Hans Kudlich

Johann "Hans" Kudlich (October 23, 1823[1][2] – November 10, 1917[2] ) (Americanized as John) was an Austrian political activist, Austrian legislator, American immigrant, writer, and physician.

Hans Kudlich
Lithograph by Eduard Kaiser, 1848
Personal details
Born
Johann Kudlich

(1823-10-23)October 23, 1823
Lobenstein, Austrian Silesia, Austrian Empire
DiedNovember 10, 1917(1917-11-10) (aged 94)
Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.
SpouseLouise Vogt
OccupationPolitical activist, member of the Austrian Parliament, writer, physician
Signature

Early life

Kudlich was born in Upper Silesian Úvalno Lobenstein near Opava, the Czech Republic (which was a part of the Austrian Empire at that time) on October 23, 1823 in to a peasant family.

Political life
Hans Kudlich, ca. 1880

He is noted for being a leader of the revolutionary movement to end the feudal policies of the Austrian Empire under Ferdinand I of Austria. From the 1700s, the empire had enforced a decree known as the Robot Patent which required farmers to serve an annual quota of labor without compensation to the noble landowners. Kudlich was elected to the Austrian Reichstag (parliament) in early 1848 at the age of 25. He introduced a bill to abolish forced servitude and the bill was approved by the legislature. He was popularly titled as the Bauernbefreier, meaning the liberator of peasant farmers from the involuntary servitude of serfdom.[3]

The parliament was dissolved by force on March 7, 1849 when the rebellion that had briefly taken control of Vienna was crushed. Kudlich up to the time of the dissolution of the parliament had worked to rally support for the revolution. After the dissolution of the parliament he fled first to Germany and then to Switzerland.

After his political career, Kudlich obtained a medical degree in Berne and Zurich.[4] He left Switzerland in 1853, emigrated to the United States, and settled in Hoboken, New Jersey.[5] He worked as a medical doctor, and co-founded the Hoboken Academy in 1861, a German-American school (later merged with the Stevens Preparatory School, later Stevens Academy, which ceased in 1974[6]).

Death
Memorial to Hans Kudlich in Úvalno, Czechia

Kudlich died November 11, 1917 in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. In 1925 the ashes of him and his wife, Louisa Kudlich (née Vogt) were interred in the Mausoleum at the base of the Hans Kudlich Lookout tower.[7] The tower is located in Úvalno (Kudlich's birthplace) in what is now the Czech Republic.

Books by Hans Kudlich
  • Rückblicke und Erinnerungen von Hans Kudlich, Mit dem Porträt des Verfassers (Retrospectives and Memories of Hans Kudlich, With the Author's Portrayals). 3 vols, Vienna-Leipzig-Budapest, 1873.[8]
  • Die Revolution des Jahres 1848 (The Revolution of 1848). Leitmeritz, 1913.

See also

References
  1. Hans (John) Kudlich passport application
  2. "New York Times Hans Kudlich obituary" (PDF). The New York Times. November 11, 1917. Retrieved 2010-10-13.
  3. "Bauernbefreier Hans Kudlich". Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  4. "Bauernbefreier Hans Kudlich und seine Denkmäler, Gedenkstätten: Hans Kudlich".
  5. New York Times obituary, November 11, 1917.
  6. Stevens Academy history.
  7. "Bauernbefreier Hans Kudlich". Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  8. Hans Kudlich (1873). "Rückblicke und Erinnerungen". Retrieved August 28, 2018.

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