Rudolf von Bennigsen

Who was Rudolf von Bennigsen?

Rudolf von Bennigsen was a German politician descended from an old Hanoverian family. His father, Karl von Bennigsen, was an officer in the Hanoverian army who rose to the rank of general and also held diplomatic appointments. The anthropologist Moritz von Leonhardi was his nephew.

After studying at the University of Göttingen, where he became a member of the Corps Hannovera, Bennigsen entered the Hanoverian civil service. In 1855, he was elected a member of the second chamber, and because the government refused to allow him leave of absence from his official duties, he resigned his post in the public service. He at once became the recognized leader of the Liberal opposition to the reactionary government, but must be distinguished from Alexander Levin, Count of Bennigsen, a member of the same family and son of the distinguished Russian General Bennigsen, who was also one of the parliamentary leaders at the time, serving as Hanover's minister-president between 1848 and 1850 and afterwards as president first of the first chamber, then of the second chamber of the Estates Assembly of the Kingdom of Hanover.

What gave Bennigsen his importance not only in Hanover, but throughout the whole of Germany, was the foundation of the German National Association, which was due to him, and of which he was president. This society, which arose out of the public excitement created by the Austro-Sardinian War, had for its object the formation of a national party which should strive for the unity and the constitutional liberty of the whole Fatherland. It united the moderate Liberals throughout Germany, and at once became a great political power, notwithstanding all the efforts of the governments, and especially of King George V of Hanover to suppress it. Bennigsen was also one of the founders of the Protestantenverein in 1863.