Prussian House of Representatives

The Prussian House of Representatives (House of Representatives) was until 1918 after the three-class electoral elected Second Chamber of the Prussian State Parliament next to the Prussian mansion . It was established by the Prussian Constitution of December 5, 1848, decreed by Friedrich Wilhelm IV . The term House of Representatives was introduced in 1855. The MPs were usually identified with the suffix MdA or MdPrA , occasionally also MdHdA .
In 1899 the MPs moved into a new building for the state parliament at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 5/6 . The building complex extended to Leipziger Strasse , where the new mansion could be moved into in 1904. The architect was Friedrich Schulze . Since several renovations and a reconstruction in the late 1990s, the building on Niederkirchnerstrasse has housed the Berlin House of Representatives and the one on Leipziger Strasse the German Federal Council .
Suffrage
The election of the deputies of the Prussian state took place from the second legislative period according to the three-class suffrage . The electoral process was indirect . The eligible voters elected in the primary election - divided into three classes - electors and these then the representatives of their electoral district. Several attempts to reform the conservative franchise, which was heavily favored by the Conservatives, were rejected by the manor. The right to vote - one of the most progressive in Europe when it was introduced - therefore remained relatively unchanged until 1918. The House of Representatives decided to abolish it in 1918, but the decision became obsolete when the republic was founded.
Every male Prussian from the age of 24 who had lived in a Prussian community for at least six months and had not lost civil rights or received public relief for the poor through a final judgment was entitled to vote. Anyone who had reached the age of 30, had been Prussian for at least three years and had not lost their civil rights as a result of a final judgment could be elected as a Member of Parliament.
Terms of office
The electoral period (WP) initially lasts three years and, like that of the Reichstag, was extended to five years in 1888. However, the House of Representatives was dissolved prematurely by the King several times: First in the 1st WP on April 27, 1849, then in the 6th WP on March 11, 1862, in the 7th WP on September 2, 1863, in the 8th WP on May 9, 1866, in the 9th WP on September 22, 1867; in the 11th WP on October 5, 1873, in the 12th WP on October 14, 1876, in the 13th WP on September 15, 1879; the last two dissolutions of the House of Representatives were only ordered again in the 20th WP on June 1, 1908 and in the 21st WP on May 7, 1913. From 1849 to 1918 there were 22 terms:
WP | Date primary elections |
Election of MPs |
Beginning of the electoral term |
End of term |
---|---|---|---|---|
I. | 02/05/1849 | 02/26/1849 | 04/27/1849 | |
II | 07/27/1849 | 08/07/1849 | 05/19/1852 | |
III | 11/03/1852 | 11/29/1852 | 05/03/1855 | |
IV | 10/08/1855 | 11/29/1855 | 10/26/1858 | |
V | 11/23/1858 | 01/12/1859 | 06/05/1861 | |
VI | December 6th, 1861 | 01/14/1862 | 03/11/1862 | |
VII | 05/06/1862 | 05/19/1862 | 05/27/1863 | |
VIII | 10/28/1863 | 11/09/1863 | 02/23/1866 | |
IX | 07/03/1866 | 08/05/1866 | 07/24/1867 | |
X | 10/30/1867 | 11/07/1867 | 11/15/1867 | 02/12/1870 |
XI | 11/09/1870 | 11/16/1870 | 12/14/1870 | 05/20/1873 |
XII | 10/28/1873 | 04/11/1873 | 11/12/1873 | 06/30/1876 |
XIII | 10/20/1876 | 10/27/1876 | 01/12/1877 | 02/21/1879 |
XIV | 09/30/1879 | 07.10.1879 | 10/28/1879 | 05/11/1882 |
XV | October 19, 1882 | 10/26/1882 | 11/14/1882 | 05/09/1885 |
XVI | October 29, 1885 | 05/11/1885 | 01/14/1886 | 06/28/1888 |
XVII | 10/30/1888 | 11/09/1888 | 01/14/1889 | 07/05/1893 |
XVIII | 10/31/1893 | 11/07/1893 | January 16, 1894 | 05/18/1898 |
XIX | 10/27/1898 | 11/03/1898 | January 16, 1899 | 07/01/1903 |
XX | 11/12/1903 | 11/20/1903 | January 16, 1904 | 04/09/1908 |
XXI | 06/03/1908 | 06/16/1908 | 06/26/1908 | 05/07/1913 |
XXII | May 16, 1913 | 06/03/1913 | 06/12/1913 | 11/15/1918 |
composition
The number of members was initially 350, since the incorporation of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen (1849) 352. In the elections of 1855, the 352 seats in the House of Representatives, based on the provinces, were made up as follows: Prussia received 54 seats, Posen 30 , Silesia 66, Brandenburg 45, Pomerania 25, Saxony 38, Westphalia 31 as well as the Rhine Province and Sigmaringen 63.
As a result of the Prussian annexations after the war with Austria in 1866, the number of members rose to 432 from the election in 1867: Schleswig-Holstein received 18 members, Hanover 36, the district of Kassel 14 and the district of Wiesbaden 12, a total of 80 members. In 1876 an additional seat was added for the Duchy of Lauenburg. In 1906 the number of members was increased by ten seats and was 443 from the election in 1908.
The members of the House of Representatives received parliamentary allowance , but the members of the Reichstag did not receive them until 1906. That is why many members of the Reichstag also sat in the House of Representatives. In 1903 110 members of the Reichstag were also members of the House of Representatives and thus almost half of the 236 Prussian members of the Reichstag. After 1906 the number of double memberships fell significantly, in 1913 it was 45.
