Frankfurt Reich Election Act

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The Reich Law on the Elections of Members of the People's House ( Reich Election Law, Frankfurt Election Law ) of April 12, 1849 was a law of the Frankfurt National Assembly . It specified the Frankfurt Constitution of March 28, 1849. It describes who has the active and passive right to vote and how the elections are to be organized. By and large, the law prescribes a universal, equal, and direct choice (for men) that was rare in the world at that time. One example was the Federal Election Act of March / April 1848, according to which the National Assembly itself was elected.

According to the resolution of the National Assembly on May 4, 1849, the Volkshaus ( lower house ) of the Reichstag should be elected on Sunday, July 15. But on April 28, the Prussian king finally rejected the Frankfurt imperial crown; Prussia and other states began to openly fight the National Assembly. So they illegally ordered the Frankfurt deputies from their states to stay away from the National Assembly.

However, the Frankfurt Reich Election Act was still used. The Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck used it in his all-German, anti-Austrian propaganda to win over the German national movement. On June 10, 1866, he officially proposed it for a parliament in the German Confederation, and after the military victory over Austria it served as a template for the election for the constituent North German Reichstag and the first ordinary North German Reichstag (both in 1867). This Reichstag finally passed its own, similar federal electoral law in 1869 , which was adopted for the German Reich in 1871.

occurrence

The National Assembly saw itself as entitled to pass imperial laws in accordance with its provisional constitutional order . This also includes the electoral law. In the constitutional committee , the more right wing liberals like Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann had a majority. They wanted only innocent, independent Germans aged 25 and over to be allowed to vote. The following were considered to be non-self-employed: servants, day laborers, business assistants (except if they had municipal citizenship at their place of residence), as well as those who received poor relief from public funds. The minimum age for the right to stand for election was 30 years.

This would have severely restricted the general suffrage of 1848, as it had been implemented in Prussia, for example. Since the Reich election law was not due to be ready until later, the individual states would have determined many details, so that the first Reichstag would have been composed according to very different rules. The individual states also had different rules on how to obtain citizenship.

Draft by the committee

Members of the Constitutional Committee

The constitutional committee decided on October 25, 1848, to keep the electoral provisions from the constitution and to collect them all in the electoral law. At the beginning of January 1849, the Constitutional Committee discussed the report of a sub-commission that had been formed for this purpose. The following were defined even more strictly as non-self-employed: Who was under guardianship or trustee, servants, industrial assistants, who worked for daily, weekly or monthly wages, who received poor relief in the last year before the election, who did not have to pay income tax. Where there was no such tax, a voter had to earn at least 300 guilders a year. Common soldiers on active duty were also not allowed to vote. The choice was straightforward, but the choice was made by giving one's voice orally on record. There was a relative majority in the first and only ballot.

The left liberal Franz Jacob Wigard already made his displeasure clear in the committee: Such a pre-March right to vote would exclude the entire fourth estate . There were several compromise proposals in which, for example, dependent workers could vote if they had property or savings. After long meetings, the committee finally narrowly voted for a draft that excluded servants, factory workers, etc. The census determination was dropped, the passive voting age lowered to 25, but public voting remained. A candidate now needed an absolute majority of the votes, if necessary there should be a runoff in the third ballot. The director of the Prussian statistical office calculated that these guidelines would have excluded 68.92 of the adult Prussians from voting.

The historian Manfred Botzenhart joined the left-wing criticism of the time: "It took great courage to be unpopular to submit and defend such a draft." Dahlmann argued that the right to vote was not a fundamental right , but that the "best of all" belonged be determined. The masses would be at the mercy of demagogy , the seducers of the people. The left liberals, on the other hand, believed that this was an absolutist idea of ​​“limited subject understanding”, although they too did not want to allow the votes of the numerically superior lower classes to fully apply. Even in Dahlmann's own casino parliamentary group , support for the draft was weak: the MPs understood that they owed their mandate to voters who were to be politically disenfranchised in this way; their dilemma was that they wanted to guarantee the domination of the haves, but not to abolish the March achievements.

