Domestic Policy 1807-1815 Domestic Policy, 1848-1849
Foreign Policy, 1815-1847 the Economy, 1815-1847






Prussia 1815-1847 : Domestic Policy



Question of a Constitution The reforms by Stein (1807-1808) and Hardenberg (1810ff.) have implied the establishment of a diet for the Prussian state; the General Act of the Vienna Congress (1815) stipulated the establishment of written constitutions (one of the main points of which was expected to be a representative assembly), and leading Prussian statesmen such as Hardenberg, Wilhelm von Humboldt and others were committed to establish such a diet. Yet the tone of liberal and nationalistic publications / political demands, the appearance of men such as Ernst Moritz Arndt, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, Joseph Görres caused King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and a number of persons in the Prussian administration to become sceptical, among them Hardenberg. The emergence of a group of conspirators among the Burschenschaften and the assassination of August von Kotzebue, then in Russia's service resulted in the Carlsbad Decrees (1819) which obliged the signatory powers to the implementation of reactionary measures. The project of a written liberal constitution, of a state-wide diet, in the 1820es failed not because a majority was against it, but because proponents of a constitution turned against each other (Humboldt vs. Hardenberg 1819). Hardenberg died in 1822; his successors did not pick up the project of a representative assembly; Prussia joined the reactionary powers by discontinuing work on the constitution project and by implementing the Carlsbad Decrees.
Under Friedrich Wilhelm IV. an assembly of representatives of the 8 provincial diets was convened in Berlin in 1842, which the King regarded a concession to public opinion, which the latter regarded as insufficient, as it lacked competence and a foundation of the latter in a constitution. Only in 1847, in reaction to public pressure, a united provincial diet (Vereinigter Landtag was assembled in Brandenburg.

Integration of the New Provinces In 1815, Prussia regained Posen, gained the provinces of Prussian Saxony, Westphalia and the Rhine Province. With these provinces came a strong Catholic population element; the population of the new territories was unaccustomed to the 'Prussian spirit', to militarism, to the Prussian ethos of thriftyness, responsibility, obedience. The reforms introduced by Stein and Hardenberg were introduced in the new provinces; the provinces were given provincial constitutions and a certain degree of autonomy. Posen, until 1848, enjoyed a special status, a state within a state. Politically, the Rhineland was a center of liberalism, disaffection with reactionary policies here stronger than elsewhere in Prussia. Prussian relations with the Catholic church, despite the concordate of 1821, were poor; mixed-confessional marriages were a matter of dispute (Cologne Bishops' Conflict, 1836-1838, in the course of which Clemens August von Droste Vischering, Archbishop of Cologne, was deposed). When the French parliament in 1840 discussed the annexation of the left bank of the Rhine, they may have speculated on the sympathies by Rhinelanders disaffected by the Prussian administration.

Liberalism, Patriotism and Reaction Accounts of German history in the first half of the 19th century have been written by historians who either identified themselves with the liberals and nationalists of that period, then a suppressed opposition, or who have accepted the historical facts created by these movements in the later half of the century. The nationalist and liberal agitation of the early 19th century has labelled the Prussian administration of that period as reactionary, and this characterization has found the way into most history books.
Hans Joachum Schoeps (1966) stresses that while Prussia lacked a liberal constitution and a state-wide representative assembly, the Beamtentum (corps of state servants; the larger part of which non-nobles) was moderately liberal and continued to administrate in the spirit of the reforms implemented by Stein and Hardenberg; that Prussia, by a number of historical coincidences, stumbled into taking a reactionary course while liberal legislation and regulation, at least in a number of areas, went on (a liberalism which emphasized the responsibility of the state to regulate society and economy).
The Carlsbad Decrees were implemented; Wilhelm von Humboldt resigned, a more restrictive censorship was introduced, Ernst Moritz Arndt was forbidden to continue lectures at university, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the father of the German gymnastic movement, sentenced to incarceration, clubs, including gymnastic clubs, forbidden. With the accession of Friedrich Wilhelm IV. to the throne, a number of liberals were recalled into the government. The ban on gymnastics was lifted in 1842, gymnastics even included in the school curriculum.
A number of Prussian subjects, among them poet Heinrich Heine and philosopher Karl Marx (both Rhinelanders) found the environment in Prussia too restrictive, and went into exile.

