The New International Encyclopædia/Gagern, Heinrich Wilhelm August, Baron von
GAGERN, gä'gĕrn, , Baron von (1799-1880). A German statesman.
He was the second son of the well-known
politician Hans Christopher Gagern (1766-1852),
and was born at Bayreuth, August 20, 1799. He
was educated at the military school of Munich,
and on Napoleon's return from Elba entered the
army of Nassau, serving as lieutenant at Waterloo.
He afterwards devoted himself to the study
of law at the universities of Heidelberg, Göttingen,
Jena, and Geneva. While at Heidelberg he
aided in founding the liberal society of the
../Burschenschaft/ (q.v.). On returning home in
1821, he entered political life, and after passing
through several public offices, in the Grand Duchy
of Hesse, he was elected a member of the Lower
Chamber in 1832, in which position he vigorously
opposed the reactionary policy of the State
governments and of the Federal Diet. In 1836 he
retired to his father's estates, but reappeared ten
years later and helped bring on the revolutionary
movement of 1848 in Germany. In common with
some of the greatest men of the time Gagern
cherished the hope of a new Germany, organized
upon a constitutional basis and under the leadership
of a powerful prince who should win for the
nation a place among the Powers of Europe. In
the National Assembly which met at Frankfort
on May 18, 1848, Gagern, as the recognized leader
of those who favored unity and constitutionalism,
was elected president, and for a long time
succeded, by the force of his enthusiasm and his
magnificent personality, in guiding the action of
the Assembly. In the strife over the question
of admitting Austria as a Germanic power into
the new Empire, Gagern sided with those who
opposed Austrian pretensions, and on December
18, 1848, as head of the Imperial Ministry,
submitted his ‘programme’ to the Parliament
providing for a Federal State without Austria.
Though the plan was accepted by the Parliament,
it failed on account of the lukewarmness of the
Prussian King, to whom all looked as the head
of the new State, and the general reaction which
followed in Germany during the early days of
1849. On May 20th Gagern withdrew from the
Parliament, convinced that the cause of German

unity, for the time, was a hopeless one. He still
took an active interest in politics, however, and
in 1850-52 served as a major in the army of the
duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. On the conclusion
of the struggle he retired to his estate at
Morisheim, and only reappeared as the representative
of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt at
Vienna from 1804 to 1872. He was granted a
pension in 1872 and took up his residence at
Darmstadt, where he died May 22, 1880.
Besides several pamphlets and speeches, he was the
author of a life of his brother, Das Leben des
Generals Friedrich von Gagern (1856-57). His
younger brother Maximilian was prominent in
the service of the Duchy of Nassau and of
Austria. Consult: Heimenz, Heinrich von Gagern in
seinen politischen Grundanschauungen (Tübingen,
1899); Biedermann, Deutsche Geschichte, 1815-79
(Breslau, 1883-89); von Sybel, The Founding
of the German Empire, translated (New York,
1890-98).