The Congress of Vienna had anticipated re-establishing stability in the German states in an unpopular arbitrary arrangement, while Prussia took indirect and unforeseen action toward political unification through implementing economic measures, which integrated commercial activity between different German states. While all other countries apart from England maintained prohibitive import tariffs, The development of creating a common market to include different German states began in Prussia. All of the internal customs barriers between the various Prussian provinces were abolished to establish a unified free trade region, following how Bavaria had removed internal customs barriers in 1807, Württemberg in 1808, and Baden in 1812, which facilitated conducting trade in a growing economy. Abolishing collecting several internal dues and customs duties at the borders necessarily entailed losing some revenue, but also facilitated trade between Prussia’s eastern and new western groups of provinces. Prussia abolished all tariffs on inland waterways and interprovincial trade on 11 June 1816, and the principle of free imports was acknowledged on 1 August. An innovative tariff law on 25 May 1818 was enacted in order to help spur economic development by establishing uniformity of trade within the state. This law abolished most of the sixty-seven internal tariffs, and established a uniform low tariff for the entire state. All differences in tariff duties were abolished altogether during 1821.
These economic measures enabled large scale economic expansion by stimulating trade through establishing new economic unions with other states through setting low and simple tariffs based on anti-protectionist and free trade principles. The post-1814 geographical reorganisation of Prussia with small foreign enclaves within the confines of its exterior borders at several points compelled the government to enter good relations with neighbouring German states. Duty collections were sufficiently low to make smuggling unprofitable, as well as avoiding offending powerful neighbours, and ultimately facilitated economic expansion while absorbing various small enclaves into the Prussian customs system. These smaller states accepted the Prussian tariff administered by Prussian officials, and received a share of the joint revenue.
The 1818 Prussian tariff law with its reciprocity clauses formed the basis for negotiations to establish free trade with other German states, which would collectively generate income and undermine smuggling among them. The principles of setting low and simple anti-protectionist tariffs based on free trade lines among the separate German states began with a tariff treaty with the single small state of Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen on 25 October 1819, which were followed by the prince of Rudolfstadt in 1822. The two dukes of Anhalt joined the Prussian customs union in 1826 and 1828. Bavaria and Württemberg followed on 18 January 1828, and then Hesse-Darmstadt joined on 14 February 1828, thus laying separate foundations of the economic union of the German states.
Prussia established economic ties between these states resolve commercial difficulties through negotiating reciprocal free trade agreements, either by direct absorption or by tariff treaties with similar economic unions, in a state that was restored to the same measure of strength it had had in 1805, and had foreign enclaves that broke the Prussian frontier at various points. German states being in a position to levy tariffs and travel tolls while they were economically independent complicated trade between separate states by adding to trade costs of paying these tolls or risking paying fines for tariff violations. These advances in trade among the German states demonstrated remarkable success owing to applying sound economic principles, a stable government with an efficient national administration, which also contributed to establishing a chasm between the political leadership of Austria over the German states by aligning themselves with Prussia as a leading influence in economic development through abolishing customs dues, which would be followed by political unity.
In the face of opposition in the German Confederation considering establishing a German customs union on the Prussian model, a separate economic treaty between Bavaria and Württemberg, Baden, Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt, and most of the Thuringian states in May 1820, which were to regulate the customs between them while preserving their independence. However, the signatories remained deadlocked over its terms for years. Moreover, the territory they composed was too small to be practicable to generate considerable revenues, and were also cut off from the sea. Saxony, Hanover, Brunswick, Nassau, Bremen, and some Thuringian states created a Central German Commercial Union customs union on 24 September 1828, in reaction to Prussian efforts to establish economic cooperation under its leadership, thus uniting economic activity among themselves to preserve their independence, as well as placate the demands for reducing internal tariffs by an emerging middle class that could compose a centre of resistance against the state rulers. Metternich assisted with implementing this measure as a tentative form of protection against the Prussian tariff system with his assistance, and was supported with a trade policy with Great Britain, in spite of general national German interests, and lacking economic stability, in terms of lacking the financial means to generate sufficient amounts of income, in contrast to the larger Prussian market. Bavaria and Württemberg likewise formed a separate customs union in 1828 to maintain their own sovereignty, as well as precluding middle class opposition against those states. The German states were thus economically divided into three groups. These developments nevertheless signified the beginning of movement toward synchronising economic activity among the separate German states.
