The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Busch, Moritz

BUSCH, Moritz, German publicist: b. Dresden, 13 Feb. 1821; d. 1895. He was educated at Leipzig and in 1847 began his literary work by translating a number of the novels of Dickens and Thackeray. As a member of the Radical party he was disappointed by the failure of the revolutionary movement of 1848 and came to the United States in 1851, but returned to Germany in 1852. He also traveled in the Orient in behalf of the Austrian Lloyds. In 1856 he became editor of the Grenzboten, and in this paper defended the policy of Bismarck. In April 1870 he was appointed to a position in the Foreign Office and accompanied Bismarck to France at the time of the Franco-Prussian War as reporter for the press. In 1873 he gave up his official position to become the editor of the Hannoverschen Kuriers, but continued to be a confidant of Bismarck and strongly advocated the Chancellor's policy in his articles for the press. After his visit to the United States he wrote ‘Wanderungen zwischen Hudson und Mississippi’ (1853), and ‘Die Mormonen’ (1857). Other works of his are ‘American Humorists’ (translations of selections from Mark Twain, Bret Harte, etc.); ‘The History of the International’; ‘The Humor of the German People’; ‘Count Bismarck and His People During the War with France’; ‘Our Chancellor’ (a life of Bismarck), and ‘Bismarck; Some Secret Pages of His History’ (translated into English 1898).