The politician and journalist Johann Baptist Sigl died 100 years ago in Bavaria

The founding of the German Empire a good 150 years ago was met with deep skepticism in what was then Bavaria. In rural areas in particular, little was felt of the surging national enthusiasm. Many felt the appointment of the Prussian King as German Emperor on January 18, 1871 in the Palace of Versailles as a humiliation. Especially because the debate in the Bavarian state parliament was still in full swing. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck had set the date in Versailles without waiting to see whether the Bavarians would even accept the treaties. In this way, he created facts before mood finally plummeted. In the summer of 1870, Bavaria joined Prussia in a war that ended victorious, but cost the lives of many Bavarian soldiers. The tone between north and south became sharper. The journalist Johann Baptist Sigl, who came from Lower Bavaria, was one of those who made a particularly loud noise. For him was the new German imperial crown, as he wrote in the magazine The Bavarian fatherland wrote, “only the enlarged Prussian spiked helmet”. He was pessimistic about the future: “More wars, more cripples, more death lists and more tax receipts . . .”

Sigl, who died 120 years ago, had studied theology, but he acted anything but quietly. His character resembled that of a peasant square skull, which had a great tendency to resist and to speak harshly. The times then offered the burgeoning radicalism of speaking and speaking – similar to today – but also an excellent hummus. After spending years working for newspapers like this Straubinger daily newspaper and the Catholic Munich newspaper the People’s messenger for the citizen and farmer had worked, Sigl founded his own newspaper in April 1869, namely the one already mentioned Bavarian fatherland.

Even his opponents appreciated Sigl’s puns

His lyrics show that Sigl loved humorous, mocking puns and comparisons that even his opponents appreciated. Sigl presented himself entirely as a Bavarian patriot fighting for the kingdom’s independence. In order to draw the situation at that time more clearly, Edmund Jörg (1819-1901) should come into play here, the spokesman of the Bavarian Patriotic Party and one of the most prominent politicians and publicists of German Catholicism at all. Like Sigl, he also attacked Prussian nationalism. In 1871, Jörg had warned in almost prophetic words against Bavaria’s entry into the German Reich: “We can’t, because that would mean catastrophe, world war and destruction for Germany!” Even then, his vision consisted of a united Europe in which the regions should retain their weight. His attitude was way ahead of its time.

From 1852 to 1901 Jörg published the magazine Historical-political papers for Catholic Germany out. What this publication was to the educated reader, it was Bavarian fatherland for the common people. Here Sigl wrote as roughly as was customary in his native Straubing, “with an incomparable ability to attach bite-sized epithets to people and things,” as the historian Benno Hubensteiner once summed it up.

Sigl was entirely on the side of the farmers, who were bitter about the fall in cattle and grain prices. Added to this was the resentment about the growing burdens on the army, navy and social security funds. Soon a new farmers’ union movement was formed, in which a salty patriotism flared up. The party experienced a rapid upswing, especially in Lower Bavaria.

He always warned against the “Prussian yoke”

in the Historical Encyclopedia of Bavaria one can read that Sigl constantly polemicized against Prussia and warned that Bavaria should not fall under the “Prussian yoke”. The word Saupreuss (pronounced: Saupriss) flowed easily from his pen, it says there. And in fact, almost all relevant encyclopedia articles note Sigl as the originator of this term, which has become popular. He bluntly called the rulers of Prussia “the bloody murderers of 1866”, i.e. the war in which the Bavarians were crushed. At the beginning of the war with France in 1870, he openly declared his hope for a French victory against the “robber state” of Prussia.

Undoubtedly, the hatred of the South Germans for the North Germans stemmed from the 1866 War. When the Bavarians had to march out again with the Prussians in 1870/71, the peasant boys chanted: “I don’t want to be pricey!” And the local newspapers, above all Sigl, printed the word Saupreußen for the first time. From then on, this pejorative general term stood for everything that was to penetrate Bavaria from the north.

Even Bismarck was not spared

Sigl didn’t even shy away from insulting Chancellor Bismarck, which earned him ten months in prison in 1875. Another three months of imprisonment followed in 1878 because he had dubbed the Kaiser only the Prussian king. Later, Sigl was one of the co-founders of the Bavarian Farmers’ Association, from 1893 to 1899 he was a member of the Reich and from 1897 to 1899 he was also a member of the Landtag of the Farmers’ Association. Sigl died in Munich on January 9, 1902. His newspaper continued to exist and even fought Hitler until it was banned in 1934. From 1962 to 1969 a magazine was published, which also The Bavarian fatherland called and wanted to build on Sigl’s tradition – ultimately in vain.

The opponents of the founding of the empire were despised at the time as hillbilly and loners. From today’s point of view, however, one can also say that men like Jörg and Sigl kept an open mind about the future and recognized the dangers of this policy, which ultimately did in fact lead to two world wars.

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