Estates of the Duchy of Nassau
The estates of the Duchy of Nassau were the Landtag of the Duchy of Nassau between 1818 and 1866. As a result of the annexation of the Duchy by Prussia after the German War in 1866, the Nassau Communal Parliament or the Prussian House of Representatives became its successor.
prehistory
In contrast to many other territories of the old empire , the Nassau lands had no estates . This was due to the fragmentation of Nassau and the fact that there was no substantial class of nobles to be involved in Nassau. The estates of the Duchy of Nassau therefore had no direct predecessors.
From the founding of the duchy to the March Revolution
Article 13 of the Federal Act , the States undertook the German Federal , constitutions to adopt and establish a parliament. The Duchy of Nassau had already provided for a two-chamber parliament in the constitution of 1814 .
First chamber
The first chamber or gentlemen's bank should serve to represent the nobility. In addition to the princes of the ducal family - the duke himself as sovereign was not a member of the First Chamber - these were above all the landlords , the heads of the mediatized , formerly imperial families. These had lost their sovereignty in the context of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss and were supposed to be compensated politically. In addition to the noblemen, the duke was able to appoint other members of the eleven-member committee. With the ducal edict of November 4, 1815, the chamber was supplemented by six further members who were elected by the most highly taxed noble landowners.
Second chamber
The Second Chamber or State Deputy Assembly consisted of 18 elected members and four other members. Two groups were elected: the landowners and the traders.
Fifteen mandates were planned for the landowners. The deputies were directly elected in three constituencies ( Wiesbaden , Weilburg and Dillenburg ). The election took place in person at election meetings. Active voting rights required a minimum age of 25, and only men were eligible to vote. The right to vote was based on the tax payments ( census right to vote ). Eligible voters had to be classified in the group of the most highly taxed landowners. Furthermore, eligible voters were not allowed to be under trusteeship , bankrupt or have a criminal record . Due to these restrictions, only a small part of the population was eligible to vote. In 1825 there were around 1,750 people out of around 300,000 inhabitants. On average, 1,826 people or 2% of the population were eligible to vote in elections up to 1846.
The highest taxed traders had three seats in the second chamber. Here, too, the electoral requirements mentioned for the landowners were met. In 1825, around 200 people were eligible to vote in this group.
Four MPs represented the universities and churches. One representative each represented
- the higher schools
- the Lutheran religious community
- the religious community of the Reformed and
- the religious community of Catholics.
The election was for seven years. In the event of a member leaving, by-elections were planned. The chairman was appointed by the Duke on the basis of three proposals from the Chamber.
Skills, work
The powers of the state parliament were limited. The estates were convened by the duke. They were not allowed to meet in their own right. It was planned that a parliamentary session would take place every year from January to March. The Duke could also adjourn or dissolve the Chamber. The estates had no right of initiative; they could ask the ducal government for bills. There was a restricted budget right : the estates had the right to approve or reject taxes and the right to control the budget. The tasks also included controlling the judiciary.
The chambers decided on submissions separately (exception: both chambers decided on the budget together). If the two chambers did not agree, a mediation committee was planned.
First term
It was only four years after the constitution was promulgated that the Duke scheduled the first elections in early 1818. This was to prevent Parliament from participating in the basic establishment of the duchy. 39 nobles and 1,448 bourgeois landowners as well as 128 wealthy townspeople were eligible to vote. Measured against the 287,000 inhabitants of the duchy, the proportion of those eligible to vote in the population was 0.4 percent, which is low compared to other German territories. Only 265 people or 0.05 percent of the population had the right to vote for the Chamber of Deputies. On March 3, 1818, the estates met for the first time. Christian Wilhelm Snell became the first president of the second chamber . The deputies are listed in the list of deputies of the estates of the Duchy of Nassau (1818-1848) . In terms of content, the Herrenbank was the main focus in the first electoral term. They used the mediatized houses as a platform to exchange blows with the ducal government. The Nassau domain dispute was already an important topic.
Second legislative term
The second election to the second chamber took place in 1825. Many of the liberal deputies lost their mandate. Georg Herber , who had replaced Snell in this office in 1819, was confirmed as President of Parliament . From 1830 at the latest, the Nassau domain dispute dominated the work of the state parliament. On March 24, 1830, the deputies of the second chamber submitted a declaration that the domains were the property of the general public. The government strongly disagreed with this view. Chamber President Georg Herber was arrested and sentenced to three years imprisonment for "insulting the regent" and "injuries" against Bieberstein.
