Gustav Struve

Gustav Struve, known as Gustav von Struve until he gave up his title, (11 October 1805 in Munich, Bavaria – 21 August 1870 in Vienna, Austria), was a German politician, lawyer and publicist, and a revolutionary during the German revolution of 1848-1849 in Baden. He also spent over a decade in the United States and was active there as a reformer.

Early years

Struve was born in Munich the son of a Russian diplomat Johann Christoph Gustav von Struve, whose family came from the lesser nobility. His father Gustav, after whom he was named, had served as Russian Staff Councilor at the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, Munich and The Hague, and later was the Royal Russian Ambassador at the Badonian court in Karlsruhe. The younger Gustav Struve grew up and went to school in Munich, then studied law at universities in Göttingen and Heidelberg. For a short time (from 1829 to 1831) he was employed in the civil service in Oldenburg, then moved to Baden in 1833 where in 1836 he settled down to work as a lawyer in Mannheim.

In Baden, Struve also entered politics by standing up for the liberal members of the Baden parliament in news articles. His point of view headed more and more in a radical democratic, early socialist direction. As editor of the Mannheimer Journal, he was repeatedly condemned to imprisonment. He was compelled in 1846 to retire from the management of this paper. In 1845, Struve married Amalie Düsar on 16 November 1845 and in 1847...
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