Religious Policy The Prussian administration entered into a conflict with the Catholic church over the issue of mixed-confessional marriages; the resistance of Clemens August von Droste Vischering against state policy in this matter (1636ff) resuled in his deposition by the Prussian authorities in 1838.
King Friedrich Wilhelm III. strove to unify Prussia's Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist) churches. The project was announced in 1817, and a number of regulations were passed, which, approved by the king, alienated traditional Lutherans. When, in 1837, a number of Lurheran priests, reluctant to accept this policy, were dismissed (the military was used to enforce this policy), several thousand of Old Lutherans chose to emigrate.
Friedrich Wilhelm III. died in 1840. His successor, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (1840-1858) interpreted being "King by the Grace of God" that God would provide the person upon which he bestowed hid grace with a superior gift of understanding. He lived in the delusion of integrating both the Anglican and Catholic Church into the Uniate Church established by his father. An attempt to integrate the Anglican and Prussian Uniate Church was made with the establishment of the protestant diocesis in Jerusalem (1841).

Political Implications of Socio-Economic Developments After 1815, the nobility used their influence to water down the legislation liberating the serfs, with some success; holders of full farmsteads had to pay for their liberty by ceding part of their land; cottagers were to remain a workforce available to the noble estate owners. The absolution of the feudal dues (by compensation payment) took several years; peasants received full freedom in the course of several decades.
The western provinces, Prussian Saxony, the Berlin area and Upper Silesia were the first regions to industrialize. Raliway construction facilitated accelerated industrialization as well as increased mobility; a rapid urbanization set in. The Zollverein (German Customs Union) contributed further to an economic boom; on the other hand, large segments of the population lived in poverty, entire occupational groups which used to have a decent outcome were forced into poverty. The weavers of Lower Silesia, in 1844, were so desparate that they took up arms, destroyed machinery they blamed for their lot, and waited for the military to arrive and shoot them.
The Prussian state administration spent little consideration on the newly emerging working class. Booming industrial towns lacked infrastructure such as high schools and universities - in Prussia, institutions of higher education were run by the state.



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EXTERNAL
FILES 		Friedrich Wilhelm III., from Preussen.de, in German; from Wikipedia, in English; from SPSG, in German, illustrated; from Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, posted by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, in German, Gothic font
Karl August von Hardenberg, from Columbia Encyclopedia; from EB 1911, scroll down
Clemens August von Droste Vischering, from Catholic Encyclopedia
Der Hungeraufstand der Schlesischen Weber 1844, from Preussen Chronik
Carlsbad Decrees, from EB 1911
Die evangelisch-lutherische Kirche (Alt-Lutheraner) in Pommern (The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Pomerania (Old Lutherans)), posted by Dieter Wallschläger, in German
Article Evangelisch-Lutherische (Altlutherische) Kirche in Preussen (Evangelical-Lutheran (Old Lutheran) Church in Prussia), from Wikipedia, in German
Timeline Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, from Jahn Museum
Article Samuel Gobat, from EB 1911; from ITAC; from BBKL, in German
Thile, Ludwig Gustav von, from Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, posted by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, in German, Gothic font
Karl Friedrich Heinrich Graf von Wylich und Lottum, from Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, posted by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, in German, Gothic font
DOCUMENTS Rulers of Prussia, from World Statesmen by Ben Cahoon
General Gazetteer 1823 : Prussia
Medal : Saarlouis reunited with Prussia, from Blackwatch
Medal 1821 monument honouring campaigns of 1813-1815 Berlin, from Blackwatch
The Morganatic Marriage of Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia (1824), from Heraldica, text in German
Verordnung wegen verbesserter Einrichtung der Provinzial-Behorden vom 30. April 1815 (Law on the introduction of improved provincial administration), from verfassungen.de, in German
Verordnung uber die zu bildende Reprasentation des Volkes vom 22. Mai 1815 (Decree concerning the popular representation to be formed), from verfassungen.de, in German
Verordnung wegen der Einfuhrung des Staatsrats vom 20. Marz 1817 (Decree concerning the establishment of a State Council), from verfassungen.de, in German
Verordnung wegen der kunftigen Behandlung des gesamten Staatsschuldenwesens vom 17. Januar 1820 (Regulation for the future treatment of state debts), from verfassungen.de, in German
Allgemeines Gesetz wegen Anordnung der Provinzialstande vom 5. Juni 1823 (General Law for the organization of the Provincial Estates), from debts), from verfassungen.de, in German
Carlsbad Resolutions, from Hanover Historical Texts Project
Patent calling for the Vereinter Landtag to assemble, 1847, from Verfassungen.de, in German
REFERENCE Hans-Joachim Schoeps, Preussen, Geschichte eines Staates, Berlin : Propyläen 1966, in German [G]
Institut für Geschichte der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, ed., Deutsche Geschichte in Daten, Berlin (Ost) : Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften 1967 [G]
Harold Nicolson, The Revival of Prussia, pp.17-31 in The Congress of Vienna, a Study in Allied Unity, 1812-1822, NY : Grove (1946) 2001, 320 pp. [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on May 6th 2004, last revised on November 12th 2004

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