Benedikt Franz Leo Ignatz Waldeck (31 July 1802 – 12 May 1870) was a left-leaning deputy in the Prussian National Assembly and later in the Second Chamber of the Landtag of Prussia.

[1] On 1 August 1802 Benedikt Waldeck was baptised in the Roman Catholic St Lambert's Church in Münster.

[1][6] In July 1848 he created a liberal constitution for the Kingdom of Prussia, the so-called "Charte Waldeck".

A weakened form of this draft was signed by King Frederick William IV of Prussia in December 1848.

Sir John Retcliffe (real name: Hermann Goedsche) was centrally involved in a forgery scandal to discredit Waldeck and then lost his government position for his criminal participation.

[9] Despite his acquittal, Waldeck and other democrats were unable to remain politically active after the failed revolution under the government of Otto Theodor von Manteuffel.

This brought him back into the Prussian parliament, where he became one of the leaders of the German Progress Party.