Life and Career
Wilhelm Hasenclever was the son of a self-employed tanner. The family had protestant roots and had migrated to the catholic Arnsberg. After visiting secondary school up to the "Sekunda" (equivalent to today's Mittlere Reife, a diploma of secondary education below the full-blown Abitur) he learned the tanning trade from his parents. In 1857/58 he was forced into a year of military service; in 1859, another period of military service with the Prussian army in Düsseldorf and Cologne followed.
In between and afterwards, Hasenclever - like many artisans of the time - took to the road, taking on various short-term jobs and visiting most member states of the North German Confederation, Switzerland, northern Italy and southern France. His experiences, which made him aware of the problems of the proletariat, greatly influenced his later political stance.
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