his return to Germany in 1870.
As a political writer, he can probably be described as a "pioneer of the German American Historical Research ": He described the importance of German immigration for both countries, wrote the biographies of the generals Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (1858 ) and Johann Baron de Kalb (1862 ) and illuminated various America topics from a German perspective. As a German he was equally conscious show Americans the importance for she had the German influence, but also his home country from the power of the emigrants whose ability to unified German state. In 1855 he described the circumstances of his life pretty miserable fellow Germans in the Texas colony of the " Mainzer nobility association".
During his stay abroad he the University of Bonn was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy on August 4, 1868.
Germany 1870-1884
After the general amnesty Kapp returned at the request of his German friends in April 1870 and Germany already took on 21 October 1870, the Prussian citizenship again. Thus he was able to Otto von Bismarck's German Reich already 1871/1872 Town Council of Berlin and be sat from 1872 to 1877 and from 1881 until his death as a deputy of the National Liberal party in the German Reichstag. 1874 to 1877 he was also a member of the Prussian Landtag. In Berlin, he also continued his work as a political writer.
Kapp had always fought for a German nation state and now called for a vigorous settlement policy in the East, to make emigration unnecessary. At the same time he sought a unified kingdom regulation of the Consulate being and the entire emigration.
The party member and also member of parliament Edward Brockhaus encouraged him to write the "History of the German Book Trade ." This was an extremely difficult task for Kapp, it was not his area of expertise, and published in the old " Archive for History of the German Book Trade " sources were inadequate, so first of all intensive archival research were necessary. For this purpose he visited in 1884 the " Plantin-Moretus Museum " in Antwerp, where he could see the " Grand Livre de Francfort ", an important source for the book trade and transport to the Frankfurt fair. As Kapp still died the same year, he had only completed four chapters and some more just designed. However, he was later named as the author of the first of four volumes.
Works
- The question of slavery in the American States, historically developed. Göttingen 1854. Digitalisat
- New York evening newspaper, organ of the German printers' Association, Publisher: Ludwig FF Fenneberg; Friedrich Kapp; Hermann grid; Friedrich Rauchfuß, New York, 1855-1874.
- Life of the American general F.W.v.Steuben. Berlin 1858. Digitalisat
- The history of slavery in the United States of America. Hamburg 1861. Digitalisat
- The life of the American general J.Kalb. Stuttgart 1862. Digitalisat
- The soldiers trade German princes to America. Berlin 1864. Digitalisat
- About emigration. A lecture delivered on 2 February 1871 in Berlin Craftsman Club. C. G. Lüderitz'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung Carl Habel, Berlin, 1871. Digitalisat
- History of the German Book Trade to the seventeenth century. Volume 1 of 4 volumes "History of the German Book Trade ", published by the Booksellers Association of the German Booksellers, Leipzig 1886.