author
Friedrich Wilhelm Hermann Wagener
1815–1889
A sharp-tongued Prussian journalist and politician, he helped shape conservative debate in 19th-century Germany and moved in Otto von Bismarck’s political orbit. Trained as a jurist, he combined law, journalism, and social policy in a career that was both influential and controversial.
1 Audiobook
Der Mädchenhandel
by Friedrich Wilhelm Hermann Wagener
About the author
Born in 1815, Hermann Wagener was a Prussian jurist, publicist, and politician. He became best known as chief editor of the Neue Preußische Zeitung—better known as the Kreuzzeitung—one of the key conservative newspapers of its day.
Wagener was active in the politics of the Prussian Conservative Party and is often noted for his connection to Otto von Bismarck. Sources also describe him as a social reformer or social policy advocate, which makes him an interesting figure: deeply conservative, yet engaged with the social questions raised by rapid change in 19th-century Prussia.
He died in 1889 near Berlin. Today he is remembered less as a household name than as a revealing voice from the world of Prussian conservatism, journalism, and statecraft.