In 1831, the ducal government had made a pair push : through the edict of October 29, 1831, the appointment of additional members of the Herrenbank, which had meanwhile largely supported him, gave the duke a majority in the estates. The liberal opposition was thus made a minority and was unsuccessful in its attempt in November 1831 to refuse to raise taxes. The Herrenbank also voted down a lawsuit aimed at by the bourgeoisie against State Minister Bieberstein, which was intended to punish the enlargement of the Herrenbank.
Third term
In the elections of March 1832, the liberal forces prevailed and there was a clear liberal majority in the second chamber. However, due to the situation in the first chamber, this election victory did not result in an opposition majority in the estates as a whole. The bourgeois deputies therefore demanded that the Herrenbank be returned to its previous state. When the government refused to do so, the elected stopped the session and left the congregation on April 17th. The three clergymen, the teacher and a remaining deputy declared the rest of their rights forfeited and approved the ducal taxes. The boycotters were the MPs Joseph Adamy , Johann Adam Allendörfer , Jacob Bertram , Michael Dietz , the brothers Friedrich and Jacob Heinrich Eberhard , Friedrich Arnold von Eck , Philipp Fink , Georg Herber, Georg Hofmann , Nikolaus Kindlinger , Friedrich Lang , Philipp May , Friedrich Soot and Joseph Weiler . The boycotters were excluded from the 1832 by-election. There were practically no liberals in the Chamber of Deputies when it met again in 1833. Instead of Georg Herber, Georg Müller was appointed interim President of the Chamber. After the elections, Friedrich Eberhard was elected as the new president. The MPs were so intimidated by the events, the increased censorship and, above all, by the trials against a large number of liberals (at the head Georg Herber) that the Chamber no longer dared to attempt to work in the opposition.
Fourth legislative term
In the regular elections in 1839 there were almost no political changes: Liberal currents were practically not represented in the Chamber of Deputies.
Fifth legislative term
In the Chamber of Deputies, which emerged from the election in 1846, efforts to reform appeared again for the first time, possibly in connection with the previously increased pressure to reform in other parliaments in German territories, such as Baden and Württemberg. However, only the publication of the minutes of the meetings was implemented. The ducal government rejected other initiatives, such as a change in the composition in favor of the traders, oral and public court hearings, emancipation of Jews , freedom of the press, public meetings, reforms of the community order and a reduction in the wild population. The newly elected August Hergenhahn quickly established himself as the leader of the liberal faction.
German revolution
In Nassau, too , the March Revolution led to a new right to vote. After the Duke had accepted the “Nine Claims of the Nassau” on March 4, 1848, he had to accept a real parliament for the first time. The new (provisional) electoral law of April 5, 1848 made the following provisions: The two-chamber system was given up in favor of a single chamber (the assembly of estates). The deputies were elected in a general, secret and written vote via electors. The right to vote no longer depended on tax payment. The right to vote presupposed that the voters were community citizens within the meaning of the Nassau Municipal Law of December 12, 1848 . That meant coming of age, good repute and the ability to support a family. The form of the right to vote was also controversial in liberal circles. Wilhelm Zais and Franz Bertram, for example, took the position of carrying out a direct election with a low census of 3.2 gulden taxes, but were unable to prevail. Elections were made in 14 electoral districts , each comprising two offices. One member was elected for every 9600 inhabitants, so that there were four electoral districts with two members, seven electoral districts with three members and three electoral districts with four members. The right to stand as a candidate was limited to the fact that members of the government, the highest military officials and their servants could not be elected. The officials and prescription officers were not eligible for election in their constituency.
On May 1, 1848, the elections for the sixth state parliament took place according to the new electoral law (but still using the old municipal code of 1816 to define the municipality citizen). The members of the sixth electoral term are listed in the list of members of the state estates of the Duchy of Nassau (1848-1851) . More than 70,000 citizens were now entitled to vote. With 41 deputies, the Second Chamber had grown significantly, so that numerous candidates who had not appeared before were available for election, whose political views were mostly not clearly visible to the electors. In total, only three members of the fifth state parliament were re-elected. The formation of parliamentary groups began soon after the first parliamentary session on May 22nd.
