Pressordonance
As Pressordonanz is called the decrees of Otto von Bismarck , whom he adopted on 1 June 1863 and with which freedom of the press in Prussia curtailed significantly. The action was directed primarily against politically liberal newspapers and magazines in the context of the Prussian constitutional conflict , in which a liberal- dominated House of Representatives refused the king, among other things, the necessary funds for the reorganization of the Prussian army and the Landwehr.
The Pressordonanz led to the first public protest of Crown Prince Frederick William against the policy of his father William I . During a state visit to Gdansk, he said in few and very reserved words that he was against this decree. This led to violent clashes within the royal family. Wilhelm I threatened his son to exclude him from all public functions. At the Prussian royal court it was suspected that the statements were made by Crown Princess Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland , who, as the daughter of Prince Albert and the British Queen Victoria , advocated a liberal Germany and hoped that Prussia would develop towards a constitutional monarchy with a strong parliament.
The Crown Prince had acted in full awareness of the fact that any public comment on this press order would be viewed by his father as subordination. King Wilhelm I accused his son of disobedience and threatened to release him from his functions within the Prussian army and expel him from the Privy Council . The reactionary younger brother of Wilhelm I, Prince Carl of Prussia , and General Manteuffel even spoke out in favor of bringing the Crown Prince to court martial. A little later, the Crown Prince informed his father that his conscience forced him to adhere to his position, but emphasized that he would no longer express himself publicly and that he was also willing to retire from his military offices. Wilhelm I did not accept this offer. In August there were two long conversations between father and son, but they did not bring any rapprochement. In September 1863, the Crown Prince asked to be exempted from attending the Council of Ministers meetings because he felt that his mere presence there brought him to the measures. He repeated this in November 1863 without this having any effect. In January 1864 there was another argument between father and son. The immediate reason was that Wilhelm I instructed his son not to discuss government matters with the Crown Princess, who was seen as the driving liberal force behind the Crown Prince. During this conversation, which the Crown Prince subsequently described as violent, Wilhelm I had accused his son, among other things, of being a man of the opposition whose actions one had to keep an eye on. Friedrich Wilhelm's biographer Frank Lorenz Müller points out that this attitude shaped Wilhelm's entire remaining reign - which lasted almost a quarter of a century.
literature
- Frank Lorenz Müller: The 99-day emperor. Friedrich III. of Prussia - prince, monarch, myth. Siedler, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-827500-17-5 .
- Hannah Pakula: Victoria. Daughter of Queen Victoria, wife of the Prussian Crown Prince, mother Wilhelm II. Marion von Schröder-Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-547-77360-1
Web links
- Dorothee Mußgnug: Bismarck's censorship law put to the test by the Heidelberg Faculty of Law on YouTube , accessed on June 20, 2019.
Single receipts
- ↑ Patricia Kolander: Frederick III - Germany's Liberal Emperor. Greenwood Press, Westport 1995, ISBN 0-313-29483-6 , pp. 25-45. Pp. 38-42.
- ^ Frank Lorenz Müller: The 99-day emperor. Friedrich III. of Prussia - prince, monarch, myth. , P. 37.
- ^ Frank Lorenz Müller: The 99-day emperor. Friedrich III. of Prussia - prince, monarch, myth. , P. 39.