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Georg Heinrich von Vollmar

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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GEORG HEINRICH VON VOLLMAR (1850-), German Socialist, was born at Munich in 1850. He was educated in a school attached to a Benedictine monastery at Augsburg, and in 1865 entered the Bavarian army as a lieutenant in a cavalry regiment. He served in the campaign of 1866, and then entered the papal army as a volunteer. In 1869 he returned to Germany, and during the war with France served in the army railway department. He was severely wounded at Blois and pensioned. Permanently crippled by his wounds, he devoted himself to political and social studies. In 1872 he was converted to the principles of Social Democracy, and threw himself with great energy into political agitation. In 1877 he became editor of the party organ at Dresden, and under the Socialist law was repeatedly condemned to various terms of imprisonment, and was also expelled from that city. From 1879 to 1882 he lived at Zurich, then the headquarters of Social Democracy, when, besides attending the university, he took part in editing the Social Demokrat. In 1881 he was elected member of the Reichstag, and from 1883 to 1889 was a member of the Saxon diet. After 1885 he resided in Bavaria, and it was to him that was chiefly due the great success of the Socialists in the older Bavarian provinces. He identified himself with the more moderate and opportunist section of the Socialist party, decisively dissociating himself from the doctrine of a sudden and violent overthrow of society, and urging his associates to co-operate in bringing about a gradual development towards the Socialistic state. He refused to identify Social Democracy with the extreme views as to religion and the family advocated by Bebel, and successfully resisted attempts made in 1891 to expel him from the party in consequence of his opinions. He became a member of the Bavarian Diet in 1893.

In addition to a couple of books on the preservation of forests, he published Der isolierte Soziale Staat (Zurich, 1880).