The Frankfurt Constitution: The 1849 Constitutional Plan and Its Failure to Take Effect

The Frankfurt National Assembly began meeting in St Paul’s Church in May 1848. In March 1849, liberals led by Gagern reached a compromise with moderate democrats including Heinrich Simon, combining a hereditary emperor with a strong parliament. Parliamentary consideration of the constitutional text was completed on 27 March; on the 28th the assembly proclaimed it in its capacity as a constituent body.

The constitution contained seven parts and 197 articles and opened with the assembly’s decision. The assembly determined how it would be proclaimed rather than treating it as an ordinary law awaiting a monarch’s approval. It was later printed in Reichs-Gesetz-Blatt No. 16, issued on 28 April. The date of 28 March on the constitution and the gazette’s issue date record separate stages.

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Article 5 reserved to the German states all powers not expressly granted to the empire. Alongside this, the constitution assigned external representation, common customs, the monetary system and some transport matters to the empire, drawing boundaries between unity and state autonomy. Article 66 established the general precedence of imperial over state law.

The federal arrangement also concerned everyday activities. States could not treat other Germans as inferior foreigners in civil, criminal or procedural rights. Rights to move, acquire real property and earn a livelihood were to be recognized throughout Germany. The common state was both a political organization and a plan to reduce legal barriers between states.

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Articles 68–70 placed the headship of the state with a reigning German monarch, to pass within his family through male primogeniture, with the title “Emperor of the Germans”. The constitution defined the office; the assembly subsequently voted on its holder, selecting King Frederick William IV of Prussia.

The emperor exercised power with the assistance of responsible ministers. Article 74 required government acts to bear the countersignature of at least one imperial minister to be valid. The emperor could summon parliament and dissolve the People’s House, but legislation required participation by parliament. The design retained monarchy while limiting executive action through ministerial responsibility and parliamentary involvement.

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The imperial parliament comprised a States’ House and a People’s House. The States’ House represented the states, with seats in principle divided equally between appointments by state governments and selections by local representative bodies. The text provided additional nomination and election rules for states with one seat or an odd total. The People’s House comprised popular representatives, with detailed procedures assigned to an imperial electoral law.

Both houses had to agree for a parliamentary resolution to take effect. A resolution opposed by the government could not immediately be reintroduced in the same session. If adopted unchanged in three successive ordinary sessions, however, it could become law at the end of the third. Budgets, borrowing and taxation also required parliamentary decisions. Financial bills went first to the People’s House, and expenditure was restricted to its approved purpose and amount.

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Part Six required state constitutions to observe fundamental rights. It abolished privileges of rank, affirmed equality before the law, personal liberty, freedom of expression and publication, and freedom of belief and conscience, and protected scholarship and teaching. Article 188 also guaranteed non-German-speaking groups the use of their languages in local education, administration and justice.

The rights provisions were linked to the proposed judicial system. Articles 125 and 126 envisaged an imperial court hearing constitutional disputes between the empire and states and actions by German citizens alleging violations of constitutional rights. Further legislation would define their scope and procedure. The constitution set out freedoms and proposed a judicial means of protecting them.

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On 3 April 1849, assembly president Eduard Simson led a delegation offering the crown to Frederick William IV. The king’s public answer imposed reservations and did not immediately accept. The Prussian government initially interpreted it as conditional acceptance and sought constitutional changes. Negotiations over royal and parliamentary authority continued, and on 28 April the king finally refused the imperial office.

The Prussian government sought to organize Germany while retaining strong monarchical power; the National Assembly maintained that a national constituent body should determine the political system. Their plans conflicted over parliament’s powers and Prussia’s place in the new state. After the crown was refused, the Frankfurt Constitution did not become Germany’s operating national constitution. Its proposals for fundamental rights, federal division of powers and judicial remedies nevertheless remained available for later debate.

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