Federal General

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The last general appointed by the German Confederation, Karl von Bayern , here in 1855. In June and July 1866, he commanded two federal corps of the federal army .

Bundesfeldherr is initially only the name for the commander-in-chief of an army. In German constitutional history , such a system was set up in the War Constitution of the German Confederation (1821/1822), albeit with the title " Oberfeldherr ". This commander-in-chief, usually referred to as a federal general, was appointed separately for each case of war .

The constitution of the North German Confederation of 1867 and the federal constitution of January 1, 1871 mention a "federal general". There, however, the office is only a task of the Prussian king or the German emperor . The Imperial Constitution of April 16, 1871 , which was in force for the rest of the time of the Empire , dispensed with the term general and replaced it with "Kaiser".

German Confederation 1815–1866

When the German Confederation was founded, it was Prussia that wanted to see a federal general as a permanent office in the federal constitution. Since it could not itself take the lead in a German federal state, Austria was supposed to receive the imperial crown, but the Prussian king was to be the federal general. Austria refused such a separation of political leaders and military supreme command.

The German Confederation only issued a Federal War Constitution in 1821/1822. The armed forces consisted of contingents from the individual states. The Bundestag formed a military committee to manage military affairs. The supreme command was not held by a single person constantly appointed for this purpose. Instead, the commander-in-chief was only appointed when war occurred. The Bundestag decided with a majority of votes who was to become “Oberfeldherr” . This made it clear, according to Michael Kotulla, that the federal government, the Bundestag, the individual states represented in it retained the predominant role. The commander-in-chief thus had the position of "a commanding general vis-à-vis his sovereign".

According to Ernst Rudolf Huber, the individual states in the German Confederation wanted their military sovereignty to be spared as much as possible. However, this and the lack of a permanent federal general meant that no operational armed forces could be set up.

In the constitutional orders and plans of the revolutionary period 1848–1850, a federal general does not appear. It would have been questionable to have a separate commander-in-chief alongside a head of the Reich . Austria and the medium-sized states were, however, generally not prepared to allow their military power to be mediated, i.e. to submit their troops to a permanent commander-in-chief. Prussia also refused to standardize unless it provided the federal general.

Tasks and limits

The Oberfeldherr of the German Confederation was sworn in by the Bundestag and made responsible and received his orders from the Bundestag. The Bundestag was also able to bring the commander-in-chief to court martial. The Bundestag gave the Oberfeldherr a deputy, the Lieutenant General of the Federation. The connection between the Bundestag and Oberfeldherr was maintained by a committee appointed for this purpose. The committee, as the war council of the members of the Bundestag, would have caused serious friction with the commander-in-chief in the event of war, Huber speculates.

The Oberfeldherr had to set up a federal headquarters and to form a general staff. He was allowed to plan the military operations himself, but had to communicate his plans to the Bundestag after the implementation began. In an emergency, the commander-in-chief had the command over the federal troops, but the corps commanders of the troops from the individual countries determined the head of state of the individual state.

The commander-in-chief was able to independently make agreements about an end to the hostilities. A formal armistice, however, required the approval of the Bundestag. When the armed forces were demobilized again, the office of the commander-in-chief also ended.

Use cases and discussions

Federal commander in the Schleswig-Holstein War : Friedrich von Wrangel from Prussia

In the spring of 1848 a national German provisional government was formed in Schleswig and Holstein. The German Confederation or the German Empire of the revolutionary time waged a federal war against Denmark, as well as several individual states including Prussia. The Prussian general Friedrich von Wrangel became the federal general . The Frankfurt National Assembly , the all-German parliament, assessed the survey in Schleswig-Holstein as a national matter and saw the ultimate decision-making power with itself.

In the years after 1850, when Prussia had to work with Austria, the appointment of a federal general was discussed several times. In the run-up to the Crimean War , Austria wanted to mobilize the armed forces and appoint a general. The Prussian member of the Bundestag Bismarck, however, achieved a majority in the Bundestag against the mobilization.

In 1859 the Italian or Sardinian War broke out . With French support, Sardinia-Piedmont found itself at war against Austria with the aim of liberating northern Italy from Austrian rule. Therefore Austria once again demanded the mobilization of the federal army and the appointment of a federal general. The war in the northern Italian regions of Austria is also a threat to the federal territory. Prussia refused: it wanted to wait for Austria to defeat and only then save the situation for Austria with the federal army and a Prussian general. In the short term this led to great resentment in the German population about Prussia, but it was intended to bring Prussia on par with Austria.

After all, Austria wanted to give Prussia supreme command for the entire armed forces. The Federal General would have been Wilhelm , the Prussian Prince Regent (and later German Emperor) who ruled for his sick brother at the time. But this would have placed the Prussian supreme command under the Bundestag. Prussia demanded a division of the supreme command into two parts: The north German federal troops were to be subordinate to Prussia, without further federal instructions or conditions. Austria should receive the supreme command of the southern German federal troops.