Prussia later extended its economic union with two of the Thuringian states, and then with the Württemberg and Bavaria southern German economic union in a treaty that was concluded in May 1829, and thereby opening a direct trade route between the north and the south, through the central German economic union. The Prussian economic union was further extended by Hesse-Kassel joining on 29 August 1831, which bridged the gap between the eastern and western Prussian provinces. Prussia, Saxony, Thuringia, Anhalt, the two Hessian states, Bavaria and Württemberg later joined the customs union on 31 October 1833, The Central German Union lacked the cohesion of the Prussian system, which was also bypassed through road building linking Prussian Saxony with southern Germany, and securing a Dutch agreement in 1829 leading to considerably reducing tolls levied on Rhine shipping led to its disintegration, while Bavaria and Württemberg came to terms with Prussia, being unable to sustain a large South German customs union. culminating in the establishment of the German Customs Union (Zollverein) on 1 January 1834 that included eighteen German states to serve Prussia’s economic interests through establishing trade ties with separate German states while connecting its disparate territorial possessions, and thereby contributed to establishing greater unity among the German states than the German Confederation, in which Prussia could exert greater decree of practical influence over the German states than Austria. These states were later joined by Baden and Nassau in 1835, Nassau and Frankfurt-am-Main in 1836, the Brunswick states in 1841 and 1844, and Luxemburg in 1842. Twenty-eight of the German states joined by 1842, including Lippe-Schaumburg, Lippe-Detmold, Waldeck. Other small territories, while other states, including Hanover, Brunswick, Oldenburg Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Strehtz remained apart, whereas Austria abstained from joining while being unresponsive to the interests of the unification of the German states and having wider interests among the Italian and Balkan states. Hanover followed in 1851 and Oldenburg in 1852, whereas the Hansa cities and Holstein abstained from joining.
The continued economic expansion of these German states removed useless restrictions from commerce, although these states remain scattered and politically diverse, while also diminishing Austria’s trade and political importance as Prussia assumed the tacit leadership of the various German states in an underlying development toward national unity. Prussia controlled vital lines of communication between north and south, and served as a mediator in economic disputes among the disparate member states of the economic union, while constituting a large and lucrative market for the other states. The Prussian government thus did not object to the principle of creating a more cohesive political organisation of the German states, provided that its constitution served its political interests and strengthened Prussia’s political position in Germany, which was the inherent cause for Prussia sponsoring the Customs Union that included practically all of the German states.
At about the same time as the formation of the Zollverein, another greatly influential development that would contribute to the future political union of Germany was the invention of the steam railroad, which facilitating more inexpensive transportation and in turn stimulated industrial production. The industrial revolution took place in the German states later than in England, as most of the German Confederation protected their domestic markets through imposing high duties and tariffs, and the larger states had several internal customs barriers. The inadequate transportation network further undermined inefficient markets, while also lacking the stimulus of overseas colonies and had inadequate natural resources. Railway development that would spur economic development began with the first line being built in Bavaria in 1828 from Nuremburg to Furth, and the first Prussian line was opened in 1838 between Düsseldorf and Ekrath, and between Berlin and Potsdam. The economic union would thus become strengthened through a new and faster form of transportation that revolutionized trade and industry. Another effect was the population of different German states came into closer relationships with each other through increased travel and communication. The Zollverein that had created economic ties in the German states throughout the Confederation consequently inadvertently led to a political upheaval over the question of voting for public funding on the strength of popular representation based on taxation.
Subsequent legislation on 17 January 1820 claiming that the development of the Prussian estates was to lead to grant full representative power to the people, and the increase of the Prussian state debt would not increase without the consent of a representative body. The remaining fear of growing radicalism that threatened conservative interests, including abolishing the judicial and financial privileges of the nobility and discussing far-reaching agrarian reforms, remained in place. This assembly was to be summoned whenever it would be necessary in the king’s view to deal with questions regarding loans or new taxation, and was to meet at least once every four years. In addition to the three chambers, there was a united committee of the eight provincial parliaments composed of their representatives that was to meet periodically at the king’s prerogative. All of these assemblies only held consultative or advisory rights, and did not have any determining voice, as these entities were conferred as a gift from the monarchy, rather than allowing rights to implement popular demands that would satisfy the aspirations of the population, and therefore practically all state power was retained in the hands of the king.
