Friedrich Hecker was a German lawyer and a radical democrat who played a central role in the Märzrevolution (March revolution) of 1848/49, more specifically in the Baden area in South West Germany in April of 1848. After a failed uprising (Heckerzug), he emigrated to the United States in 1848 where he lived on a farm in Illinois before getting involved in politics and fighting on the Union’s side in the American Civil War from 1861-1864.
Early political aspirations
Hecker was born on September 28th, 1811 in the Grand Duchy of Baden into a progressive-liberal family. From 1830 to 1834, he studied law at university in Heidelberg and was involved in multiple corps (Studentenverbindungen) that were in favor of a united German state. Hecker’s political viewpoints were radical democratic and at times socialist: he stood for the founding of workers’ unions, the abolishment of the monarchy, and the establishment of a parliamentary republic.
By 1847, he had made a name for himself as a popular speaker and politician. It was also then that he had more contact with journalist and politician Gustav Struve who shared his ideals, who had fallen out with his family by marrying below his social class, and who had given up his title of nobility in 1847. They had great success at the Volksversammlung in Offenburg (assembly) with their demands – among others – for freedom of the press, and the establishment of a German parliament. Inspired by that and the February Revolution in France in 1848, he and Struve took part in the Frankfurter Vorparlament (Frankfurt pre-parliament) in the beginning of April, but couldn’t win a large following for their ideas or be voted into the “Fünfzigerausschuss” (a committee of 50 chosen men).
Heckerzug - Hecker Uprising
Disappointed by the experience in Frankfurt and the dissatisfied with the pre-parliament’s work, Hecker and Struve along with other Republicans saw the only way to further political change in an uprising. They went to the liberal city of Konstanz to start the revolution from there. They didn’t find the support they had hoped for, neither from the government nor from the public. But on April 13th, 1848, they nevertheless started their military revolutionary procession, later called “Heckerzug” or “Hecker Uprising“, from Konstanz to Karlsruhe.
At first they were between 30 to 50 armed men but throughout the next days the volunteer army swelled to around 800. Most of them were artisans who couldn’t find work and had suffered immensely during the famine of 46/47. However, the troops of the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) cornered the small revolutionary troop and defeated them in the Schlacht auf dem Scheideck (Battle on the Scheideck) near Kandern in the south of the Black Forest on April 20th.
After the failed uprising
Gustav Struve
Struve and others stayed to continue the political fight and attempted another uprising in Baden in September 1848. In the so-called Struve-Putsch, Struve and around 50 companions went to Lörrach where he promised “Wohlstand, Bildung, Freiheit für alle!” (prosperity, education, freedom for everybody) and declared the German Republic (Deutsche Republik). On his way to Karlsruhe, he and his troops were defeated in Staufen, and Struve and his wife Amalie were captured. In 1849, he was convicted to the workhouse (Zuchthaus) but in May of the same year broken out by revolutionaries.
Because of its utter failure, the Struve-Putsch is called Struwwel-Putsch, in reference to the children’s book Der Struwwelpeter published by Heinrich Hoffmann in 1845. (Hoffmann and Hecker actually knew each other from university.)
Friedrich Hecker
Hecker on the other hand viewed the Badische Revolution as failed and moved with his family and sympathizers via Straßburg to the United States where he bought a farm in Summerfield near Belleville, Illinois. In this region with many German immigrants, he raised cattle and grew wine. Americans called him and other revolutionary German emigrants “Forty-Eighters”.
Hecker returned briefly to Germany in 1849 when the revolution flared up again. However, he was too late to have any real influence and he didn’t see his dreams of a united Germany fulfilled. Disappointed he went back to Illinois and never saw his home country again.
In 1856, Friedrich (or the American version Frederic) Hecker did get involved in politics and helped form the Republican party in Illinois. He supported the abolition of slavery and was in favor of Abraham Lincoln as president. During the Civil War (Sezessionskrieg) he fought between 1861 and 1864, and put together a volunteer regiment of German immigrants. In the Union military, he rose to the rank of Colonel and was in charge of the 82nd Illinois Infantry. After he was wounded in the Battle of Chancellorsville, he returned to his farm where he died in 1881.
Hecker's lasting effect in Baden ...
Then ...
While Friedrich Hecker wasn’t politically active for a long period of time and his attempted rebellion failed, he left a great impact in Baden (and Germany) and was a hero for many Republicans and Nationalists in the 19th century. The Heckerlied (Hecker song) and the Heckerhut (Hecker hat) are the most obvious signs of Hecker’s status.
