At the beginning of November 1848 the Viennese October Revolution has been crushed. Imperial troops have conquered the city, and with them the reckoning with the insurgents begins. One of the best-known victims is a man who had actually come to Vienna as a guest: Robert Blum.
Who was Robert Blum?A deputy from Leipzig
Robert Blum was born in Cologne in 1807 and made a name for himself in Leipzig as a publisher, writer and politician. In 1848 he sat as a deputy in the Frankfurt National Assembly, the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. There he was one of the leading figures of the democratic left.
October 1848From Frankfurt to the besieged city
In October 1848 Vienna rose up against the imperial court. The left in Frankfurt sent Blum, together with his party friend Julius Fröbel, to Vienna to bring the insurgents their support. Blum stayed and fought alongside them: as a captain he led a unit of the defenders.
Against the superior force, the Viennese had no chance. At the end of October the troops of Field Marshal Prince Windisch-Graetz conquered the city.
November 1848Arrested, sentenced, shot
- Early NovemberBlum and Fröbel are arrested in Vienna. Both invoke their immunity as deputies. In vain.
- 8 November 1848A court martial sentences Blum to death.
- 9 November 1848In the early morning Robert Blum is shot by summary court martial in the Brigittenau. Julius Fröbel, by contrast, is pardoned.
On the morning of his death, Blum wrote a farewell letter to his wife Jenny. His last words have also been handed down:
“I die for German freedom, for which I have fought. May the fatherland remember me!”Robert Blum, 9 November 1848, according to an account from 1849
Why it still mattersA signal to all of Europe
The execution of an elected deputy was a shock far beyond Vienna. It showed that the imperial court did not care about the immunity of the new parliament. For many, 9 November 1848 therefore marks the end of the democratic revolution in the Habsburg Monarchy.
Robert Blum became a symbolic figure of the 1848 revolution. In the collection of the Wien Museum, contemporary prints recall his shooting in the Brigittenau.
Cover image: illustrative image.