Bertram Soosephius

Bertram J.F.K. Soosephius (1831 - 1904) was a Belgian-German doctor and politician. From 1875 to 1880, he was a member of the Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands. In 1880, Bertram migrated back to Belgium, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Biography
Bertram was the son of a wealthy family of Dutch-Limburgian traders living in Brussels. He, as the youngest son, had no chance to become part of the family business, so he decided to study at the University of Bonn in Germany. Soosephius became known as a smart and quick learner with high aspirations. In 1856 he finished his studium in Medicine and Pharmacy. In 1859 he habillitated as a Doctor of Pharmacy, earning his German citizenship, and moved to Berlin. There Bertram founded a Pharmacy in one of the worker towns, built for the new industrial complexes. He came in to contact with Marxist literature, and soon began to understand how the capitalist system opresses and exploits workers. For the local unions his pharmacy became a spot to receive free medical care and a safe haven. By 1870, Soosephius was a well liked and famous person of the local workers of Berlin and wanted to improve their situation by working in the Reichstag as a politician. As a result, he joined David Blaustein's USPD when it was founded in 1875 and was elected into the Reichstag. In that same year, he married Clara Marie Montineux. In 1880, he decided to not go for re-election as the USPD disbanded and migrated back to Belgium. For the remainder of his life, he was a pharmacist in Brussels. Betram died in 1904 due to old age.