Federal Election Act (Reichstag)

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Reichstag of the North German Confederation, 1867

The Federal Election Act (later the Reich Election Act ) of May 31, 1869 regulated the elections to the North German and later the German Reichstag . The North German Reichstag that passed the law was elected in August 1867 according to the national Reichstag electoral laws. The basis for these electoral laws was the Frankfurt Reich Election Act of 1849.

The law of 1869 was no longer applied in the North German Confederation : there should have been an election in the summer of 1870, but it was postponed because of the war against France . On January 1, 1871, the new constitution made it a law of the German Empire . It remained in force until 1918.

The law was still very much based on the Reichstag suffrage of the Frankfurt National Assembly , but there were important deviations. It is true that voting was still based on universal male suffrage . However, soldiers were no longer allowed to vote. In addition, no longer the administration, but a law should reorganize the constituencies if necessary.

occurrence

The different electoral laws of the individual states meant that the circumstances of the Reichstag elections of 1867 were not entirely uniform. This was shown in the election examinations, in which complaints about irregularities in constituencies were dealt with. In addition, some state rules appeared to favor violations of freedom of choice. In general, Article 20 of the Federal Constitution provided for an electoral law.

As early as the beginning of the autumn session of 1867, the Reichstag demanded an electoral law, and Federal Chancellor Otto von Bismarck wanted to comply with it soon. However, there was resistance in the Prussian State Ministry : According to Trade Minister Heinrich Friedrich von Itzenplitz, one should wait and see what knowledge one would gain from the Prussian parliamentary elections. He also wanted a class election instead of the previous universal male suffrage. It ensured that the design took its time.

The North German Reichstag received the draft electoral law on March 9, 1869. The government held back in deliberations in the Reichstag. However, when the Liberals wanted to establish freedom of association and assembly during the election period, the government declared it impossible. In the end, the controversial draft was adopted by a large majority. In addition, on May 28, 1870, electoral regulations were issued for the more detailed provisions.

Changes

The right-wing liberal Heinrich von Gagern was Prime Minister of the Reich in 1849 . His agreement with the Democrat Heinrich Simon led to the right to vote for all or at least most of the men. In return, the Democrats accepted the German Empire for Prussia.

The progressive Frankfurt provision that active soldiers had the right to vote was abolished in 1869 and only reintroduced permanently in 1918 (until 1920) and then in 1949. The Progress Party saw a contradiction here: when the federal government was founded, universal service was an argument in favor of universal suffrage. The National Liberals were divided; so they did not even succeed in at least giving the reservists the right to vote. The Conservatives justified the change by stating that soldiers' right to vote contradicted the sense of command and obedience.

The recipients of public poor relief were excluded from voting. In the view of the Liberals, those affected would otherwise have less reason to abandon poor relief. The socialists were the only ones who wanted to restrict election day to Sundays so that workers could actually vote. Only from 1918 onwards could only a Sunday or a public holiday be election day.

According to Jörg-Detlef Kühne , the most serious deviation from the Frankfurt model in 1869 was the automatic adjustment of the constituencies . The law of 1849 assumed that due to population shifts (growth and migration) the constituencies had to be redistributed, since around 100,000 people should live in each constituency. The classification should be done by administrative means. The law of 1869, however, left the amendment to the legislation. While the Frankfurt law allowed an inequality of 1: 3 (and today's federal electoral law 1: 1.67), in 1912 it was over 1:30 in individual constituencies.

The electoral law of 1869 was therefore once described as one of the most conservative German laws. In 1849, the Frankfurt National Assembly had assumed that the government would be heavily dependent on parliament anyway. In 1869, after the Prussian constituency manipulation of the reaction era in the 1850s, this could be viewed as naive. The British electoral reform of 1867 also envisaged the legislative path for the constituency adjustment. In the German Reich, however, the conservatives and national liberals benefited from the unequal division; they had no interest in approving amendment laws. They see inequality as a kind of compensation for the unpopular universal and equal suffrage. When the electoral law was changed towards the end of the German Empire in 1918, the obligation to adapt was reintroduced through the administration.

content

The Reichstag suffrage set out in the electoral law described a general, equal and direct right to vote for men aged 25 and over. With regard to the general public, there were a number of restrictions, as in other countries and partly also in today's German democracy. Who was not allowed to vote

  • was an active soldier with the flag,
  • had a guardian
  • was in bankruptcy,
  • had been deprived of civil rights.

