Georg Adolph Demmler (22 December 1804, in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

– 2 January 1886, in

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch dialect, Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch Low German: ''Swerin''; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Zwierzyn''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Germ ...

) was a German architect,

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and politician; originally with the

German People's Party The German People's Party (German: , DVP) was a conservative-liberal political party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. Along with the left-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP), ...

(DtVP), then the (SAP).

Biography

He was born out of wedlock to Johann Gottfried Demmler, a

chimney sweep A chimney sweep is a person who inspects then clears soot and creosote from chimneys. The chimney uses the pressure difference caused by a hot column of gas to create a draught and draw air over the hot coals or wood enabling continued combust ...

from

Güstrow Güstrow (; ) is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is capital of the Rostock (district), Rostock district; Rostock itself is a district-free city and regiopolis. It has a population of 28,999 (2020) and is the sevent ...

, and Catarina Maria Meincke, the widowed daughter of a brewery owner. He lived with a foster family until he was nine and attended a private school. In 1813, his parents were married and, in 1816, he was legally recognized as their son and brought to Güstrow. Despite Johann's profession, he was financially secure and a respected member of the Güstrow Citizen's Committee. Georg attended the gymnasium there until 1819, and had private drawing lessons, having shown artistic aptitude while with his foster parents. After graduating, he went to study at the

Bauakademie The Bauakademie (Building Academy, also known as the ''Schinkelsche Bauakademie'') in Berlin, Germany, was a higher education institution for the art of building to train master builders. Founded on 18 March 1799 by King Frederick William II ...

in Berlin, where his instructors included

Karl Friedrich Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, urban planning, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed b ...

and . He was expelled in 1823, due to his membership in the "", a Nationalist students' organization that had been banned. He was however, able to find employment as a surveyor in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

. The following year, thanks to a recommendation from Schinkel, he became an assistant to the Chief Master Builder of

Mecklenburg-Schwerin The Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin () was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1701, when Frederick William, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Frederick William and Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Adolphus Frederick II divided ...

, . He worked mainly in Schwerin. From 1830, he gave free lessons at a Sunday school operated by the

Freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

. He was appointed a Master Builder in 1832. Both of his parents died that year, so he used part of his inheritance to make study trips to

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. In 1833, he married Maria Henriette Zickermann, the daughter of a military commander. The marriage remained childless. In 1835, he was named "Landesbaumeister" (State Master Builder). Two years later, the new Grand Duke, Paul Frederick, enlisted him to help with his ambitious development plans and appointed him "Hofbaumeister" (Court Master Builder). Court officials resented him for his humble background, and Paul Frederick's reign lasted for only five years, but he was able to draft most of the plans that were used for future projects, including the renovation of

Schwerin Castle Schwerin Castle (, also known as ''Schwerin Palace'', ( or ) is a 19th-century ''Schloss'' built in the historicist style located in the city of Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state, Germany. It is situated on an island in the ...

Political activities

He was first exposed to liberal ideas after joining the Freemasons lodge in 1826. Soon, he began to campaign for fair wages and accident insurance and developed sympathies for the

labor movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

.Horst Ende: ''Im Dienste dreier Herzöge. Georg Adolph Demmler - Architekt und Stadtplaner, Sozialreformer und Politiker.'' Mecklenburg-Magazin, Regionalbeilage der SVZ, 3. Dezember 2004, Nr. 49. From 1844 to 1848, he produced a five-volume work called ''Mecklenburg. Ein Jahrbuch für alle Stände'' (Mecklenburg. A Yearbook for All Classes), which was censored and banned several times. During this period, in 1845, he was elected to the Schwerin (Citizens' Committee) and campaigned for freedom of the press. During the

German revolutions of 1848–1849 The German revolutions of 1848–1849 (), the opening phase of which was also called the March Revolution (), were initially part of the Revolutions of 1848 that broke out in many European countries. They were a series of loosely coordinated p ...

, he became involved in controversial issues regarding the Grand Duchy's constitution. Some progress was made, but

reactionaries In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...

in the nobility were able to roll back those changes so, in 1851, he was accused of disloyalty. Shortly after, he resigned all of his official positions and was dismissed without a pension. Luckily, he still had some of his inheritance and was on friendly terms with Grand Duke Frederick Francis. His work on Schwerin Castle, which had occupied him for over a decade, was completed by

Friedrich August Stüler Friedrich August Stüler (28 January 1800 – 18 March 1865) was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterpiece is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Schloss. ...

. He then focused on his political activities, travelling throughout Europe to promote the

trade union movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

. Upon returning to Schwerin in 1857, he was re-elected to the Citizens' Committee. Schwerin Arsenal am Pfaffenteich 2013

In 1859, he was one of the founders of the Deutscher Nationalverein in

. He was elected Chairman of the Mecklenburg Trade Association in 1861. During these years, he remained active as an architect. In 1863, he presented an expansion and beautification plan for the city of Schwerin that included major new construction around the

Pfaffenteich Pfaffenteich is a pond in Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south ...

, a popular pond near the city center. He was a delegate to the

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

Congress of the

International Workingmen's Association The International Workingmen's Association (IWA; 1864–1876), often called the First International, was a political international which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist, and anarchist g ...

and was one of the founders of the Peace and Freedom League, an organization devoted to creating a "United States of Europe". His opposition to the unification of Germany, under the leadership of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, led him to participate in the establishment of the German People's Party, a

left-liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited g ...

group that slowly took a socialist direction, under the influence of

August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (; 22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist activist and politician. He was one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Bebel, a woodworker by trade, co-founded the Sa ...

and

Wilhelm Liebknecht Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist activist and politician. He was one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 1874, he ran for the Reichstag, to represent several constituencies in

Saxe-Altenburg Saxe-Altenburg () was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin in present-day Thuringia. It was one of the smallest of the German states with an area of 1323 square kilometers and a population of 207,000 (190 ...

. His 27.3% of the vote was the best showing for a socialist in that area throughout the 70s and 80s.Hans-Jörg Sittig: "Die soziale Frage und die „Gründerzeit“ in der Oberamtsstadt Nürtingen (1859–1877)". ''In: Arbeitskreis Geschichte der Nürtinger Arbeiterbewegung, Das andere Nürtingen. Ein heimatgeschichtlicher Beitrag zum 100. Geburtstag der Nürtinger SPD''. Hrsg. v. SPD-Ortsverein Nürtingen, Nürtingen 1989, pp.13–22 He ran again in 1876 and 1877, when he was elected as a candidate of the Socialist Workers' Party in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

. After passage of the

Anti-Socialist Laws The Anti-Socialist Laws or Socialist Laws (; officially , approximately "Law against the public danger of Social Democratic endeavours") were a series of acts of the parliament of the German Empire, the first of which was passed on 19 October 187 ...

in 1878, he chose not to stand for re-election and withdrew to private life. He died at the age of eighty-one and was interred at the , next to his wife (who had died in 1862), with a grave chapel he had designed himself. In his will he decreed that, every year, 1,000 Marks from his estate would be paid to old and disabled workingmen. Due to legal complications, this was never put into practice.

References

Schwerin Alter Friedhof Demmler-Kapelle 2014-07-02 26

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Demmler, Georg Adolph 19th-century German politicians 1804 births 1886 deaths 19th-century German architects German socialists Politicians from Berlin

Biography

Political activities

References

Further reading

External links