He stayed frequently in Spreewald near Berlin and in Memel (Klaipėda) and Tilsit, where he stood forth as poet, public orator and politician. He ran as a candidate for the Prussian House of Representatives four times and once for the Parliament of Germany, but was never elected. He was accused of being in league both with the Welfish (separatist for re-establishing the independent Kingdom of Hanover) and the Pan Slavonic cause; both considered by the governors to be a threat to German culture and identity. The authorities and the press charged him with unpatriotic activity. In vain he claimed to the contrary that he served his nation by trying to remove the very circumstance that nourished the Pan Slavonic movement — the suppression of minorities. If allowed to be left in peace with their own culture, they would stay as loyal citizens as ethnic Germans themselves, he argued.