Indictment file

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The indictment files against Martin Reichard and 332 consorts were made for the Kgl. Bayer. General State Procurator of the Palatinate created to bring the suspected treasonous participants of the Palatinate uprising of 1849 to justice.

The full title reads: Indictment files, drawn up by the General State Procuratorate of the Palatinate, together with the verdict of the Prosecution Chamber of the K. Appellate Court of the Palatinate in Zweibrücken on June 29, 1850, in the investigation against Martin Reichard, dismissed notary in Speyer, and 332 consorts, because of armed rebellion against armed power, treason and state treason, etc. It comprises 290 pages and was printed in 1850 by Ritter in Zweibrücken .

prehistory

The uprising in the Bavarian Palatinate lasted from May 2 to June 19, 1849. On May 2, it was decided to set up a ten-member state committee for the defense and implementation of the imperial constitution (in short: state defense committee). On May 17th, a meeting of 28 representatives of the Palatinate cantons in Kaiserslautern voted with a narrow majority (15:13 votes) for the establishment of a five-member provisional government under the leadership of the notary Joseph Martin Reichard . This government committed itself to the imperial constitution and prepared the final separation from Bavaria. Thus, if only for a few weeks, the Rhine Palatinate broke away from Bavarian rule. On May 18, 1849, an alliance was concluded with the Baden Republic .

On June 11, 1849, the Prussian army crossed the Palatinate border unchallenged at Kreuznach. At Kirchheimbolanden on June 14th there was a battle with the Rheinhessen people's armed forces , but they were all ultimately killed or taken prisoner. The poorly armed revolutionary troops were hopelessly inferior to the Prussians. There was hardly any resistance. In addition, it became clear that the Palatinate Uprising with increasing radicalism no longer had broad support among the rural population. On June 14, 1849, the Provisional Government fled. With the battle of Ludwigshafen on June 15 and the battle near Rinnthal on June 17, 1849, the fighting on Palatinate soil was over.

In addition to these fighting, there were two armed trains in June in which the villages of Steinfeld and Gossersweiler were attacked by their neighboring villages.

The indictment file

content

The indictment file was drawn up by the first public prosecutor Ludwig Schmitt (1810–1871). It contains the names of 333 revolutionaries. The attached referral judgment comprises 125 pages and contains 71 other names. Schmitt divided the 333 high treason suspects into 24 groups for an efficient process. The basis was the paragraphs of the French Code pénal from 1810, which was valid in the Palatinate. The accused were armed rebellion against the armed power, high treason, treason etc.

The 71 referral judgments refer three people directly to the jury and 38 defendants to the breeding police courts, 30 proceedings are discontinued and the immediate release of those affected is ordered.

Joseph Martin Reichard, who gave the file its name, received number 3 in the indictment file as President and Minister of War of the rebellious Palatinate.

Division into groups

  • 1st group, No. 1–8: Members of the Provisional Government and the National Defense Committee
  • 2nd group, nos. 9–15: 7 of the 15 cantonal representatives from May 17, 1849 (the others actively participate in the revolution)
  • 3rd-6th Group, nos. 16-35
  • 7. Group , No. 36: Ferdinand Weber, Freikorps member
  • 8th group, nos. 37-111
  • 9. Group, nos. 112–124: civil commissioners and other persons
  • 10th group, No. 125–171: Rheinhessisches Bataillon
  • 11th Group, Nos. 172–200: Military Command
  • 12. Group, No. 201–235: members of cantonal committees
  • 13-14 Group, Nos. 236-263
  • 15. Group , No. 264: Philipp Keller, commandant of a rifle company
  • 16. – 20. Group, No. 265–308: Participants in the Steinfelder Zug
  • 21.-24. Group, No. 309–333: Participants on the Gossersweiler train

Legal proceedings

The Palatinate judiciary placed over 200 people in custody. Special and jury trials were opened in 1851 against 335 defendants from the indictment file and judgment. Over 150 of the consorts were sentenced to death in absentia and four in the courtroom. None of these judgments will be carried out. In Baden, on the other hand, the court courts pronounced 93 criminal sentences and 27 death sentences were quickly carried out.

Members of the Bavarian military can not be found in the indictment file. In the Palatinate, a deserter and revolutionary was sentenced to death by a court martial and shot in Landau on March 11, 1850: Count Theodor Fugger von Glött . The Junker Henrich Jacob von Fach, who was also sentenced to death, managed to escape from prison.

Others

Theodore Römer (1823–1866), sentenced to death, founder of the Zweibrücken gymnastics club in 1847 and captain of the Palatinate People's Armed Forces in 1849, described the indictment files as “ one of the meanest diatribes ”. After his escape, Römer was a high school professor in France.

After completing the proceedings in 1852, Ludwig Schmitt himself became Procurator General of the Palatinate and received the personal title of nobility in 1854.

literature

  • Rudolf H. Böttcher: The family ties of the Palatinate Revolution 1848/1849. A contribution to the social history of a bourgeois revolution. Special issue of the Association for Palatinate-Rhenish Family Studies. Volume 14. Issue 6. Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1999.
  • Hans Fenske, Joachim Kermann, Karl Scherer (eds.): The revolution 1849/49 and the Palatinate (= contributions to the history of the Palatinate , Volume 16), two parts. Institute for Palatinate History and Folklore ( District Association Palatinate ) Kaiserslautern 2000. ISBN 3-927754-30-7 .

Web links, sources

  • Indictment files, drawn up by the K. General State Procuratorate of the Palatinate, together with the verdict of the Prosecution Chamber of the K. Appellate Court of the Palatinate in Zweibrücken on June 29, 1850, in the investigation against Martin Reichard, dismissed notary in Speyer, and 332 consorts because of armed rebellion against armed power, high treason and treason etc. Zweibrücken 1850.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Rudolf H. Böttcher: Ludwig von Schmitt - The indictment files are followed by the personal nobility. In: The family ties of the Palatinate Revolution 1848/1849. P. 308.
  2. ^ Rudolf H. Böttcher: The referral judgments - indictment files, part 1. In: The family ties of the Palatinate Revolution 1848/1849. P. 320.
  3. ^ Rudolf H. Böttcher: A democratic industrial accident : The vote of the "people's representatives". In: The family ties of the Palatinate Revolution 1848/1849. P. 287.
  4. ^ RH Böttcher: Die Familienbande ... p. 316.
  5. ^ RH Böttcher: Die Familienbande ... p. 313.
  6. ↑ Rudolf H. Böttcher: The Steinfelder train. In: The family ties of the Palatinate Revolution 1848/1849. P. 318f.
  7. ^ Rudolf H. Böttcher: The Gossersweiler train: High treason (AA No. 311-333) and other participants. In: The family ties of the Palatinate Revolution 1848/1849. P. 319.
  8. ^ Rudolf H. Böttcher: Pretrial detention and over 150 death sentences. In: The family ties of the Palatinate Revolution 1848/1849. P. 307.