The
Frankfurt Constitution
(
German
:
Frankfurter Reichsverfassung
, FRV) or
Constitution of St. Paul's Church
(
Paulskirchenverfassung
), officially named the
Constitution of the German Empire
(
Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches
) of 28 March 1849, was an unsuccessful attempt to create a unified
German
nation state
in the successor states of the
Holy Roman Empire
organised in the
German Confederation
. Adopted and proclaimed by the
Frankfurt Parliament
after the
Revolutions of 1848
, the
constitution
contained a charter of
fundamental rights
and a
democratic
government in the form of a
constitutional monarchy
. King
Frederick William IV of Prussia
was designated
head of state
as "Emperor of the
Germans
" (
Kaiser
der Deutschen
), a role he rejected.
The constitution is called by its more common names in order to distinguish it from the
Constitution of the German Empire
enacted in 1871 and initiated by
Otto von Bismarck
.
Emergence
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The 1849 Constitution was proclaimed by the
Frankfurt Parliament
, during its meeting in the
Paulskirche
church on 27 March 1849, and came in effect on 28 March,
[1]
when it was published in the
Reichs-Gesetz-Blatt 1849
, pp. 101?147. Thus, a united German Empire, as successor to the German Confederation, had been founded
de jure
.
De facto
, however, most Princes on German soil were not willing to give up sovereignty and resisted it, so it did not succeed on land, with the German Confederation being restored a year later. On the other hand, this first and democratic German Empire, with its small
Reichsflotte
(
Imperial Fleet
) founded a year earlier, fought the
First War of Schleswig
at sea with the
Battle of Heligoland
. The fleet's black-red-gold war ensign was one of the first instances of the official use of the modern republican
Flag of Germany
.
After long and controversial negotiations, the parliament had passed the complete Imperial Constitution on 27 March 1849. It was carried narrowly, by 267 against 263 votes. The version passed included the creation of a
hereditary emperor
(
Erbkaisertum
), which had been favoured mainly by the
erbkaiserliche
group around Gagern, with the reluctant support of the Westendhall group around
Heinrich Simon
. On the first reading, such a solution had been dismissed. The change of mind came about because all alternative suggestions, such as an
elective monarchy
, or a
Directory government
under an alternating chair were even less practicable and unable to find broad support, as was the radical left's demand for a
republic
, modelled on the
United States
.
The constitution's text opens with § 1 Sentence 1:
"Das deutsche Reich besteht aus dem Gebiete des bisherigen deutschen Bundes."
("The German Empire consists of the area of the hitherto existing German Confederation"). The Frankfurt deputies had to answer the
German question
, i.e. the debate whether a unified Germany should comprise those
Austrian
crown lands included in the Confederation's territory or not. As the
Habsburg
emperors would never renounce any constituent lands of their
multinational state
, the delegates with the designation of King Frederick William IV opted for a
Prussian
-led "Lesser German solution" (
Kleindeutsche Losung
), though the Constitution explicitly reserved the participation of the Austrian lands.
The German people were to be represented by a bicameral parliament, with a directly elected
Volkshaus
(House of commons), and a
Staatenhaus
(House of States) of representatives sent by the individual confederated states. Half of each
Staatenhaus
delegation was to be appointed by the respective state government, the other by the state parliament. Sections 178 and 179 called, at one and the same time, for
public trials
, oral criminal proceedings, and
jury trials
for the "more serious crimes and all political offenses."
[2]
The introduction of the jury trial was followed by its adoption by the overwhelming majority of German states,
and continued with the
German Empire
Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz
(GVG) of 27 January 1877,
[5]
and would last until the
Emminger Reform
of 4 January 1924 during the
Weimar Republic
.
See also
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References
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Further reading
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External links
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