Casino (faction)
Casino was the name of a since 25. June 1848 existing political group, the center-right in the Frankfurt National Assembly .
As with most parliamentary groups in the National Assembly, the name refers to the usual place of assembly of members of the parliamentary group in Frankfurt am Main . After the first beginnings in the Großer Hirschgraben, people came together in the exclusive premises of the Frankfurt Casino Company in the Roßmarkt 10 building , where a large part of Frankfurt's political elite has otherwise met since 1802.
Origin and members
Just as the convening of the National Assembly is largely based on preparatory work by people belonging to the casino, for example through the journalism of the Deutsche Zeitung as well as the significant participation in the Heppenheim Conference , the Heidelberg Assembly and the pre-parliament , the work of the National Assembly, especially the Paul's Church Constitution , largely determined by representatives of the Casino parliamentary group. The casino faction was the largest and most influential faction in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt . In October 1848, according to Johann Gottfried Eisenmann, there were 122 members; During the entire session of the National Assembly, the parliamentary group had over 200 different members.
With Heinrich von Gagern and Eduard Simson, until the fall of the National Assembly as part of the Reich constitution campaign, the casino provided the parliamentary president, Friedrich Daniel Bassermann the chairman of the constitutional committee, and a large part of the political prominence of the Frankfurt National Assembly with well-known liberal politicians: Examples are Hans Adolf Erdmann von Auerswald , Hermann von Beckerath , Georg Beseler , Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann , Johann Gustav Droysen , Max Duncker , Georg Gottfried Gervinus , August Hergenhahn , Felix Fürst Lichnowsky , Karl Mathy , Gustav von Mevissen , Friedrich von Raumer , Alexander von Soiron , Georg Waitz and Carl Theodor Welcker .
Self-image and goals
The representatives of the casino faction were predominantly moderately liberal or nationally liberal . The establishment of the casino was closely related to the deliberations on central government. Here the casino stood up for von Gagern's suggestion (“bold grip”) for Archduke Johann to be appointed imperial administrator . In the debates about the imperial constitution , it was argued for a federal structure in a narrower and wider federation, taking into account the particularities of the individual states and the national team. In an alliance with the Westendhall parliamentary group, the casino implemented the constitutional monarchy for the desired nation-state , which earned it the name Hereditary Imperial. The representatives of the casino parliamentary group advocated voting rights for the middle classes, limited by census barriers. The parliamentary group has no explicit program, but has adopted statutes. Instead, one relied on the “pragmatic action of an open community of ideas” (M. Botzenhart).
In September 1848, the left-wing Landsberg faction parted with politicians such as Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Jordan , Heinrich von Quintus-Icilius and Maximilian Heinrich Rüder . They wanted parliament to have a stronger position and the right to vote. On December 21, 1848, Welcker, Johann Gustav Heckscher , August Reichensperger and Victor Franz Freiherr von Andrian-Werburg split off from the right-wing Parisian court .
swell
- Max Duncker: Report of the commission (Schubert, Duncker, Langerfeldt, Zachariae) set up by the Society in the Casino to assess the main question on December 20, 1848 , Frankfurt a. M. 1848.
literature
- Heinrich Best , Wilhelm Weege (ed.): Biographical handbook of the members of the Frankfurt National Assembly 1848/49 , Düsseldorf: Droste 1996 (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties , vol. 8), ISBN 3-7700-5193-9 , P. 401 [List of MPs].
- Manfred Botzenhart : German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850 , Düsseldorf: Droste 1977 (= Handbook of the History of German Parliamentarism ), ISBN 3-7700-5090-8 , esp. Pp. 420–423.
- Detlef Hoffmann , Ute Wrocklage: The daguerreo-typed men of the Paulskirche. Portraits of parliamentarians of the first German National Assembly in Frankfurt 1848/49 . In: Bodo von Dewitz, Reinhard Matz (ed.): Silver and Salt. At the early days of photography in the German-speaking world, 1839–1860 . Catalog manual for the anniversary exhibition 150 Years of Photography, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-925835-65-2 , pp. 404–437 [illustration of the lithography, ibid., P. 431, fig. 59].