According to the Austrian view, such a split in the supreme command could have led to a split in the Federation. The decision on this was taken from the Bundestag: Austria and France suddenly signed an armistice. Austria came out of the war with a huge loss of military prestige, but Prussia with a political loss because with its delays it had betrayed the German cause.

After the war, negotiations began again on federal reform. On January 4, 1860, Prussia proposed dividing the federal army. In the event of war, the north German troops should be assigned to the Prussian, the south German to the Austrian army. This would have made the office of a federal general superfluous. The other states, however, rejected such a division. In the federal reform plan of 1866 , Prussia proposed the introduction of two generals in a small German federal state: the Prussian king in the north and the Bavarian king in the south.

On June 14, 1866, the Bundestag decided that the armed forces were to be mobilized against renegade Prussia and its allies. The election of a federal general was postponed, despite an Austrian request. Finally, the Bundestag appointed Prince Karl of Bavaria to be the federal general for some federal corps. The Austrian contingents, however, including the Saxon contingent, were subordinated to the Austrian Feldzeugmeister Ludwig von Benedek . For example, the Hanoverian troops no longer came under Karl's command because they capitulated on June 29th. In the end, the fundamental weakness of the Federal War Constitution became apparent again in the inability to quickly deploy a federal general and to subordinate the entire armed forces to him for uniform warfare.

North German Confederation and German Confederation (Reich)

Wilhelm I of Prussia, since 1867 Commander-in-Chief as "Bundesfeldherr" and since April 1871 as "Kaiser"

After the victory over Austria in July 1866, the northern German states founded the North German Confederation. The Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck wanted this federal state to look more like a confederation . The Prussian king was therefore not made emperor in the North German Federal Constitution of July 1, 1867, but held the “ Presidium of the Federation ”.

In addition, the king was not simply called the commander in chief of the armed forces. Instead, a federal general appears in the constitution who was responsible for the military's fitness of the armed forces. Art. 63 para. 1 made it clear who this federal general was:

"The entire land power of the federal government will form a unified army, which in war and peace is under the orders of His Majesty the King of Prussia as a federal general."

The purpose of introducing a federal general was initially to obscure the strong position of the Federal Presidium. The formal separation meant something else: the actions of the Federal Presidium required the countersignature of the Federal Chancellor (Art. 17 NBV), but not the command file of the General according to Art. 63. This separation continued a Prussian tradition. But it made parliamentary control more difficult. In addition, the non-Prussian states were mediated in this way from a military point of view: their armies were subordinate to the Prussian king. In other matters, however, Prussia was also placed under the new federal organs.

The phrase "the King of Prussia as a federal commander" was already used on February 7, 1867 in the military convention between Prussia and Saxony. The basis for this was the existing draft constitution. In the protective and defensive alliances of 1866 with the southern German states, the term "Oberbefehl" appears: In the event of war, the supreme command is transferred from the Prince of Baden, Bavaria or Württemberg to the King of Prussia.

In the constitution of the German Confederation of January 1, 1871, the construct with the federal general was retained, although in it the King of Prussia already received the imperial title. Only after the constitution of the German Empire of April 16, 1871 was the federal general erased. Since then, Article 63, Paragraph 1 has read:

"The entire land power of the empire will form a unified army, which is under the command of the emperor in war and peace."

In other places, too, the federal general was replaced by the emperor. This formally ended the separation of the Federal Presidium and the Federal General. Nevertheless, the emperor was left with the irresponsible command area. In the case of doubt as to whether an order was attributable to the military administration (subject to countersigning) or to the command area, the latter was the starting point.

See also

supporting documents

  1. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789 . Volume I: Reform and Restoration 1789 to 1830 . 2nd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1967, p. 485.
  2. ↑ Michael Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Berlin: Springer, 2006, p. 113.
  3. ↑ Michael Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Berlin: Springer, 2006, p. 117.
  4. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789 . Volume I: Reform and Restoration 1789 to 1830 . 2nd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1967, pp. 612/613.
  5. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . 3rd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 648.
  6. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789 . Volume I: Reform and Restoration 1789 to 1830 . 2nd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [ua] 1967, pp. 612/613.
  7. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789 . Volume I: Reform and Restoration 1789 to 1830 . 2nd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1967, p. 613.
  8. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789 . Volume I: Reform and Restoration 1789 to 1830 . 2nd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1967, p. 612.
  9. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . 3rd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 672/673.
  10. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 245.
  11. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 262/263.
  12. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 263/264.
  13. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 400.
  14. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 541.
  15. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 559/560.
  16. ↑ Michael Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Berlin: Springer, 2006, p. 196.
  17. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm . 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 1003.
  18. ↑ Michael Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Berlin: Springer, 2006, pp. 1155–1159.
  19. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm . 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 1002-1004.