The only existing representative body during this time were the Provincial Diets that had been instituted in 1823 for every one of the eight provinces in the Prussian kingdom with limited advisory powers and were completely dominated by the estate landowners. These were composed of: 1. the heads of the higher nobility drawn from the former sovereign families of the German empire who inherited their representation; 2. the representatives of the knights, or the lower nobility; 3. the representatives of the towns; 4. the representatives of the peasantry, or small farming class. In practice, the arrangement of the representatives of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Diets as a whole meant the two sections of the nobility always composed a majority of the diet in every province, who would in turn elect a committee who would be called to Berlin to form a representative assembly that could consult with the monarchy while their main functions were limited to local affairs, rather than for Prussia as a whole, and were devoid of legislative authority.
Constitutional development in Prussia remained undeveloped owing to the conservative opposition of the local Junker landowning classes to granting authority to popular representatives, while supporting the monarch at the head of state. The king Frederick William IV convened the earlier created assembly of “United Committees” in 1843 to meet to raise a loan for the future construction of a state railway, while also facing strong popular demand for a constitution at the same time in exchange for state representative cooperation in conjunction with the state during a time of economic development. The first railway constructed in the German states in Bavaria in 1831, and railways also began operating in Prussia in 1840 in different directions. However, there lacked a railway running eastward from Berlin to East and West Prussia, which was essential for the Junker landowners to retain their prevailing political authority in Berlin, as well as transporting foodstuffs to be transported to the increasingly populous western provinces. Since private enterprise would not construct an eastern railway, the Prussian state would necessarily assume the cost of its construction.
Although the United Committees agreed on the necessity to formulate a comprehensive railway plan, they refused to recognize that they did not constitute an appropriate body to vote on financing for such an enormous project. These included members of the nobility who were large landowners dealing in commercial farming, while demanding the institution of a truly representative constitution in the interest of imposing protections against absolutism by establishing a national parliament. The Prussian monarchy’s refusal to allow for devising a constitution only served to consolidate popular opposition, and continued the monarchy’s financial difficulties.
The effects of the industrial revolution had become fully apparent by the late 1840s, with a class of wage workers having had been created facing the problem of unemployment, and the antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat became increasingly sharper while the peasantry resented inheritable taxes and services owed to landlords as remnants of feudal privileges. Friedrich William III had abandoned his pledge to institute a national constitution, but the notions of liberalism, such as demands for the abolition of press censorship, democratically elected representation in a national parliament, and political unification of the German states remained in place during reactionary rule, and increasingly vocal expressions for these demands could not remain ignored.
There was hope that the new king Frederick William IV of Prussia who took power on 7 June 1840 would institute reforms to the surviving character of the monarchy by granting a representative constitution, but he remained ensconced in his personal romanticised notions of the virtues of the conservative old order. This new monarch was faced with limitations being imposed on his authority by being forced to make concessions in exchange for raising loan money to build state railways in accordance with an 1820 law ratified by Frederick William III that imposed the condition of raising any loan or increasing existing form of taxation was illegal without the assent of “the future representation of the people.” This condition still did not exist in practice, following the long-forgotten promises for constitutional government that had been made on 3 February 1813 and then on 22 May 1815 in exchange for the population’s aid against Napoleon, and therefore precipitated a constitutional crisis.
Although Frederick William IV had expressed his views on surrendering absolute privileges of the monarchy, he was not fully convinced of the necessity to establish a central assembly of the provincial estates as eight separate and distinct administrations without a common point of interest, and therefore believed they could be summoned occasionally to investigate whether existing institutions represented contemporary political ideas, and whether they could require revisions or amendments. He would later express his view during that further constitutional reforms would not take place, and therefore refused to grant a documented constitution that would limit his powers, regardless of the potential consequences of resisting widespread public opinion demanding representative government.
A combination of the nobility and the other classes in Prussia was then called in a legislative assembly along with easing press censorship on 3 February 1847 to pacify growing opposition, following years of agitation for demands for freedom of the press, legal reform and budgetary control. This new representative body was composed of the eight provincial parliaments that was divided into a Lords’ Chamber consisting of representatives of the nobility, an Estates Chamber consisting of the remaining members of the provincial parliaments, and a separate third chamber composed of the other two that dealt with matters relating to finance, and all of the most important questions to be addressed, while meeting as a single concentrated body of the unreformed local estates. It was to meet on a regular basis, with a smaller body known as the “United Committee” that would be periodically consulted about future legislation.
