Bundestag resolutions 1848

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The Bundespalais in Frankfurt , where the Bundestag met

At the beginning of 1848 there were several Bundestag resolutions . They should intercept and channel the revolutionary unrest in the German Confederation . The Bundestag partially succeeded in this. During this time, from the end of February to the beginning of May, there were committees of the Bundestag or out of the revolutionary movement, with which the Bundestag worked. In addition, the composition of the Bundestag changed because new governments had been appointed in the German states. These March governments wanted to work with envoys of their own choosing. Under the heading of “epuration”, the revolutionaries discussed whether a general exchange of envoys who had been involved in earlier repression measures by the Bundestag was necessary.

The Bundestag allowed the member states to grant freedom of the press and abolished earlier measures. He declared the previously banned colors black, red and gold to be federal colors. In the conflict between Denmark and Schleswig and Holstein, the Bundestag elected the side of the Schleswig-Holstein rebels ; this was the only case that the German Confederation ever recognized a revolutionary state government and waged a federal war . With the federal election law , the Bundestag had the Frankfurt National Assembly elected. The deliberations on carrying out the election led to the admission of the Prussian eastern provinces into the Federation. However, the Bundestag failed to push through a draft constitution and set up a federal government.

The National Assembly had its first session on May 18th; With this at the latest, the Bundestag's reform activities ended. On July 12th the last resolution of the Bundestag was issued, namely the transfer of its powers to the Reichsverweser . The Bundestag was only reactivated in the course of 1850 and completely restored in 1851.

prehistory

In retrospect, the years before 1848 are considered to be Vormärz , a time in which calls for a liberal and nationally unified Germany were made. The debates on federal reform either concerned the establishment of a federal state or at least an improvement of the previous federation of states , the German Confederation. The liberal opposition in the German states saw the previous German Confederation primarily as an instrument used by conservative governments to suppress liberal and national aspirations.

Individual governments were also dissatisfied with the performance of the federal government, for example because of the inefficient military constitution . The Prussian general and advisor to the king, Joseph von Radowitz , had the plan for a conference at ministerial level as early as November 1847. Subsequently, reform proposals were to be submitted to the Bundestag under Austro-Prussian leadership. This plan was discussed in the Bundestag in March 1848, but the revolutionary events caught up with it. On February 24, 1848, the monarch was deposed in the French February Revolution , which fueled popular unrest in many European countries. On February 27, a people's assembly in Mannheim called for freedom of the press and other basic rights. But a motion on February 12 in the Second Chamber of Baden had already caused a sensation: the parliaments of the German member states were to be represented in the Bundestag.

Committees

On February 29, 1848, the Bundestag set up a “political committee” to monitor the situation in Germany and give advice. Its members were the envoys from Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Baden and Holstein. This was followed on March 10 by a committee of seventeen of "men of public trust"; these were proposed by the governments of the member states and appointed by the Bundestag.

Outside the Bundestag, i.e. the legal order, a further sequence of bodies or committees was formed. Liberals and Democrats from southwest Germany had already met in Heppenheim in October 1847 . Another meeting, the Heidelberg Assembly on March 5, 1848, set up a committee of seven , which, among other things, invited the members of the preliminary parliament . This event in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt (March 31 to April 3) in turn accompanied the activities of the Bundestag with a view to the future election of the National Assembly. For the time up to the meeting of the National Assembly, the pre-parliament set up a committee of 50 . Radical democrats like Friedrich Hecker , on the other hand, took the revolutionary path of violence.

decisions

The liberal Carl Theodor Welcker from Baden was known, among other things, for the state lexicon . On March 14th, he was the first newly appointed Bundestag envoy. He later became a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly and was active there on the Constitutional Committee.

In 1848, the Bundestag passed the following resolutions, among others. It can only be a selection, as the Bundestag decided many things, such as the accreditation of foreign envoys to the federal government or expenses for federal fortresses .

