The New International Encyclopædia/Olshausen, Theodor

OLSHAUSEN, Theodor (1802-69). A German author and politician, prominent in the Patriotic Party in Schleswig-Holstein, brother of Justus Olshausen. He was born at Glückstadt, studied law at Kiel and Jena, and, for his part in the demagogic disturbances, was forced to live in France and Switzerland until 1830. Then he settled in Kiel, and became an ardent advocate of the independence of the provinces. He was imprisoned in 1846 for his bold opposition, but his influence was all the stronger in the Revolution of 1848, and he became a member of the provisional Government, resigning to enter the Diet. In 1851 he was excluded from the amnesty, went to America, and lived in New York City and Saint Louis until 1865, when he returned to Hamburg. He wrote two popular works on America, Geographisch-statistische Beschreibung der Vereinigten Staaten (1853-55, incomplete), and Geschichte der Mormonen (1856).