From 1862 there was a clear liberal majority in the House of Representatives . In the Prussian constitutional conflict, the liberals were subject to Otto von Bismarck, who argued with the gap theory . After the war in 1866, the National Liberals split off from the Liberals . Together with the Conservatives, the National Liberals dominated Prussian politics until 1918.
The strengths of the parliamentary groups (including interns) since 1867, at the beginning of each electoral term:
1867 | 1870 | 1873 | 1876 | 1879 | 1882 | 1885 | 1888 | 1893 | 1898 | 1903 | 1908 | 1913 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
conservative | 123 | 114 | 9 | 12th | 106 | 116 | 134 | 129 | 142 | 145 | 143 | 151 | 149 |
New Conservatives | (34) 1) | 25th | 25th | ||||||||||
Free Conservatives | 54 | 50 | 35 | 34 | 57 | 58 | 62 | 64 | 63 | 58 | 61 | 59 | 53 |
center | 52 | 88 | 88 | 97 | 98 | 100 | 99 | 95 | 100 | 96 | 104 | 103 | |
National Liberals | 97 | 111 | 174 | 175 | 103 | 69 | 70 | 88 | 90 | 73 | 78 | 66 | 73 |
Liberal Association | (17) 2) | 20th | 43 3) | 29 3) | |||||||||
Progress party | 45 | 48 | 69 | 67 | 36 | 37 | |||||||
Liberal People's Party | 14th | 24 | 24 | 28 | 41 4) | ||||||||
Liberal Association | 6th | 12th | 9 | 8th | |||||||||
SPD | 7th | 10 | |||||||||||
Poland Party | 16 | 19th | 17th | 15th | 19th | 18th | 15th | 15th | 17th | 13 | 13 | 15th | 12th |
Danes | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Right center | 24 | ||||||||||||
Left center | 32 | ||||||||||||
Non-attached | 39 | 36 | 13 | 15th | 13 | 15th | 7th | 7th | 4th | 6th | 7th | 3 | |
Total | 432 | 432 | 432 | 433 | 433 | 433 | 433 | 433 | 433 | 433 | 433 | 443 | 443 |
zusammengestellt aus: Biographisches Handbuch für das Preußische Abgeordnetenhaus: 1867–1918
Presidents
Term of office | Surname |
---|---|
1849 | Wilhelm Grabow |
1849-1855 | Count Maximilian von Schwerin-Putzar |
1855-1858 | Count Heinrich zu Eulenburg |
1859 | Count Maximilian von Schwerin-Putzar |
1860-1861 | Eduard von Simson |
1862-1866 | Wilhelm Grabow |
1866-1873 | Max von Forckenbeck |
1873-1879 | Rudolf v. Bennigsen |
1879-1897 | Georg von Köller |
1898-1911 | Jordan from Kröcher |
1912 | Hermann Freiherr von Erffa-Wernburg |
1913-1918 | Count Hans von Schwerin-Löwitz |
Dissolution in 1918
The Prussian Revolutionary Cabinet made up of the MSPD and USPD dissolved the House of Representatives through sentence 1 of the ordinance of November 15, 1918 ( Pr. GS. 1918, p. 191). A protest by Vice President Felix Porsch on November 24, 1918 was the last sign of life from the House of Representatives. The cabinet did not rely on the constitution, but on revolutionary legitimation.
building
The House of Representatives met in Palais Hardenberg until 1899 . After that it got a new building. After the November Revolution , with the abolition of the manor house, it became the seat of the Prussian Landtag , the state parliament of the Free State of Prussia .
Today the Berlin House of Representatives , the state parliament of the federal state of Berlin , is located in this building .
See also
literature
- Bernd Haunfelder : Biographical manual for the Prussian House of Representatives 1849–1867 (= manuals on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 5). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5181-5 .
- Bernhard Mann (arrangement) with the collaboration of Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh , Thomas Kühne : Biographisches Handbuch für das Prussische Abrafenhaus 1867–1918 (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 3). Droste, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-7700-5146-7 .
- Thomas Kühne: Handbook of the elections to the Prussian House of Representatives 1867-1918. Election results, election alliances and election candidates (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 6). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5182-3 .
- Thomas Kühne: Three-class suffrage and electoral culture in Prussia 1867–1914, state elections between corporate tradition and political mass market , Düsseldorf 1994.
- Representation of the people of Prussia in the Second Chamber and in the House of Representatives from February 1849 to May 1877. Alphabetical register of names of the members, as well as a directory of the constituencies by provinces and administrative districts. Compiled preferably on the basis of official materials by Franz Lauter. Berlin: Moeser (1877). Man, Biographisches Handbuch refers to Lauter without attempting to be exhaustive.
Web links
- Noble MPs in the Prussian House of Representatives
- Election results (private side)
- Prussian Landtag . Information on the building from the Berlin State Monument Office in the monument database.
Individual evidence
- ^ H. Becker: Sketches from the customs parliament . In: The Gazebo . Issue 20, 1868, pp. 309 ( digital copy [ Wikisource ] - woodcut for illustration).
- ↑ Description of the building complexes with historical and building details . In: Berlin address book , 1915, II.
- ↑ Parliamentary District : The Berlin House of Representatives ( Memento from January 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ GStA PK I. HA Rep. 90 A No. 3246, fol. 3 r
- ^ Günther Grünthal : Parliamentarism in Prussia 1848/49 - 1857/58 . Düsseldorf 1982, p. 445; and GStA PK I. HA Rep. 90 A No. 111
- ↑ GStA PK I. HA Rep. 89 No. 309, fol. 68 v
- ↑ Thomas Kühne: Three-class suffrage and electoral culture in Prussia 1867–1914, state elections between corporate tradition and political mass market . Pp. 353-355.