On December 18, 1849, the new constitution of Nassau was passed as the most important decision of the assembly of estates. In addition, the parliament dealt in particular with issues that had driven the rural population to participate in the revolution: In July 1848, the right to hunt on foreign land was abolished. On December 18, 1848, a municipal law was passed that laid down elected mayors and municipal representatives. On December 24, the long controversial was tenth detachment in Nassau , decisive progress has by fixing the fee amount to 14 times the annual tithe income. An administrative law followed on April 4, 1849, which separated general administration and justice for the first time for the lowest level, a penal code and on April 14, the Courts Constitution Act, according to which criminal trials had to be conducted publicly and verbally and jury courts were introduced.
With the failure of the Frankfurt National Assembly in the summer of 1849, the Nassau state parliament split up. While the left-wing members held fast to the Frankfurt parliament, the right-wing members supported the Erfurt Union constitution, which was promoted by Prussia . In addition, the dispute over tax permits increased in intensity. While the right essentially supported the budget drafts of the ducal government, the left tried to push through an austerity program. This budget dispute led in March 1850 to the fact that the government postponed the state parliament until September 25th. In the spring of 1851 the left moved out of parliament as part of the still unresolved dispute. The Duke then ordered the dissolution, which took place on April 2, 1851 during the last session of the Landtag. This made the Nassau state parliament one of the last parliaments formed in the context of the German Revolution to meet at all.
Beginnings of the party system
With the March Revolution it became possible to form political associations , the predecessors of the later parties. However, the elections were still pure personality choices. There were just as few party lists as there were election campaigns for the individual groups.
The two extremes in the political spectrum were represented by the "Central Association for Religious Freedom" and the "Republican Society". The Central Association, founded in Limburg an der Lahn by Bishop Peter Josef Blum , Moritz Lieber and Johann Baptist Diehl , covered the Catholic-conservative camp from. Only a few members of the meeting of the estates were close to the Centralverein. The "Republican Society" advocated the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic . Few of the Nassau residents could come to terms with this requirement. The company was unsuccessful in the March elections.
The liberals were more successful: A number of local associations were founded, which merged in mid-1848 to form the “Federation of Democratic Associations”. Even if these associations enjoyed a high level of acceptance among the population, they were persecuted by the government and then dissolved again. The "Democratic Association Wiesbaden" was founded in Wiesbaden on July 12, 1848. Founding members were, among others, the MPs Carl Braun and Gustav Dünkelberg . However, the association was dissolved by the government just three days later. As a result, the "Association for the Protection of People's Rights" was founded as a successor organization. The founding members included Christian Minor , Friedrich Snell and Wilhelm Zais. These associations were dissolved with the victory of the reaction and are considered to be the forerunners of the Nassau Progressive Party .
The constitutional authorities were close to the revolutionary government of August Hergenhahn. On June 10, 1848, the "Society for Freedom, Law and Order" was founded as its organization, which since November 1848 has appeared as the "German Association". In addition to Hergenhahn, the MPs Franz Bertram, Remigius Fresenius, Daniel Düringer, Wilhelm Reichmann, Friedrich Lommel, Phillip Simon and Joseph Hess were spokesmen for this association. This association was also dissolved when the revolution failed in 1851.
In the middle of 1848, two large parliamentary groups formed in parliament, which solidified in the following months: On January 25, 1849, the “Club of the Left” was founded. Moderately liberal democratic politicians such as Carl Braun, Friedrich Lang and Friedrich Snell were represented. As a reaction to this establishment, the “Club of the Right” was formed on July 27, 1849, in which clerical-conservative MPs such as Johann Bellinger , Georg Rau or Reminius Fresenius came together. These groups were quite loose associations of like-minded MPs. There was no clear degree of group discipline. Changes of factions were not uncommon. The parliamentary groups also dissolved from 1851 onwards.
During the existence of the revolutionary meeting of the estates, a total of 50 members belonged to the body through by-elections. Of these, 18 were assigned to the right and 19 to the left. The other 13 voted more or less alternately.
Restoration time
In Nassau, as everywhere in the empire, the democratic gains of the revolution were swiftly undone in the reaction era. In Nassau, the edict of November 26th, 1851 introduced a new right to vote based on the provisions of the 1814 constitution. Two chambers were set up again. The regulations of the new constitution have been repealed.
