Hans Kudlich
Quick Facts
Biography
Hans Kudlich (October 23, 1823 – November 10, 1917 ) was an Austrian political activist, Austrian legislator, American immigrant, writer, and physician.
Early life
Kudlich was born in Úvalno Lobenstein near Opava, the Czech Republic (what has been a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time) on October 23, 1823 in to a peasant family.
Political life
He is noted for being a leader of the movement to end the feudal policies of the Austrian government. The Austrian government enforced a law known as the Robot Patent which required farmers to provide 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 end forced servitude and the bill was approved by the legislature.
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.
Later life
After his political career, Kudlich obtained a medical degree in Berne and Zurich. He left Switzerland in 1853, emigrated to the United States, and settled in Hoboken, New Jersey.
He worked as a medical doctor, and co-founded the Hoboken Academy in 1861, a German-American school (later merged with the Stevens Prepatory School, later Stevens Academy, which ceased in 1974).
Death
Kudlich died November 11, 1917 in Hoboken, New Jersey. USA. There is a memorial to him in Poysdorf, Austria. The memorial reads in part (English translation), "Dr. Hans Kudlich, peasant liberator, thanks to his memory, from the Austrian Silesian Hans Kudlich Committee, built in the year 2000".
Books by Hans Kudlich
- Rückblicke und Erinnerungen [Flashbacks and memories]. 3 vols Vienna-Leipzig-Budapest 1873 (Volume 1)
- Die Revolution des Jahres 1848 [The Revolution of 1848]. Leitmeritz 1913