Moritz Rittinghausen

Moritz Rittinghausen (November 10, 1814, in Hückeswagen – December 29, 1890, in Ath, Belgium) was a German advocate and theorist of direct democracy, an early socialist and a politician.

Rittinghausen lived in Belgium temporarily during the period before the March Revolution and emerged there as a leading thinker on social politics. He took an active part in the German revolutions of 1848–49 as a democrat. After leaving the country during the Reaction following the Revolution, he later returned to Germany and began to take a role in the labor movement. He was among the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany, before he was thrown out of the party over political differences.

Early life and pre-Revolutionary Period He was born into an influential family in Hückeswagen, in the Rhineland. His grandfather already had been mayor; his grandmother was descended from the old, originally French de Blois family. His father also served as mayor and as a court official Hückeswagen. Moritz Rittinghausen attended Gymnasium; sources offer different details about his early life. According to Wilhelm Heinz Schröder, after his graduation he was a merchant in Köln. According to Fäuster he studied legal science and lived in Belgium. There he already appeared as a thinker and activist in social politics; in 1837, he composed an open letter to the King, in which he denounced the social problem in the country. After his release he returned to Germany.

From the 1840s on, he emerged as a writer on politics and national economy, representing socialist ideas. Beginning in 1846, he lived in Köln. In September 1847, he took part in a free trade congress in Brussels, acting as a defender of the protective tariff. Friedrich Engels criticized him in a newspaper article as a "German Protectionist" and "generally an insipid fellow."

By 1848 Rittinghausen was a contributor to several different newspapers, such as the Kölnischen Zeitung, the Aachener Zeitung, the Trierer Zeitung and the Kölner Gewerbeblatt.

German Revolutions of 1848-49 In 1848 Rittinghausen was a member of the Vorparlament in Frankfurt, where he belonged to the Left wing. He agreed with Friedrich Hecker's proposal that the Vorparlament should remain in place until the meeting of an actual National Assembly. Instead, the liberal majority came to favor the formation of the Committee of Fifty (Fünfzigerausschuss). Rittinghausen also belonged to this committee.

Politician in the Labor Movement Rittinghausen returned in 1858 after the beginning of the New Era, and lived as an author in Köln, where he cofounded the democratic Political-Social Club (Politisch-Geselligen Vereins).

Rittinghausen observed the developing labor movement with sympathy, but he rejected the centralist organization of the General German Workers' Association. He occasionally gave talks in the party. In 1867, he ran, unsuccessfully, as a candidate for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation. At the beginning of 1868, together with adherents of the First International, he founded a social-democratic electoral club, and in 1869 became one of the co-founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP).

In 1869 and 1872 he served as a German delegate to the congresses of the First International in Basel and The Hague. Due to his knowledge of languages he also acted as an interpreter in Basel.

Writing Über die Organisation der Staatsindustrie. Bachem, Köln 1848. Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk. Paris 1850. La législation directe par le peuple ou la véritable démocratie. Librairie Phalanstérienne, Paris 1851 Digitalisat bei: books.google.de. La législation directe par le peuple et ses adversaires. Lebégue, Bruxelles 1852 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital. Le système protecteur et le libre échange devant le Congrès des Économistes de 1847. Bruxelles 1856 (Aus: Revue Trimestrielle, Vol. XII). Die Philosophie der Geschichte. Selbstverlag, Köln 1868 (Social-demokratische Abhandlungen, Heft 1). Ueber die Nothwendigkeit der direkten Gesetzgebung durch das Volk. Selbstverlag, Köln 1869 (Social-demokratische Abhandlungen, Heft 2). Die unhaltbaren Grundlagen des Repräsentativ-Systems. Selbstverlag, Köln 1869 (Social-demokratische Abhandlungen, Heft 3) Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital. Ueber die Organisation der direkten Gesetzgebung durch das Volk. Selbstverlag, Köln 1870 (Social-demokratische Abhandlungen, Heft 4) Bayerische Staatsbibliothek digital. Widerlegung der gegen die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk gerichteten Einwürfe. Selbstverlag, Köln 1872 (Social-demokratische Abhandlungen, Heft 5). Die Festungswerke communalen Ursprungs der ehemaligen Freien Reichsstadt Köln. Eine Eigenthumsfrage. Selbstverlag, Köln 1877. Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk. 4. Aufl., Selbstverlag, Köln 1877. La législation directe par le peuple et ses adversaires. Nouv. éd., augm. d’une notice biographique . Lebègue, Bruxelles 1892. Die direkte Gesetzgebung durch das Volk. 5. Aufl. Kommissionsverlag der Buchhandlung des Schweiz. Grütlivereins, Zürich 1893.