Johann Jacoby born May 1, 1805 in Königsberg, died March 6,
1877 in Königsberg, the son of a family of Jewish merchants,
Jacoby studied medicine in Königsberg from 1823 to 1827 and
to the end of his life, practiced family medicine in his
hometown. With the Parisian July revolution in 1830, he became
political active. He engaged himself in the struggle to liberate
the Polish people, to emancipate the Jews, and to overcome
Prussian absolutism. During the pre-March(Vormärz)
days he was the leader of the anti-feudal opposition in East
Prussia. In his most importantpamphlet, Vier Fragen, beantwortet
von einem Ostpressen (Four Questions Answered by an East Prussian)
(1841), supporting the right of the people to a constitution, he
initiated the movement for the introduction of a parliamentary-constitutional order in Prussia.
The accusation of high treason
and lèse majesty levelled against him due to this pamphlet ended
in his acquittal after a two-year long trial.
By the middle of the 1840s Jacoby had evolved politically from
liberal to a social-republican posture. He took an active
role in the March revolution of 1848; he authored several addresses
to the king, and on March 21 was one of the leaders of the
Königsberg delegation of citizens who forced a transformation of
East Prussia. As a member of the Frankfurt pre-parliament, he
belonged to the moderate left. Elected a member of the committee
of fifty, he defended the Poles' just demands and insisted that
the Prussian government relinquish its Polish territories.
Without relinquishing his republican convictions, during the
revolution he called for a democratic-constitutional monarchy
based on the principle of the sovereignty of people and for
social laws promoting the interests of working people.
In May Jacoby was elected to become a deputy of the Prussian
constituent assembly in Berlin. He was among the leaders of the
extreme-left faction and delivered speeches on the principal
revolutionary issues. Above all, he advocated the right of
parliaments in Frankfurt and Berlin to formulate and promulgate
democratic constitutions. He fought for the dissolution of a
standing army and for the establishment of a popular militia
organized on the Swiss pattern. He remained in close contact
with his electorate by speaking a popular gatherings. In the
"counter-parliament" convened in Berlin on October 27, he called
for the rescue of the Viennese revolution. On November 2, he
gained great popular acclaim as a member of a parliamentary
delegation to the Prussian monarch with his remark, "It is the
tragedy of kings, that they will not hear the truth." On
November 15 in the Berlin national assembly, together with two
other deputies, he initiated the resolution calling for citizens
to withhold paying taxes as an attempt to combat the coup d'état.
In the spring of 1849, as a member of the second chamber of the
Prussian constituent assembly Jacoby supported a new
revolutionary uprising. As a member of the Frankfurt national
assembly on May 24, 1849 he participated in the rump parliament
in Stuttgart. At the beginning of July he emigrated to
Switzerland, but soon returned to Königsberg to face a
renewed accusation of high treason. The jury acquitted him of
the charges. In the 1860s Jacoby was a member of the German
National Association and of the Progressive Party. During the
Prussian constitutional conflict, as a Landtag's
deputy, he once more called for a refusal to pay taxes and was
sentenced to a term in prison. In September 1870 he protested
the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. Jacoby, who since 1868 had
approached the working class movement, joined the Social-Democratic Party on April 4, 1872.
Johann Jacoby Gesammelte Schriften und Reden 2 vols
2d ed, Hamburg 1877.
Johann Jacoby Briefwechsel Edmund Silberner (ed.),
2 vols, Hanover 1974, Bonn 1978.
Peter Schuppan, "Johann Jacoby," Männer der
Revolution von 1848, 2d
ed, Berlin 1988.
Edmund Silberner Johann Jacoby: Politiker und Mensch
Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1976.
Bernt Engelmann Die Freiheit! Das Recht! Johann Jacoby und
die Anfänge unserer Demokratie Berlin and Bonn 1984;
Rolf Weber Das Unglück der Könige....Johann Jacoby
1805 - 1877. Berlin 1987.
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/jacoby.htm) on
October 20, 2004.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to
© 1998, 2004 James Chastain.
Rolf Weber
Bibliography