Friedrich Beust

Who was Friedrich Beust?

Friedrich Beust, German soldier and political activist and Swiss reform pedagogue, was the son of Prussian Major Karl Alexander von Beust. Beust was born in the Odenwald, in whose great forests, as a young man, he observed Nature in her large and small aspects and collected her creatures. He learned to ride a horse in the royal stables. In 1834, he became an ensign in the 17th Prussian regiment. Under the guidance of a captain, he drew maps in his free time. He entered the division school at Düsseldorf where he was especially interested in geography, which students of Carl Ritter were teaching. He continued his studies of cartography and also science, especially anatomy. In 1845, he was ordered to Fortress Minden, where he came to the conclusion he could not fit into Prussian military discipline, bitterly resigned in 1848, and became a political activist.

In 1848 he was delegate from the Cologne Workers' Association to the Second Democratic Congress held in Berlin. At the Congress he spoke in favour of the "Demands of the Communist Party in Germany" which were written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. This was the Communist League's political programme for the revolution.