Friedrich Daniel Bassermann (24 February 1811 in Mannheim – 29 July 1855) was a German liberal politician who is best known for calling for a pan-German Parliament at the Frankfurt Parliament. He emphasized the value of a national self-esteem based on progress and freedom.
He was one of the most popular representatives in the Second Chamber of the Assembly of the Estates of Baden and played an important role in the creation of the first freely elected parliament for a German nation-state, the Frankfurt Parliament. As chairman of the constitution committee and under-secretary of state in the Interior Ministry of the Provisional Central Power, he contributed greatly to the Paulskirchenverfassung of the Parliament. As a publisher he founded the Deutsche Zeitung, one of the most influential newspapers in the period leading up to the Revolution of 1848/49.
Family
Bassermann came from a well-known merchant family from Baden and the Palatinate. His great-grandfather Johann Christoph Bassermann married the propertied widow Katharina Parvinci in 1736 and acquired from his mother-in-law the inn "Zu den drei Königen" in Heidelberg, which was to be the foundation of the rise of the Bassermann family. His father Friedrich Ludwig Bassermann, after marrying Wilhelmine Reinhardt, daughter of the Lord Mayor of Mannheim and clothier Johann Wilhelm Reinhardt, was one of the most prominent businessmen of Mannheim as a merchant and banker and was most active in the wine, tobacco, grain, and textile trades. The family home was on the Mannheim market place. Friedrich Daniel, who had been named after his grandfather, was the second oldest child out of the six children who survived to adulthood, and the oldest son.
Friedrich Daniel Bassermann was married to Emilie Karbach (1811–1872), the daughter of a priest, and they had 5 children, one of whom was Emil Bassermann-Jordan, owner of the vineyard Weingut Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan in Deidesheim.
Education and career
After attending the Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium, in 1826 Bassermann started as an apprentice at the Mannheim iron trading company under his uncle Johann Ludwig Bassermann and continued his business training at trading companies with which the family had good relations, in Paris and Le Havre. Starting in 1829, at the University of Heidelberg he attended lectures in physics, chemistry and botany, followed by a practical apothecary's training in Nuremberg. During his time in Heidelberg, he became a fraternity member in Erlangen and probably also in Heidelberg in 1829/30 with the Alte Heidelberger Fraternity. After recovering in Nuremberg from a case of typhus, he finished his education through time spent at the firms Julius Stettner in Trieste and Faber & Cie. in London. In late 1833 he established himself independently, when, with financial support from his father, he acquired the Drogengeschäft, wholesaler of groceries and pharmaceuticals, from the Giulini brothers in Mannheim. When Baden the German Customs Union (Zollverein), he was able to significantly expand his business in a short space of time and thus became a respected merchant in his home city, and a well-known participant in public life.
This is also reflected in his commitment to the cultural life of Mannheim. He was appointed to the Theaterkommittee of the National Theatre Mannheim and was a member of the Mannheim art society, and the music society. In 1835 he was among the founding members of the Casino, a reading society.
Political career
Second Chamber of Baden
In 1838 Bassermann for the first time became active in local politics when he was elected to the Small Committee of Citizens, which he chaired after 1839. Like David Hansemann in Aachen, Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen in Cologne or August von der Heydt in Elberfeld he was one of those liberal politicians who had their political origins in the communes. In the larger cities, with the exception of a few Hanseatic cities, they had largely displaced the traditional notables.