RICH (1794-1862), German statesman, was born at Hanau, Hesse, on Feb. 26, 1794. He studied law at Gottingen, graduated in 1816, and took his seat as Assessor in the judicial chamber of the board of government (Regierungskollegium) at Cassel, of which his father Johann Hassenpflug was also a member. He rose rapidly, and in May 1832 was appointed successively minister of justice and of the interior. He now became conspicuous in the constitutional struggles of Germany. He deliberately set to work to reverse the Hessian constitution of 1831. The story of the constitutional deadlock that resulted belongs to the history of Hesse-Cassel and Germany ; so far as Hassenpflug himself was concerned, it made him, more even than Metternich, the Mephistopheles of the Reaction to the German people. In the summer of 1837 he was suddenly removed from his post as minister of the interior and he thereupon left the elector's service. In 1838-39 he was head of the administration of the little principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and in 1839-40 civil governor of the grand-duchy of Luxemburg. From 1841 to 1850 he was in the Prussian judicial service. In 1850 he was tried for pec ulation and convicted; and, though this judgment was reversed on appeal, he left the service of Prussia.
He was now recalled by the elector of Hesse, and immediately threw himself again with zeal into the struggle against the con stitution. Finding the opinion of all classes, including the army, solidly against him, he decided to risk all on an alliance with the reviving fortunes of Austria, which was steadily working for the restoration of the status quo overthrown by the revolution of 1848. On his advice the elector seceded from the Northern Union established by Prussia and, on Sept. 13 fled from Hesse with his minister. They went to Frankfort, where the federal diet had been re-established, and on the 21st persuaded the diet to decree armed intervention in Hesse. This decree, carried out by Austrian troops, all but led to war with Prussia, but the unreadiness of the Berlin government led to the triumph of Austria and of Hassenpflug, who at the end of the year was installed at Cassel as minister of finance. He was loathed and despised by all, and disliked even by his master. In November 1853, he was publicly horse-whipped by the count of Isenburg Wachtersbach, the elector's son-in-law. The count was pronounced insane; but Hassenpflug tendered his resignation. It was not accepted; and it was not till Oct. 16, 1855 that he was finally relieved of his offices. He died at Marburg on Oct. 16, 1862. He lived just long enough to hear of the restoration of the Hesse constitution of 1831 (June 21, 1862) , which it had been his life's mission to destroy. Of his publications the most important is Actenstucke, die landstandischen Anklagen wider den Kur f urstlichen hessischen Staatsminister Hassenpflug. Ein Beitrag zur Zeitgeschichte and zum neueren deutschen Staatsrec/ite, an onym. (Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1836.) He was twice married, his first wife being the sister of the brothers Grimm.
See the biography by Wippermann in Allgemeine deutsche Bio graphie, with authorities.