Ernst Kapp

Ernst Christian Kapp (15 October 1808 – 30 January 1896) was a German philosopher of technology and geographer, he was also a follower of Carl Ritter.

He was prosecuted for sedition in the late 1840s for publishing a small article entitled 'Der konstituiert Despotismus und die konstitutionelle Freiheit' (1849) and was subsequently forced to leave Germany. He then emigrated to the German pioneer settlements of central Texas where he worked as a farmer, geographer and inventor.

He was one of the early German Free Thinkers in Sisterdale, Texas. In 1853, he was elected the President of the Freethinker abolitionist organization Die Freie Verein (The Free Society), which called for a meeting of abolitionist German Texans in conjunction with 14 May 1854 Staats-Saengerfest (State Singing Festival) in San Antonio, Texas. The convention adopted a political, social and religious platform, including:

1) Equal pay for equal work; 2) Direct election of the President of the United States; 3) Abolition of capital punishment; 4) Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles...; 5) Free schools – including universities - supported by the state, without religious influence; and 6) Total separation of church and state.