November Constitution

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The November Constitution ( Danish Novemberforfatningen ) of 1863 was a joint constitution for the Kingdom of Denmark and the Duchy of Schleswig . The full title was the Basic Law for the Common Affairs of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Duchy of Schleswig ( Grundlov for Kongeriget Danmarks og Hertugdømmet Slesvigs Fællesanliggender ).

The November constitution was supposed to bind Schleswig closer to the entire Danish state. It triggered the German-Danish War , which resulted in the loss of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg for the Danish monarch.

Goal of the November Constitution

The aim of the constitution was twofold. On the one hand, they wanted to bind Schleswig more closely to the kingdom. On the other hand, one wanted to eliminate Holstein from Danish-Schleswig affairs, since the noble Holstein representatives in the Danish government blocked a number of planned liberal reforms.

After the first German-Danish war (1848–51), the great powers stipulated strict adherence to the status quo : In the London Protocol of 1852, the position of the entire Danish state was recorded as a “European necessity”, and Denmark was not allowed to bind Schleswig more closely than it did Holstein.

In 1855 a bilingual community constitution was passed for the entire Danish state, which respected the independence of the individual parts of the state. In the kingdom constitutional monarchy ruled after the June constitution of 1849, in the duchies there was still absolutism with advisory assemblies of estates . At the same time, the state as a whole had a joint government, in which representatives of the kingdom's democracy as well as loyal Holstein nobles participated. Conservative landowners in Holstein, whose ancestors z. T. had served the Danish king for centuries, tolerated the state as a whole, but not constitutionalism and the loss of their privileges.

Liberal Schleswig-Holsteiners, on the other hand, welcomed constitutionalism, just not in a Danish state. The new community constitution was rejected by the Holstein assembly of estates in 1855 and, in 1858, after pressure from Prussia and Austria, was completely overridden for Holstein by the Bundestag in Frankfurt. It is questionable whether this already violated the provisions of the London Protocol. In Denmark it was feared that Holstein's dual role (a member of the entire Danish state and a member of the German Confederation ) would ultimately lead to the interference of German interests in Danish affairs.

Content of the constitution

As the title suggests, the constitution was not intended to abolish the existing Basic Law of Denmark from 1849, but to complete it and replace the community constitution of 1855. The constitution provided for a separate state statute and a separate state parliament for Schleswig. However, a common representative body " Reichsrat " should be responsible for matters that were not expressly reserved for the Danish Reichstag or the representative body of Schleswig. The Reichsrat should have two chambers, the Folketing and the Landsting . The latter should consist of MPs appointed by the king or elected by citizens with privileged voting rights. The free and universal suffrage of 1849 should therefore be restricted.

There was opposition in Denmark from two sides:

  • The supporters of the Danish state as a whole ( Danish helstatsfolkene , i.e. Denmark including Schleswig plus Holstein ) warned against the abandonment of Holstein. The rest of Europe would hardly have thanked Denmark for giving Germany additional war ports on the Baltic Sea (especially Kiel ).
  • The " Bauernfreunde ", however, were extremely skeptical about the deviations from the June Basic Law of 1849 through the planned restriction of universal suffrage.

consequences

The constitution was drawn up by the national liberal Prime Minister Carl Christian Hall . He presented it to the Reichsrat on September 28th. Despite skepticism, the government proposal received a majority.

When the politically uninterested King Frederik VII suddenly died on November 15th, the new King Christian IX was there. now in a dilemma:

  • If he signed it, it would probably mean an uprising or war with German states.
  • If he refused to sign or installed a new government, a Danish revolution threatened to break out.

Despite great concerns, Christian IX signed. on November 18, 1863 the draft constitution. One was probably aware that Denmark would not be able to hold its own in a military conflict with German states in the long term. However, there was hope that the great powers would intervene.

On December 7, 1863, the German Confederation imposed a federal execution on Holstein . Austria and Prussia occupied Schleswig from February 1864, outside the structures of the federal government. The German-Danish war between the two German great powers and Denmark led to a Danish defeat. Under international mediation, the king ceded the three duchies to Austria and Prussia in October. From then on, both powers ruled together as the Schleswig-Holstein condominium .

The November constitution, which had lost its function with the loss of Schleswig, was repealed by Denmark. Public opinion attributed the responsibility of the war to the national liberal government and an overly extensive democracy. In 1866, the principles of restricted electoral law were reintroduced into a constitutional revision. As a result, Denmark's political life was paralyzed over the next few decades, and it was not until 1915 that the privileged right to vote was revoked.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Society for Schleswig-Holstein History ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geschichte-sh.de

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