1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Schweitzer, Jean Baptista von

SCHWEITZER, JEAN BAPTISTA VON (1833-1875), German politician and dramatic poet, was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main on the 12th of July 1833, of an old aristocratic Catholic family. He studied law at Berlin and Heidelberg, and afterwards practised in his native city. He was, however, from the first more interested in politics and literature than in law. He was attracted by the social democratic labour movement, and after the death of Ferdinand Lassalle in 1864, he became president of the “General Working-men's Union of Germany,” and in this capacity edited the Sozialdemokrat, which brought him into frequent trouble with the Prussian government. In 1867 he was elected to the parliament of the North German Federation, and on his failure to secure election to the German Reichstag in 1871, he resigned the presidency of the Labour Union, and retired from political life. Schweitzer composed a number of dramas and comedies, of which several for a while had considerable success. Among them may be mentioned Alcibiades (Frankfort, 1858); Friedrich Barbarossa (Frankfort, 1858); Canossa (Berlin, 1872); Die Darwinianer (Frankfort, 1875); Die Eidechse (Frankfort, 1876); and Epidemisch (Frankfort, 1876). He also wrote one political novel, Lucinde oder Kapital und Arbeit (Frankfort, 1864).