Herman von Mallinckrodt

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Herman von Mallinckrodt (1821-1874) was a German parliamentarian, born 5 February 1821, at Minden, Westphalia.

His father, Detmar von Mallinckrodt, was vice-governor at Miden (1818-23) and also at Aachen (1823-29); and was an Evangelical, his highly accomplished and pious mother (née Berhardine von Hartmann) was a Catholic, and the children followed her creed. Hermann von Mallinckrodt attended the gymnasium at Aachen and studied law at Berlin and Bonn. He became auscultator in the district court of Paderborn in 1841, referendar at Münster and Erfurt in 1844, and government assessor in 1849. As such he worked at Minden, Erfurt, Stralsund and Frankfurt (Oder). At Erfurt he was also for a time commissary to the first burgomaster, and in recognition of his services he received the freedom of the city. In 1859 he was appointed assistant in the Ministry of the Interior, and in 1860 was appointed government councillor at Düsseldorf. In 1867 he was sent to Merseburg against his will, and was pensioned off at his own request in 1872.

As early as 1852 the Westphalian constituency of Beckum-Ahaus had elected him to the Prussian House of Representatives, and he took part in the founding of the "Catholic Fraction" for the defense of the rights and liberties of the church, which since 1859 has been called the Centre. When the House of Representatives was dissolved in 1863, owing to the debate on the military law, Mallinckrodt lost his mandate. In 1867, however, he was elected to the Constituent Diet of the North German Confederation, and in 1868 returned to the Prussian Lower House.

In the North German Diet he was the leading member of the federal constitutional union. In 1837 he made a speech condemning the war against Austria (1866) and the annexation of Hanover and Hesse, and attacked the idea of substituting a single (federal) government for the confederation of states. From 1870 until his death he stood at the head of the new Centre Party, in both the Reichstag and the Prussian Landtag, that party gaining strength during the Kulturkampf. He shared this leadership with the brothers Reichensperger (August and Peter) and, after 1872, also with Ludwig Windthorst.

Mallinckrodt was an unrivalled parliamentarian. "Never", to repeat the words of a colleague, "was so much force and dignity, energy and learning, strength of character and prudence, piety and vigour, united in one person as in Hermann von Mallinckrodt." Distinguished and dignified in appearance, as tactful as he was winning in society, clear in his thoughts, honourable in his dealings, of spotless life, and moreover a strong and highly cultivated mind, a mature and grave, though good-natured and friendly, character, and an orator who carried his audience with him by his force, lucidity, and fire -- with all this he could not but be eminent in every sphere upon which he entered. Whatever he believed to be right, that he advocated with all his power; and he won the esteem of even his most determined opponents. Even Herr Falk, the Minister of Worship, with whom he had often enough been in conflict, called him "the most honourable member of the Centre Party, a man who had only lived and fought for his convictions." And the president of the Prussian Diet, von Bennigsen, also a vigorous antagonist, said: "In spite of his resolute party attitude, he succeeded in gaining and retaining not only the confidence of his political friends, but also the high regard of his political opponents."

While he was always an energetic orator, willingly listened to, he rose to the height of his eloquence in the Kulturkampf. Mallinckrodt took the leading part in the defence of the Catholic church, to which he was highly devoted. Windthorst's sparkling wit and Reichensperger's Ciceronian swing he had not. His speeches, on the other hand, are distinguished by a full command of the subject, lucidity of form, and strictly logical argument. Reichensperger said of him that in a parliamentary experience of forty years he had never known a parliamentarian as serious and conscientious in the preparation of his speeches as Mallinckrodt. The keen force of his words was lauded by his opponents. He spoke for the last time on May 19, 1874, and concluded with the poetical words: Per crucem ad lucem ("Through the cross to light"). Death carried him away only a few days after. During all the years of his parliamentary career hardly a bill of leading importance had been debated without his taking a distinguished part in the debate.

Mallinckrodt's first wife, Elizabeth (née von Bernhard), bore him seven children, of whom two died young; his second wife, her half-sister had but three months of married life with him, and when his children had grown up, she became religious.

He died on May 26, 1874 at Berlin.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.