Parliament

The German unification and freedom movement (1800 - 1848)

The late 18th century saw the emergence throughout Europe of political movements dedicated to the pursuit of national unification on the basis of liberty. In Germany this development began relatively late. Political conditions in the Holy Roman Empire - known in Germany as the ‘Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation’ - were still entirely determined by the traditional structures of the authoritarian state that characterised the latter part of the age of absolutism. Although the Ancien Régime had...

Revolution and the National Assembly in Frankfurt am Main 1848/1849

From the start of the 1840s, economic crises, mass poverty and general political discontent destabilised the social and political order in numerous European countries, culminating in a wave of revolutions that swept through the whole of Europe in 1848. In Germany too, demands were made at public gatherings and demonstrations for fundamental rights and freedoms and national unification. Shaken by the revolutionary momentum, the forces of the Restoration finally gave way and made major concessions...

The Empire (1871-1918)

The German Empire was characterised by modernism and traditionalism. Its foundation marked the start of a stormy marriage between democracy and the monarchy, in which - as is apparent in retrospect - the scope for development of the Constitution of 16 April 1871 was often an issue. Was there any chance, after 1871, of a transition to a parliamentary monarchy, in which the Kaiser’s influence on affairs of state would have been reduced to a minimum, or had strict limits been drawn to prevent such ...

The Weimar Republic (1918 - 1933)

As a result of the November Revolution of 1918, Germany’s constitutional monarchy was replaced by parliamentary democracy. Throughout its entire existence, the Weimar Republic, named after the town where its constitution was adopted, was continuously subjected to internal and external stresses and strains. From the very start, advocates of the Republic had to withstand pressure from radical forces of the Left and Right.

The Reichstag, elected for a four-year term, was the central legi...