Frankfurt and Berlin: The Question of a Liberal Germany

1
Frankfurt and Berlin The Question of a Liberal
Germany

• Section 12.60

2
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
• Metternich System
• Nationalism the war of all against all..
• March Days
• Kossuth and March Laws
• Pan-Slav Assembly
• Piux IX
• Syllabus 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

3
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

4
The German States

• 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

5
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
6
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 assembly
• Assembly 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
  Josephs 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
7
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

8
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

9
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)

10
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.
11
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

12
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.
13
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

14
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