Coburg federal reform plan

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Duke Ernst II.

The Coburg Federal Reform Plan was a proposal to expand the German Confederation . The liberal Duke Ernst II of the small state of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha in Thuringia wanted to renew the unproductive federal policy and see the federal reforms implemented, which had been warned for years by various sides, but which had failed primarily because of the larger states in Germany.

In the fall of 1855, Ernst went public. The nation should be accommodated and at least some of the demands made in 1815 and 1848 should be implemented within the framework of the existing order. At the end of 1855 and April 1856, Ernst's adviser Karl Samwer drafted two memoranda on this. Ernst called on the also liberal-minded Prince Regent Friedrich of Baden to lead the movement, since Baden was the largest German state without a royal crown.

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Karl Samwer from Schleswig-Holstein had been in the state service of the Thuringian duchy since 1852.

Ernst took up the idea of ​​a parliament next to the Bundestag . It should consist of delegates from the state parliaments. In contrast to earlier proposals from other countries, Ernst wanted to give the smaller states more weight: Austria and Prussia each sent 26 delegates, the larger states (Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Württemberg, Baden, Hessen-Darmstadt, Hessen-Kassel) 28 and the remaining 26. The parliament would have had a relatively large amount of power: participation in plenary affairs (except for war and peace), interventions in individual states, federal expenditure and matricular contributions, as well as the right to petition.

There should also be a federal court. Ernst wanted to rule out power issues at first, but as a consequence his proposal should have turned the Bundestag into a kind of government pending on the parliament. However, the Bundestag could not be transformed into a government that was capable of acting and committed to the interests of the whole of Germany: the principle of unanimity still applied there on the most important issues.

Consequences and evaluation

Even other small states had reservations about Ernst's proposal. If the duke first thought of submitting his plan to the Bundestag in the spring of 1856, he later sought support from the other princes and small towns. A group of states could then have gone to the Bundestag. However, it did not meet with any response. Jürgen Müller:

“The small states could not be mobilized; the great powers were not ready to enter into negotiations on representative bodies and the federal court; and after long hesitation in entering into the debate on reforming the federal constitution, the middle states finally drew up their own plans and concepts. "

supporting documents

  1. ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848–1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, pp. 220/221.
  2. ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848–1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, p. 222.
  3. ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848–1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, pp. 222/223.
  4. ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848–1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, p. 224.