The left was in favor of universal and equal suffrage, including those who were wronged. Only recipients of poor relief and the incapacitated should be excluded, and those in bankruptcy only for the period in which their proceedings were ongoing. The right-wing liberal casino is not concerned with the majority, said the leftist Carl Vogt , but with the "extract of the minority". Civil servants and other members of the upper class are also servile, an impoverished master craftsman is no more independent than a well-paid skilled worker in the factory . The gymnastics father Jahn said indignantly that the true strength of the nation comes from the lower classes.

plenum

The draft was presented to the plenary session of the National Assembly on February 8th and the vote followed on February 20th: 21 MPs approved the draft, 422 rejected it. According to Botzenhart, this was “probably the most spectacular defeat that a committee proposal has suffered in the history of the National Assembly.” The National Assembly tended towards universal and equal elections. Oral voting was rejected with 249: 218 votes, the direct election was accepted with 264: 202 votes. But these were only preliminary decisions in the first reading, which ended on February 28th.

National Assembly in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt

In these and the following debates, the new party constellation came into play: The division into left and right was overlaid by the question of Großdeutsch or Kleindeutsch , which emerged in mid-February. Heinrich Simon von der Linke and Heinrich von Gagern from the center-right, who led the Hereditary Imperial Party, concluded a pact at the end of March : the Hereditary Imperialists would support democratic suffrage and the left the hereditary imperial crown for the Prussian king.

On the other hand, some members of the Right voted for democratic suffrage, in order to make it even more impossible for the Prussian king to accept the imperial constitution. On March 27, 1849, the National Assembly adopted the electoral law en bloc , without a roll-call vote, but with a “large majority”. The National Assembly saw the right to vote as a material part of the imperial constitution.

Finally, there was uncertainty as to whether the imperial administrator Archduke Johann would sign the law at all. Although the Reich legislation provided for this, Johann was dissatisfied with his position and with the constitution, which he did not want to sign. But since his Austrian confidants Rechberg and Schmerling had no objection to the signature, he signed the electoral law and immediately explained to the Reich Justice Minister Robert von Mohl that this had no precedent for the constitution. However, this was announced and put into effect by the National Assembly under its own responsibility.

content

The electoral law declared every German a voter who was subject to the following conditions:

  • at least 25 years old (§ 1)
  • blameless (§ 1), who has not lost the full enjoyment of civil rights under the laws of a single state (§ 3)
  • not under guardianship or trusteeship
  • no poor relief, at least one year before the election
  • not convicted of buying or selling votes, casting votes multiple times, or of improperly influencing the election (§ 4)

The prerequisites for eligibility, i.e. the passive right to vote:

  • right to vote
  • at least 25 years old (§ 5)
  • Citizen of a German state for at least three years (Section 5)

The constituencies within the individual states should include 100,000 inhabitants per the current census. Another constituency should be formed for a state surplus of 50,000 residents. Smaller states also formed their own constituency if they had at least 50,000 inhabitants. Even smaller states should be merged with other states. A constituency was to be divided into smaller districts (§§ 7-10). One elected at one's place of residence, the soldiers at their location (§ 11).

The election was direct and public as an electoral act. The secret voting (voting secrecy ) was not expressly stipulated, the formulation reads: "The right to vote is exercised in person by voting slip without a signature" (§§ 13, 14). The candidate in the constituency who received the absolute number of votes was elected. If there was no such majority, there was a second or even third election. Only the two candidates who received the most votes in the second took part in the third. If they had the same number of votes, the lot decided in the end (§ 14).

Annex A (the only one) stipulated for the constituencies that some smaller states should be merged with larger states (see § 9):

Erfurt electoral law

Only two months later, on May 26, 1849, Prussia, Saxony and Hanover agreed in the Three Kings Alliance to found their own empire. This company later became known as the Erfurter Union. Both the Erfurt Union Constitution and the Erfurt Reich Election Law partially copied their Frankfurt models literally. However, they changed them greatly to suit the taste of the monarchs, especially the right to vote.

The Erfurt electoral law limited the number of voters to “self-employed”. Anyone who paid direct state tax and had municipal citizenship at their place of residence was considered independent. Then those eligible to vote were divided into three groups based on the Prussian model ( three-tier voting rights ), which then elected electors. So it was a non-general, unequal and indirect choice. In contrast to the Frankfurt law, an election was actually held after the Erfurt, namely in 1849/1850 for the Erfurt Union Parliament . Parliament adopted the constitution on behalf of the people. However, Prussia delayed the further establishment of the new state and gave it up at the end of 1850 during the autumn crisis .

