The
Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia was adopted in 1850 and amended in the following years. This
constitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
was far less liberal than the federal constitution of the
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
.
The government was not responsible to the Prussian Landtag (lower chamber), whose powers were small and whose members were elected by a suffrage system based on tax-paying ability. The House of Lords (
HerrenhausThe German term Herrenhaus is equivalent to the English House of Lords and describes roughly similar institutions as the English House of Lords in German-speaking countries.More specifically, Herrenhaus, can refer to either of the following:...
) was largely controlled by the
conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
JunkerA Junker was a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. These families were mostly part of the German Uradel and carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the medieval Ostsiedlung. Today "Junker" is often used as an...
s, who held immense tracts of generally poor land east of the
ElbeThe River Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in the Krkonose Mountains of northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
(particularly in
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia...
).
The
Constitution of the Kingdom of Prussia was adopted in 1850 and amended in the following years. This
constitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
was far less liberal than the federal constitution of the
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
.
The government was not responsible to the Prussian Landtag (lower chamber), whose powers were small and whose members were elected by a suffrage system based on tax-paying ability. The House of Lords (
HerrenhausThe German term Herrenhaus is equivalent to the English House of Lords and describes roughly similar institutions as the English House of Lords in German-speaking countries.More specifically, Herrenhaus, can refer to either of the following:...
) was largely controlled by the
conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
JunkerA Junker was a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany. These families were mostly part of the German Uradel and carried on the colonization and Christianization of the northeastern European territories during the medieval Ostsiedlung. Today "Junker" is often used as an...
s, who held immense tracts of generally poor land east of the
ElbeThe River Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in the Krkonose Mountains of northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
(particularly in
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia...
). Endowed with little money and much pride, they had continued to form the officer corps of the
Prussian ArmyThe Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War. Elector Frederick William developed it into a viable...
. The rising industrialists, notably the great
RhenishThe Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia and the Rhineland , was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Empire, from 1822-1946.-Origins and boundaries:...
and
WestphaliaWestphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Bochum, Detmold, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Minden and Münster and included in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia....
n mine owners and steel magnates, although their interests were often opposed to those of the Junkers, exerted an equally
reactionaryReactionary refers to any political or social movement or ideology that seeks a return to a previous state . The term originated in the French Revolution, to denote the counter-revolutionaries who wanted to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime...
influence on politics. The "potential power of the Prusso-German crown was vast" (Christopher Clarke,
Kaiser Wilhelm II); for example, the monarch held the power to nominate and dismiss Prussian officials (as well as federal ones). His assent was also necessary for legislation to pass into law, as well as
Commander-in-ChiefA commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the...
of the armed forces and coming with this, the power to appoint or dismiss officials during peace time. In a
decreeA decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...
William I of PrussiaWilhelm I, also known as Wilhelm the Great of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor ....
, stated that acts of the Prussian government were those of the King of Prussia, "from whose decision they originate, and who expresses his opinion and will constitutionally through them"..
Transformation
Prussia was transformed from a duchy to a kingdom on 18 January 1701 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg who and declared himself
King in PrussiaFrederick I , of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia in personal union. The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia...
. He was only allowed to be king in the Prussian kingdom to avoid offending the
Holy Roman EmperorThe Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a Middle Ages ruler, who as German King had in addition received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope of the Holy Roman Church, and after the 16th century, the elected monarch governing the Holy Roman Empire, a Central...
Leopold I who had power over most of his lands.
BrandenburgBrandenburg is one of the sixteen states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
was treated as a separate state from the Prussian Kingdom. The state of Brandenburg was later considered as part of Prussia although most of its territories lay outside Prussia proper. The kingdom grew magnificently during King Frederick I reign.
The Kingdom
King
Frederick II of PrussiaFrederick II was a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was Frederick IV of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
succeeded Frederick I. He considered himself as the first true servant of Prussia. He promoted the development of Prussia such as the
OderbruchThe Oderbruch is a region along the river Oder between the towns Oderberg and Bad Freienwalde in the north and Lebus in the south. Its maximum extent from north to south is about 56 km, from east to west about 15 km....
