The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Hecker, Friedrich Karl Franz

HECKER, Friedrich Karl Franz, German-American soldier: b. Eichtersheim, Baden, 28 Sept. 1811; d. Saint Louis, Mo., 24 March 1881. After studying law in Heidelberg, he abandoned his profession for political life. In 1842 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of Baden. On the outbreak of the revolution in Germany in 1848 he endeavored to convert the preliminary convention into a permanent republican assembly. Frustrated in this attempt, he put himself at the head of a band of revolutionists, and invaded Baden from the south. He was defeated at Kändern 20 April 1848, and fled to Basel, Switzerland, where he edited a radical newspaper and published his work ‘Die Volkserhebung in Baden.’ He was refused admission to the National Assembly at Frankfort, although twice elected from Thiengen. In 1849 he removed to the United States, and became a farmer near Belleville, Ill. On the outbreak of the Civil War he raised a regiment of Germans, serving in General Frémont's division as colonel; and afterward for a time commanded a brigade. In his later years he watched with great interest the foundation of the German Empire and its phenomenal growth. He published ‘Reden und Vorlesungen’ (1872); ‘Betrachtungen über den Kirchenstreit in Deutschland und die Infallibilität’ (1874).