Frankfurt Constitution
The National Assembly adopted the constitution on 28 March 1849, and twenty-eight German states collectively recognized it on 14 April.
After Napoleon's defeat by the Sixth Coalition in May 1814, the Congress of Vienna reorganized Germany as the German Confederation in June 1815.
The purpose of the Confederation was thus quite limited: it was not intended, for example, to standardise legal relationships or create a common economic area.
The Confederation did not over time develop such functions since the largest members (above all Austria, Prussia and Bavaria) had no interest in federal reform.
[3] The anti-democratic political status quo, combined with a sharp economic downturn in the mid-1840s, a series of failed harvests and the overthrow of King Louis-Philippe of France in February 1848, sparked the German revolutions of 1848–1849, out of which came the Frankfurt Constitution.
[4] At the end of 1847, opponents of the German Confederation held a meeting in Offenburg on 12 September and a conference at Heppenheim on 10 October.
Their core demands were presented in a motion by Friedrich Daniel Bassermann in the second chamber of the Baden Parliament on 12 February 1848.
His call for a national representation of the German estates, which would sit as a second chamber alongside the Federal Convention (Bundestag), helped trigger the election of a pan-German parliament that would address political reform.
[5] On 5 March, liberals and democrats met as the Heidelberg Assembly of 51 and elected a Committee of Seven who were to prepare for a preliminary parliament to meet in Frankfurt.
The representatives, however, considered fundamental rights to be crucially important in order to give Germany a standardised legal basis and to bind the individual states to it.
The question of whether a united Germany was to include any part of Austria, notably its German-speaking regions, proved to be a considerable obstacle.
It was not Archduke John of Austria, the temporary head of state (Reichsverweser), but the president of the National Assembly and the deputies who signed the constitution.
As a rule, administration and justice were to remain a matter for the individual states, but the Empire reserved the right to extend its competences (competence-competence).
They can be summarised as legal, social, and economic infrastructure: the legal status of waterways and railways, customs, common taxes on production and consumption, trade, post and telegraphy, coinage, weights and measures, imperial and state citizenship laws and general measures for health care.
[17] The constitution provided for a head of the Empire with an executive branch, a Reichstag (legislature) and an imperial court (judiciary).
The executive government did open up the possibility for it, however, for example by allowing ministers to be members of the Volkshaus, unlike under the constitutions in force from 1867 to 1918.
An imperial execution, on the other hand, was directed against a state government which violated the constitution or breached the peace of the Empire (§ 54 and § 55).
The federal government was allowed to distribute the revenue from customs duties, common indirect taxes and financial monopolies to the individual states at its own discretion; there was no provision for the other levies.
[27] Per paragraph 187, part of the constitution's section on fundamental rights, the "people's representatives have a decisive vote" on taxation and the state budget.
In addition, the constitution intended to abolish the prerogatives of the nobility (§ 137),[17] which would have had a significant impact on the social structure of Germany.
Frederick William also rejected it, although his cabinet (conditionally) and the Prussian National Assembly spoke out in favour of its adoption.
Frederick William also refused the offer of the imperial crown because he would not accept it from a popularly elected assembly, only another German prince.
[30] As a result, the planned parliamentary elections did not take place, and the National Assembly was unable to enforce the constitution due to the military superiority of the individual states that refused to recognize it.
[32] Even though the union was ultimately not realised, the draft constitution preserved much of the Frankfurt model and thus helped to moderate the reactionary period that followed the 1848 Revolution.
"[34] According to Günter Wollstein, the theoretical structure of the Frankfurt Constitution was a coherent and practicable draft, as well as being balanced and progressive.
[35] Ernst Rudolf Huber wrote: "The Frankfurt attempt to combine the great principles of freedom, equality, unity and central leadership in constitutional law retained its defining power in German political thought and action for a full century.
The recognition of inviolable human rights and humanist thinking in the National Assembly was evident in the abolition of the death penalty, which was only realised in the Basic Law a hundred years later.
