Constitution of the German Empire

“ The parliament would have been sure of success in creating a constitutional German empire, if it had performed that task quickly and elected and put into office its Kaiser while the revolutionary prestige of the people was still unbroken—that is to say, in the first two or three months after the revolution of March. No German prince would then have declined the imperial crown with a constitution ever so democratic, and not one of them would have dared to refuse the sacrifice of any of his sovereignty-rights to the national power. ”

“ In reality the states no longer count and the Reich is all powerful. Such is the situation in which the centralizing tendencies of the Constituent Assembly have culminated. But we come back to it in a problem that presents itself as follows: Has Prussia retained the hegemony which it exercised actually under the Empire and has it kept it to the extent that any increase in the centralizing character of the republic will only increase the power of Prussia in the Germany of to-day? ”

“ By a treaty of August 18, 1866, all the North German States which had survived entered into a treaty with one another and with Prussia; they mutually guaranteed each other's possessions, engaged to place their forces under the command of the King of Prussia, and promised to enter into a new federation; for this purpose they were to send envoys to Berlin who should agree on a Constitution, and they were to allow elections to take place by universal suffrage for a North German Parliament before which was to be laid the draft Constitution agreed upon by the envoys of the States. ”

“ In the first place, perhaps, it will be desirable briefly to sketch the mechanism of the 1871 constitution, which, apart from slight changes needed for the Imperial framework, is merely a replica of the constitution drawn up by Bismarck for the North German Confederation.
The Empire is a federal and constitutional State, with a sovereign who not merely reigns, but governs, his status being a modern evolution from the old absolute monarchy of Prussia. The Emperor is the war-lord, he commands the army and regulates its organization ”

“ In the German Empire we search for it in vain; there is only one responsible Minister, and he is the Chancellor, the representative of Prussia and Chairman of the Council. The Liberals could not reconcile themselves to this strange device; they passed it with reluctance in the stress of the moment, but they have never ceased to protest against it. Again and again, both in public and in private, we hear the same demand: till we have a responsible Ministry the Constitution will never work. ”

“ Constitution, as he said, was the mot d'ordre of the day, the word which men used when they were in want of an argument. "In Prussia that only is constitutional which arises from the Prussian Constitution; whatever be constitutional in Belgium, or in France, in Anhalt Dessau, or there where the morning red of Mecklenburg freedom shines, here that alone is constitutional which rests on the Prussian Constitution." If he defended the prerogative of the Crown he defended the Constitution of his country. A constitution is the collection of rules and laws by which the action of the king is governed ”

“ In the same way there is an increase in the authority of the Reich over the interior situation, the provisions according to which the Reich only has the power to legislate on posts, telegraphs, and telephones. It is true that the former constitution had put forward the principle that the posts and telegraphs of the German Empire should be organized and administered in a uniformed manner; but this provision and principle was nullified by the fact that it was not applied in Bavaria and in Wurtemberg, these states having in virtue of special treaties “particular” rights. ”

“ The power lies far more with the Emperor and the Bundesrat. According to Article II of the Constitution, the Emperor represents the empire internationally and can declare war if defensive (in German eyes the present is a defensive war) , can make peace as well as enter into treaties with other nations, and appoint and receive ambas [9] sadors. When treaties are related to matters regulated by imperial legislation, and when war is not merely defensive, the Emperor must have the consent of the Bundesrat, in which, together with the Reichstag, are vested the legislative functions of the empire. ”

“ As before, there was only one department of State where his authority ceased,—the army.
It will be easily understood that this Constitution, when it was laid before the assembly, was not accepted without much discussion and many objections. There were some—the representatives of conquered districts, Poles, Hanoverians, and the deputies from Schleswig-Holstein—who wished to overthrow the new Federation which was built up on the destruction of the States to which they had belonged. Theirs was an enmity which was open, honourable, and easy to meet. ”

“ The German Reich was incorporated into the community of states in the form and with the constitution which it happened to have at any given moment. Such is the case with every member of the community of states. The United States and the British Empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the French Republic, Brazil and Switzerland, stand in the framework of the family of nations with such a constitution as they happen to have at the time. ”

“ Then he expounded the view of the German character which we have learnt from his letters: it was customary to speak of the sobriety of the Prussian people; yes, but the great independence of the individual made it difficult in Prussia to govern with the Constitution; in France it was different; there this individual independence was wanting; "we are perhaps too educated to endure a constitution; we are too critical"; the capacity for judging measures of the Government and acts of the Representatives was too universal ”

“ We believe it right to declare before all—not only before Prussia, but before Germany, if such be the will of God, and before the whole united nation, what are the propositions which we have resolved to make to our German confederates. Above all, we demand that Germany be transformed from a confederation of states into a federal state. We admit that this implies a recognisation of the federal constitution, which cannot be carried into effect save by the union of the princes with the people. ”

“ That an incompletely unified state of forty million Germans, that is to say, Prussia, could co-exist with a more complete unity of seventy million Germans, is contrary to nature and is a political contradiction. The German people, therefore, must be free to erect within the Reich new German republics without regarding the actual boundaries of the existing German states, as far as economic conditions and historical considerations permit the formation of new states. ”

“ Has the Constitution of Weimar resistance enough to withstand all the inevitable assaults which will be aimed at it, and can it guarantee to the German people a well-ordered public life and a stable government? ”

