Otto Theodor von Manteuffel

Who was Otto Theodor von Manteuffel?

Otto Theodor von Manteuffel was a conservative Prussian statesman, serving nearly a decade as prime minister.

Born into an aristocratic family in Lübben, Manteuffel attended the Landesschule Pforta from 1819. In 1824–1827, he studied jurisprudence and cameralism at the University of Halle, where he joined the Corps Saxonia Halle, a duelling Studentenverbindung in the Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband.

In 1830, Manteuffel commenced his clerkship in law. He became a Landrat of the district of Luckau in 1833; in 1841, he was promoted to Oberregierungsrat in Königsberg, and in 1843 he was made Vice-President of the government in Stettin. In 1844, the Prince of Prussia, who was then the head of the Ministry of State, appointed him there as an expert councillor. Soon thereafter he was also made a member of the royal Council of State. He worked in the field of finance until in 1845 he was made Director at the Ministry of the Interior. The Vereinigte Landtag of 1847 gave him an opportunity to demonstrate his parliamentary skills, whereupon Manteuffel showed himself a champion of the bureaucratic political system and an opponent of constitutional liberalism.