November contracts
The November treaties are the state treaties concluded in November 1870 on the accession of the kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg , the grand duchies of Baden and Hesse to the North German Confederation . A re-establishment was not planned, rather the north German federal state should expand with the southern German states to form the German Empire .
The November contracts are detailed
- the agreement between the North German Confederation and Baden and Hesse on the "establishment" of the "German Confederation" (not to be confused with the German Confederation of 1815) of November 15, 1870
- the treaty of the North German Confederation with Bavaria of 23 November
- the treaty of the North German Confederation with Württemberg of November 25th.
As a result, the constitution of the North German Confederation had to be adapted. Many changes appeared in the constitution of the German Confederation of January 1, 1871, but Württemberg had already ratified the treaty, which meant that the new constitution was already obsolete. Bavaria followed with the ratification at the end of January, but let the legal effect begin retrospectively on January 1st.
On January 18, 1871, the proclamation of emperor in Versailles followed, which, from a legal point of view, did not represent the establishment of an empire, but rather an assumption of office . In order to bring the constitutional law up to date, the constitution for the German Reich was passed on April 16 .
prehistory
Franco-German War
After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the North German states united under Prussian leadership to form the North German Confederation . In 1870 France declared under Napoleon III. Prussia launched the war and thus triggered the Franco-German War. France was surprised that Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse stood by Prussia, even though mutual protection and defensive alliances had existed since 1866 .
During the victorious war, an approaching unification had been paved, and the way for the establishment of an empire was cleared. Otto von Bismarck , chancellor of the North German Confederation , urged the purposes of the small German solution of joining the remaining southern states sovereign Grand Duchy of Baden, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Kingdom of Württemberg and the Kingdom of Bavaria. Their governments faced the unity movement differently. It therefore took diplomatic skills to simultaneously preserve the apparent sovereignty of the southern German states and to anchor unity in constitutional law. In addition, foreign policy suspicions of the remaining European powers ( Russian Empire , Austria-Hungary and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ) had to be avoided.
Attitudes in Baden, Württemberg and Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Baden unreservedly supported the agreement. Grand Duke Friedrich I and Prime Minister Julius Jolly had already expressed their wishes for membership on September 3, 1870. They had already applied for entry into the North German Confederation in 1867 and repeatedly in the spring of 1870, which the North German Reichstag, however, at Bismarck's instigation, rejected because of foreign policy considerations ( Lasker interpellation ).
The Kingdom of Württemberg had a great German-Austrian mindset. Under the influence of the Württemberg German Party , the cabinet under King Charles I sent an envoy to the German headquarters in France on September 12th to negotiate a union with the North German Confederation.
The government of the Grand Duchy of Hesse was more of a Greater German setting, but the North Hessian province of Upper Hesse and the troops of South Hesse were already part of the North German Confederation, which created a certain predicament for the government under Grand Duke Ludwig III. meant. The population and the heir to the throne, who later became Ludwig IV, also endorsed the small German solution. Accordingly, the government abandoned the Greater German idea and entered into negotiations with the North German Confederation.
Attitude in Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was from all four sovereign States of a small German unity hostile to most. King Ludwig II was always concerned with independence and independence. In order not to be isolated, Bavaria entered the negotiations with the proposal of a new constitutional alliance. This constitutional alliance resulted in the establishment of a new federation with a new federal constitution.
Bayern had the Prussian King Wilhelm letter can promise to preserve the independence and integrity of Bavaria. Through the contract of November 23, 1870 between the North German Confederation and the Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria retained not only cultural and tax sovereignty but also numerous other so-called reserve rights , such as its own army , postal service and its own railroad . The Bavarian state parliament accepted this treaty in January 1871 after great opposition, especially from the Bavarian patriots .
signing
Preparatory conferences were held in Munich from September 22nd to 26th, 1870. Bavaria's resistance dwindled, also because of individual talks with Otto von Bismarck in October and further influence on the Bavarian King Ludwig II. Baden and Hesse submitted applications for membership in October, so that the pressure on Württemberg and Bavaria increased again.
From the end of October, negotiations were held at the German headquarters at Versailles with the authorized ministers of the four southern German states. Saxon representatives were also included. At that time the siege of Paris was still in full swing. The result of the negotiations was the agreement to convert the North German Confederation into a German Confederation through the addition of the southern German states . The North German Federal Constitution should be analogous to the German Federal Constitution.
