SCHORLEMER-ALST, BURGHARD von. — German politician, born on 20 October 1825 at Herringhausen near Lippstadt, died on 17 March 1895 at Alst (district of Steinfurt). Having initially embarked upon a military career, he subsequently abandoned it to devote himself to politics and to the defense of the interests of the peasants of Westphalia.
The critical conditions in which agriculture found itself from 1850 onward, its development being jeopardized by the industrialization of the country, induced him to lay aside his uniform. Thus, on 10 June 1862, he founded an association of agricultural landowners, with the intention of working together for the safeguarding of their respective religious and social interests. Starting from the premise that industry and the power of capital tended toward the annihilation of small and medium-sized agricultural holdings and, consequently, toward the disruption of the family relationship particularly alive among the peasants, S., perceiving an attempt to overthrow the Christian order from its foundations through the destruction of the family, promoted union among the peasants so that they might resist, with good prospects of success, not only the dangers threatening the particular interests of agricultural landowners and peasants, but also the decline of Christian sentiment. His initiative served as an example to other similar organizations, founded on the model of his own, and in 1867 a large central union of the Westphalian peasants was established on a federative basis at Münster, the Westfälischer Bauernverein. The fundamental purpose of this Association was the defense of the moral and material interests of agricultural proprietors through the establishment of credit and insurance institutions, as well as cooperatives, so as to prevent the fragmentation and sale of farms. Only those who directly cultivated a holding and belonged to one of the two Christian confessions, fulfilling its duties, and led a life in conformity with the precepts of religion, could belong to the Association. With the establishment of the Bauernverein, S. had laid the foundations for the firm defense of the German peasant and agricultural world against the threats posed by other social classes. Subsequently, through his political activity, he set himself the goal of strengthening the position of farmers in the life of the country. A deputy to the Diet of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1870 to 1890 and to the Reichstag from 1875 to 1890, S. immediately became one of the most representative figures of the Catholic Center and spoke several times during the Kulturkampf, distinguishing himself both by the seriousness and incisiveness of his arguments and by the causticity with which he sometimes attacked his opponents and replied to the accusations Bismarck directed against his party. The struggle for the rights of Catholics did not, however, distract S. from carefully considering the conditions of the peasants and agricultural proprietors. The grain crisis
after 1875, caused by competition from Indian, Russian, and American grain, compelled S. and the Center not to continue supporting the free-trade system, but instead to demand the adoption of protective tariffs. Within the Reichstag, together with Windhorst and 85 deputies of the Center, he formed in 1878 an Economic Union of protectionists, which also included many Conservative, National Liberal, and other party parliamentarians, numbering 204 in all, thereby forming the strongest group on economic questions. Shortly thereafter, Bismarck’s policy of détente toward the Center made cooperation with the Chancellor easier for S., although years earlier he had been his fierce opponent; this did not, however, prevent him from voting against the anti-scholastic legislative bill, which he considered contrary to every juridical form and every moral precept.