Back to the video list: German History

 

The German Revolution of March 1848 was the peak of the middle class movement which aspired after democratic reforms and a unified Germany.

 

Video

 

 

Overview

  • Date: 01 Mar 1848 – 23 Jul 1849
  • Location: German Confederation (Deutscher Bund)
  • Start: Revolutionaries occupy the assembly hall of the estates in Baden
  • End: Prussian troops decisively defeat the last revolutionaries in Rastatt, Baden (victory of counter-revolution)

 

Parties & Persons Involved

  • Frederick William IV (German: Wilhelm Friedrich IV) (1795 – 1861), King of Prussia
  • Gustav Struve (1805 – 1870), Revolutionary from Baden
  • Friedrich Hecker (1811 – 1881), Revolutionary from Baden

 

Background

  • Economic & social preconditions:
    • Pauperism & unemployment against the background of early industrial development
    • The economic development of the Bürgertum (non-noble middle class) is hampered due to customs barriers in the German Confederation
    • 1847: Failed harvest & famine
  • Political preconditions:
    • Wide spread liberal & national movements in the population of the German states
    • Restoration of monarchic social order (“System Metternich”) & oppression of national & liberal ideas by the governments of the German states (Censorship of the press, missing constitutions, surveillance & persecution of dissenters
  • International preconditions:
    • Revolutionary developments in other European countries, esp. in
    • Italy – national dimension
    • France – liberal dimension

 

History

  • Feb 1848: February Revolution & proclamation of the 2nd Republic
  • 27 Feb 1848: Assembly of people demand a bill of rights in Mannheim
  • March Demands (1848)
    • Arming the people
    • Freedom of the press
    • Public jury courts
    • Pan-German Parliament
  • 01 Mar 1848: Occupation of the assembly hall of the estates in Baden
  • Mar – May 1848: Revolutionary gatherings & street riots
  • 18 May 1848: 1st session of the Frankfurt Parliament, the 1st freely elected pan-German parliament
  • 28 Mar 1849: Frankfurt Parliament adopts the Constitution of St. Pauls Church – Lesser German Solution & constitutional monarchy with the Prussian king as Emperor
  • 03 Apr 1849: Frederick William IV of Prussia declines the imperial crown & the imperial constitution fails
  • May 1849: Uprisings with clashes between revolutionaries & the military
  • 01 Jun 1849: Proclamation of the republic in Baden
  • 01 Jun 1849: Württemberg troops dissolve the rump parliament (rest of the Frankfurt Parliament) in Stuttgart
  • 23 Jul 1849: Prussian troops decisively defeat the last revolutionaries in Rastatt

 

Consequences & Impact

  • Counter-revolutionary developments & consolidation of the monarchic powers
  • Mass emigration of the “Forty-Niners“ to the USA
  • Establishment of the dualism of democracy & unified nation
  • Establishment of the Lesser German Solution (without Austria) for the German unification (1871)
  • Definite end of the feudal order
  • Improvements with regards to legal certainty & freedom of the press