Note of twenty eight

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Reichsgesetzblatt with the Frankfurt constitution of March 28, 1849

The mark of twenty-eight was a collective mark of 28 German governments that recognized the Frankfurt constitution and the election of the Prussian king as German emperor. They called on Prussia to join them.

The note , a diplomatic letter, appeared on April 14, 1849. At that time, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV had already received the Frankfurt Imperial Deputation and had not yet accepted the crown for the German Empire , but referred to the necessary approval of the other states. On April 28, the king finally refused the crown.

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Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Had promised in March 1848 to position himself at the head of the national movement. In April 1849, however, he rejected the Frankfurt Imperial Constitution and the Imperial Crown.

The note refers to the circular note of the Prussian Foreign Minister of April 3, 1849, in which the German states were called upon to comment. The undersigned governments, the twenty-eight note now asserted, had seen that the King of Prussia was “inclined” to “take the lead in the German federal state”. The governments would give their consent to this election of the Reich Assembly (i.e. the Frankfurt National Assembly).

The 28 states also accepted the imperial constitution, even if they had different views on some points. The Prussian point of view is that the constitution is to be agreed between the Imperial Assembly and the states . If one consistently stuck to this point of view, however, one would make a result impossible. Individual states had also previously recognized the resolutions of the Imperial Assembly (National Assembly) as binding. A further delay in acceptance would put the common fatherland in great danger. The states expected Prussia to follow the same principles as them.

States involved

The 28 states in yellow as well as Württemberg and the revolutionary ruled areas of Saxony, Palatinate and Holstein in orange

The twenty-eight states were:

  • Grand Duchy of Baden
  • Electorate of Hesse
  • Grand Duchy of Hesse
  • Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach
  • Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
  • Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
  • Grand Duchy of Oldenburg
  • Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen
  • Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg
  • Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
  • Duchy of Brunswick
  • Duchy of Lauenburg
  • Duchy of Holstein
  • Duchy of Anhalt-Dessau
  • Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg
  • Duchy of Anhalt-Koethen
  • Duchy of Nassau
  • Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen
  • Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
  • Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont
  • Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
  • Principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
  • Principality of Reuss older line
  • Principality of Reuss younger line
  • Free City of Frankfurt a. M.
  • Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck
  • Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen
  • Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

These German middle and small states thus accepted the Frankfurt compromise of hereditary monarchy and universal suffrage. Their motive was that a German Empire helped them to secure their own insecure existence, also against the pressure of their people. After a joint conference of the representatives of the state governments with the Reich Ministry on April 14th in Frankfurt, the note was made. Some of the plenipotentiaries were members of the National Assembly themselves. Some had to postpone their concerns about substantive points in the constitution, others their fear of Prussia, or even of their own governments, because clear instructions were missing.

Submission of the Imperial Constitution (title page) "submitted to the Bavarian people for their own examination"

But the most powerful states were missing, namely (apart from Austria and Prussia) the four kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover and Württemberg. Wolfram Siemann : "No ruler of these German middle states was willing to a constitutional compromise on the democratic basis of 1848." These middle states had only received their sovereignty and royal dignity under Napoleon and did not want to give them up. They paralyzed the revolution as well as the rejection of the king and internal weaknesses in society. In Württemberg an impending uprising forced the king to accept it on April 25, 1849.

In addition to the 28 states and Württemberg, the Principality of Lippe-Detmold also recognized the constitution. Simon Kempny has thirty governments that have adopted the constitution. There were also the revolutionary provisional state governments in Saxony ( Dresden May Uprising ) and in the Palatinate .

See also

source

  • See 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. 118. (No. 111). The note of twenty-eight , pp. 401/402.

supporting documents

  1. ^ Helmut Jacobi: The last months of the provisional central authority for Germany (March-December 1849) . Diss. Frankfurt a. M., o. O. 1956, pp. 49/50.
  2. ^ Wolfram Siemann: 1848/49 in Germany and Europe. Event, coping, memory. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2006, p. 205.
  3. ^ Simon Kempny: The state financing after the Paulskirche constitution. Investigation of the financial and tax constitutional law of the constitution of the German Empire of March 28, 1849. Diss. Münster. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2011, p. 23.