This “United Provincial Parliament of the Monarchy” met as a single assembly of the unreformed local estates on 11 April 1847 that highlighted the issues of former and newer forms of Prussian statehood while the representatives conducted deliberations as if it were a liberal parliament, including pressing demands for regular periodical meetings and not raising taxes without the direct representation and consent of the population. Frederick William IV claimed that the royal creation of this united assembly redeemed the pledge of his predecessor, and that the constitutional reforms were now complete, while the authority of the crown was his by the grace of God, and that a written constitution could never intervene between the population and himself. He expressed his attitude as a reactionary maintaining absolutism by stating that his authority would not be restricted through constitutional governance, and rejected any notion of establishing an elected representative legislative assembly. The united provincial estates were only to be summoned at the monarchy’s behest to merely approve state loans and new or increased taxes, to give advice on pending government decision making, and to address petitions to the monarchy that could not be resubmitted following a previous rejection. Its authority was further undermined by the creation of two additional bodies: a standing committee on the state debt that was to be elected by the united diet that was responsible to the diet whenever it was convened, and another larger committee composed of delegates elected by the provincial diets that would meet every four years, and exercise the same functions as the united diet itself.
Assembly representatives demanded to have regularly recurring meetings every two years and free discussion for participation in formulating legislation that would encompass voting in all matters pertaining to public debts and loans, along with corroboration in all legislation pertaining to taxation, and control of the other revenues of the state, abolition of special committees and commissions. They also refused to pass state plans for a new income tax, subsidising small banks, and a loan for constructing railways. As long as they did not possess the rights of a representative parliament, they did not consider themselves legally entitled to vote on economic matters of concern at a state level. In contrast, the monarchy maintained all other state revenues that were collected by direct and indirect taxation, and all expenses and legislative authority were excluded from assembly discussions, while the privileges of deciding on petitions and resolutions were restricted by the formation of the House of Lords, or Herrenkurie, which would have separate meetings, and veto power by maintaining a two-thirds majority vote on all legislation. The majority of the assembly delegates expressed they did not have any intention of merely serving a usefulness and insignificant role of being advisers. Opposition carried an address to the king by a vote of 484 against 107, demanding the people’s rights according to the promise of 22 May 1815, and the law of 22 May 1817, as well as the law on approving state loans of 17 January 1820. They demanded the abolition of the United Committee that was to be replaced by a United Diet meeting on a regular basis, granting authority to a legislative body organised along parliamentary lines based on a completely revised constitution.
The representatives, primarily those from the Rhineland that had been influenced the most by liberal ideology, as well as non-aristocratic representatives from East Prussia who mistrusted Junker discredited absolutist self-interests, in turn refused to approve the loan funding for constructing the eastern railway. The deadlock over granting funds in exchange for constitutional reforms led to its dismissal, and therefore progress toward establishing representative institutions remained stymied. The monarchy rejected its demands that exceeded the range of his intentions to grant rights and privileges for limited further constitutional development. A chasm consisting of a united front of nobility facing bourgeois as the leaders of a newly developing industrial society, and peasants to press for constitutional change in an authoritarian state was consequently reinforced. The powers that had been granted to the Combined Diet were extremely restricted, and the general sentiment throughout Prussia when its meetings ended in June 1847 was that the monarch’s ideas were wholly inadequate to meet demands for constitutional government.
Revolution in France broke out in Paris on 22 February 1848 and forced Louis Philippe to abdicate on 24 February that resulted in creating a republic, which in turn triggered a series of uprisings in the German states, ending the relative period of peace following the Napoleonic wars. A chain of events effectively hastened discomfited parties to take action soon thereafter in the first of the German states, where revolutionary movements broke out in the south and west that confronted long standing grievances in the local populations of different states against their rulers. The first organised initiative expressing underlying revolutionary tensions was a mass meeting in Mannheim on 27 February, promoting liberal and nationalist ideals that represented the major demands of the 1848 revolutionaries, including demanding freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, trial by jury, the formation of a people’s a militia, and establishing responsible government in all states along with the summoning of a German national parliament. A deputation supported by a vast crowd went to Karlsruhe on 1 March to present these demands to the duke of Baden, who agreed to these demands two days later, and eventually formed a new ministry that included liberal ministers who began implementing most of their demands.
