Ludwig Windthorst

Born near Osnabruck, 17 January, 1812; died 14 March, 1891. He came from a family of lawyers of Lower Saxony. As a pupil at the gymnasium he was industrious, shrewd and cautious, quiet, not carried away by the tendencies of his time, and these qualities he retained throughout life. He studied at Gottingen and Heidelberg, and in 1836 established himself as a lawyer at Osnabruck and soon married. There his professional ability and his attitude in religion won him the confidence of the Catholic clergy. In 1842, at their instance, the sovereign, the King of Hanover, appointed him president of the Catholic state board of Hanover for churches and schools. In this office Windthorst gained a knowledge of the great difficulties existing in Germany between nearly all the governments and their Catholic subjects. By the enactment of the Imperial Delegates of 1803, the great majority of German Catholics, who until then had generally enjoyed spiritual autonomy were made subjects of Protestant states. The Catholics had little interest in the rulers thus forced upon them; the governments were not accustomed to a policy compatible with the rights and freedom of the Catholic Church. Thorough knowledge of the subject and tactful caution wee necessary before a reconciliation could be brought about. Owing to the efforts of Windthorst, such an adjustment was made in Hanover, while the tension in several other German states grew continually greater, and finally led to the Kulturkampf. Windthorst's official experience especially impressed upon him the great importance to the future of Catholicism in Germany of a legal adjustment of the relations between the Church and the state schools. +