This result was concluded in the constitutional treaties of November 1870 and two separate military conventions with the four new states: First, on November 15, the treaty between the North German Confederation on the one hand and Baden and Hesse on the other, based on the unchanged acceptance of the North Germans, came about Federal constitution established. As a result, the name of the North German Confederation was changed to "German Confederation", even if the ratifications of the constitutional treaties were still pending. After negotiations with Bavaria and Württemberg, the North German Federal Constitution and the most important laws of the North German Confederation were modified: Overall, the federal elements were emphasized more strongly than the North German Confederation of 1867. On November 23, Bavaria joined the treaty between the North German Confederation and Baden and Hesse in Berlin on this new basis; Württemberg followed in Berlin on November 25th. All treaties came into force on January 1, 1871, which is why this day marks the formal birth of the German Empire . On November 8th, there followed approval agreements with Bavaria and Württemberg, Baden and Hesse on the agreements concluded between Württemberg, Baden and Hesse and the North German Confederation or Bavaria and the North German Confederation.
The November treaties required the approval of the people's representatives of the North German Confederation as well as the people's representatives, as they created a new state with the German Confederation (the name was only changed later) and changed the existing North German Federal Constitution. The parliaments of Württemberg, Baden and Hesse ratified the treaties in December 1870, Bavaria on January 21, 1871 with clear majorities. In the vote in the North German Reichstag after the third reading on December 9, 1870, it was mainly the Polish, Danish and Welf members who voted against. Other opposing camps stayed away from the vote. The Federal Council of the North German Confederation voted on the same day to change the names to "German Empire" and "German Kaiser". On December 10, 1870, the constitutional amendment passed the Reichstag.
classification
The November treaties prepared the so-called founding of an empire by regulating the conditions for joining the southern states. The constitution and the political system hardly changed. The special rules for some southern states, the so-called reservation rights, were of lasting importance. Württemberg and Bavaria were allowed to levy their own consumption taxes and railway tariffs and were given special rights in the postal and telegraph systems. Saxony as well as Württemberg and Bavaria were allowed to maintain their own armies; while these states, along with Prussia, administered their own armies , the remaining provincial contingents were united with the Prussian army . These rights and other exceptions remained in force until 1918, even if most of them did not appear in the constitutional texts of January 1 and April 16, 1871.
The unification of the empire was complete and the German Reich was founded: by "founding an empire from above", the agreement of the governments on the one hand and the consent of the parliaments on the other.
literature
- Ernst Rudolf Huber : Documents on German Constitutional History , Vol. II: German Constitutional Documents 1851–1900 , 3rd Edition, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne / Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-17-001845-0 , No. 219 ff.
- Hartmut Maurer : Origin and foundations of the imperial constitution of 1871. In: Joachim Burmeister (Hrsg.): Verfassungsstaatlichkeit. Festschrift for Klaus Stern on his 65th birthday , Munich 1997, pp. 29–48.
- Klaus Stern : The constitutional law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Volume V: The historical foundations of German constitutional law. The constitutional development from the Old German Empire to the reunified Federal Republic of Germany. CH Beck, Munich 2000, Rn. 128 f.
Web links
supporting documents
- ↑ a b See on this Michael Kotulla , Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. From the Old Empire to Weimar (1495–1934) , 2008, marginal no. 2014 .
- ↑ a b Protocol regarding the agreement between the North German Confederation, Baden and Hesse on the establishment of the German Confederation and adoption of the Federal Constitution of November 15, 1870.
- ↑ a b Treaty on Bavaria's accession to the Constitution of the German Confederation, including the final protocol of November 23, 1870.
- ↑ a b Treaty on the accession of Württemberg to the constitution of the German Confederation, together with the associated protocol of November 25, 1870.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Klaus Stern : The state law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Volume V: The historical foundations of German constitutional law , CH Beck, Munich 2000, Rn 128.
- ↑ Klaus Stern: The constitutional law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Volume V: The historical foundations of German constitutional law , CH Beck, Munich 2000, Rn. 127.
- ^ Christian Heitsch: The execution of the federal laws by the states , Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-16-147645-X , pp. 59-60, note 153.
- ↑ Julia Cholet: The budget of the German Empire in the Bismarckian era , Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2012, p. 243 f.
- ^ Tim Ostermann , The Constitutional Position of the German Emperor after the Imperial Constitution of 1871 , Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2009, p. 19 f. ; Hans-Peter Ullmann , Politics in the German Empire: 1871–1918 , 2nd edition, Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, p. 57 ; Christian Jansen , Wilhelminian style and nation building 1849–1871 , Schöningh, Paderborn 2011, p. 10 ; see. to Hans-Ulrich Wehler , German Social History , CH Beck, Munich 1995, p VII / VIII: "The second phase of, the German dual revolution '/ The German Industrial Revolution - The political revolution of the Empire' from above '1849-1871 / 73 "; "The 'Revolution from Above' from 1862 to 1871".