State constitution of Oldenburg

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The state constitution for the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg was introduced as the state constitution of the Grand Duchy in 1849 and was in force until 1918 after a conservative revision in 1852 and changes in the creation of the German nation state.

prehistory

Federal Act of 1815

After the end of Napoleonic rule in Europe, representatives of the Duchy of Oldenburg took part in the Congress of Vienna for the reorganization of Europe . In addition to the elevation to the Grand Duchy and some unimportant area expansions for Oldenburg, a key result of the Congress of Vienna was the establishment of the German Confederation , which the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg formally acceded in 1821 by signing the final act .

One of the demands of the Federal Act of the Congress of Vienna (Article 13) was the establishment of a state constitution by the member states. The ruling monarch of Oldenburg at the time, Peter I, ignored this demand during his reign. It was only his son August I , Grand Duke of Oldenburg from 1829, who adopted the constitution as a reaction to the July Revolution in Paris and riots in several European and German cities. When calls for participation in Jever and Butjadingen also became louder, August I and his cabinet wrote a proclamation on the free self-government of the communities on October 5, 1830. This rural community order, which came into force in 1831/32, was the first step towards a constitutional monarchy . The document, which was essentially based on proposals by the Oldenburg State Councilor Carl Friedrich Ferdinand Suden , still contained strong traits of the state's paternalistic thinking and only meant limited self-administration.

First attempt at a constitutional constitution in 1847

Almost at the same time as the rural community order, August I commissioned his Minister of State Günther von Berg to draft a state constitution in 1832. Berg's attempt, which was regarded as "useful", was rejected by Oldenburg's agnates Russia and Denmark , who, due to the violence in the course of the revolutionary movements of the years before, rejected any aspirations for democracy. Even the Grand Duke could not contradict this.

At the end of the 1840s, in the wake of the events of Vormärz , the call for the constitution grew louder again in the Grand Duchy, so that on November 15, 1847 the Grand Duke convened a commission for a draft constitution, which this time also satisfied Russia and Denmark should. However, the events of March 1848 overtook this draft.

The constitution of 1848

As in other small German states, the revolution that started in Paris spread to the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg in the spring of 1848. In the Oldenburg Münsterland , in the Wesermarsch and in the Oldenburg exclave Birkenfeld because of the unpopular autocratic district president Fischer , riots broke out. In the city of Oldenburg itself, the situation remained calm, but a citizens' meeting held on March 9th demanded extensive democratic rights. On March 10, the demands were presented to the Grand Duke by, among others, the factory owner Heinrich Hoyer, supported by a rather violent delegation from Jeverland . After some hesitation, the latter gave in and on the same day issued a patent that provided for the election of 34 members of the state parliament as pre-parliament . Since further delegations also made demands, August I confirmed his approval on March 18 with a proclamation drawn up by the secret cabinet trainee Carl Zedelius on the principle of the people's assembly and the participation of the estates in legislation.

At their first meeting, the 34 deputies found the draft constitution by the Grand Duke and the ministers of 1847 unsuitable. On May 17, a commission under the moderate liberal Johann Heinrich Jakob Schloifer was finally charged with drafting a new constitution. Schloifer, who also became Minister of State of Oldenburg on August 1, 1848 after his predecessor Beaulieu-Marconnay had resigned as a conservative opponent of the constitution, based his draft constitution on the constitution of the Electorate of Hesse from 1831 .

On September 1, the constituent state parliament met to agree the constitution with representatives of the Grand Duke. The biggest point of contention was the agreement of the civil list , i.e. the setting of the annual payments from the state treasury to the Grand Ducal House. So far the Grand Ducal House had been able to freely dispose of all state revenues. In the course of parliamentarization, the domain ownership of the ruling house should now be confiscated. In addition to the annual payment, some domains remained with the ruling house that could not be converted into state goods, the castles of Oldenburg , Eutin and Jever , as well as the picture gallery, the natural history museum and the house fideikommiss such as Rastede Castle .

The constituent state parliament finally approved the constitution after 106 meetings on February 18, 1849. On March 1st the law was published. The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg was the last German state to introduce a constitution.

Revision 1852

In the years after the revolution, reactionary forces also gained the upper hand in Oldenburg. The state constitution was therefore revised in a conservative manner on November 22, 1852, for example the role of the state parliament was weakened - it could no longer refuse any expenditure to which the state was obliged. In addition, the three-class voting right was introduced.

Some changes were later revoked. The Oldenburg State Basic Law remained in force until the end of the Grand Duchy in November 1918 , with a few other changes when the Grand Duchy was annexed to the nation state with the Ministerial Constitution of 1866 and the Courts Constitution Act 1877.

literature

  • Andreas Lombard: House and Land. The Duchy and Grand Duchy of Oldenburg from 1773 to 1918. Published in: History of the Oldenburger Land - Duchy, Grand Duchy of the Free State . Edited by Jörg Michael Henneberg and Horst-Günther Lucke. Aschendorff publishing house. Muenster. 2014. ISBN 978-3-402-12942-5 . Page 94, pages 104–113 and page 122.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Friedl: Suden, Carl Friedrich Ferdinand. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 721 f. ( online ).
  2. ^ Biography of Berg, Günther Heinrich. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg. Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 67-68 ( online )
  3. ^ Andreas Lombard: House and Land. The Duchy and Grand Duchy of Oldenburg from 1773 to 1918. Published in: History of the Oldenburger Land - Duchy, Grand Duchy of the Free State . Edited by Jörg Michael Henneberg and Horst-Günther Lucke. Aschendorff publishing house. Muenster. 2014. ISBN 978-3-402-12942-5 . Page 97.
  4. ↑ Biography of Hoyer, Johann Heinrich. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg. Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 328-329. ( online )
  5. ^ Hans Friedl: Zedelius, Christian Karl Philipp Wilhelm. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg. Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 820 f. ( online )
  6. ↑ Biography of Schloifer, Johann Heinrich Jakob. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg. Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 638–639 ( online )