26 Facts About Ludwig Windthorst

Baron Ludwig von Windthorst was a German politician and leader of the Catholic Centre Party and the most notable opponent of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck during the Prussian-led unification of Germany and the Kulturkampf.

Ludwig Windthorst entered politics during the revolutionary years of 1848 and 1849 in the Protestant Kingdom of Hanover, where his legal and political skills overcame the handicap of near blindness and being in an unpopular minority.

Ludwig Windthorst supported Hanoverian independence and was loyal to monarchism.

Ludwig Windthorst was not a Liberal but they admired his opposition to the king's reactionary policies and his strong support for an independent judiciary and the rights of the accused.

Ludwig Windthorst served in 1851 and 1862 as minister of justice.

When Prussia absorbed Hanover and then set up the German Empire in 1871, Windthorst dealt with the new state of affairs and became a leader of the all-Catholic Centre Party.

Ludwig Windthorst opposed Bismarck's harassment of minorities such as Catholics, Hanoverian Guelphs, Poles, Danes, and Alsatians.

Ludwig Windthorst argued for natural law as the basis of political rights.

Ludwig Windthorst perfected the arts of opposition, forming alliances that could win majorities.

Ludwig Windthorst was born at Kaldenhof manor in the present-day municipality of Ostercappeln, in the lands of the former Prince-Bishopric of Osnabruck, which had been secularised to the Electorate of Hanover under the Protestant Welf dynasty in 1803.

Ludwig Windthorst became a half-orphan at the age of ten, when his father died in 1822.

Ludwig Windthorst was educated at the Gymnasium Carolinum, an endowed school at Osnabruck which he left with excellent Abitur exams, and from 1830 studied law at the universities of Gottingen and Heidelberg.

In 1836, Ludwig Windthorst settled down as an advocate in Osnabruck: his abilities soon procured him a considerable practice, and he was appointed president of the Catholic consistory in 1842.

Ludwig Windthorst belonged to what was called the Greater German party, and opposed the project of reconstituting Germany under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia.

Ludwig Windthorst defended the government against the liberal and democratic opposition; and, at this time, he began his struggle against the secularization of schools, which continued throughout his life.

Ludwig Windthorst took no part in the critical Austro-Prussian War; contrary to the opinion of many of his friends, after the annexation of Hanover by Prussia, he accepted the fait accompli, took the oath of allegiance, and was elected a member both of the Prussian parliament and of the North German diet.

Ludwig Windthorst acted as representative of his exiled king in the negotiations with the Prussian government concerning his private property, and opposed the sequestration, and for the first time was placed in a position of hostility to Otto von Bismarck.

Ludwig Windthorst was recognized as the leader of the Hanoverians and of all those above who opposed the revolution.

Ludwig Windthorst was especially exposed to the attacks of Bismarck, who attempted, personally, to discredit him and to separate him from the rest of the party.

Ludwig Windthorst took the responsibility of keeping the papal instructions secret from the rest of his party and of disobeying the instructions.

Ludwig Windthorst died of pneumonia, on 14 March 1891, in Berlin.

Ludwig Windthorst was buried in the Marienkirche in Hannover, which had been erected from the money subscribed as a testimonial to him.

Ludwig Windthorst's funeral was a most remarkable display of public esteem, in which nearly all the ruling princes of Germany joined, and was a striking sign of the position to which, after twenty years of incessant struggle, he had raised his party.

Ludwig Windthorst enjoyed unbounded popularity and confidence among the German Catholics, but he was in no way an ecclesiastic: he was at first opposed to the Vatican decrees of 1870, but quickly accepted them after they had been proclaimed.

Ludwig Windthorst married Juliane Sybille Caroline Engelen on May 29,1839: of his four living children, three died before him.

Ludwig Windthorst's Ausgewahlte Reden were published in three volumes.