. He also developed the military structure of the state and got involved in the First Partition of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
with
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Frederick the Great became known as the first “
King of PrussiaKing of Prussia may refer to:* A ruler of the former German state of Prussia**List of rulers of Prussia* Place names** King of Prussia, Pennsylvania** West King of Prussia, Pennsylvania* Shopping Centers** King of Prussia Mall...
.” During his reign, he practiced enlightened absolutism. He was a fair king who introduced the civil code and abolished torture. He applied the principle that the
monarchyThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
should not go in between and biased with the justice system.
Crisis
In 1847, Prussia experienced crisis common to all German states. There were catastrophic crop failures, bread riots, serious business
recessionIn economics, a recession is a general slowdown in economic activity over a long period of time, or a business cycle contraction. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
and government incapability. In 1848, drastic changes in the Prussian kingdom began. Many bloody revolutions led forced him to make transformations in the government. New ministers occupied a middle position in an unstable government structure. The King was gradually recovering power over his states with the aid of a set of advisers called the
Kamarilla. An elected constitutional assembly was challenging the reemergence of the King’s power. There began a tug-of-war in the power over the governance of the Kingdom between the king and the
constitutional assemblyThe Constitutional Assembly was a body elected in 1955 to draw up a permanent constitution for the Republic of Indonesia. It sat between November 10, 1956 and July 2, 1959...
. After a series of cabinet reshuffles and government transformations, a new constitution was approved. It excluded a systematic democratic influence which shows that revolutionary movements had not much power. However, the king had lost his absolute powers. A new constitution was adopted which made the kingdom of Prussia a constitutional state. It was one of the most significant achievements of the revolutions.
Prussia's Constitution
- In 1850, a new constitution was adopted by the Kingdom of Prussia. This was improved in the consequent years. The newly adopted constitution was less liberal compared with the federal constitution of the rest of the German empire. The Prussian constitution also included the Prussian Landtag or the lower chamber. They had less power with the rest of the constitutional members. They were elected by a suffrage system based on the ability of the members to pay the taxes. The constitution also includes a House of Lords known as Herrenhaus
The German term Herrenhaus is equivalent to the English House of Lords and describes roughly similar institutions as the English House of Lords in German-speaking countries.More specifically, Herrenhaus, can refer to either of the following:...
which was mostly controlled by the conservative junkers. They held large areas of poor land in the east of Elbe in the east of Prussia. They formed the officer corps of the army of Prussia. The Rhenish and Wesrphalian rising industrialists also had equal political power with the Junkers.
- In 1918, Prussian constitution became liberal after it was transformed into a republic. The Junkers lost most of their lands and the influence of Rhenish industrialist extended through out the land. In 1932, Franz von Papen was appointed German chancellor and also became commissioner for Prussia. In 1932, he suspended the parliament of Prussia and ousted Otto Braun who was then the present social democrat premier of Prussia. Luckentheorie is a gap in the Prussian constitution after the 1848 revolutions. Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was a Prussian German statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century. As Ministerpräsident of Prussia from 1862–1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation...
exploited this to solve the crisis in taxes for military reforms.
Free State of Prussia
The Prussian constitution was liberalized after Prussia became a republic in 1918, and the Junkers lost many of their estates through the cession of Prussian territory to
PolandThe Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; from the creation of an independent Polish state in the aftermath of World War I, to the invasion of Poland in 1939 by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic,...
. However, both the Junkers and the Rhenish industrialists continued to exert much power behind the scenes, and when
Franz von Papen' was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933-1934...
became
GermanThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
chancellor in 1932 and commissioner for Prussia, they came into their own. In July, 1932, Papen suspended the Prussian parliament and ousted the Social Democrat
Otto BraunThis article is about the Prime Minister of Prussia. For the German Communist and once the Comintern military adviser to the Chinese Commmunist revolution see Otto Braun ....
, who had been premier of Prussia (with brief interruptions) from 1920.
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