Constitution of the German Confederation

In its final form, the Constitution was notably conservative, enshrining the monarchical principle and giving the Confederation the right to intervene against "dangerous movements" in any member state.

[4] In the spring of 1814, the major powers in the Sixth Coalition, which had defeated Napoleon and exiled him to the island of Elba, agreed that Germany should in future be a confederation of states in accordance with Article 6 of the 30 May 1814 Treaty of Paris, which had ended the war: "The States of Germany shall be independent and united by a Federative Bond.

"[5][6] Initial negotiations at the Congress of Vienna failed because Bavaria and Württemberg maintained their rigid particularism (the principle that the states of a confederation should be allowed to retain their own laws and promote their own interests).

The impasse in the negotiations on Germany's future organisation was broken by the sense of urgency that arose when Napoleon temporarily returned from exile in March 1815.

[9] The Constitution created the German Confederation as a "perpetual union" of the sovereign princes and free cities of Germany (Art.

The four free cities (Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck and Frankfurt), for example, formed a group and had a single vote (Art.

The Assembly's first order of business was to b "the enactment of the fundamental laws of the Confederation, and of its Organic Institutions, with respect to its exterior, military, and interior relations" (Art.

[1] At its first meeting, the Federal Convention was to begin work on decrees ensuring freedom of the press and safeguarding the rights of writers and publishers against copying (copyright protection) (Art.

The amendment to it, which took four years to draft, was adopted by the Vienna Ministerial Conference on 25 November 1819 and unanimously approved by the Federal Convention in Frankfurt on 8 June 1820.

[2] The Confederation reserved the right to intervene directly in the event of "open rebellion" or "dangerous movements" in individual federal states (Article 26).

[2] The German Confederation thus expressly secured the right to intervene to maintain the political and social status quo, as was the case for the whole of Europe under the core states of the Holy Alliance – Russia, Austria and Prussia.

By Article II of the Preliminary Peace of Nikolsburg of 26 July 1866, the Emperor of Austria expressly recognised the dissolution of the Confederation.