The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Becker, Philip Johann

BECKER, Philip Johann, German revolutionist: b. Frankenthal 1809; d. 1886. Beginning as a simple workingman, he soon became involved in the radical labor movements of his time and for his participation in a revolt in 1830 he was imprisoned. He then fled to Switzerland, which was the haven of revolutionary agitators and refugees. He was very prominent in the revolutionary upheavals that threatened nearly all the European countries during 1848. Becker organized, during that year, a body of fighting men with which to support Hecker, who was attempting to precipitate a revolution in Baden. When this failed, Becker led his forces to the support of the revolutionists in Rome and Sicily. This expedition also failed, whereupon he marched into the Palatinate and Baden, where uprisings had taken place, and participated in the thick of the fighting in which he showed himself possessed of not a little military skill. When these violent disturbances had subsided, Becker became attached to the Socialist International and was one of Karl Marx's strongest adherents. He has written ‘Wie und Wann?’ (1869).