Protective and defensive alliances 1866

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Map of the North German Confederation from 1867 (area color) with the southern German states of Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse.

The protective and defensive alliances of 1866 were three agreements on security cooperation. The contract partners were Prussia on the one hand and the southern German states of Bavaria , Württemberg and Baden on the other . These treaties were concluded at the same time as peace treaties, because the three states concerned had recently fought in the German war against Prussia (and its allies). The contracts had initially been kept secret; after its publication on March 19, 1867, another alliance followed with the Grand Duchy of Hesse .

The treaties were a substitute for the protection that the states had previously enjoyed from the German Confederation , which had now been dissolved . Together with the Zollverein , they formed an important integration link between northern and southern Germany on the way to founding the German nation-state . In the summer of 1870, the treaties ensured that the southern German states sided with northern Germany in the Franco-Prussian War .

The respective contracting parties of the protective and defensive alliances undertook to "make their full military power [...] available to one another in the event of a war" for the integrity of their territories . The Prussian king was in wartime commander in chief (commander) on the southern German armies. The king also had this position in northern Germany, initially through the August treaties and then according to the constitution of the North German Confederation .

The expression protection and defiance alliance can be found earlier in German constitutional history . For example, in 1854 Austria and Prussia formed such an alliance in connection with the Crimean War . Protection and Trutz is a phrase of the time that also appears in the text of the German song .

history

In the German War Prussia (with its German and Italian allies ) defeated the Austrian Empire and the German states loyal to the federal government. In the preliminary peace of Nikolsburg on July 26, 1866, Austria approved the dissolution of the German Confederation . This also ended the Federal War Constitution and the German Armed Forces and all military cooperation between the southern German states. This would have had consequences for their security vis-à-vis France .

The common need for security and the desire of the now dominant Prussia to bind southern Germany more closely led to the conclusion of protective and defensive alliances between Prussia and the four southern German states. Prussia signed identical treaties with Württemberg (August 13), Baden (August 17) and Bavaria (August 22). These treaties were concluded together with the peace treaties , as these states had been on the Austrian side during the war. In addition, there was peace with the Grand Duchy of Hesse on September 3rd. On April 11, 1867, the now non-secret protection and defensive alliance between Prussia and Hesse followed. (A part of Hesse, the province of Upper Hesse, belonged to the territory of the North German Confederation from July 1, 1867.) The contracts were open-ended and could not be terminated.

Ernst Rudolf Huber asks whether the treaties contradicted the Peace of Prague , the peace treaty between Prussia and Austria. According to Article 2, Prussia was not allowed to expand its power over the Main Line to the south. Above all, the automatic occurrence of an alliance in the event of an attack and the Prussian supreme command were problematic. Seen in this way, at least the sense of Article 2 has been violated.

With the exception of the Hessian treaty, the rest were initially to be kept secret. They only stayed that way until the Luxembourg crisis of March / April 1867, when Bismarck made them known. It turned out that the southern German states would by no means automatically have recognized an alliance case. They wanted to look into the matter first. In July 1870, when the Franco-German War broke out, the southern German governments and parliaments quickly recognized the case of an alliance.

content

In the alliances, the contracting states guaranteed their territorial integrity . In the event of war, they committed to mutual military support. The supreme command should fall to the Prussian king. The latter reflects on the one hand the exploitation of the weak negotiating position of the defeated by the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck , but on the other hand also shows the real (military-political) power relations in Germany.

According to the wording of the treaties, the military alliance was purely a defensive alliance for the purpose of the collective defense against an attack, but the case of defense at that time was broader than in international law today , so that preventive defense measures could also fall under it.

The protective and defensive alliances later formed the basis for the joint warfare of the still sovereign southern German states and the North German Confederation in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71.

literature

  • Wolfgang Hardtwig , Helmut Hinze (Hrsg.): German history in sources and representations. Volume 7: From the German Confederation to the Empire. 1815-1871. Reclam, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-15-017007-9 ( Reclam's Universal Library 17007).
  • Ernst Rudolf Huber (ed.): Documents on German constitutional history. Volume 2: German constitutional documents 1851–1900. Third revised and increased edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [u. a.] 1986, ISBN 3-17-001845-0 .
  • Jens Peter Kutz: From the fratricidal war to the “casus foederis”. The protective and defensive alliances between the southern German states and Prussia (1866–1870) . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main [a. a.] 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-56904-7 ( European university publications. Series 3: History and its auxiliary sciences 1045) (also: Hannover, Univ., Master's thesis, 2006).

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Partial reproduction of the wording by Helmuth KG Rönnefarth : Conferences and Contracts. Contract Ploetz. A handbook of historically significant meetings, agreements, manifestos and memoranda. Part II: 1493-1952. Ploetz, Würzburg 1952, p. 179.
  2. ↑ Michael Kotulla : German Constitutional Law 1806-1918. A collection of documents and introductions. Volume 1: Germany as a whole, Anhalt states and Baden , Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2006, p. 190.
  3. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, Stuttgart 1988, p. 602.
  4. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, Stuttgart 1988, p. 600 f.
  5. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, Stuttgart 1988, p. 699 f.
  6. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. 3rd edition, Stuttgart 1988, p. 722 f.