This revolt set the pattern for peaceful revolutions in other German states in March 1848, as mass meetings and petitions exerted pressure by proclaiming the demands of the times that were laid before intimidated aristocratic rulers who capitulated without resistance, which resulted in similar outcomes, including appointing liberal ministries and initiating constitutional changes, such as extending the suffrage in every state, while abolishing remnants of the anachronistic feudal order. Constitutions and liberal ministries were established during March and April 1848 in Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria, Hanover, Brunswick, Saxe-Weimar, Oldenburg, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt and the Hanseatic towns. However, there was not any shifting of power among the central state authorities, apart from only in Bavaria where king Ludwig I was forced to abdicate, including due to prevailing consternation throughout the local population over his infatuation with an Irish music hall dancer calling herself Lola Montez who expected to be his official mistress in public view in return for appointing her as a countess of Landsfeld, and was considered by the public as a malignant influence on the Bavarian monarchy. In addition to this scandal about this widely despised personality and refusing to comply with demands for constitutional government, Ludwig I abdicated on 10 March 1848 and expected to follow her into exile in Switzerland. Popular sovereignty superseded monarchical power, as the lower house assemblies became the centres of political gravity in these states. As liberal elements took over political life in most of the German states, the Confederation Diet authorised the abolition of press censorship.
The 1848 revolutions in the German states were a movement motivated by repressed peasants, a growing middle class, and an exploited urban proletariat that faced growing unemployment, with radical social ideas for liberal reforms that were brought to the foreground along with the question of German unification. The ideological trends composed different viewpoints about the future political life, including the conservative principle centered in the assertion of the powers of the monarchs, in contrast to establishing constitutional liberalism in the form of a popular constitution to safeguard civil liberties, which would represent the corresponding interests of the middle class that was becoming increasingly important during enhanced economic development, and the notion of establishing a federation of independent German states. As neither the monarchy nor the representatives of the provincial assemblies would give way on the matter of instituting a modern, anti-feudal, representative constitution to express the interests of national life, a rupture between political interests and the exercise of economic power expressed through public opinion became inevitable. Before the united Prussian assembly could renew its rejected demands, the revolutions of 1848 swept across Europe as a whole. While there was very little violence, there were serious confrontations between the populations and the military in Prussia and Austria from the March 1848 revolution in Berlin and Vienna to the Convention of Olmütz, and the restoration of the obsolete Federal Constitution and the German Confederation of 1815.
The first phase extended from 10 March to 1 November, when Austria was crippled by continual riots and was effectively put of action. Frederick William IV yielded to the pressure of revolutionary events in Berlin on 18 March 1848 by granting the population’ demands, which were reinforced after two days of street fighting. These events led to simultaneous uprisings in the German states that enabled revolutionary leaders to concentrate their efforts on the national parliament in Frankfurt-am-Main, and to work on drastic reforms in Prussia through a national assembly in Berlin, before the Austrian government could recover and challenge its supremacy. While the National Assembly that convened on Frankfurt on 18 May 1848, and the first Prussian Constituent Assembly that was elected by universal and equal suffrage and secret ballot on 22 May continued its deliberations about constitutional reform, the revolution in Prague was overcome by the end of June, and order was restored in Vienna by 1 November.
A second phase began on 1 November, which lasted until 28 April 1849, which Austria practically eliminated the Frankfurt assembly with Prussian support. Hungary was reduced with Russian support, and the revolution against Austria in northern Italy was virtually crushed on 23 March 1849. The Austrian emperor promulgated a new constitution on 4 March 1849, and practically declared war on the Frankfurt assembly. German liberals had one chance left to secure Prussia as an ally against Austria by offering a draft constitution to Frederick William IV, who rejected this Frankfurt constitution and the invitation to become the king of Germany on 25 April 1849. The National Assembly in Berlin was removed and dissolved, and a Prussian constitution was promulgated by the monarchy on 5 December, which broke the efforts to draft the Frankfurt constitution that was contingent on its acceptance by the German states to achieve their unification under Prussian leadership, and thus marked the failure of the liberal revolution.