Application for the North German Confederation

North German Confederation 1866–1871

The Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck had a reform on 10 June 1866 requested the German Confederation, in which a national parliament was set up. The basis should be the Frankfurt election law of 1849; With this step Bismarck wanted to win over the national and liberal movement. In the 1850s, the German Confederation had branded the general and equal suffrage contained in the law as revolutionary. On the basis of his reform proposal, Prussia and its allies went to the German war .

The North German Confederation was founded through an agreement between the allied governments, the state parliaments of the respective states and a national parliament. In the beginning this existed just as little as the new state. The constituent North German Reichstag was therefore elected on the basis of laws of the individual states, the submission of which was the same Frankfurt Reich election law of 1849. This was established by Prussia and the other northern German states in an alliance agreement of August 18, 1866. Article 5 expressly speaks of the “Reich Election Act of April 12, 1849”.

The corresponding bill met with great resistance in the Prussian state parliament. Liberals on the left believed that there was no need for a new parliament for northern Germany; the other states should simply elect members of the Prussian state parliament, who would then vote on federal matters. Right-wing liberals and conservatives, as well as Catholics, were bothered by the equality of choice. Both groups also wanted the new federal constitution to be agreed not with a national parliament, but with the state parliaments. Here, according to Huber, we can already see the beginnings of a party federal state in which parties seek to use federalism via the individual state for their position of power. Paradoxically, it was the Liberals and Democrats who advocated a unified state.

The Prussian House of Representatives changed the first article of the electoral law by a large majority: The Reichstag should no longer discuss and agree the constitution , but only discuss it. The mansion agreed, despite concerns about universal, equal and direct election. The Prussian King had the electoral law for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation put into effect on October 15, 1866. It actually contradicted the alliance with the other northern German states; these passed corresponding electoral laws and election ordinances.

Comparison with the Prussian Reichstag election law

The Prussian law corresponds almost literally to the Frankfurt model. However, at the beginning (§ 1) it adds the purpose of the election, namely the election of a Reichstag "to advise the constitution and the institutions of the North German Confederation". At the end there are also provisions about the Reichstag that would normally have been in the Frankfurt Reich constitution: The Reichstag decides on the admission of its members, gives itself its own rules of procedure (Section 16, corresponding to Sections 112 and 116 FRV); Immunity of the members of the Reichstag (§ 17, wording of § 120 FRV).

The Prussian law also turns the "German" (§ 1 Law of 1849) into the "citizen of one of the German states joining the federation" (§ 2). “The governments of the individual states” (Section 17 of the Law of 1849), which divide up the constituencies, become the (Prussian) “State Government” (Section 15) in Prussian law. A substantial change concerns the casting of votes: The “voting slip without signature” (§ 13 Law of 1849) became a “concealed ballot slip to be placed in a ballot box” (§ 11) in 1866. In addition, the law of 1866 reduced the number of possible ballots from three (Section 14) to two (Section 12).

See also

swell

  • Ernst Rudolf Huber: Documents on German constitutional history. Volume 1: German constitutional documents 1803-1850. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1978 (1961). No. 108a (No. 103). Reich Law on the Elections of Members of the People's House of April 12, 1849 , pp. 396–399.
  • Ernst Rudolf Huber: Documents on German constitutional history. Volume 2: German constitutional documents 1851–1900. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1986. No. 197 (No. 186). Electoral law for the constituent Reichstag of the North German Confederation of October 15, 1866 , pp. 270/271.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 663/664.
  2. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, p. 664.
  3. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 664/665.
  4. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 665/666.
  5. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 667-670, 672.
  6. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 673/674.
  7. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 675, 679.
  8. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 688/689.
  9. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848–1850. Droste, Düsseldorf 1977, SS 676, p. 689.
  10. ^ Jörg-Detlef Kühne : The imperial constitution of the Paulskirche. Model and realization in later German legal life. 2nd edition, Luchterhand, Neuwied 1998 (1985) (also Habil.-Schr. Bonn 1983), p. 411.
  11. ^ Helmut Jacobi: The last months of the provisional central authority for Germany (March-December 1849) . Diss. Frankfurt a. M., o. O. 1956, p. 50.
  12. ^ Wolfram Siemann: 1848/49 in Germany and Europe. Event, coping, memory. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2006, p. 220.
  13. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1988, p. 646.
  14. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1988, p. 647.
  15. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1988, pp. 647/648.