Johann von Miquel (1829-1901), German statesman, was born at Neuenhaus, Hanover on the 19th of February 1829, being descended from a French family that had emigrated during the French Revolution. He learnt law at the universities of Heidelberg and Göttingen. Studying the writings of Karl Marx he became a convert to an extreme revolutionary, socialistic and atheistic creed; but though he entered into correspondence with Marx with the object of starting a revolutionary movement, he does not appear to have taken any overt part in the Revolutions of 1848-1849. There are communes and places that have the name Neuenhaus (German alternative spelling of new house) in Germany: Neuenhaus (Bentheim) , in the Grafschaft Bentheim district, Neuenhaus (Engelskirchen), a village in the municipality of Engelskirchen in Oberbergscher Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia Neuenhaus (Gummersbach) , a part of Gummersbach Neuenhaus (Wipperfürth) , a part... Map of Germany showing Hanover Hanover (German: Hannover [haˈnoːfɐ]), on the river Leine, is the capital of the state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. ... The period of the French Revolution is very important in the history of France and the world. ... The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (German Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; also known as simply University of Heidelberg) was established in the town of Heidelberg in the Rhineland in 1386. ... The Georg-August University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, often called the Georgia Augusta) was founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and opened in 1737. ... Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London, UK) was an influential German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary organizer of the International Workingmens Association, whose two books in particular, Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto (the latter with Friedrich Engels), laid the foundations... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... For information about the band, see Atheist (band). ... —Alexis de Tocqueville, Recollections The European Revolutions of 1848, in some countries known as the Spring of Nations or the Year of Revolution, were the bloody consequences of a variety of changes that had been taking place in Europe in the first half of the 19th century. ...

Further study of political economy soon enabled him to pass out of this phase, and in 1850 he settled down to practise as an advocate at Göttingen. He acquired a reputation as an able lawyer and rising politician, especially for his knowledge of financial questions. He was one of the founders of the German Nationalverein, and in 1864 he was elected a member of the Hanoverian parliament as a Liberal and an opponent of the government. He accepted the annexation of Hanover by Prussia without regret, and was one of the Hanoverians whose parliamentary abilities at once won a commanding position in the Prussian parliament, which he entered in 1867. The debating chamber or hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels. ... In politics, the term liberal refers to: an adherent of the ideology of liberalism —an ideology espousing liberty. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen or Preussen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: PrÅ«sai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of...

For some reason, perhaps because Bismarck did not entirely trust him, he did not at this time attain quite so influential a position as might have been anticipated; nevertheless he was chairman of the parliamentary committee which in 1876 drafted the new rules of legal procedure, and he found scope for his great administrative abilities in the post of burgomaster of Osnabrück. He held this position from 1865 to 1870, and again from 1876 to 1879, being in the meantime (1870-1873) a director of the Discontogesellschaft. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (April 1, 1815 – July 30, 1898) was one of the most prominent European aristocrats and statesmen of the nineteenth century. ... Osnabrück is a city in the Westphalian half of Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80km NNW of Dortmund, 45km NNW of Münster, and some 100km due West of Hanover. ...

In 1879 he was elected burgomaster of Frankfurt-am-Main, where he gained a great reputation for the energy with which he dealt with social questions, especially that of the housing of the poor. Probably owing to his early study of socialism, he was very ready to support the new state socialism of Bismarck. He was the chief agent in the reorganization of the National Liberal Party in 1887, in which year he entered the imperial Reichstag. Frankfurt am Main [ˈfraŋkfʊrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hessen and the fifth largest city of Germany. ... The National Liberal Party (Nationalliberale Partei) was a German political party which flourished between 1867 and 1918. ... The Reichstag is both an institutional assembly and a specific building. ...

After Bismarck's fall in 1890 he was chosen Prussian minister of finance, and held this post for ten years. He distinguished himself by his reform of the Prussian system of taxation, the one really successful measure of the new reign in internal affairs. An attempt, however, to reform the system of imperial finance in 1893-1894 failed, and much injured his reputation. Miquel had entirely given up his Liberalism, and aimed at practical measures for improving the condition of the people irrespective of the party programmes; yet some of his measures, such as that for taxing Waarenhuser (stores), were of a very injudicious nature. He professed to aim at a union of parties on the basis of the satisfaction of material interests, a policy to which the name of Sammlung ("Collective") was given; but his enemies accused him of constantly intriguing against the three chancellors under whom he served, and of himself attempting to secure the first place in the state. Chancellor (Latin: cancellarius), an official title used by most of the peoples whose civilization has arisen directly or indirectly out of the Roman empire. ...

The sympathy which he expressed for the Agrarians increased his unpopularity among Liberals and industrials; but he pointed out that the state, which for half a century had done everything to help manufactures, might now attempt to support the failing industry of agriculture. In June 1901 the rejection of the Canal Bill led to a crisis, and he was obliged to send in his resignation. His health was already failing, and he died on the 8th of September of the same year at his house in Frankfurt. Agrarianism is a social and political philosophy. ...

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...