Edward Banks (politician)

Edward Bartels Banks (1 January 1836 - 22 May 1883) was a lawyer who became a politician and a member of the newly established Reichstag (German parliament) in 1871.[1] His great grandfather, William Banks, was an English merchant who had relocated to Hamburg.[2]

Life

Banks came from a political family. His father, Edward Banks (1795–1851), was a Hamburg Syndicus while his maternal grandfather, Johann Heinrich Bartels (1761-1851) had been a mayor of the city.[2] A brother in law was the writer-historian Otto Beneke (1812-1891).

He attended school in Hamburg and Lübeck, before moving on to study Law at Tübingen and Göttingen. While at Tübingen he became a member of the Germania student fraternity.[3] After an eighteen-month world tour, in 1860 he settled back in Hamburg to work as a lawyer. In 1865 Salomon Abendana Belmonte joined the firm.

In 1866 Banks was elected to the Hamburg Parliament where he sat as a member of the left-wing group. In 1870 he served in the militia in the war against France, and following unification stood successfully for election to the new German Reichstag as a Progressive Party candidate, representing a Hamburg electoral district.[1] In the 1874 election he lost his seat to the National Liberal Hermann Joachim Eduard Schmidt but was still able to gain a seat in the 1874 assembly, representing a Berlin constituency following a bye-election.[4] He lost his seat in 1877, however.

In May 1883 Edward Banks killed himself.[3]

References
  1. "Die Mitglieder des Deutschen Reichstags". Deutscher Parlaments-Almanach (9 ed.). Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München. 9 May 1871. p. 156. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  2. Hans Kellinghusen (1953). "Banks, Edward 1795-1851". Neue Deutsche Biographie (This source is an entry concerning the father of Edward Bartels Banks (1836-1883), and spells out the family's English provenance and other kinship connections.). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin & Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München. p. 576. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  3. Helge Dvorak: Biografisches Lexikon der Deutschen Burschenschaft.Band/Volume I Politiker, Teilband 1: A-E. Heidelberg 1996, p. 46.
  4. "Nachträge und Berechtigungen zu den Biographischen Notizen". Deutscher Parlaments-Almanach (10 ed.). Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München. 10 February 1874. p. 10. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
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