author
Eugen Richter
1838–1906
A sharp-tongued liberal voice in Imperial Germany, he spent decades arguing against Otto von Bismarck’s policies, militarism, and state socialism. He also wrote political journalism and a striking anti-socialist dystopian novel, Pictures of the Socialistic Future.
1 Audiobook
Pictures of the Socialistic Future (freely adapted from Bebel)
by Eugen Richter
About the author
Born in Düsseldorf on July 30, 1838, Eugen Richter studied in Bonn, Heidelberg, and Berlin before entering government service. He soon turned fully to politics and journalism, becoming one of the best-known liberal parliamentarians in Prussia and the German Empire.
Richter served in both the Prussian Landtag and the Reichstag, where he was known as a determined critic of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. He championed parliamentary government, civil liberties, free trade, and fiscal restraint, and he opposed militarism, colonial expansion, and antisemitism.
Alongside his political work, he wrote extensively for the press and published books and speeches that spread his ideas to a wider audience. Today he is remembered as one of the clearest liberal dissenting voices in late nineteenth-century Germany.