Left (Prussian National Assembly)

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The parliamentary group of the left represented the democratic movement in the Prussian national assembly in the revolutionary year of 1848 . After their meeting point, they are also known as the Hôtel de Russie faction .

Fraction formation

The first crystallization point for the formation of factions was the protest against the demonstrative opening of the National Assembly in the White Hall of the Berlin City Palace by Friedrich Wilhelm IV , who wanted to demonstrate the continuity compared to the Vormärz and to forget the revolutionary basis of the assembly. The critics among the MPs had gathered in the Hôtel de Russie near the building academy . The name of the hotel was later used to designate the left-wing faction.

Eduard von Reichenbach

Some MPs turned their backs on the first protest group and later joined other groups. At the beginning a radical group around Georg Jung and Eduard von Reichenbach made the decision . From the beginning, the group tried to win over Polish and rural MPs. There was also a moderate wing within the left around Julius von Kirchmann and Jodocus Temme . Much of this wing later joined the Duncker faction . Since Temme and Kirchmann were refused admission there, they initially took part again with some supporters in the deliberations of the extreme left. Kirchmann and a few others later went over to the Rodbertus faction , while Temme and the rest of the left remained. In the course of time, MPs from rural regions in particular joined in. The followers mostly belonged to a younger generation between thirty and forty years of age.

Initially disorganized, it gradually solidified into a regular faction. The driving force behind this process was Johann Jacoby , who only became a member of parliament through a by-election on June 6th. In addition to these were the young Hegelian Georg Jung, the doctor Carl d'Ester from Cologne, the journalist and high school teacher Moritz Elsner from Silesia, the suspended teacher Anton Gladbach , the noble Eduard von Reichenbach, the botanist Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck , the writer Brill , the former theologian and printer Julius Berends , the prosecutor Temme (who became more and more radical in the course of the deliberations) and various others of importance. The former member of the Berlin Higher Tribunal Benedikt Waldeck became a figurehead .

Political positions

Benedikt Waldeck

Despite all the differences, the left was largely in agreement on the principle of popular sovereignty and saw the national assembly as the highest authority of the state, to which both the government and the king would have to submit in case of doubt. Even on the question of declarations of war, the left demanded a say for parliament. Ultimately, the king was to become a “first official” of the state. Most of the left wanted a democratic monarchy, but not a republic. But the realization that such a demand would not have a majority in the population also played a role. In the area of ​​state organization, the left strove for complete self-government and parliamentarization at all levels and wanted to abolish the provinces. Instead of the standing army, they wanted to introduce a people's armed forces. The question of German unity played only a subordinate role behind the primacy of democratization. However, the parliamentary group tended to favor a greater German solution . There were also some like Waldeck and Temme, who thought in a rather small German way . In the course of time, the left faction's opposition to the Frankfurt National Assembly increased . In the end, she bet entirely on the Prussian card, because she believed that only through Prussia could Germany be democratized.

Composition and structures

In the course of time the left gained more and more weight in the National Assembly. At the beginning it had about 30 to 40 members, in the end there were 120 to 130 and thus a third of the congregation. Conversions from other parliamentary groups and a series of by-elections had contributed to this. Even opponents praised the party discipline, for example in votes and elections, as well as its demonstrative unity, despite the lack of parliamentary pressure. The Left had good contacts with the press, and through some MPs it had a decisive influence on the reporting of the magazine “Reform”. Although some of their relatives were active in the political clubs outside parliament, their influence on the democratic clubs, especially in Berlin, was limited and later even deteriorated. A small part of the left-wing MPs took part in the Democratic Congresses. Despite the opposition to the Frankfurt Assembly, the Berlin Left tried to work with the Left there.

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