Eugen Richter

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Reichstag
Eugen Richter

Reichstag
In office 1867 – 1871
In office 1871 – 1874
Constituency	Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
Reichstag
In office 1874 – 1906
Constituency	Hagen-Schwelm

Born	July 30, 1838 Düsseldorf
Died	March 10, 1906 Lichterfelde (Berlin)
Political party	Progress Party Freeminded Party Freeminded People's Party
Occupation	Journalist, Jurist
Religion	Protestantism

Eugen Richter (Düsseldorf, July 30, 1838 - March 10, 1906) was a German politician and journalist.

In 1864 Richter said farewell for the work as a civil servant and entered into parliament and journalism. His liberal attitude had caused much annoyance already before that. He achieved renown for his essay Über die Freiheit des Schankgewerbes (On the liberty of the tavern trade). The Magdeburger Spukgeschichte of 1862 brought in a disciplinary procedure. However it was printed in the Niederrheinischen Volkszeitung and in the Magdeburger Zeitung. Later he was elected the mayor of Neuwied, but the election result was not confirmed by the president of the provincial government. He became a parliamentary correspondent of the Elberfelder Zeitung to Berlin and established thus also political contacts. In 1867 Richter entered the Reichstag as a member of the Left liberals, and since 1869 he was also a member of the Prussian Lower House.

He was the most influential leader of the German Progress Party (Deutsche Fortschrittspartei), since 1884 of the German Freeminded Party (Deutsche Freisinnige Partei), and since 1893 of the Freeminded People's Party (Freisinnige Volkspartei). Beside that he was one of the greatest critics of the policy of Otto von Bismarck as well as the National Liberal Party and the Social Democrats. From 1885 to 1904 he was the chief editor of the liberal newspaper Freisinnige Zeitung.

[edit] Further reading

Ralph Raico (1990). "Eugen Richter and late German Manchester liberalism: A reevaluation". The Review of Austrian Economics 4 (1): 3-25. DOI:10.1007/BF02426362.