Protector of the Rhine Confederation

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The federal protector Napoleon received homage from the German princes shortly after the ratification of the Rhine Confederation Act. Lithograph probably from the 1820s, by Charles Motte . The representation is not to be understood directly; some princes had only sent their ambassadors.

Federal Protector was a title and a function in the Rhine Confederation Act of 1806. The original French name is Protecteur de la Confédération , in German Protector of the Rhenish Confederation . The title described the peculiar way in which the French Emperor Napoleon was connected to the Confederation of the Rhine.

The Rhine Confederation Act was a treaty under international law that was concluded between the Kaiser and German princes. The emperor appears only once in the text of the treaty:

Art. 12. Se. Maj. The Emperor of the French is proclaimed protector of the Rhenish Confederation, and in this capacity he appoints his successor after the prince Primate has left.

The prince held the chairmanship of the Bundestag , the unrealized assembly of the member states. Otherwise the Rhine Confederation Act is silent about the function of the federal protector. For example, it is not said that the Federal Protector guarantees the member states their territorial status, although the Rhine Confederation Act regulates numerous territorial changes.

For Napoleon the Rhine Confederation was an instrument to secure military support for the Rhine Confederation states in the event of war. Power was one-sided; France alone determined when mobilization had to be carried out (Art. 36). France and the states of the Confederation of the Rhine were allowed to conclude foreign policy treaties, also with states outside the Confederation of the Rhine. Usually the federal protector did not consult his allies in the great peace agreements of the time.

The Rhine Confederation Act stated that the Rhine Confederation states had to be independent of foreign powers. They were only allowed to cede their sovereignty in whole or in part to other Rhine Confederation states (Art. 7, Art. 8). In 1810 and 1811, the states of Westphalia and Berg ceded areas to France. Since France was not a member of the Rhine Confederation, they violated Art. 8.

supporting documents

  1. Michael Kotulla : German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents and introductions. 1. Volume: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin a. a. 2006, p. 21.
  2. Michael Kotulla: German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents and introductions. 1. Volume: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin a. a. 2006, p. 24.