Raphael Basch, also Rafael Basch (1813,
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
- 22 January 1907,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
) was a
Bohemian-
Austrian writer and politician. He was the father of
Victor Basch
Basch Viktor Vilém, or Victor-Guillaume Basch (18 August 1863/1865, Budapest – 10 January 1944) was a French politician and professor of germanistics and philosophy at the Sorbonne descending from Hungary. He was engaged in the Zionist movem ...
(1863–1944).
At the first disturbances preliminary to the
Revolution of 1848
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europ ...
, he went to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, and took an active part in the insurrection. Here he founded the ''
Reichstagblatt'', which he continued at
Kremsier until the dissolution of the
Constitutional Assembly
A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
, in March, 1849. He then joined the staff of the ''
Oesterreichische Post'' of Vienna, which he represented at Berlin; subsequently he was the Paris correspondent of several papers. He returned to Vienna in 1855 and assumed the editorship of the ''
Oesterreichische Zeitung'', occupying a position of importance as the official mouthpiece of the minister
Bruck, the opponent of the clerical minister
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
. After the promulgation of the constitution of 26 February 1861, he acted in a similar capacity to the
Schmerling ministry, with which political party he remained connected until its fall.
Until 1875 Basch was engaged only in economic questions, but in that year he returned to political journalism. He represented the ''
Neue Freie Presse
''Neue Freie Presse'' ("New Free Press") was a Viennese newspaper founded by Adolf Werthner together with the journalists Max Friedländer and Michael Etienne on 1 September 1864 after the staff had split from the newspaper ''Die Presse''. It ...
'' at Paris; and in close fellowship with
Thiers,
Gambetta, and
Barthélemy St.-Hilaire he defended the republican policy against the
men of 16 May. In 1883 he retired from journalism, but remained in Paris.
Literary works
He has published a number of political pamphlets;
Two of these, entitled ''Deutschland, Oesterreich, und Europa'', and ''Oesterreich und das Nationalitätenrecht'', Stuttgart, 1870 — which appeared under the pseudonym ''Ein Altoesterreicher'' — created on their appearance a great sensation in Austria.
References
*
1813 births
1907 deaths
Artists from Prague
Politicians from Prague
People from the Kingdom of Bohemia
Czech Jews
Austro-Hungarian Jews
19th-century Austrian people
19th-century Czech people
Austrian male writers
Austrian politicians
Austrian expatriates in France
{{Jewish-hist-stub