Otto Theodor von Manteuffel
| Otto Theodor von Manteuffel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
3 February 1805 Lübben (Spreewald) |
| Died | 26 November 1882 (aged 77) Gut Krossen |
Otto Theodor von Manteuffel (3 February 1805 – 26 November 1882) was a conservative Prussian statesman, serving nearly a decade as prime minister.
Born into an aristocratic family in Lübben (Spreewald), Manteuffel attended the Landesschule Pforta from 1819. In 1824–1827, he studied jurisprudence and cameralism at the University of Halle, where he joined the Corps Saxonia Halle, a duelling Studentenverbindung in the Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband ("KSCV").
In 1830, Manteuffel commenced his clerkship in law. He became a Landrat (local administrator) of the district of Luckau in 1833; in 1841, he was promoted to Oberregierungsrat (a senior administrative position) in Königsberg, and in 1843 he was made Vice-President of the government in Stettin. In 1844, the Prince of Prussia, who was then the head of the Ministry of State, appointed him there as an expert councillor (vortragender Rat). Soon thereafter he was also made a member of the royal Council of State. He worked in the field of finance until in 1845 he was made Director at the Ministry of the Interior. The Vereinigte Landtag of 1847 (an assembly of the members of Prussia's provincial legislatures) gave him an opportunity to demonstrate his parliamentary skills, whereupon Manteuffel showed himself a champion of the bureaucratic political system and an opponent of constitutional liberalism.
On November 8, 1848, Manteuffel entered the cabinet of Friedrich Wilhelm, Count Brandenburg, receiving the portfolio of the Ministry of the Interior. For the next ten years, he held various positions in the government and was high in the favor of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
Manteuffel had a major part in drafting the Prussian constitution of 5 December 1848. But it was also he who contributed to the announcement of 7 January 1850, which repealed significant provisions of that constitution; he also defended it in Parliament. During his career in the post-revolution Prussian government, Manteuffel proved an important reformer whose changes were of crucial historical importance. He conceived of the purpose of government as being a mediating entity for the "conflicting interests" within Prussian civil society. In pursuing this mediation position, Manteuffel often came into conflict with the conservative and ultra-conservative members of the parliamentary government, whom he found unwilling to fully embrace the new constitutional order. He stressed that gone were the days in which the Prussian state should act, in his own words, 'like the landed estate of a nobleman.' He faced this opposition head on. However, Manteuffel's efforts to impose a more structured decision making apparatus within the royal palace was halted by the ultra-conservatives who, due to their high aristocratic status, traditionally had the most direct contact with the king.
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