Prussian House of Representatives

Palais Hardenberg in Berlin : seat of the Prussian House of Representatives until 1899

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

Bureau seal of the House of Representatives

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	43 ³⁾	29 ³⁾
Liberal People's Party									14th	24	24	28	41 ⁴⁾
Liberal Association									6th	12th	9	8th	41 ⁴⁾
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

¹⁾ The conservatives split off

²⁾ Split of the National Liberals

³⁾ German Liberal Party

⁴⁾ Progressive People's Party

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

Berlin House of Representatives

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 .

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

Commons : Prussian House of Representatives - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

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.

[1] H. Becker: Sketches from the customs parliament . In: The Gazebo . Issue 20, 1868, pp. 309 ( digital copy [ Wikisource ] - woodcut for illustration).

[2] Description of the building complexes with historical and building details . In: Berlin address book , 1915, II.

[3] Parliamentary District : The Berlin House of Representatives ( Memento from January 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

[4] GStA PK I. HA Rep. 90 A No. 3246, fol. 3 r

[5] Günther Grünthal : Parliamentarism in Prussia 1848/49 - 1857/58 . Düsseldorf 1982, p. 445; and GStA PK I. HA Rep. 90 A No. 111

[6] GStA PK I. HA Rep. 89 No. 309, fol. 68 v

[7] Thomas Kühne: Three-class suffrage and electoral culture in Prussia 1867–1914, state elections between corporate tradition and political mass market . Pp. 353-355.