North German measure and weight order
The North German Measure and Weight Order (in the Law Measure and Weight Order for the North German Confederation ) was a federal law of the North German Confederation . She introduced the metric system in this country.
The regulation of August 17, 1868 continued to apply even after the North German Confederation was renamed the German Empire (1871). It did not come into force until January 1, 1872, and in some cases it abolished centuries-old weights and measures.
Preparatory work in the German Confederation
Already in pre-March standardizing coinage system, weights and measures a topic was German Confederation was. In 1821, the Württemberg parliament envoy suggested Karl August von Wangenheim in the Bundestag before that one member state should make the request to issue a corresponding preliminary federal law. In fact, the Bundestag came to a unanimous decision. This and other advances (for example at the Vienna Ministerial Conference in 1834 ) did not, however, lead the member states to initiate negotiations. In some cases, some states regulated a certain standardization among themselves.
The institutions of the revolutionary German Empire in 1848/1849 were too preoccupied with other problems. However, the Dresden Conference , which helped to regulate the restoration of the German Confederation, demanded in its final report of April 25, 1851 that standardization be brought about. In the trade policy committee of the Bundestag, however, the topic was hardly discussed.
Movement did not emerge until 1860 after several states demanded progress on this increasingly important issue. The trade policy committee pointed out that the federal government was quite competent, in accordance with Article 19 of the Federal Act and Articles 64 and 65 of the Vienna Final Act. A standardization is useful and desirable, but the preference for the familiar is an obstacle. Some committee members said that the goal had already been largely achieved, as many were oriented towards the Prussian customs pound (500 grams each ).
In 1861 the committee published a report and draft. After negotiations by a commission in Frankfurt in July 1865, he finally presented on December 1, 1865 a “draft of a German order of measurements and weights”. On February 22nd, 1866, the Bundestag accepted it. 16 states officially showed their willingness to introduce the order. However, the end of the German Confederation in the summer of 1866 ended the attempt to reinforce uniform weights and measures as a federal law.
North German Reichstag
In the northern German federal state, the parliament, the Reichstag , received a draft on May 13, 1868. The draft law essentially corresponded to the draft of the German Confederation of 1865. A Reichstag commission presented a report in June. In their opinion, the juxtaposition of weights and measures in Germany led to serious problems. She therefore welcomed the metric and decimal systems, as they had already been introduced in other European countries. The commission rejected deviations such as a medical weight.
In the Reichstag itself, the draft was debated on June 13th. While the representatives of the Federal Council held back, the commission defended the draft against the concerns of individual MPs. The historian Pollmann calls the debate an example of open will-formation, as it did in the Reichstag. In the end, the Reichstag accepted the draft with a large majority with minor changes.
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The measure and weight system prescribes “the meter” as the basis for measures and weights. Units are subdivided according to the decimal system (Art. 1). The kilogram is “the weight of a liter of distilled water at + 4 gr. of the hundred-part thermometer ”(Art. 6). Furthermore, units derived from this are introduced, such as the centimeter and the decagram.
For most units, a traditional designation is offered as an alternative, for example: "the meter or the stick ", "the centimeter or the new inch ", "the liter or the jug ". Of these designations, only the area dimensions "Ar" for one hundred square meters and "hectares" for ten thousand square meters and some weights such as the " ton " for 1000 kilograms have really become established . Ar and hectare, however, are not old German names, rather they come from the time in France when the metric system was invented.
| Surname | size |
|---|---|
| Rod | 1 m |
| New customs | 1 cm |
| Line | 1 mm |
| Chain | 1 dam |
| Ar | 100 m² |
| Jug | 1 l |
| Pint | 0.5 l |
| Barrel | 1 hl |
| bushel | 50 l |
| mile | 7500 m |
| lb | 0.5 kg |
| New Loth | 1 day |
| Hundredweight | 50 kg |
| ton | 1000 kg |
The order expressly refers to a "original measure" and a "original weight" which are kept by the Prussian government (Art. 2 and 5). In 1860 a Franco-Prussian commission compared this platinum rod and the platinum kilogram with the “Mètre des Archives” or “Kilogramme prototype” in Paris. The conversion of the old weights and measures into the new ones is the task of the German state governments (Art. 21).
In addition, the regulation introduces a federal “normal calibration commission” in Berlin. It is supposed to monitor handling in the federal territory and ensure uniform rules. In addition, there are regulations on the calibration system and the calibration offices, so that dimensions and weights do not deviate too much from the target. Dimensions, weights and scales should be marked as calibrated by a stamp, for which a fee has to be paid.
With regard to the weight of the coins , the regulations refer to the Mint Treaty of 1857 (Art. 8).
The regulations come into force on January 1, 1872 (Art. 21). Anyone who wants to use the weights and measures earlier can do so from January 1, 1870, provided that the parties involved are in agreement (Art. 22).
consequences
The measure and weight system appears under the federal laws which, according to the Federal Constitution of January 1, 1871 (Art. 80), should apply in the entire federal territory (extended to include southern Germany). A law of April 16, 1871 confirmed the introduction in the federal territory on January 1, 1872.
See also
Web links
supporting documents
- ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848-1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, pp. 435–437.
- ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848-1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, pp. 437/438.
- ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848-1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, pp. 441–443.
- ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848-1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, pp. 450/451.
- ↑ Klaus Erich Pollmann: Parliamentarism in the North German Confederation 1867-1870 , Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1985, p. 464/465.
- ↑ Klaus Erich Pollmann: Parliamentarism in the North German Confederation 1867-1870 , Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1985, p. 391, 465.
- ^ Jürgen Müller: German Confederation and German Nation 1848-1866. Habil. Frankfurt 2003, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, p. 451.