“ The national unity of Germany as a whole is a vital question for the German people and therefore for the German Republic. It is imperative that the diverse races who lived in forced unity in Prussia should be at once placed under the sovereignty of the Reich instead of being “mediatized” by a state that interposes itself between them and the Reich. It is only by the suppression of Prussia that these populations can secure that equality which is their right by the side of the other German states. ”

“ Already during the war several demands for reforms made themselves felt. In proportion as the war was prolonged and the heavier became the burdens that weighed on the people together with the sacrifices that were imposed upon them, there developed a pressure on the part of the people for recognition, for compensation, for the right to participate in a more effective fashion in the conduct of public affairs. The Reichstag appointed a commission to investigate to what extent it was possible to modify the Constitution of the Reich in conformity with the desires of the people. ”

“ Ebert, Scheidemann and Landsberg, and three Independents, Haase, Dittmann and Barth. [5] In the evening there was held at the Busch Circus a plenary session of the Workers and Soldiers Councils of Berlin. This assembly passed a resolution which declared among other things the following: “Old Germany is no more. The dynasties are gone forever. The holders of thrones are stripped of their power. Germany is now a Republic, a Socialist Republic. The Workers and Soldiers Councils are now the holders of political power.” ”

“ It will have to be the Reich that will be called upon to preside over the question of new repartition of territories, because it alone is the holder of sovereignty in Germany, and because it alone is in position to maintain an equal balance between the varied and particular interests of the states. No territorial change whatsoever, whether a fusion, a separation, or the creation of a state, will be possible or operative no matter what conditions exist for its consummation, without a law enacted by the Reich. ”

“ The Reich is in control of sovereignty and of the life and death of German states. It may against their will deprive them of their sovereignty. The new financial constitution of the Reich, which entered into operation on October 1, 1919, has taken away finally whatever had remained of their state rights, and all financial powers of the states have passed into the hands of the Reich. The states are no longer independent states, they are only autonomous administrative bodies within the Reich. The Reich has become a single decentralized state. ”

“ At the Congress which will meet after the war it will be easy for the nations of the world to deal with the representatives of a liberal Germany, with representatives of a government still monarchical in form, but possessed of either a constitution like that of the United States or ruled by a parliamentary government. I believe that the tendency of German liberalism is towards the easiest transition, that of making the Chancellor and his ministers responsible to the Reichstag and bound to resign after a vote of want of confidence by that body. ”

“ In consequence the Allied and Associated Powers, after reminding the German Government that Article 178 of the German Constitution declares that ‘the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles can not be affected by the Constitution,’ invite the German Government to take the necessary measures to efface without delay this violation by declaring Article 61, Paragraph 2, to be null and void. ”

“ They have in principle judiciary and administrative services, but in all important respects such as relations with foreign states, military administration, railroads, waterways, posts and telegraphs, their authority has been taken away; the whole domain of financial legislation has also passed to the Reich and they can no longer exist except through subsidies from the Reich.
They have a territorial sovereignty; but a constitutional [73] law, and in certain cases even an ordinary law may modify that territory against their will.
They still have their citizens ”

“ From the thirteenth century down to Napoleon's time there was no Germany in a political sense, but only a great number of practically independent states, great and small. It was but a generation ago that, under the leadership of Prussia,—a kingdom unknown until many centuries after Charlemagne's time,—the previously independent kingdoms, principalities, and free towns were formed into the federation now known as the German empire. ”

“ Founded thus on a system of firm finances, on the uniform administration of justice in all lands, on an internal administration which, however varied, nevertheless fulfills the necessary demands of unity, the German empire shows a measure of consolidation the best outward expression to which is given by its army. Among the two million men on land and on sea who are ready to protect the Fatherland's boundaries there is not one who has not sworn fidelity to his imperial master: among the generals, not one who has not been appointed by the emperor. ”

“ Citizenship in the Reich and in the states shall be acquired and lost in accordance with the provisions of a national law.
Every citizen of a state is at the same time a citizen of the Reich.
Every German shall have in every state of the Reich equal rights and duties with the citizens of that state.
Article 111. All Germans shall enjoy freedom of movement throughout the whole Reich. Everyone shall have the right to sojourn and settle in any place he pleases, to acquire property, and to carry on any gainful occupation. Restrictions require a national law. ”

“ Democracy is defined as government by the people; a democratic government is a government in which sovereignty resides in the people, or, to speak more precisely, one in which the will of the majority determines sovereignty.
That this principle was completely ignored in practice in Germany before the Revolution we already know. According to the Constitution of 1871 sovereignty belonged to the ensemble [76] of confederated princes, Germany being governed by an association of monarchs under the all-powerful direction of one of them, the King of Prussia. ”

“ For each new state will want to have new administrative apparatus complete in every respect, a separate constitution, a separate parliament, a separate legislature, and so on. These states by reason of their weakness will be unable to discharge the obligations that would fall upon them. Still further, nothing was more illogical than to create new states if one wants to realize some day or other the unity of the Reich ”

“ German unity suffered, but national unity was a far-off ideal in Northern Europe in the thirteenth century. The great development of trade, wealth, law, literature, and civilisation showed that Germany was far from being an absolute loser by the change of system. Unluckily the power of these lesser rulers did not, as in France, prepare the way for a strong monarchy when the time grew ripe for a single government. Germany paid the penalty for her premature unity under her early kings by her inability to set up a national authority when national states became possible. ”