Friedrich Daniel Bassermann

As chairman of the constitution committee and under-secretary of state in the Interior Ministry of the Provisional Central Power, he contributed greatly to the Paulskirchenverfassung of the Parliament.

In late 1833 he established himself independently, when, with financial support from his father, he acquired the Drogengeschäft, wholesaler of groceries and pharmaceuticals, from the Giulini brothers in Mannheim.

When Baden the German Customs Union (Zollverein), he was able to significantly expand his business in a short space of time and thus became a respected merchant in his home city, and a well-known participant in public life.

Like David Hansemann in Aachen, Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen in Cologne or August von der Heydt in Elberfeld he was one of those liberal politicians who had their political origins in the communes.

In the Second Chamber, Bassermann became influential not only through his fight for civil liberties, but as an authority on the customs, budgetary and transport policy of Baden, in the last case pressing particularly for the construction of railway lines in the Grand Duchy.

Bassermann also worked on the first and second editions of the Rotteck-Welckersches Staatslexikon of Karl von Rotteck and Carl Theodor Welcker, a political encyclopedia of the time.

Its most well-known publication was the Deutsche Zeitung, which was led since 1 July 1847 by Georg Gottfried Gervinus, Ludwig Häusser, Gustav Höfken, Karl Mathy and Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier, and was oriented towards liberal politics and argued for a German nation-state.

The significance of the Deutsche Zeitung lay not only in its strong political influence, but also above all in its role as a central network for liberals from different German states, who worked for the newspaper as correspondents, reporters, members of the board and in other functions.

On 15 April 1844, in connection with a motion by Welcker from 1831, Bassermann gave a speech in the Second Chamber, in which he demanded for the first time that an all-German parliament should be set up, to create a German nation-state.

This demand was rejected as by the Baden government under Alexander von Dusch as being outside its scope, but it corresponded to sentiments widely held in practically all the states of the German Confederation.