August contracts

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The August contracts are contracts from the year 1866 between Prussia and several northern and central German states. First and foremost, it is about the so-called August alliance of August 18, 1866. On the one hand, it was a military assistance pact and, on the other, a preliminary contract for the establishment of the North German Confederation .

In addition, there were other treaties from the months of August to October 1866. In this, states either joined the August Alliance or otherwise determined that they would join the North German Confederation to be founded. The Grand Duchy of Hesse (Hessen-Darmstadt) only joined for its province of Upper Hesse .

The August Covenant was only signed for a year. During this time the new covenant was to be formed . On the basis of the alliance, the allied states had a constituent North German Reichstag elected. This finally agreed the constitution for the North German Confederation with the states .

prehistory

Otto von Bismarck , Prime Minister of Prussia since 1862

Prussia went into the German War on the basis of a reform plan for the German Confederation of June 10, 1866 . In it, Bismarck outlined a federal small Germany in which Prussia would have received supreme command over the northern German states and Bavaria over the southern German states. On June 14, the German Bundestag under Austrian leadership decided to counter Prussia's invasion of Holstein with military measures. Prussia then declared the German Confederation dissolved. The German War began immediately afterwards.

On June 16, Bismarck invited 19 states in northern and central Germany to found a new federation. This was followed by all except Sachsen-Meiningen and Reuss of the older line , two small Thuringian states. They became enemies of the war. On August 4th, after the preliminary peace in Nikolsburg and before the final Peace of Prague with Austria, Bismarck sent a circular dispatch to 17 states. Enclosed was a draft of an alliance agreement, the basis for the later August alliance.

Bismarck was pressured by liberal and democratic public opinion to take advantage of Prussia's strengths and the situation: Prussia should impose the constitution of a unified national state on its allies. But Bismarck stuck to his federal reform plan of June 10th to keep the new federation attractive for southern Germany.

August Alliance

The August alliance was signed in Berlin on August 18, 1866 . Besides Prussia, the partners were 15 other German states. In detail, the following states were contracting parties (in alphabetical order):

  1. Stop
  2. Braunschweig
  3. Bremen
  4. Hamburg
  5. lip
  6. Lübeck
  7. Oldenburg
  8. Prussia
  9. Principality of Reuss younger line
  10. Saxony-Altenburg
  11. Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
  12. Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach
  13. Schaumburg-Lippe
  14. Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
  15. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
  16. Waldeck

Usually the Duchy of Lauenburg is not counted as a separate state, because its Duke had been the Prussian King since 1865 . However, it only became part of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein in 1876 .

The contract was provisional for a limited time (Article 6). This period ended with the conclusion of the new federal relationship or after a year at the latest. In doing so, Prussia put pressure on its partners who would have been left without military protection at the end of the year. The allies could only ensure permanent protection by helping to implement the alliance consistently.

Military part

The treaty itself speaks in the title of an "alliance treaty" and in Article 1 of an "offensive and defensive alliance to maintain the independence and integrity, as well as the internal and external security of their states [...]". The alliance thus assumed the most important federal purpose of the just dissolved German Confederation , namely the protection of the member states .

Article 4 gave the Prussian king supreme command over the troops of the allies. The states guaranteed each other their property. In the event of an alliance, they had to "immediately" assist each other to "defend their property" (Art. 1).

Formation of a new covenant

The area of ​​the North German Confederation from July 1, 1867, in surface color

The alliance was just an alliance and not yet a confederation or federal state. But through Article 2 the alliance treaty represented a preliminary contract for a federal state to be founded:

"The purposes of the alliance should definitely be ensured by a federal constitution based on the Prussian Principles of June 10, 1866, with the participation of a jointly appointed parliament."

The August alliance was therefore not an association of states, but only a treaty under international law that prepared the association of states. Only later, with the actual draft constitution, did the North German Confederation gradually begin to be constituted.

The alliance treaty (Article 5) explicitly referred to parliament, which was Prussia's main argument in the reform debate since 1863. Prussia and the allied governments were to carry out the elections on the basis of the Reich Election Act of April 12, 1849 . The constitution is to be discussed and agreed with this parliament. In addition, representatives of the states were to determine the draft constitution in Berlin, which was to be submitted to parliament. The basis for this should be the main features of June 10, the Prussian reform plan.

Further contracts

On August 21, a treaty was signed between the following states (in alphabetical order):

  1. Mecklenburg-Schwerin
  2. Mecklenburg-Strelitz
  3. Prussia

Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz did not join the alliance agreement of August 18, but signed their own alliance with Prussia. In it, the provisions of the previous alliance agreement are mostly taken verbatim. With regard to the joint parliamentary election, the Prussian-Mecklenburg alliance referred to the previous alliance treaty.

The three Grand Ducal Hessian provinces, on the map in shades of green. The province of Upper Hesse in the north became part of the federal territory, the other two provinces not.

The two Mecklenburg states still had old, old -class constitutions and state parliaments , which they had to take into account. They voiced their concerns about democratic suffrage, as set out in the Imperial Election Act of 1849. When ratifying, the estates made the reservation that the new federation should not interfere in the main features of the state constitutions. The alliance thus consisted of all 17 Prussian allies of the German War.

