Frankfurt and Berlin: The Question of a Liberal Germany

Section 12.60

The Springtime of the Peoples• France

• July Monarchy

• Louis Phillippe

• Orleanist• Guizot• 2/22/1848• 2nd Republic• Provisional

Gov• Louis Blanc• National

Workshops• June Days• Louis

Napoleon• Legitamists

v. Orleanists• Falloux

Laws• Second

Empire

• Austria• Metternic

h System• Nationalis

m =“the war of all against all..”

• March Days

• Kossuth and March Laws

• Pan-Slav Assembly

• Piux IX– Syllab

us of Errors

• Bach System

• Great Britain

• Chartist Movement

– Anti-cap

– annual elections HOC

– universal suff

– secret ballots

– Redistricting

– No prop qual

– salaries to mems of Parl

• Mines Act 1842 & Ten Hours Act 1847

• Prussia

• Frankfurt Assembly– Liberals and

Nationalistic– Lacked support of lower

classes– Lacked existing

structures

• Berlin Assembly– Radical– Anti-Russia

• German Dualism

• Great v. Little Germans

• Declaration of the Rights of the German People

• FW IV -not “pick up a crown from the gutter”

• Constitution of 1850– Pro Junker/Industrialist

The German States• Frankfurt Assembly (May 1848-May

1849) is struggling to create a democratic Germany

• The failure to do so during the mid-19th century contributes to challenges for Europe in 20th (WWI and II)

Obstacles to Unification• Were 39 states recognized after

Congress of Vienna– German Confederation

• Traditions of independence• Desire to maintain sovereignty (like

US v UN)• Large states of Prussia (from Baltic

to Rhineland) and Austria (Motley Empire) were threatened by one another

• Small states maintained their independence through balance of power tactics

• German dualism• Defined= Polarity between

Berlin and Vienna (Prussia and Austria)

• German question abated during the threat of Napoleon

• Junkers enjoyed status and autonomy within Prussia– were indifferent to all

German dream• Western regions perceived

Prussia and uncouth and eastern

The German States

Berlin: Failure of the Revolution in Prussia• Prussia was illiberal but not

backward• Frederick William the III and

IV (1840) refused constitutionalism

• Gov. was not democratic but was was efficient, progressive, and fair

• Strong education system– High literacy rates

• Government used mercantilist methods of planning the economy

• Established the tariff union Zollverein (a German NAFTA)

• eventually included almost all Germany

Frederick William IV of Prussia

Radical Assemblies• 3/1848 riots break out• Frederick William IV first uses the military (Junkers)

– Then calls off the military and calls for elections• all-Prussian legislative assemblyAssembly is radical in response to anti-Junker lower classes• Supported by Polish revolutionaries and exiles• Largely influenced by eastern interests• Perceive Russia as the center of reaction in Europe

– It was (remember Nicholas I invaded Hungary to put down their independence movement at Francis Joseph’s request)

– Hoped to smash the Holy Alliance by raising an all German revolution against Russia

Problems• Assembly grants political autonomy to the Poles of West Prussia

(Posen)• Germans intermixed with Poles refuse to recognize Poles

authority• Military in the region sides with the Germans

– Crushes the Polish institutions• Power clearly lies in the military (Junkers) and the revolution is

over

National Property (1848) As a reaction to the suspected betrayal of the people by the king, the palace on Unter den Linden in Berlin was occupied and declared "national property" during the revolutionary fighting on March 19, 1848

The Frankfurt Assembly• All German assembly is elected with

power vacuum after March 1848• This bypasses existing sovereignties• Representatives are sent from all the

states• Its strength is that it represents the

moral sentiment (liberalism, nationalism)

• However the Assembly had no power• No military• No civil administration with which to

take over– It looked like the National Assembly

of 1789 BUT– there was no preexisting structure

(all German army, civil service) to take over

• Became dependent on the support of the states it was trying to supercede

An Untimely Revolution• 5/1848 Assembly met• representatives are professionals and intellectuals• they wanted a liberal, self-governing, federally unified, and

democratic (not egalitarian) Germany• they were peaceable, legalistic, non-violent (wanted no war

with Russia)• Timing of the assembly is too late• fear of social revolution is fueling reactionary attitudes

(June Days of Paris, Chartists)• Revolution could not be achieved with out the link between

classes– Threat of lower class violence is needed for change to

occur– Middle and Lower Class need symbiotic relationship

• Radical Riots in Frankfurt are repressed by the Assembly and calls out the Prussian army to keep the peace

• Afterward the Assembly is dependent on the Prussian Army

Questions of territory• Most difficult question

faced by the Assembly • What is Germany?• Did it include Austria,

Bohemia, parts of Prussia, parts of Denmark (Schleswig and Holstein), parts of Hungary, Moravia, city of Riga, Zurich, Holland

• What are the borders to be?

• Great Germans: should include Austria (except Hungary) and federated crown should go to Habsburg Monarchy

• Little Germans: said No Austria and Hohenzollern Monarchy (King of Prussia would be King)

Dependence on Austrian and Prussian armies

• Frankfurt Assembly desired to retain non-German peoples in the new Germany

• These people were feeling national ambitions of their own

• Assembly supported Windischgratz against the Czechs

– Approved of Prussian moves against Poles– Supported the Prussian army against the

Berlin Assembly• Frankfurt thought Prussians of Berlin were too

radical (pro Polish, pro war with Russia)• Schleswig-Holstein have Germans but belong

to Dutch King– Asked Prussian army to go to war

• Prussian army makes peace to avoid a conflict with Russia and England over the Gulf of Riga

• When radical riots broke out against the Junkers and the Frankfurt Assembly calls in the Prussian army

The Second Wartburg Festival (1848) German students participate in the second Wartburg Festival, held near Eisenach in Thuringia on June 12, 1848. The first festival took Wood engraving, July 1848.

The Failure of the Frankfurt Assembly• Awakening nationalities failed to respect

each other• Quarreling with each other helped the

return of the old order (nationalists checkmated each other)

• Frankfurt issued a Declaration of the Rights of the German People (not man)

• Modeled after American and French but only for Germans

– Anti-Enlightenment (Herder, Hegel)

• Offered the crown of “Germany” to Frederick William IV

• Accepting the crown would mean • Internal unrest from the Junkers• Forcing his title (Hohenzollerns) over the

smaller states that had the real power• Challenging Austria and the threat of war

The Failure of Liberal Nationalism• FW IV declined saying he could

not “pick up a crown from the gutter”

• If he was to be emperor it would have to come from the Princes

• Most of the Assembly dissolves• Part of what remains calls for

riots and elections• Junker army moves in and the

Assembly is driven out of Frankfurt

• Failures of German liberalism contributed to the estrangement between Germany and western Europe

Democrats being swept out of the German lands after the failure of the 1848 revolutions.

The Prussian Constitution of 1850• FW IV produces a

constitution in order to placate everyone

• Remained in effect until 1918

• Single parliament for all regions in Prussia

• divided the population into 3 estates, the wealthy, less wealthy and poor

• big tax payers chose a third of members (so a few wealthy had as much power as hundreds)

• Controlled by east Elbian Junkers

Constitution of 1850 Continued• Rising industrials will

share power with Junkers

• Somewhat progressive for 1850

• Outpaced by western constitutions that are more liberal

• Becomes a symbol of reaction

• Gives industrialists and large land owners a position of special privilege within the state