Electoral Hesse constitution from 1831

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The Electoral Hesse constitution of 1831 is considered to be one of the most extraordinary, because it is relatively liberal, constitutions of German constitutionalism . She already received great recognition from contemporaries. Karl Marx praised it in 1859 as " the most liberal constitution [...] that has ever been promulgated in Europe ".

The Estates building in Kassel, 1832–36 by Julius Eugen Ruhl

History of origin

Old class constitution

After the negotiations between Elector Wilhelm I and the Althessian estates on a modern constitution failed in 1815/16 , the elector - contrary to the requirements of Article XIII of the German Federal Act of 1815 - renounced a constitution and reigned formally the old estates constitution, in fact, however, absolutist without the estates, since he did not convene them. Even the change of the throne to Elector Wilhelm II in 1821 - despite some reform approaches in the early days of his government - did not change this policy.

Constitutional Movement of the Revolution of 1831

It was not until the French July Revolution of 1830 , triggered by the pent-up political, economic and social problems, that the necessary pressure was generated so that the Electorate of Hesse also received a codified , modern constitution. At the beginning of September 6 were riots in Kassel , has spread to other Hessian widened cities and rural regions. Under massive pressure from the street, Elector Wilhelm II received a citizen's deputation under the Kassel Mayor Karl Schomburg and assured her that the estates would be convened and that a constitution would be drawn up. The convocation took place on September 19, 1830. The composition of the estates was still that of the traditional constitution of Old Hesse, which also meant that some of the deputies were appointed by the elector. On September 21, 1830, a delegation from Hanau arrived, demanding that those parts of the state that were previously not represented there should also be represented in the estates - including the county of Hanau , which "only" came to the then Landgraviate of Hesse in 1736 was. The elector gave the promise that those parts of the country should also be represented in the estates that were previously not represented there. However, he did not lift the tariffs, which Hanau particularly burdened and which the delegation had also requested to be lifted. When the delegation returned to Hanau on September 24th with this result, the revolution broke out here too. Two customs offices (Hanau and Mainkur ) and the shop of a seller of stamping papers were destroyed.

Negotiating the Constitution

The state parliament met on October 16. For the negotiations on the constitution, the elector appointed two state parliament commissioners, Otto von Porbeck and Karl Michael Eggena , as liaison officers between the government and the estates. At the beginning of October 1830, they submitted a first draft to the estates, the so-called sovereign proposition . This was based heavily on the design from 1816. However, the rapid adoption of the proposition hoped for by the government did not materialize. Rather, the estates wanted to discuss it.

During the discussions, the “electoral party” had no advocates within the estates, but was represented there by the two state parliament commissioners. The needle - four lords and knights - indeed sent seven representatives to the parliament, but were very limited anchor their state interests in the Constitution because their privileges were rejected by all the other parties involved. Not even the second chamber, which was otherwise customary at the time and essentially reserved for the nobility, was able to enforce it. The representatives of the peasants were - due to the right to vote - mainly large farmers and non-aristocratic landowners . Their interests largely coincided with those of the bourgeoisie. In this way the bourgeoisie could essentially determine the content of the constitution. A significant number of its representatives were lawyers. Sylvester Jordan , constitutional law teacher at the University of Marburg , became chairman of the constitutional committee of the estates and, with his liberal attitude, determined the content of the constitution. The result of the committee were the expert comments , which were now discussed by the estates. Here, however, the state parliament commissioners were involved again. Both sides pushed for a negotiation to be concluded, the elector because he believed he would then be able to bring his mistress , Countess Emilie von Reichenbach , back to Kassel, the bourgeois camp because the lower social classes continued to cause unrest, and both sides because they feared a federal execution . So a compromise came about. In December, the state ministry as a whole discussed the draft submitted by the state parliament, which was edited by the secret cabinet councilor Carl Rivalier von Meysenbug at the beginning of January . On January 5, 1831, the elector signed the constitution, which was solemnly proclaimed on January 8, 1831. The Bundestag of the German Confederation was unable to pass a resolution on the Hessian constitution. Prince Metternich and the Baden envoy Blittersdorf were strictly against it, Prussia supported the constitution out of opposition to Austria and the majority of the German middle states were in favor of protecting their own constitutions from interference by the German Confederation. A corresponding state constitution was in force without a veto by the German Confederation.

content

The constitution comprised 160 paragraphs .

government

Formally, the constitution adhered to the monarchical principle , even if the states' rights of participation were anchored above average. The executive , especially in the army , diplomacy and administration , remained largely in the hands of the prince.

Suffrage

The right to vote was established as a census right to vote through an electoral law, which, in accordance with Section 72 of the constitution, was part of it. In this way the bourgeoisie secured itself against the "lower" social classes.

Estates

Regional parliamentary participation was necessary in the adoption of the budget, especially in the approval of taxes . That was within the framework of what was customary at the time. In addition, however, the right of the estates went to legislative initiative .

Between the session periods there was a "Standing Committee" of the Landtag, which, however, had too few rights to really replace the Estates during this time. The elector alone had the right to convene and dissolve the estates. However, he was obliged to have new elections after the dissolution of the estates and then to convene the estates.

