KARL

MATHY (1807-1868)  , Badenese statesman, was born at Mannheim on the 17th of March 1807 . He studied law and politics at Heidelberg, and entered the Baden government department of finance in 1829 . His sympathy with the revolutionary ideas of 1830, expressed in his paper the Zeitgeist, cost him his appointment in 1834, and he made his way to Switzer-land, where he contributed to the Jeune Suisse directed by Mazzini . On his return to Baden in 184o he edited the Landtagszeitung at Carlsruhe, and in 1842 he entered the estates for the town of Constance . He became one of the opposition leaders and in 1847 helped to found the Deutsche Zeitung, a paper which eventually did much to further the cause of German unity . He took part in the preliminary parliament and in the assembly of Frankfort in 1848-1849, where he supported the policy of H . W . A. von Gagern, and after the refusal of Frederick William IV. to accept the imperial crown he still worked for the cause of unity . He was made finance minister in Baden in May 1849, but was dismissed after a few days of office . He then applied his financial knowledge to banking business in Cologne, Berlin, Gotha and Leipzig . He was recalled to Baden in 1862, and in 1864 became president of the new ministry of commerce . He sought to bring Baden institutions into line with those of northern Germany with a view to ultimate union, and when in 1866 Baden took sides with Austria against Prussia he sent in his resignation .

After the

war he became president of a new cabinet, but he did not live to see the realization of the policy for which he had striven . He died at Carlsruhe on the 3rd of February 1868 . His letters during the years 1846-1848 were edited by Ludwig Mathy (Leipzig, 1899), and his life was written by G . Freytag (Leipzig, 2nd ed., 1872) .