Karl Blind (biography)

Karl Blind

KARL BLIND (1826-1907). A German revolutionist and journalist. He was born at Mannheim, and while a student at Heidelberg was imprisoned for his revolutionary activity. In 1848 he participated in the uprising in Baden, and had to flee, wounded. The next year he joined the band of liberals headed by Struve which invaded southern Germany. He was taken prisoner and sentenced to eight years' confinement. He was, however, set free by the populace and went to Karlsruhe, whence he was sent by the Provisional Government as an envoy to Paris. Expelled from France, he went to Brussels, and then (1852) to London, where he found rest. There, for many years, he kept up his political agitation through articles in many journals, and in intercourse with Garibaldi, Mazzini, Louis Blanc, and other democratic leaders; but after 1866 his writings became less revolutionary in tone, in consequence, perhaps, of the death of his stepson, who in May of that year attempted to assassinate Bismarck, and committed suicide in prison. Blind published a great number of political essays and brief articles on history, mythology, and German literature. Among his works are: Fire-Burial Among Our German Forefathers: A Record of the Poetry and History of Teutonic Cremations; Ygdrasil: or, The Teutonic Tree of Existence; and biographies of Freiligrath, Ledru-Rollin, and Francis Deák. In 1897 he contributed an autobiographical sketch to the Cornhill Magazine, London.