Moritz Rittinghausen (November 10, 1814, in Hückeswagen – December 29, 1890, in Ath, Belgium) was a German advocate and theorist of

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

, an early socialist and a politician. Rittinghausen lived in Belgium temporarily during the period before the March Revolution and emerged there as a leading thinker on social politics. He took an active part in the

German revolutions of 1848–49 German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

as a democrat. After leaving the country during the Reaction following the Revolution, he later returned to Germany and began to take a role in the labor movement. He was among the founders of the

Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (, SDAP) was a Marxist socialist political party in the North German Confederation during unification. Founded in Eisenach in 1869, the SDAP endured through the early years of the German Empire. ...

, before he was thrown out of the party over political differences.

Early life and pre-Revolutionary Period

He was born into an influential family in Hückeswagen, in the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

. His grandfather already had been mayor; his grandmother was descended from the old, originally French de Blois family. His father also served as mayor and as a court official Hückeswagen. Moritz Rittinghausen attended Gymnasium; sources offer different details about his early life. According to Wilhelm Heinz Schröder, after his graduation he was a merchant in

Köln Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. According to Fäuster he studied

legal science Legal science is one of the main components in civil law tradition (after Roman law, canon law, commercial law, and the legacy of the revolutionary period). Legal science is primarily the creation of German legal scholars of the middle and late n ...

and lived in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. There he already appeared as a thinker and activist in social politics; in 1837, he composed an open letter to the King, in which he denounced the social problem in the country.Ulrike Fäuster, p. 54 After his release he returned to Germany. From the 1840s on, he emerged as a writer on politics and national economy, representing

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 ...

ideas. Beginning in 1846, he lived in Köln. In September 1847, he took part in a free trade congress in Brussels, acting as a defender of the

protective tariff Protective tariffs are tariffs that are enacted with the aim of protecting a domestic industry. They aim to make imported goods cost more than equivalent goods produced domestically, thereby causing sales of domestically produced goods to rise, ...

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Kölnischen Zeitung'', the ''Aachener Zeitung'', the ''Trierer Zeitung'' and the ''Kölner Gewerbeblatt''.

German Revolutions of 1848-49

In 1848 Rittinghausen was a member of the Vorparlament in Frankfurt, where he belonged to the Left wing. He agreed with

Friedrich Hecker Friedrich Karl Franz Hecker (September 28, 1811 – March 24, 1881) was a German lawyer, politician and revolutionary. He was one of the most popular speakers and agitators of the 1848 Revolution. After moving to the United States, he served a ...

's proposal that the Vorparlament should remain in place until the meeting of an actual National Assembly. Instead, the liberal majority came to favor the formation of the Committee of Fifty (''Fünfzigerausschuss''). Rittinghausen also belonged to this committee. In Köln Rittinghausen belonged to the

Democratic Society Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

(''Demokratische Gesellschaft''), which developed into an influential political group in the city. Most of the leading figures came from the educated bourgeoisie or '' Bildungsbürgertum'' class. Members of the Communist League, such as

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

und Friedrich Engels, also took part. During the

he was a contributor to the ''

Neue Rheinische Zeitung The ''Neue Rheinische Zeitung: Organ der Demokratie'' ("New Rhenish Newspaper: Organ of Democracy") was a German daily newspaper, published by Karl Marx in Cologne between 1 June 1848 and 19 May 1849. It is recognised by historians as one of the ...

