Johan Rudolph Thorbecke Net Worth

Background and career

Johan Rudolph Thorbecke (14 January 1798 – 4 June 1872) was a Dutch liberal statesman. As the leading figure in the Constitutional Reform of 1848, he is considered the founder of parliamentary democracy in the Netherlands, and the most important Dutch statesman of the 19th century.

Born in Zwolle in 1798 to a financially struggling Lutheran merchant family of German origin, Thorbecke attended a Latin school and studied law and humanities in Amsterdam and Leiden. After receiving his doctorate in 1820, he spent four years in Germany, where met contemporary philosophers and was introduced to the ideas of Romanticism and historism. After his return to the Netherlands, he became a professor, first at Ghent University and, after the Belgian Revolution, at Leiden University. In Leiden, Thorbecke's writings became increasingly political in nature, and he soon became a leading figure in the charge for constitutional reform. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1844, and made an unsuccessful attempt at constitutional reform as part of a group called the Negenmannen.

Amid the Revolutions of 1848, King William II appointed a constitutional reform commission headed by Thorbecke. In this capacity, he virtually single-handedly wrote a new Constitution of the Netherlands, which was adopted on 3 November of that year in slightly amended form. Among the changes introduced by the new Constitution were ministerial responsibility and direct elections to the House of Representatives, thus turning the Netherlands into a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. During his first ministry (1849–1853), Thorbecke built upon the Constitution with several organic laws, including the Municipalities Act, which introduced local self-government. During his second ministry (1862–1866), he introduced the Hogere Burgerschool, which expanded secondary education to the middle class.

Thorbecke died in 1872, a year into his third ministry. His 1848 Constitution and his subsequent reforms had a lasting impact on Dutch politics and society. He has been commemorated with three statues, in Zwolle, The Hague and Amsterdam, the latter of which is in the centre of the Thorbeckeplein (Thorbecke Square).