The Grand Duchy of Hesse (Hessen-Darmstadt) became a member of the new federation only in relation to its province of Upper Hesse and its Rhine-Hessian communities Kastel and Kostheim. In the peace treaty with Prussia on September 3, 1866, it committed itself in Article 14:

"His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine, etc., with all of his territories north of the Main, will act on the basis of the reform proposals of June 10th. Js. established principles, in the North German Confederation a [...]. "

The rest of the Grand Duchy remained outside the North German Confederation, but concluded a military convention with Prussia on April 7, 1867 and an alliance for protection and defiance on April 11, 1867. Thus the Prussian king was the commander in chief over the entire Hessian troops.

Three other war opponents north of the Main escaped the Prussian annexations of 1866 . According to the peace treaty with Prussia of September 26, 1866, the Reuss older line joined the alliance that Prussia had concluded with "Saxe-Weimar and other North German governments" (the August alliance). The example was followed by Sachsen-Meiningen on October 8, 1866 and the Kingdom of Saxony on October 21.

Classification and outlook

Plenipotentiaries of the Allied Governments, 1867

With the August alliance and the subsequent treaties, Otto von Bismarck obliged the northern and central German states north of the Main line to found a new federation. The federal reform plan of June 10 was in need of revision, among other things because Bavaria mentioned in it would not belong to the North German Confederation. But it was clear that the new federation would be a federal state.

Michael Kotulla compares the alliance with the “ Dreikönigsbündnis ” of 1849. At that time, Prussia had signed a treaty with Hanover and Saxony in order to found what would later become known as the Erfurt Union . However, Prussia's partners had no alternatives in 1866: "Since the independent existence of the remaining northern and central German small states depended solely on Prussia, their political survival could only be ensured with or through, but never against the Hohenzollern state."

Similar to the years 1849/1850, the treaty described a process in which a parliament would have to be elected, with which the participating governments would agree a constitution. At that time, however, a draft constitution was already in place and the governments were represented in a provisional government, the “Administrative Council”. In 1866, on the other hand, the draft constitution still had to be drawn up and the plenipotentiaries of the states conferred without a formal body.

The participating states finally poured the imperial electoral law of 1849 into corresponding state laws. The constituent Reichstag (corresponding to the Erfurt Union Parliament ) met in February 1867. After the approval of the federal states, the new federal constitution came into force on July 1, 1867.

literature

  • Ernst Rudolf Huber : Documents on German Constitutional History , Volume II: German Constitutional Documents 1851–1900 , 3rd Edition, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne / Mainz 1992, No. 195, No. 196, ISBN 3-17-001845-0 .

swell

  • Michael Kotulla : German Constitutional Law 1806–1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin [u. a.] 2006, pp. 1124–1127, Doc. 116 “Alliance Treaty Prussia / North German States - 'August Alliance' - from August 18, 1866”.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber : German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1988, p. 644.
  2. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1988, p. 644.
  3. ↑ Michael Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin [u. a.] 2006, p. 1124.
  4. ↑ On the wording of the State Treaty, cf. the law collection for the Royal Prussian States 1866, p. 626 ( digitized version of the Munich digitization center)
  5. ↑ Announcements on the negotiations of the fifth ordinary state parliament in the Principality of Reuss JL during the years 1866, 1867, 1868, Volume A: Ministerial Templates, No. 40, pp. 243–246 ( digitized version )
  6. ↑ 33rd session of the Landtag in the Principality of Reuss younger line on July 31, 1866. Cf. communications on the negotiations of the fifth ordinary Landtag in the Principality of Reuss JL during the years 1866, 1867, 1868, Volume C: Protocols, pp. 505-514 ( Digitized version )
  7. ^ Resolution of the joint state parliament of the duchies of Coburg and Gotha in its 9th session on June 25, 1866. See negotiations of the joint state parliament of the duchies of Coburg and Gotha. 1865–1868, Gotha: Engelhard-Reyher'sche Hofbuchdruckerei [no year], pp. 61–70 ( digitized version )
  8. ^ Government sheet for the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, No. 18 of November 25, 1866, p. 123 ( digitized version )
  9. ↑ Kotulla: German constitutional history. From the Old Reich to Weimar (1495–1934) . Springer, Berlin 2008, pp. 490/491.
  10. ↑ Kotulla: German constitutional history. From the Old Reich to Weimar (1495–1934) . Springer, Berlin 2008, p. 491.
  11. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1988, p. 645.
  12. ↑ Kotulla: German constitutional history. From the Old Reich to Weimar (1495–1934) . Springer, Berlin 2008, pp. 491/492.
  13. ↑ Cf. the law collection for the Royal Prussian States 1866, p. 631 ( digitized version of the Munich digitization center)
  14. ↑ Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806–1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin [u. a.] 2006, pp. 1127-1129.
  15. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1988, p. 644.
  16. ↑ Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806–1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin [u. a.] 2006, p. 1143.
  17. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1988, p. 600.
  18. ↑ Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806–1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin [u. a.] 2006, p. 1144 f.
  19. ↑ Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806–1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin [u. a.] 2006, pp. 1146/1147.
  20. ↑ Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806–1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin [u. a.] 2006, pp. 1147-1151.
  21. ↑ Kotulla: German constitutional history. From the Old Reich to Weimar (1495–1934) . Springer, Berlin 2008, p. 491.