A third phase lasted until 5 October 1850, when there was interest concentrated on Prussia attempting to reach its own unification solution. While Prussian troops were suppressing the remaining republican revolutionary elements in Baden and the southern German states, the Prussian government endeavoured to form of union of the kingdoms of Hanover, Saxony, Württemberg and Bavaria, among other petty German states under Prussian leadership, with a joint directory, a common parliament and a constitution consisting of voluntary members with a close alliance with Austria that would be excluded from this union. The surrender of Vilagos on 12 August and Venice on 22 August left Austria completely free to take action with the German states and the Prussian union plan. Although the Frankfurt liberals decided to support this scheme, the four kingdoms had seceded from this plan under Austrian influence by 5 October.
A fourth phase ended a parliament of the union met at Erfurt and approved a draft constitution, before adjourning on 29 November 1850, ending with the Punctation of Olmütz. Austria demanded a revival of the German Confederation. The elector of Hesse-Kassel professed to be a member of the union, but appealed to the old Confederation, which was supported by Austria, Bavaria and Württemberg. A federal execution was ordered at the risk of war between Prussia and its allies in the Confederation in support of liberalism in Hesse-Kassel and the Erfurt Union, and Austria with the support of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. Division over going to war with Austria in the Prussian court and risking civil war in the German states resulted in deciding to avoid the destruction of Prussia by complying with the Convention of Olmütz, which officially registered Prussia accepting the Austrian ultimatum and the abandonment of the union plan.
The final phase ended on 16 May 1851, when the old Confederation was revived unaltered, which restored the February 1848 situation. One difference was Prussia accepting a secret alliance with Austria that guaranteed the whole of the Austrian empire, in addition to its interest in the German states, in exchange for maintaining its territorial integrity. The attempt to unify the German states through revolution and on principles of liberalism and nationalism had thus collapsed, following the initial successes that were later stifled.
The Austrian government was compelled to declare a constitutional state by decree, probably in an attempt to bypass the revolution from below by giving the people what they wanted from above, but the limited constitution did not satisfy anyone. Mass demonstrations broke out on 15 March and the emperor was forced to promise a constitution after Metternich had resigned and fled to England on 13 March, being conscious of the significant political changes that were taking place. The first socialist revolutionary reverberations centered on the working class began in Cologne on 3 March, where the prominent radical of the time Andreas Gottschalk called for a revolutionary committee, prior to the army dispersing this popular demonstration.
While individuals formulated plans for initiating constitutional plans for the future of the German states, the Prussian and Austrian authorities sought to maintain political control to placate tumultuous popular sentiments. Frederick William IV responded to the revolutionary events by dispatching General von Radowitz to Vienna with a plan for the complete revision of the federal constitution. Metternich invited various German state governments to convene in a conference in Dresden on 25 March, and was forced to resign on 13 March as a result of the outbreak of revolution in Vienna. The state conference was compelled to grant an Austrian constitution, following a vacuum of central authority over two months in the face of widespread popular demonstrations, whereas Frederick William IV was able to prevent a violent revolution in Berlin by deploying the local garrison. Popular pressure led to promising greater freedom for the press on 8 March. There was heightening unrest in Prussia due to an economic crisis and widespread unemployment, as protesters became encouraged by the earlier revolutionary successes in other states. Frederick William IV attempted to conciliate protestors by announcing on 14 March that the united estates would be recalled on 22 April had minimal effect to placate protests, and pitched street battles were fought between the Berlin garrison and the local population.
Frederick William IV then further conceded to protesters’ demands in attempts to appease uncontrollable mobs who threatened his continued rule, pledging on 17 March to reform the German Confederation under Prussian leadership, as well as promising to grant a parliamentary constitution that would provide for the creation of a representative national assembly, or Landtag, and the complete abolition of press censorship. Further initiative was taken thereafter by then announcing that Prussia would take action to create a federal German state, summoning a German parliament, and granting constitutions in all of the German states, including Prussia. The united estates would meet on 2 April, and a new ministry would be appointed. Crowds swarmed around the royal palace on 18 March to express their gratitude and urge the implementation of these measures.