'', which brought him into closer contact with Marx. By his own statements, Rittinghausen sometimes supported and sometimes fought Marx's efforts, depending on whether he took them to be reasonable or misguided. Usually the latter was the case. On at least one occasion, he attempted to save Marx from deportation. In Spring 1848, he involved himself in the development of a Democratic Society election platform for the

Frankfurt Parliament The Frankfurt National Assembly () was the first freely elected parliament for all German Confederation, German states, including the German-populated areas of the Austrian Empire, elected on 1 May 1848 (see German federal election, 1848). The ...

elections. He also took part in drafting addresses to the King and the government. Later he wrote a petition to the Parliament on the nationality policy. In the same year he also published the work ''Über die Organisation der Staatsindustrie'' (On the Organization of State Industry), in which he promoted, among other things, the nationalization of railroads. In 1849, he was co-editor of the ''Westdeutschen Zeitung'' in Köln, until it had to cease publication as a result of the triumphant Counter-Revolution. After the defeat of the Revolution, Rittinghausen emigrated next to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. In the wake of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

's later coup d'état, Rittinghausen moved to

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, where he continued to work as a journalist.Ulrike Fäuster, S. 55

Politician in the Labor Movement

Rittinghausen returned in 1858 after the beginning of the New Era, and lived as an author in Köln, where he cofounded the democratic Political-Social Club (''Politisch-Geselligen Vereins''). Rittinghausen observed the developing labor movement with sympathy, but he rejected the centralist organization of the

General German Workers' Association The General German Workers' Association (, ADAV) was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony by Ferdinand Lassalle. It was the first organized mass working-class party in history. The organization existed ...

. He occasionally gave talks in the party.Ulrike Fäuster, p. 56. In 1867, he ran, unsuccessfully, as a candidate for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation. At the beginning of 1868, together with adherents of the

First International 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 ...

, he founded a social-democratic electoral club, and in 1869 became one of the co-founders of the

(SDAP). Besides this, he concerned himself with municipal affairs for the city of Köln. He demanded the abolition of census suffrage and petitioned for the incorporation of the town of Deutz, and succeeded in collecting over a thousand signatures in favor. Later, he campaigned for the purchase of Köln's city fortifications from the military administration, with the support of delegates from other political parties. In 1869 and 1872 he served as a German delegate to the congresses of the First International in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

and

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. Due to his knowledge of languages he also acted as an interpreter in Basel. During the congress in Basel, he took part in an arbitration committee that attempted to mediate a conflict between

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...

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).Edmund Silberner, "

Moses Hess Moses (Moritz) Hess (21 January 1812 – 6 April 1875) was a German-Jewish philosopher, early socialist and Zionist thinker. His theories led to disagreements with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He is considered a pioneer of Labor Zionism. Bi ...

und die Internationale Arbeiterassoziation," '' Archiv für Sozialgeschichte'' Vol.5 (1965): 128.

Writing

* ''Über die Organisation der Staatsindustrie''. Bachem, Köln 1848. * ''Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. Paris 1850. * ''La législation directe par le peuple ou la véritable démocratie''. Librairie Phalanstérienne, Paris 185
Digitalisat
bei: ''books.google.de.'' * ''La législation directe par le peuple et ses adversaires''. Lebégue, Bruxelles 185
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital
* ''Le système protecteur et le libre échange devant le Congrès des Économistes de 1847''. Bruxelles 1856 (Aus: ''Revue Trimestrielle'', Vol. XII). * ''Die Philosophie der Geschichte''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1868 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 1). * ''Ueber die Nothwendigkeit der direkten Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1869 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 2). * ''Die unhaltbaren Grundlagen des Repräsentativ-Systems''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1869 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 3
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital
* ''Ueber die Organisation der direkten Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1870 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 4
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital
* ''Widerlegung der gegen die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk gerichteten Einwürfe''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1872 (''Social-demokratische Abhandlungen'', Heft 5). * ''Die Festungswerke communalen Ursprungs der ehemaligen Freien Reichsstadt Köln. Eine Eigenthumsfrage''. Selbstverlag, Köln 1877. * ''Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. 4. Aufl., Selbstverlag, Köln 1877. * ''La législation directe par le peuple et ses adversaires''. Nouv. éd., augm. d’une notice biographique . Lebègue, Bruxelles 1892. * ''Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk''. 5. Aufl. Kommissionsverlag der Buchhandlung des Schweiz. Grütlivereins, Zürich 1893.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rittinghausen, Moritz German socialists German politicians 1814 births 1890 deaths