Seventeen draft

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A draft constitution of the Committee of Seventeen of April 26, 1848 is called a draft of the Seventeen . This committee had been commissioned by the Bundestag of the German Confederation to develop such a draft. The draft speaks of the “ Imperial Basic Law ” of a “German Empire” with a “German Kaiser”. Even if not formally, the draft of the Seventeen was nevertheless a template for the constitutional discussions in the Frankfurt National Assembly .

occurrence

The Committee of Seventeen Men of General Trust got to work in a hurry. They wanted to create constitutional facts before long discussions in the National Assembly and a counter-movement. Under the chairmanship of Max von Gagern , the committee met 25 times from March 30th to May 8th. Dahlmann and Albrecht worked out a preliminary draft that was followed by Bassermann, Droysen, Max von Gagern, Gervinus and the Austrian Schmerling.

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Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann from Mecklenburg was a leading liberal of the time and represented the Kingdom of Prussia in the Committee of Seventeen . He played a major role in the draft constitution.

In a longer foreword, the text refers to the historical significance of the constitutional work. With reference to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 it says among other things:

"This Germany, which has borne the hundreds of years of punishment for its division, must now achieve its unity of the people and the state, immediately before the second century expires since that peace which canonized its weakness."

In this sense, the preface emphasizes the importance of a strong head of the Reich. There is still talk of a council of princes that met in Frankfurt in May and elects “a German prince of his choice as hereditary head of the empire”.

According to the introduction and the first two articles, the German Confederation is to be replaced by a Reich, a federal state. The Reichsgewalt deals exclusively with the international representation of Germany externally, the military, customs and postal services as well as some other matters. If necessary, the Reich should be able to charge the individual states with Reich taxes.

The power of the empire should consist of the head of the empire and the diet, and there is also a court of law (Art. III). The dignity of the German emperor is hereditary. Because the emperor is inviolable and irresponsible, an imperial minister has to countersign. (The fact that the emperor appoints and dismisses the ministers is not expressly stated, but is to be understood.)

The Reichstag consists of a lower house , which is elected by the independent adults. There should be an electoral order of the Reich with the exact provisions, but the respective individual state could decide on the direct or indirect election. Furthermore, the Reichstag consists of an upper house , which is composed partly of the ruling princes or representatives of the free cities and partly of elected members. A house can indict or summon the Reich ministers (§§ 11–21).

A law requires an absolute majority in both houses (Section 17). Although the Kaiser is not mentioned in this section on the Reichstag, Section 8 still speaks of his approval of the laws. In addition, like the Reichstag, he is entitled to initiate legislation. Art. IV lists the basic rights of the German people . For this purpose, the individual rights are briefly mentioned in a long list (for example "Publicity of the Estates", "General vigilante", "Freedom to emigrate"). In the last article V. the swearing-in of the head of the Reich, the Reich ministers and the Reich army on the constitution is prescribed. The constitution can only be changed if the head of the Reich and a three-quarters majority in both houses of the Reichstag approve it.

Assessment and consequences

The draft is the first in the March Revolution to include a hereditary emperor . The government and the financial constitution are only sketchily described, the few basic social rights that were advocated by the pre-parliament have been deleted from the catalog of basic rights.

The brief and precisely formulated draft was "an excellent constitutional and political achievement", according to the constitutional historian Ernst Rudolf Huber . The well-known scheme of the constitutional monarchy was adapted to German conditions by combining the monarchical, the federal, the parliamentary-representative and the rule of law principles in an original way. The weakness of the draft lay in the fact that a concrete decision would later have been necessary as to whom parliament should elect hereditary emperor.

Manfred Botzenhart criticizes the draft that the ruling princes in the upper house could be outvoted at any time. Without making sure whether the people or the other states wanted that at all, the draft prescribed a hereditary emperor. The National Assembly could only have confirmed the draft, which had already been adopted by the governments in the Bundestag, as well as the emperor elected by the princes. Botzenhart calls this last attempt to establish a constitution from above as having failed from the start.

The draft was rejected from many sides. The southern German particularists found the House of Lords too weak, the left lacked a clear commitment to parliamentarianism. Austria considered the draft for a chimera, Bavaria wanted a board of directors in which it would have equal rights alongside Austria and Prussia, Hanover wanted to restrict the powers of the state as a whole, Prussia wanted to keep all of Austria in Germany. The draft did not become the official basis of the constitutional deliberations. Huber: "When the National Assembly resorted to the ideas of the Seventeen Draft in the spring of 1849, the time had passed when this solution of the German question could have succeeded."

Constitutional historian Jörg-Detlef Kühne , on the other hand, praised the concise brevity and the courage to make decisions on key issues. This was done in the short period from April 5th to April 26th. The draft influenced all later German general constitutions and above all the Frankfurt Imperial Constitution , right down to the structure. This is also due to the continuity of personnel: almost half of the committee members later also belonged to the constitutional committee of the National Assembly .

See also

source

  • Ernst Rudolf Huber: Documents on German constitutional history. Volume 1: German constitutional documents 1803-1850 . 3rd edition, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1978 (1961). No. 97 (No. 91). The seventeen draft of the imperial constitution. Draft of the German Basic Law, presented to the German Federal Assembly as an expert opinion by the seventeen men of public trust on April 26, 1848 , pp. 352–359

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . 3rd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [ua] 1988, pp. 767/768.
  2. ^ Jörg-Detlef Kühne : The imperial constitution of the Paulskirche. Model and realization in later German legal life. Habil. Bonn 1983, 2nd edition, Luchterhand, Neuwied 1998 (1985), p. 43.
  3. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . 3rd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [ua] 1988, pp. 769/770.
  4. ↑ Manfred Botzenhart: German Parliamentarism in the Revolutionary Period 1848-1850 . Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1977, pp. 131/132.
  5. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume II: The struggle for unity and freedom 1830 to 1850 . 3rd edition, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [et al.] 1988, pp. 771-773.
  6. ^ Jörg-Detlef Kühne: The imperial constitution of the Paulskirche. Model and realization in later German legal life. Habil. Bonn 1983, 2nd edition, Luchterhand, Neuwied 1998 (1985), p. 43.