Street fighting broke out with soldiers who began clearing the crowds in front of the royal palace, and two shots were accidentally fired, leading to two days of street fighting in Berlin, with resulting between three hundred to eight hundred civilian deaths and a hundred among the troops that imposed control over the city. News of these incidents sparked other such armed revolts throughout Prussia. In order obviate the possibility of a civil war, Frederick William IV ordered the troops to withdraw from the city while citizens set up barricades to continue resistance, which induced the monarch to nominally capitulate to the protesters. In any case, the army was ill-suited for street fighting that could subdue a hostile urban population, which would only result in gratuitous bloodshed. He issued a new proclamation on 21 March in which he declared that the united estates would be transformed into a German parliament in agreement with the princes. A new ministry was formed with the appointment of the liberal leaders Gottlieb Ludolf Camphausen as minister-president and David Hansemann as finance minister, and a constituent assembly was to be elected by universal suffrage that would be charged with drafting a constitution for Prussia, which met in a Second United Diet on 2 April to counter revolutionary pressure, aiming at attempting to create a legal framework for a new Prussian national assembly that would draft a constitution, and attempting to transition from absolute to constitutional monarchy to appease revolutionaries. Although Frederick William IV maintained that he would not tolerate a British version of cabinet solidarity, while an elected government would remain responsible to the monarchy as the ultimate state authority, and would only serve in an advisory capacity. The Diet established that the new constitution would be an “agreement” between the parliament and the monarchy, rather than independently by the parliament. This Diet concluded a broad electoral law for the forthcoming Prussian National Assembly, with elections to be held by universal, equal, and indirect suffrage for all men over 24. A further attempt to pacify the population by issuing a bill providing for the freedom of the press, civic liberties, freedom of assembly, trial by jury, and equal rights for all citizens. The monarchy proposed the creation of a bicameral parliament consisting of an upper house composed of hereditary noble representatives and elected citizens, who would be eligible for election based on their income amount. An elected lower house would consist of delegates who would not be subject to income and property requirements. The assembled delegates instead voted for a single chamber open to all male citizens granted the right to vote at the age of 24.
A Prussian national assembly was elected on 1 May 1848, composed of 31 percent of civil servants, 30 percent of professionals, 11 percent of peasants, and 5 percent of workers and artisans. Other well-known delegates from Prussia as a whole joined the National Assembly in Frankfurt in the interest of fulfilling the earlier pledges for establishing constitutional government that had not been implemented. In practice, both bodies of representatives proved to be ineffective to effect constitutional reform. The Prussian national assembly that met in Berlin consented to introducing a new election law with universal voting privileges that the Camphausen cabinet had formulated, and then dissolved itself to allow for a new national assembly to be created through the new election law, and then met for the first time on 22 May 1848 to discuss the introduction of a new constitution for Prussia. This new body proved to be unsuccessful as a result of its members who were unable to moderate demands that would not antagonise liberals and conservatives.
The Prussian monarchy maintained its passive resistance to the expression of popular demands in the forms of petitions, reports and negotiations, including the execution of the promises of 1815. The former civil service and military administrations remained in place while the institution of the monarchy was preserved, along with the reactionary camarilla of advisers surrounding the king, functioning as the unofficial secret ministry that used its members’ social positions to undermine liberal interests by pressuring the king to adhere to counterrevolution, which remained enabled to limit the extent of constitutional reforms while fearing revolutionary change. This court camarilla thus became the real power behind the throne, while the discipline of the army and the self-confidence of the officer corps remained undeterred. Further influence was exercised with the founding of an ultraconservative newspaper, the Neue Preußische Zeitung, also known as the Kreuzzeitung in July 1848, that was to become the authoritative voice of Prussian conservatism.
The Frankfurt National Assembly that invited the separate states to draft a new form of union for Germany on 1 March 1848 faced the underlying fundamental weakness of lacking the power to establish a provisional central government for the German states. It did not have a police force, or a civil service to implement legislation. Its discussions on constitutional reform were also complicated by the political divisions among its members, and did not have any direct control of any military forces while the execution of its decisions was subject to the willingness of Austria and Prussia as the largest states in the German Confederation that were in conflict with each other over establishing their influence over the smaller states. The assembly delegates devoted themselves to constitutional discussions throughout 1848, until completing a draft constitution for a unified federal German state on 27 December 1848, which was to be accepted by both Austria and Prussia. Whether the gains of the German revolutions of 1848 could be consolidated would hereafter depend on events in these major states.
