Assassination Attempt on Wilhelm I (1861)

On 14 July 1861, the first assassination attempt on King Wilhelm I of Prussia took place in the Lichtentaler Allee. The assailant Oskar Becker fired two shots at the king, but only wounded him slightly.

The Attempt and its Aftermath

The attempt occurred on 14 July 1861, only a few months after Wilhelm I had ascended the throne. The king was once again taking a cure in Baden-Baden and was out on one of his regular morning walks in the Lichtentaler Allee. As so often, he set out alone at first, but then happened to meet the Prussian envoy, Count Flemming, who accompanied him from then on. The two had walked about 150 m^[1] from the chain bridge and the Hirtenhäuschen towards Kloster Lichtenthal (Lichtenthal Abbey), when a young man overtook them, raised his hat and greeted them politely. Shortly afterwards the man stopped and let King Wilhelm I and Count Flemming pass. Then two shots rang out. The king turned around and saw the young man standing three paces behind him. The count called out: “Who fired? Did you fire?” The 22-year-old Oskar Becker replied: “I did, at the king!” Passers-by rushing to the scene helped to arrest Oskar Becker. He had fired the shots with a double-barrelled terzerol, a small muzzle-loading pistol.

In a written confession that he carried with him, Oskar Becker gave details of his motive:

Baden, 13 July 1861. The motive why I shall shoot His Majesty the King of Prussia is that he is unable to bring about the unity of Germany and to master the circumstances so that unification comes to pass; for this reason he must die, so that another may accomplish it. People will ridicule me for the deed or consider me overwrought; but I must carry out the deed in order to make the German fatherland happy.

Translated from the German original.

One of the two bullets had missed the king, the other had grazed his cravat. The king was treated in the Hirtenhäuschen on the Klosterwiese. The slight bruise on his neck, however, turned out to be harmless. The king continued his walk and met his wife at Kloster Lichtenthal, who had hurried to the scene, and returned with her to the Hotel Maison Messmer.

In the evening the people of Baden-Baden held a torchlight procession and celebrated the lucky outcome of the attempt.

Oskar Becker was sentenced by a jury court to 20 years’ imprisonment in a penitentiary. In 1866 he was pardoned at the intercession of King Wilhelm I. One condition of the pardon was that he had to leave the country. He thus emigrated to the USA, but returned two years later. He died shortly afterwards on 16 July 1868 in Alexandria.

The Weapon

The double-barrelled terzerol with which Oskar Becker shot at Wilhelm I is today probably kept in the Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe (inv. no. 250 no. 17). However, there are doubts about this claim.^[2] In autumn 2015 the Museum LA8 displayed two identical pistols with accessories in the exhibition Die Preußen im Westen. One of the two weapons could have been the original murder weapon.

Sources

• Rolf Gustav Haebler Geschichte der Stadt und des Kurortes Baden-Baden, vol. 2, Verlag Dr. Willy Schmidt Baden-Baden, 1969

1. ↑ Stadtführer Baden-Baden by the Arbeitskreis für Stadtgeschichte Baden-Baden, 1994, p. 166
2. ↑ User feedback in February 2018