Wilhelm Josef Blos (5 October 1849 – 6 July 1927) was a German journalist, historian, novelist, dramatist and politician (SPD). He served as a member of the imperial parliament (Reichstag) between 1877 and 1918, albeit with one three year break. After the end of World War I he served between 1918 and 1920 as the first president of the newly launched Free People's State of Württemberg.
One high-point of his career as a journalist was his one-year stint as editor-in-chief of the (initially) Hamburg-based popular left-wing satirical magazine Der Wahre Jacob between 1879 and the publication's (temporary) closure, triggered by expulsion of William Blos from Hamburg in October 1880. His own contributions appeared under the pseudonyms "Hans Flux" or – on at least one occasion – "A. Titus".
Life
Provenance and early years
Wilhelm Joseph Blos was born at Wertheim am Main during the aftermath of the 1848 uprisings, the son of a physician who had moved away from the big city on account of his delicate health. Aloys Blos died from an incurable lung disease in 1856, when his son Wilhelm was just seven years old. His children's mother almost immediately remarried, selecting on this occasion a forester. Wilhelm and his sister acquired a step-father who abused Wilhelm. In 1863 he went to live with his grandparents. His grandfather died almost at once, but his grandmother attended to his education. He became a pupil at the (subsequently renamed and rebuilt) Lyceum (secondary school) in Wertheim, his hometown, located slightly above 100 km to the north of Stuttgart. Wilhelm Blos would later sue his step-father successfully for stealing his inheritance. Meanwhile, he embarked on a commercial apprenticeship in Mannheim, but broke it off uncompleted in order to study for and pass his Abitur (school graduation exam) which in 1868 opened the way for him to enrol at the University of Freiburg to study History and Philology. At university he also joined the Corps Rhenania (student fraternity).
Journalist: satire and socialism
After just three terms Blos was obliged by lack of funds to abandon his university career. He turned to journalism. Between 1870 and 1875 he led a somewhat itinerant career, working for a succession of Social Democratic publications. After a brief period contributing to the "Konstanzer Volksfreund" he was on the receiving end of an indictment under the press laws. Meanwhile, in 1872, in Nuremberg, he became a member of the recently launched Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), which is widely seen as the precursor of the SPD. After that he got to know August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht at Eisenach. After Bebel, Liebknecht and Adolf Hepner were all arrested and subjected to a show trial, it fell to Blos to take charge of the editorship of the Leipzig-based Der Volksstaat (newspaper). However Hepner was found to be "as innocent as a new-born child" – in the words not of the court but, much later, of August Bebel – and released (while his two co-accused each received a two-year jail term). In 1874, still working at Volksstaat. it was Blos who was arrested and sentenced to a three-month jail term for "press offences". Following his release, still in 1874, Blos met Karl Marx, who was visiting Leipzig with his daughter on the way home from a cure at Karlsbad.
More journalism: more politics
In 1875 Blos founded his own magazine, the weekly satirical "Mainzer Eulenspiegel". However, it was apparently in connection with this publication that he was very soon indicted and locked up. His incarceration appears to have been brief, but "Mainzer Eulenspiegel" seems not to have survived. In May 1875 he attended the Gotha Unification Congress which gave birth to the Social Democratic Party (SDAP / SPD). He participated as the delegate representing no fewer than 125 party members from Mainz and Gartenfeld. In the national parliamentary elections of 1877 and 1881 (but not 1878) he won the electoral district of "Reuss Elder Line" for the SDAP / SPD.