An initial development toward unifying revolutionary ideals for the German states as a whole, while also limiting radical influences, was made by attempting to define the order of a constitutional monarchy and prepare the way for the calling of a national parliament. Fifty-one German intellectual convened in Heidelberg on 5 March 1848 where they appointed themselves as representatives to discuss the problem of defining the future of a united Germany, and declared their unanimous and emphatic demand for a new German parliament. Their initial plans for an election to a national German assembly began by organising a seven-member committee to make the necessary arrangements for federal reform to set the principles to draft a revised constitution for a new Confederation government. This group issued invitations to all of the members and delegates of the German states to convene a larger and more representative assembly known as the Vorparlament, or preliminary parliament, composed of representatives from the various German regional diets to meet in Frankfurt-am-Main on 30 March. This body would in turn arrange for elections to be held in all of the member states of the German Confederation, and thereby ensure the formation of a genuinely representative German national parliament, composed of a single leader as the head of all of the German states, with responsible ministers, a senate of the individual states, and a house of representatives with a member for every 70,000 inhabitants.
This Vorparlament did not have any legal standing while theoretically superseding the voice of the Federal Diet that had ceased to function, but it nevertheless assumed responsibility for the task of arranging for the election of delegates to summon a Constituent Assembly of representatives from all the German states, which would give local populations the right to have a voice in their own governments as responsible citizens who provided for the most of the state tax revenues, and thereby express their demands in a state of genuine self-government, rather than excluding them from power on the basis of their social class. 574 delegates, mainly from the southern and western German states, and two from Austria, began their discussions in the Paulskirche, St. Paul’s Church, in Frankfurt-am-Main on 31 March. This representative body of delegates soon became divided between liberals who wanted to create a constitutional monarchy represented in a parliament, whereas radicals demanded creating a republic with executive and legislative powers vested in a revolutionary convention, and only agreeing there were to be national elections to determine the constitution of a future unified state, including whether to incorporate Austria into this new state.
Delegates from the separate German states composing the National Assembly (Nationalversammlung), consisting of 831 representatives who were elected in the separate German states, including Austria as well as representatives in the Confederation Diet, on 1 May 1848, and convened in St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt on 18 May 1848. This assembly of delegates constituted the first popularly elected de facto government devoted to formulating a constitution for a unified German nation. Heinrich von Gagern and his brother Max attempted to reach compromise solution between conservatives calling for consultation with the separate states, and the radical republican demand for a sovereign parliamentary executive committee. This entailed creating a temporary central administration with the consent of the governments of Baden, Württemberg, and Saxony. The king of Württemberg declared that Prussia could assume leadership on the condition that it would recognise a constitutional parliamentary system. Although the revolution made very rapid progress in the early days of March that changed the political landscape in the separate German states, little progress could be made toward the unification of Germany without the active cooperation of the major powers, Austria and Prussia. Furthermore, this new provisional national government was virtually powerless, as it was devoid of funding, civil service offices, and a military while entirely relying on the dubious goodwill of the German Confederation member states, regardless of its widespread popular support as it temporarily filled a power vacuum in the absence of Prussia and Austria being temporarily unable to exercise military force.
Tensions remained in Prussia between the revolutionary elements and the monarchy and associated conservatives. The ideological chasm between them were further exacerbated by the Prussian parliament denying Friedrich William IV’s claim to govern by divine right, rather than according to the will of the Prussian population. A violent clash that occurred between local citizens and the military in Schweidnitz on 31 July 1848, resulting in the deaths of fourteen people led to the resignation of the Prussian Minister of War, Ludwig Freiherr Roth von Schreckenstein, in September under pressure from the Frankfurt Parliament. A proposal was forwarded for Prussian army reforms, requiring troops to conform to constitutional values, which aggravated this breach between liberals and conservatives, and led to resignations and dismissals of liberal ministers. An assembly resolution on 31 October 1848 stating that all Prussians were to be considered equal before the law, regardless of any privileges and titles or ranks were to continue existing, and the nobility was to be abolished. There were then further attacks on the conservative and royalist members of the assembly for repudiating revolutionary ideals and withdrawing from this state parliament. The new Minister-President, Count von Brandenburg, took action against the assembly on 9 November 1848 to dissolve it altogether, under the pretext of restoring order. Martial law was imposed two days later, freedom of the press was again restricted, and political meetings were banned. When the assembly attempted to reconvene on 27 November, and was again forcefully dispersed. A new constitution was then promulgated on 5 December as compromise between liberals and conservatives, which established a constitutional monarchy with underlying absolutist principles, with diminished parliamentary powers under the authority of the monarchy.
Case study exercise
1. Groups of three determine a problem, and identify its causes and evidence to support them, before then providing conclusions and any recommendations about any unresolved issues. This can serve as preparation for the final exam presentation of a problem situation.
2. Prepare written contents for evaluation.
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