Only men could vote, although the wording of the law did not make it clear.

In contrast to the Prussian three-class suffrage, the right to vote was the same. Each voter's vote had the same count, but not the same success value. That had to do with the sometimes very different number of voters per constituency. The Reichstag suffrage was also, again in contrast to the Prussian, direct: the candidates were elected directly and not through an elector who elected the actual candidate for the Reichstag. One candidate per constituency was elected. Whoever received the absolute majority of the votes was elected. If necessary, there was a runoff election .

The right to vote was secret, at least according to the idea. The ballot papers should be placed face down in a ballot box. In reality, voters had to worry about their voting secrecy . It was not until 1903 that an envelope for the ballot paper and the voting booth was introduced.

Men who had been citizens of a member state for at least one year and who had reached the age of 25 could be elected, provided that none of the reasons for exclusion for the right to vote applied to them. There were also active soldiers who were not allowed to vote themselves, as well as people residing abroad. There were restrictions for members of the Bundesrat and indirectly also for sovereigns (kings and other princes) who instructed the Bundesrat votes of their country: They could be elected, but (according to the constitution) not belong to the Bundesrat and the Reichstag at the same time.

See also

Web links

Wikisource: Election law for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation  - sources and full texts

source

  • Ernst Rudolf Huber: Documents on German constitutional history. Volume 2: German constitutional documents 1851–1900. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1986. No. 209 (No. 190). Electoral law for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation of May 31, 1869 , pp. 307–309.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Klaus Erich Pollmann: Parliamentarism in the North German Confederation 1867-1870. Droste, Düsseldorf 1985, p. 320, 471/472.
  2. ↑ Klaus Erich Pollmann: Parliamentarism in the North German Confederation 1867-1870. Droste, Düsseldorf 1985, p. 320.
  3. ↑ Klaus Erich Pollmann: Parliamentarism in the North German Confederation 1867-1870. Droste, Düsseldorf 1985, pp. 471/472.
  4. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 861.
  5. ^ Jörg-Detlef Kühne : The imperial constitution of the Paulskirche. Model and realization in later German legal life. Habil. Bonn 1983, 2nd edition, Luchterhand, Neuwied 1998 (1985), p. 412.
  6. ↑ Klaus Erich Pollmann: Parliamentarism in the North German Confederation 1867-1870. Droste, Düsseldorf 1985, pp. 322/323.
  7. ↑ Klaus Erich Pollmann: Parliamentarism in the North German Confederation 1867-1870. Droste, Düsseldorf 1985, pp. 323/324.
  8. ^ Jörg-Detlef Kühne: The imperial constitution of the Paulskirche. Model and realization in later German legal life. 2nd edition, Luchterhand, Neuwied 1998 (1985), p. 413 (Habilitation, Bonn 1983).
  9. ^ Jörg-Detlef Kühne: The imperial constitution of the Paulskirche. Model and realization in later German legal life. 2nd edition, Luchterhand, Neuwied 1998 (1985), p. 414 (Habilitation, Bonn 1983).
  10. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German Constitutional History since 1789 , Volume III: Bismarck and the Reich. 3rd edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 862.
  11. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German Constitutional History since 1789 , Volume III: Bismarck and the Reich. 3rd edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 862/863.
  12. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German Constitutional History since 1789 , Volume III: Bismarck and the Reich. 3rd edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 862.
  13. ↑ Margaret Lavinia Anderson: Apprenticeship Years of Democracy. Elections and Political Culture in the German Empire. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, pp. 301/302.
  14. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German Constitutional History since 1789 , Volume III: Bismarck and the Reich. 3rd edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, p. 863.