The New International Encyclopædia/Bamberger, Ludwig

BAMBERGER, Ludwig (1823-99). A German parliamentarian and writer on political and economic subjects. He was born at Mainz, of Jewish parentage, and studied law at Giessen, Heidelberg, and Göttingen. Implicated in the Revolution of 1849 as editor of the Mainzer Zeitung, he was condemned to death, but was amnestied in 1866. As a member of the National Liberal Party in the Reichstag (1871-80) he defended the gold standard against the bimetallists, opposed the economic policy of Prince Bismarck (after 1879), and advocated free trade, becoming the founder and president of the Verein zur Förderung der Handelsfreiheit. Compelled by his antagonism to Prince Bismarck's theories to resign from the National Liberal Party, he formed the group known as the “Secessionists,” which afterwards became merged in the German Liberal Party, and as a member of which he opposed the Colonial policy of the Government. The following are some of his important publications: Erlebnisse aus der pfälzischen Erhebung (1849); Monsieur de Bismarck (1868; English translation, 1869); Die fünf Milliarden (1873); Deutschland und der Sozialismus (1878); Deutschtum und Judentum (1880); Die Stichworte der Silberleute besprochen (4th ed., 1893); Erinnerungen (published by Nathan, 1899).