  • February 29: Political committee set up
  • March 1st (following the political committee): call for the maintenance of harmony and legal order; Emphasis that the Bundestag is the "legal organ of national and political unity in Germany"
  • March 3: permission to allow freedom of the press ; Member states were allowed to abolish censorship, contrary to the Federal Press Act of 1819, but with the prevention of abuse of freedom of the press
  • March 8 (following the political committee): Declaration that a reform of the federal constitution is necessary; at this point only two state liberal March governments had been appointed
  • March 9: Declaration of black, red and gold as the federal colors
  • March 10 (following Political Committee): Calling governments to send men to a Committee of Seventeen; One of its tasks is to draft a new federal constitution
  • March 13: The Committee of Seventeen is suspended in favor of the Austro-Prussian plan to call an intergovernmental conference on March 25th
  • March 20 (following the political committee): Use of black, red and gold for the federal fortresses and federal troops
  • March 25: Renewal of the resolution of March 10 on the Committee of Seventeen; the latter presented his draft constitution on April 27
  • March 29: Appointment of Revision Committee to work with Committee of Seventeen; Members: the envoys from Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Baden, Bremen
  • March 30 (following the Committee of Seventeen and the Revision Committee): Resolution to elect a constituent assembly (the Frankfurt National Assembly)
  • April 2 (to accommodate the pre-parliament): repeal of the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, the Six Articles of 1832 and the Secret Decrees of 1834
  • April 4: Declaration that there is a risk that the federal member Holstein will be attacked; thus the Bundestag approved Prussia's action against Denmark
  • April 7 (following the pre-parliament): further decision on the modalities of the election of the constituent assembly; the resolutions of March 30 and April 7 are summarized in the Federal Election Act
  • April 11th (after Prussian application): Admission of East and West Prussia to the federal territory
  • April 12: Demands on Denmark to evacuate Schleswig
  • April 15: Prussia is requested to appoint a joint commander in chief for Prussia and the troops of the 10th Federal Army Corps
  • April 15: Decision of a federal intervention in favor of the Baden government (8th Federal Army Corps); The aim was to meet the first Baden revolution, the Hecker uprising
  • April 22: Admission of a Bundestag envoy ( Karl Otto von Madai ), whom the revolutionary movement had appointed for Holstein ; thereby recognition of the provisional government in Kiel; The Federal War against Denmark broke out with the resolutions of April 12 and 22
  • April 22nd and May 2nd (after Prussian request): Admission of parts of Posen into the federal territory ( Posen question )
  • May 3 (in accordance with the proposal of Minister Welcker and at the same time following a resolution by the Committee of Fifties on April 27): A new body is established as federal executive; The resolution was not carried out, so that the establishment of a federal government fell to the National Assembly ( provisional central authority )
  • June 29th (no formal federal decision, but according to the minutes of the Bundestag): Letter from Anton von Schmerling , envoy for Austria and thus managing director of the Bundestag , to Archduke Johann , who was elected by the National Assembly; Recognition of his choice
  • July 12: Suspension of the activities of the Bundestag and delegation of its powers to the Reich Administrator ; no self-dissolution

Evaluation and consequences

Anton von Schmerling was already a member of the pre-parliament and was appointed Minister of the Austrian Parliament on May 14th. In July he became Reich Minister under the new Reich Administrator.

In the first months of the March Revolution in Germany, important foundations were laid for further development; The federal reform debates after 1851 were also influenced by the ideas of that time. The Bundestag, both before and after its personal, liberal renewal, endeavored to keep the reins of action. The constitutional-liberal politicians did not want to be inferior to this and made their own demands. But they could not push through their liberal program in the pre-parliament against the will of the radical democrats without endangering the apparent unity of the revolutionaries.

Thomas Nipperdey speaks of two extreme alternatives between which the liberals moved. The radical democratic republican path ended with the suppression of the Hecker uprising in April. But a reorganization of the previous German Confederation also failed. The Bundestag did not succeed in enforcing the draft constitution of the Committee of Seventeen vis-à-vis the governments and thus presenting the National Assembly with a fait accompli. The planned federal government did not materialize either. Not only the governments rejected the draft, but also the politicians of the emerging political parties. Nipperdey on the Bundestag plan:

[...] that was a self-disempowerment of the revolution and parliament, that was reform of the Confederation and renouncing the establishment of an empire, that was not possible. The distrust of the 'Bund' remained - even after the Liberals had the say there. A Jesuit monastery remained a Jesuit monastery, said Robert Blum.

So there was only the way to the National Assembly. It should be the democratically legitimized basis for further constitutional discussions. As early as June 28, it passed a provisional constitutional order in the form of the Central Power Act . The National Assembly set up an all-German government and passed imperial laws . In the end, however, it was unable to prevail against the regained conservative powers and was illegally dissolved in May 1849.

See also

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1977, p. 91.
  2. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, according to: Ernst Rudolf Huber: Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom from 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, pp. 595/596, p. 598.
  3. ^ Frank Lorenz Müller: The revolution of 1848/1849. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002, p. 57.
  4. ^ Frank Lorenz Müller: The revolution of 1848/1849. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002, p. 58.
  5. ^ Frank Lorenz Müller: The revolution of 1848/1849. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002, pp. 57/58.
  6. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 604.
  7. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 604.
  8. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 669.
  9. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [ua] 1960, p. 641.
  10. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 669.
  11. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [ua] 1960, pp. 670/671.
  12. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 511.
  13. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 670.
  14. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [ua] 1960, p. 641.
  15. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 624.
  16. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 627.
  17. ↑ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume 2: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1960, p. 632.
  18. ^ Thomas Nipperdey: German History 1806-1866 . Volume 1: Citizen World and Strong State . CH Beck: Munich 1983, p. 344, p. 607/608.
  19. ^ Thomas Nipperdey: German History 1806-1866 . Volume 1: Citizen World and Strong State . CH Beck: Munich 1983, p. 344, p. 608.