BUCHER, LOTHAR (1817-1892), German publicist, was born on Oct. 25, 1817, at Neu Stettin, in Pomerania. Elected a member of the National Assembly in Berlin in 1848, he was an active leader of the extreme democratic party. With others of his colleagues he was in 1850 brought to trial for having taken part in organizing a movement for refusal to pay taxes ; he was condemned to 15 months' imprisonment in a fortress, but fled to London. He acted as special correspondent of the National Zeitung, and gained a great knowledge of English life ; and he published a work, Der Parliamentarismus wie er ist, a criticism of parliamentary government, which shows a marked change in his political opinions. In 1864 he was offered by Bismarck a position in the Prussian foreign office. He acted as Bismarck's secretary, and was the man who probably enjoyed the greatest amount of his confidence. It was he who drew up the text of the constitution of the North German Confederation; in 1870 he was sent on a confidential mission to Spain in connection with the Hohenzollern candidature for the Spanish crown ; he assisted Bismarck at the final negotiations for the treaty of Frankfurt, and was one of the secretaries to the Congress of Berlin ; he also assisted Bis marck in the composition of his memoirs. Bucher's influence was directed against the economic doctrines of the Liberals; in 1881 he published a pamphlet criticizing the influence and principles of the Cobden Club. He died at Glion, in Switzerland, on Oct. 12, 1892.
See Heinrich v. Poschinger, Ein 48er: Lothar Buchers Leben and Werke (189o) ; Busch, Bismarck: some Secret Pages of his History (1898).