Friedrich Lutz

For the economist, see Friedrich Lutz (economist).

Friedrich Lutz (22 February 1852 in Heidenheim – 14 May 1918 in Oettingen ) was a German politician, Bavarian brewery owner, and farmer.[1] He was mayor (bürgermeister) of Heidenheim,[2] a member of the Bavarian Landtag and a member of the German Reichstag.

Early life

Lutz was the son of the brewery owner Gerhard Andreas Lutz and his wife Margaret, née Müller. He attended a trade school and on 9 August 1881, he married Sophia Maria Herrmann from Heidenheim.[3] By then he was the managing director of his parent's brewery business. He became involved in politics first as a member of the District Council Committee, then as Chairman of the District Agricultural Association.[4] In 1885 Lutz was one of the founders and first chairman of the Central Franconian Peasant Association (Mittelfränkischen Bauernvereins), a conservative organization, but one which worked occasionally with the more liberal Bavarian Farmers' League (Bayerischen Bauernbund) on rural and agricultural issues.[5] Lutz was a member of the Conservative Party (DKP) and the Agrarian League (Bund der Landwirte). In the 1890s, he was one of the main actors of the conservatively oriented Agrarian League.[6]

Political posts

From 1890 to 1898 he was a member of the German Reichstag for the electoral district of Middle Franconia 5 (Dinkelsbühl, Gunzenhausen, and Feuchtwangen). From 1887 to 1905 he was also a Conservative Party member in the Landtag of Bavaria (Bavarian Assembly), from the constituency of Nördlingen in Swabia. Beginning with the 1902 election, Lutz sought and gained the support of the Bavarian Farmers' League.[7] In 1904 Lutz broke with the Conservative Party leadership over the issue of electoral reform for the Bavarian Landtag. In the state elections in 1905 he ran as a Centre Party member with Bavarian Farmers' League support, but lost. He retired for a few years from the business of politics.[8] In 1912 Lutz returned to politics and ran for the Nordlingen seat in the Bavarian Landtag with the support of the Bavarian Farmers' League.[7] He retained that seat until his death in 1918.[7]

Policies and philosophy

Lutz was of the view that the emerging commodity and futures markets operated at the expense of farmers and the middle class and therefore called for a tax on such activity in order to decease its incidence. He also supported protectionist import tariffs, and increased inspection and quality controls on import food stuffs.[9]

Lutz also took an antisemitic position consistent with his roots. A frequent target of his antisemitic verbal attacks was the department store owner Oscar Tietz. Among other things, Lutz called for a boycott of Jewish businesses.[2]

Life's end

About 1912 Lutz sold the brewery in Heidenheim and moved to Oettingen, where he died 14 May 1918.

Notes

  1. ↑ Lutz cultivated about thirty hectares of field and meadowland. Tirrell, Sarah Rebecca (1951). German Agrarian Politics After Bismarck's Fall: The Formation of the Farmers' League. Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, volume 566. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 142. OCLC 1380392. reprinted by AMS Press in 1968 OCLC 198354
  2. 1 2 Ludyga, Hannes (2009). "Friedrich Lutz". In Benz, Wolfgang. Handbuch des Antisemitismus: Judenfeindschaft in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Handbook of Anti-Semitism: Anti-Semitism Past and Present) 2(2). Berlin: De Gruyter Saur. p. 507–508.
  3. ↑ Hahn, Walter (1987). "Der Abgeordnete Friedrich Lutz (1852 bis 1918) und die Anfänge konservativer Parteibildung". Alt-Gunzenhausen: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Gunzenhausen 43: 75–95, page 76.
  4. ↑ Amtliches Handbuch der Kammer des Bayerischen Landtages. Münich. 1900. cited in Hahn 1987, p. 77
  5. ↑ Kittel, Manfred (2000). Provinz zwischen Reich und Republik: Politische Mentalitäten in Deutschland und Frankreich 1918-1933/36. Münich: Oldenbourg Verlag. p. 424. ISBN 978-3-486-56501-0.
  6. ↑ Hochberger, Anton (1991). Der Bayerische Bauernbund 1893 - 1914. Münich: Beck. p. 199. ISBN 978-3-406-10680-4.
  7. 1 2 3 Hetzer, Gerhard (1996). "Bauernräte und Bauernbündler 1918 - 1920 – Überlegungen zu Bayerisch-Schwaben". In Baumann, Reinhard and Hoser, Paul. Die Revolution von 1918/19 in der Provinz. Konstanz, Germany: Universitätsverlag (University of Konstanz). pp. 21–45, page 24. ISBN 978-3-87940-588-6.
  8. ↑ Stalmann, Volker (2002). Die Deutschkonservative Partei und die Deutsche Reichspartei in Bayern 1890 - 1914: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Politischen Parteien im Königreich Bayern. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang. p. 119. ISBN 978-3-631-50129-0.
  9. ↑ Albrecht, Willy (1968). Landtag und Regierung in Bayern am Vorabend der Revolution von 1918: Studien zur Gesellschaftlichen und Staatlichen Entwicklung Deutschlands von 1912-1918. Berlin: Duncker u. Humblot. pp. 120–124, 145, 218.

Further reading

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