Fundamental rights

Numerous fundamental rights were enshrined in the constitution: equality before the law (Section 26), freedom of religion (Sections 29, 30), freedom of the person and guarantee of property (Sections 31, 32), freedom of occupation (Section 36), confidentiality of letters (Section 38) , Right of petition (§ 99), legal recourse guarantee and the prohibition of exceptional courts (§§ 112ff). The freedom of expression and freedom of the press (§§ 37, 39) were indeed guaranteed, but were under statutory reservation and were not put into practice until the 1848th

rating

Of the constitutions of the time, it was one of the most progressive because in some points it exceeded the rights granted to the estates in other states:

This made the Hessian constitution of 1831 probably the most liberal in Germany at the time of its creation. It was only surpassed by the constitution of the Kingdom of Belgium of 1831, which was drawn up almost at the same time, but which, due to the recent secession of Belgium from the Kingdom of the Netherlands , could come into being without any official influence.

practice

In practice, what was laid down in the Hessian constitution of 1831 only worked to a limited extent. In Friedrich Wilhelm (Prince Regent from 1831 to 1847, then Elector), the constitution met an extremely backward-looking, inconsiderate and politically incompetent sovereign. He immediately tried everything to overturn the constitution. This is reflected in a corresponding personnel policy, such as the appointment of the ultra-conservative Ludwig Hassenpflug as the leading minister who led the anti-constitutional policy. He survived four ministerial charges by the state parliament. In retrospect, this proved the uselessness of the ministerial indictment as an instrument to control the government. The state parliament was now always dissolved by the elector when resolutions threatened that were unpleasant. The composition of the state parliament was also manipulated in new elections.

Elector Friedrich Wilhelm did not shy away from breaking the law, which led to the constitutional conflict of the Electorate of Hesse in 1850, and the subsequent deployment of foreign soldiers, the so-called penal Bavaria . In 1852 the constitution was unilaterally changed by the elector. After long disputes that followed, the constitution of 1831 was partially restored in 1860 and fully restored in 1862. The conflicts between the elector and the bourgeoisie reflected here meant that the Kingdom of Prussia was able to annex the electorate without any problems after the war of 1866 , because the bourgeoisie was happy to get rid of the unloved sovereign and to be integrated into an economically much more efficient, larger unit.

literature

  • Files and letters from the beginning of the Hessian constitutional period 1830–1837 , ed. v. Hellmut Seier , Elwert, Marburg 1992 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse , 48.4; Prehistory and history of parliamentarism in Hesse , 8).
  • Reinhard Dietrich and Wolfgang Birkenstock: The Hessian constitution of 1831. In: Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 29 (1985), pp. 431-462.
  • Horst Dippel : The Hessian constitution of 1831 in an international comparison. In: Historische Zeitschrift 282 (2006), pp. 619–644.
  • Ewald Grothe : Constitution and Constitutional Conflict. The Electorate of Hesse in the first Hassenpflug era 1830–1837. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-428-08509-4 . (= Writings on constitutional history , 48).
  • Ewald Grothe: Monarchical or parliamentary principle? The emergence of the Hessian constitution of the year 1831. In: Roland Gehrke (Hrsg.): Aufbruch in die Moderne. Early parliamentarism between the old-class order and monarchical constitutionalism 1750-1850. Silesia - Germany - Central Europe , Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2005 (= New Research on Silesian History , 12), pp. 103–118.
  • Philipp Losch : The history of the Electorate of Hesse. Elwert, Marburg 1922.
  • Roger Mann: The guarantee of freedom of the press under the Kurhessischen constitution of 1831. P. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-631-46458-4 .
  • Friedrich Murhard : Basis of the current constitutional law of the Electorate of Hesse. Represented in accordance with the individual paragraphs of the constitutional document of January 5, 1831. Bohné, Kassel 1835.
  • Hellmut Seier : On the origin and meaning of the Hessian constitution of 1831. In: Walter Heinemeyer (Hrsg.): The constitutional state as guarantor of legal peace. Speeches in the Hessian state parliament for the 150th anniversary of the constitution of the Electorate of Hesse. Historical Commission for Hesse, Marburg 1982, pp. 5-71.
  • Christian Starck : The Hessian constitution of 1831 within the framework of German constitutionalism. kassel university press, Kassel 2007, ISBN 978-3-89958-255-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Marx: Unrest in Germany. In: Ders./F. Engels, works . Vol. 13, Berlin 1961, pp. 535–539, here p. 536. He added: “There is no other constitution that keeps the powers of the executive within such narrow limits, that makes the administration so dependent on the legislature and the The judiciary entrusted such extensive control ”. The article, written in Paris, first appeared on December 2, 1859 in the New York Daily Tribune.
  2. ↑ “ A state constitution will take place in all states . "
  3. ↑ Losch, p. 151 f.
  4. ↑ Dietrich, p. 442.
  5. ↑ Dietrich, p. 450.
  6. ↑ Mehrdad Payandeh : Judicial Generation of Law. Theory, dogmatics and methodology of the effects of prejudices. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-16-155034-8 . P. 78.