Frankfurt Parliament

The Frankfurt Parliament is the name of the German National Assembly founded during the Revolutions of 1848 that tried to unite Germany in a democratic way. Meeting in the city of Frankfurt am Main, the assembly was attended by 586 deputies.

The members of the Frankfurt Parliament convened in the St. Paul's Church, Frankfurt on May 18, 1848, when the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, influenced by the 1848 revolutions, gave support to a National Assembly to discuss German unification.

Deliberations

Civil Rights

Sessions started in July when civil rights were discussed. An agreement about civil rights was reached in October and promulgated in December. These civil rights would form the main foundation of many democratic constitutions in the individual German states.

Factions

After the discussion about civil rights the Assembly factionalized along liberal-versus-conservative lines, as well as between monarchists and republicans.

• On the far right side appeared the conservative federalists, who advocated a federal state with huge powers for the monarchs.
• Not as far to the right were the constitutional federalists, who advocated a federal state with the monarch submitting to constitutions.
• On the moderate left side appeared the parliamentary unitarists, who advocated a centralized state with a monarchy responsible to parliament.
• On the far left, appeared the republican unitarists, who advocated a centralized republic.

The existence of so many factions, of course, made the work far more difficult.

Obstruction

Work was further obstructed by conservative resistance from Austria, Prussia and foreign countries and by a quarrel about Schleswig-Holstein. After difficult debates the deputies chose for the small German solution (Kleindeutschland: Germany under Prussian lead, without Austria).

Schleswig-Holstein

At the same time as the events in Frankfurt, a Danish constitutional convention had assembled in Copenhagen, and the question of extending the draft constitution to Schleswig quickly arose, since Schleswig's population was mostly Danish and felt threatened by the prospect of becoming a small minority in a new Germany. The new king was not unsympathetic to such a policy but was afraid of its possible consequences. This crisis led to a German revolt in both Schleswig and Holstein, prompting the Frankfurt Parliament to approve the intervention of Prussia to protect its member state Holstein. On April 9 1848 the Prussian government authorised its army to intervene in Schleswig as well.^[1]

A following Prussian-Danish armistice in August 1848 was negotiated without the consent of the Frankfurt Parliament, thus underlining a major serious weakness; it controlled no military forces of its own. The German-Danish war continued until 1851.

Revolts

In September revolts occurred in Frankfurt and the parliament had to call troops from the German states.

Deliberations about a constitution

In October 1848 delibrations about a constitution started. Results were presented in April 1849. The constitution was meant to be a synthesis of tradition (empire, monarchy, federal state) and progress (universal suffrage, house of representatives).

Failure

After the completion of the constitution the deputies presented the crown of Little Germany to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia. He refused what he called a crown "from the gutter" and caused the Prussian and Austrian deputies to leave the parliament, which was doomed to be disbanded.

Conclusion

The Frankfurt Parliament was the first attempt to create a unified Germany. It was given the room to operate but the parliament was weak as it had no legal power (which was in the hands of the German Confederation). Furthermore the public's strong support of the monarchy prevented a permanent backing of the revolutionary forces. The rich people sided with the political leadership and the aristocracy. The cleft between the interests of the rich people, and those of the lower classes was too wide to be bridged by a compromise agreement. The revolutionaries also lacked uniformity in terms of demands. The military and bureaucrats remained loyal to the leading classes while the assembly did not have its own military troops. Instead of representing the entire public, the parliament only reflected intellectuals. They needed so much time to finish the constitution that when they were ready the monarchy had fortified already. The revolutions on which the parliament was founded were crushed. The refusal of Friedrich Wilhelm IV to accept the "crown from the gutter" (Germany) gave Prussia and Austria an excuse to withdraw their deputies, thus crushing the last hazard of revolution. The great winners were the conservatives.

Presidents of the National Assembly

• Friedrich Lang [Alterspräsident] (18 May 1848 - 19 May 1848)
• Heinrich von Gagern (19 May 1848 - 16 December 1848)
• Eduard Simson (18 December 1848 - 11 May 1849)
• Jacob Ludwig Theodor Reh (12 May 1849 - 30 May 1849)
• Friedrich Wilhelm Löwe (6 June 1849 - 18 June 1849)

See also

• The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states
• German history
• Politics of Germany
• Bundestag

Further reading

• Frankfurt Parliament by Frank Eyck, 1969 ISBN 0-312-30345-9
• A Year of Revolutions: Fanny Lewald's Recollections of 1848 translated, edited, and annotated by Hanna Ballin Lewis, 1997. ISBN 1-57181-099-4

References

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