The princes of the ducal house were represented in the first chamber, provided they were 21 years old. The gentlemen and other hereditary members (who were appointed by the duke) also took their seats again. In addition, there were the Catholic and Protestant regional bishops and nine members elected according to the census system: six representatives each of the most highly taxed landowners and three of the most highly taxed traders. The hereditary members had the right to be represented, the elected not.
The second chamber consisted of 24 members who were elected by indirect public election. For every 200 eligible voters, one voter was appointed according to the three-class suffrage . It was compulsory to vote . However, the voter turnout was low because of the limited influence of the voters (only three to four percent of the eligible voters took part). All innocent men over the age of 25 had the right to vote. These regulations ensured majorities of the conservative forces until 1862.
The budget right (with a two-thirds majority) was exercised jointly by both chambers.
These provisions marginalized the liberal opposition. The most important bearer of the opposition at this time was the Catholic Church. In the Nassau church dispute, the Limburg bishop Peter Josef Blum opposed the Nassau government and was covered with a criminal trial for it in 1853. It was not until the Convention of May 25, 1861 that an agreement was reached between the Church and the Nassau government.
Seventh term
There was no significant election campaign or journalistic preparation for the election, also because the local administrations forbade such gatherings and the press in general hardly made any political statements. On February 14 and 16, 1852, the highest taxed landowners and tradesmen, together less than a hundred people in the entire duchy, elected their six members of the first chamber. The electors were elected on February 9th. State officials dominated among them and presumably also among the voters. On February 18, the electors selected the deputies of the second chamber.
For the election of 1852, the number of eligible voters can be determined to be 70,490 for the first time. The turnout was three to four percent. In some municipalities the election did not take place at all due to a lack of interest. In contrast to previous parliaments, farmers, many of whom were also mayors of rural communities, made up the largest group among the members of the second chamber. Only four of the 24 MPs had previously belonged to the revolutionary chamber of estates. Left-wing MPs no longer belonged to the second chamber at all. The role of the opposition, especially with the slowly emerging Kulturkampf from the mid-1850s, was taken over by the representatives of political Catholicism .
The chairman of the second chamber was the liberal Karl Braun for the entire electoral term .
The rise of the liberals
Nassau Progress Party
In December 1863, shortly before the state elections, the Nassau Progressive Party was founded. It was the first formally founded party of the Duchy of Nassau and would remain the only one until its end. At the beginning of 1863, Theodor Dilthey , Hubert Hilf , Daniel Raht , Friedrich Schenck , Louis Gourdé , Christian Scholz and other liberals got together and worked out the program of the future party. This program was promulgated at town meetings across Nassau on March 1, 1863. They acknowledged the principles of liberalism, demanded the reinstatement of the imperial constitution of 1848 and the Nassau constitution of 1848 and the electoral law of that time, and strived for a German nation-state. The Nassau Progress Party saw itself as the Nassau section of the national association . See also German Progressive Party .
Ninth term
In the state elections on November 25, 1863, the Nassau Progressive Party achieved a clear victory out of the blue and won 17 out of 24 seats in the second chamber and even all nine electoral seats in the first chamber.
The Duke was determined to face this challenge with severity and appointed the conservative hardliner Joseph Werren as district president, to make it clear that he would not show any willingness to grant a concession. The position of the people and parliament was just as clear. In 42 signature lists with a total of 1,885 signatures, Nassau's citizens demanded a return to the constitution of 1849. In a second petition, 32 signature lists with 1,862 signatures were handed over to parliament for the reintroduction of the 1848 electoral law.
In the third session of the second chamber, the liberal MPs submitted a motion for the reintroduction of the 48th electoral law and the constitution. In response to this request, the Duke dissolved the state parliament session on August 20, 1864. On November 2, 1864, the state parliament was dissolved.
Tenth legislative term
The early elections for the tenth term took place on December 9, 1864. In order to achieve the desired result, the government relied on manipulation. The Progress Party was banned from gathering and the local administrations put considerable pressure on the voters. These measures have had limited success. Although the Conservatives won four of the seven seats in the second chamber, there was no stable government majority. This was evident in the handling of the Liberals' request to investigate the election rigging. The state parliament was unable to act. Meetings were boycotted partly by the Liberals and partly by the members of the government loyal to the government, and decision-making was prevented. The incapacitated state parliament was dissolved by the duke on May 4, 1865.
