He accepted the annexation of Hanover by Prussia without regret, and was one of the Hanoverians whose parliamentary abilities at once won a commanding position in the Prussian parliament, which he entered in 1867.

[3] For some reason, perhaps because Bismarck did not entirely trust him, he did not at this time attain quite so influential a position as might have been anticipated; nevertheless he was chairman of the parliamentary committee which in 1876 drafted the new rules of legal procedure, and he found scope for his great administrative abilities in the post of mayor of Osnabrück.

[5] In 1879, he was elected Lord Mayor of Frankfurt am Main, where he gained a great reputation for the energy with which he dealt with social questions, especially that of the housing of the poor.

He professed to aim at a union of parties on the basis of the satisfaction of material interests, a policy to which the name of Sammlung ("Collective") was given; but his enemies accused him of constantly intriguing against the three chancellors under whom he served, and of himself attempting to secure the chancellorship.

[3] By playing somewhat into the hands of the Agrarians, he secured the adoption of a new tax system, which greatly benefited the working classes and at the same time tremendously increased the revenue.