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 brought up in his mother’s religion. Having attended the Universities of Berlin and Bonn, he began in 1844 a brilliant career in the Prussian state administration, eventually attaining the office of government councillor.
A deputy in the Prussian Diet in 1852, he belonged to 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 education “because whoever abandons the confessional standpoint (whether Catholic or Protestant) abandons the positive faith-based standpoint 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 returned to Parliament in 1868 and remained there until his death. During the Kulturkampf, he took an eloquent part in the debates on Bismarck’s anti-Catholic laws.