Darwin Correspondence Project

German politican and lawyer. Privy counsellor of justice and reporting counsellor at the Ministry of Justice, 1868; authorised representative at the Bundesrat, where he worked on the legislative foundations of the German Empire, 1871. Prussian minister for spiritual, educational, and medical affairs, 1872–9; usually referred to as minister of culture. In 1873, responsible for enacting the May Laws, by which religious teachers were excluded from state schools and strict state controls over religious training were enforced. From 1882, president of the higher regional court, Hamm, Westphalia.