Heckerlied and other songs
There are multiple different versions of the Heckerlied, but most lyrics refer to Hecker as somebody who wanted a united Germany and who wanted the princes out of power (possibly by execution). The video below shows the text in German and English translation.
The music as well as the text are based on the commercium song Die Freie Republik which was written for the escape of six students during the Frankfurter Wachensturm on April 3rd, 1833. During this event around 100 rioters tried to storm the prison and force the beginning of a revolution.
Before his failed uprising, the song “Hecker! Hoch dein Name schalle” was popular, not just in the Southwest, but in all German states. It was sung to the melody of “Schleswig-Holstein, meerumschlungen” (the song of the state of Schleswig-Holstein). The song lost popularity when Hecker’s revolutionary attempt ended in defeat.
Heckerhut
The hat that Hecker was wearing and with which he is portrayed in many drawings is referred to as the Heckerhut. It has a wide brim, a large feather, and a cockade with the Baden colors, yellow and red. Today you migth also see Baden-Württemberg’s colors, yellow and black, or the colors of the revolution and of Germany, black, red, and gold.
Originally, this style hat was worn by Italian freedom fighters in the same year. It is also called “Kalabreser” for its origin in Kalabrien (Calabria).
Caricature
While Hecker had many followers and believers, the way to tell that somebody has great cultural influence and status is when your opponents make caricatures of you. There are drawings of Hecker where he looks like a robber, and the Heckerlied had a negative counterpart called Guckkasten-Lied vom großen Hecker, mocking his failure.
... and now
There are organizations in Baden-Württemberg, like the Heckergruppe Singen e.V. , who keep the memory of Hecker and other revolutionaries like Struve, Herwegh, and Sigel, alive. There are processions, and events in the region where the different uprisings for democracy took place.
Since 2005, the Heckerhut is awarded to a person who made an outstanding contribution to social democracy and who stood for democracy and the values of Freiheit, Gleichheit, Brüderlichkeit (freedom, equality, fraternity), the slogan of the French Revolution.
... and in Illinois
In Illinois, the village of Hecker is named after Friedrich Hecker. Originally, the name of the small town was Freedom but since there already was a city with that name in Illinois, at the end of the 19th century the postmaster was asked to change the name. Since Hecker was known and well liked in the region as a man and a soldier (and he possibly stayed one night in the town), the town called itself “Hecker” in his honor. Read more about the city and its history here.
In 2018, Johannes Fechner (SPD) of Baden-Württemberg and Member of Parliament made a trip to Hecker’s grave in Summerfield in Illinois and the Hecker monument in Benton Memorial Park where he laid down wreaths. He met with the “Sons of Union Veterans”, Hecker’s great-grandson Lansing Hecker, Honorary Consul Paul Obernuefemann, Russ Carnahan (former representative) and Prof. Steven Rowan of the University of Missouri.
Because of copyright issues I can’t share photos with you, but you can take a look yourself on the German American Committee website or on the Honorary Consul Facebook page.
... and Cincinnati
You will find a Friedrich Hecker monument in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was sculpted by Leopold Fettweis and dedicated in 1883.
The inscriptions read “In Memoriam by his Cincinnati friends, 1883”, “He lived and died a true patriot, able statesman, good citizen, and noble character”, and the German (second picture) means “With word and action for a people’s freedom in the new and old fatherland”.
Photos courtesy of Andrew Houghtaling
Here you see Andrew Houghtaling of the Ninth Ohio: A Living History with his homemade Heckerhut.
Check out the Ninth Ohio facebook page and Houghtaling’s recent talk about “The German Experience during the American Civil War“.
Sources and Resources
- Wiki – Hecker
- Angelbachtal.de – Bio Hecker
- leo-bw – Hecker
- Badische Biografien – Hecker
- Wiki – Struve
- Wiki – Heckeraufstand, Heckerzug
- Wiki – Badische Revolution
- Landeskunde BW
- Wiki – Heckerlied
- Flickr – Heckerhut, Verleihung
- YouTube Playlist
- Das Lied vom Struwwel-Putsch
- Stadtanzeiger – Fechner in Illinois
- Heckerhut und Baden Artikel kaufen
- German Americans – St. Louis
Books about Hecker and Germans in the US and the American Civil War
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