Eleventh and final term
The new elections took place largely undisturbed on June 24, 1865. The result was a landslide victory for the Liberals. The Nassau Progressive Party received 20 out of 24 seats in the second chamber and all electoral seats in the first chamber. As a result, the government changed its tactics. For one thing, Joseph Werren was dismissed as a sign of courtesy. On the other hand, the Duke remained tough on the crucial constitutional questions. The clear resolutions of the parliament to reintroduce the electoral law of 1848 and the constitution were simply not published in the official gazette by the Duke. The government ignored the decisions.
The Duke also resolved the last conflict between government and parliament by ignoring it: on June 26, 1866, parliament rejected the war budget against Prussia amounting to 500,000 guilders by 24 votes to 14. The Duke nevertheless entered the German War on Austria's side . As a result of the defeat, the Duchy of Nassau was annexed by Prussia . This also ended the mandate of the Nassau estates.
Parliament building
The stalls met from 1818 to 1843 in the city school on the market square in Wiesbaden. From 1844 until the end of the duchy in 1866, the ministerial building was the seat of the estates.
Presidents of Parliament
| Men's bench | Chamber of Deputies | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | from ... to | Surname | from ... to |
| August Freiherr von Preuschen von und zu Liebenstein | 1818 | Christian Wilhelm Snell | 1818 |
| Friedrich Graf von Ingelheim called Echter von Mespelbrunn | 1819-1824 | Georg Herber | 1819-1832 |
| Jacob Graf Elz called Faust von Stromberg | 1825-1831 | Georg Müller | 1832 (interim) |
| August von Kruse | 1835-1837 | Friedrich (Ernst) Eberhard | 1832 |
| Hans Carl Freiherr von Zwierlein | 1838 | Peter Thönges | 1833 |
| Jacob Graf Elz called Faust von Stromberg | 1839-1842 | Johann Georg Baldus | 1834-1836 |
| Johann Daniel Haas III | 1846-1847 | ||
| Wilhelm Otto | 1847-1848 | ||
| August Hergenhahn | 1848 | ||
| Meeting of estates | |||
| Surname | from ... to | ||
| Carl Schenck | 1848 | ||
| Carl Wirth | 1848-1851 | ||
| 1st chamber | 2nd chamber | ||
| Surname | from ... to | Surname | from ... to |
| Friedrich (Karl Anton) Georg Freiherr von Bock-Hermsdorf | 1852 | Carl Wirth | 1852-1858 |
| Karl Count von Walderdorff | 1853-1854 | Carl (Joseph Wilhelm) Braun | 1859-1863 |
| Georg Möller | 1855-1856 | Daniel Raht | 1864-1866 |
| Hans Constantin Freiherr von Zwierlein | 1857-1858 | ||
| Nicolaus (Nicolas) Prince of Nassau | 1859-1866 | ||
literature
- Nassau parliamentarians. Part 1: Cornelia Rösner: The Landtag of the Duchy of Nassau 1818–1866 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Nassau. 59 = Prehistory and history of parliamentarism in Hesse. 16). Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-930221-00-4 , pp. VII – XXXV.
- Bernd von Egidy: The elections in the Duchy of Nassau 1848-1852. In: Nassau Annals . Vol. 82, 1971, pp. 215-306.
- Winfried Schüler: The Nassau State Parliament of the Response Time. In: Nassau Annals . Vol. 115, 2004, pp. 325-341.
- Ders .: The Dukes of Nassau. In: Nassau Annals . Vol. 95, 1984, pp. 155-172.
- 175 years of the Nassau Constitution (PDF file; 8.46 MB)
- Minutes of the Landtag
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Ordinance sheet of the Duchy of Nassau 1848, pp. 73–89
- ↑ Wilfried Schüler states: Adoption in September 1849, sanction by the Duke on December 28th
- ↑ Official Gazette of the Duchy of Nassau in 1849, pp 613-635
- ↑ Official Gazette of the Duchy of Nassau in 1851, S. 267 and S. 333-337
- ↑ Nassauische Annalen: Yearbook of the Association for Nassau antiquity and historical research . tape 100 . Publishing house of the Association for Nassau Antiquities and Historical Research, 1989, p. 167 .
- ↑ Uwe Schultz: The history of Hesse . Theiss, 1983, ISBN 978-3-8062-0332-5 , pp. 176 .