Mallinckrodt, Hermann von

MALLINCKRODT, HERMANN von. - German politician, b. 5 Feb. 1821 at Minden (Westphalia), d. 26 May 1874 at Berlin. His father was Protestant, his mother Catholic: the young M. was educated in his mother's religion. After attending the Universities of Berlin and Bonn, he began in 1844 a brilliant career in the Prussian state administration, up to the office of government councillor.

A deputy in the Prussian Diet in 1852, he was a member of the Catholic faction, from which the Centre party emerged some years later, and he soon became one of its most influential members. He upheld the necessity of confessional instruction « because whoever abandons the confessional point of view (whether Catholic or Protestant), abandons the fideistic-positive point of view in general, which leads to religious indifference, and thus the first step toward irreligion is taken ». He remained in the Diet until 1863. Because of his conservatism he was not re-elected for some years, but he returned to Parliament in 1868 and remained there until his death. During the Kulturkampf he took part eloquently in the debates on Bismarck's anti-Catholic laws.

Silvio Furlani