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Liberal Constitutionalism as Administrative Reform: The Baden Constitution of 1818

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Loyd E. Lee
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Extract

Constitution-Reading is a stony road to travel.This is doubly true of early nineteenth-century German constitutions. Working in camera, their authors provided little public justification of their efforts, and consequently historians lack even the great recorded debates of a constituent assembly on which to base their interpretations. And because these constitutions were oktroyierte Verfassungen, handed down, as it were, by gracious princes, interpretations of their provisions rest on the observer's views concerning the fortunes of German constitutional development as a whole.

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 91 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1975

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References

The research for this article was made possible, in part, by a research grant from the State University of New York Research Foundation.

1. Schnabel, Franz, Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten jahrhundert (Freiburg, 1964), 3:104ff.,Google Scholar and Gall, Lothar, Der Liberalismus als regierende Partei: Das Grossherzogtum Baden zwischen Restauration und Reichsgründung (Wiesbaden, 1968), esp. pp. 18–29.Google Scholar Cf. Huber, Ernst Rudolf, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichteseit 1789 (Stuttgart, 1967), 1:323ff.;Google Scholarvon Treitschke, Heinrich, History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century, trans. E. and Paul, C. (New York, 1916), 2:661ff.;Google Scholar and Holborn, Hajo, A History of Modem Germany 1648–1840 (New York, 1964), pp. 648ff.Google ScholarAndreas, Willy, Geschichte der badischen Verwaltungsorganisation und Verfassung in den Jahren 1802–1818, vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1913), is the most thorough study of the origins of the constitution (the second volume never appeared),Google Scholar while von Weech, Friedrich, Geschichte der badischen Verfassung nach amtlichen Quellen (Karlsruhe, 1868) contains five drafts of the constitution dating from 1814, plus miscellaneous memoranda.Google Scholar

2. Andreas, Verfassung, esp. pp. 396ff. See Walker, Mack, German Home Towns (Ithaca, N.Y., and London, 1971), pp. 262 and 270ff., for Bavaria's concessions to community interests, concessions not granted in Baden.Google Scholar

3. Andreas, Verfassung, p. 476. The suggestion by Stein, made at Vienna in 1814, connected Baden with Prussian history, an important point for the post-1870 generation. Heinrich, H., “Über den Einfluss des Westens auf die badische Verfassung von 1818,” in Baden im neunzehnten und zwangzigsten jahrhundert, 1 (Karlsruhe, 1949): 80ff., stressed the Charte of 1814,Google Scholar while Böhtlingk, Arthur, Carl Friedrich Nebenius (Karlsruhe, 1899), p. 6, thought the constitution came as close as possible to Poland's.Google Scholar

4. Gall, Liberalismus, p. 22, and Andreas, Verfassung, p. 395.

5. Categorizing these social groups on a statewide basis was, of course, a passion peculiar to civil servants and professors. Burghers identified with their local community and recognized many fine, and to them important, distinctions within the town. All outsiders belonged essentially to the same group. Cf. Walker, Home Towns. Heunisch, A. J. V., Geographisch-statistisch-topographische Beschreibung des Grosserzogthums Baden (Heidelberg, 1833), offers an excellent contemporary social geography.Google Scholar Nearly a fourth of Baden belonged to several peers. See Heunisch, p. 13, and Gollwitzer, Heinz, Die Standesherren (Stuttgart, 1957), pp. 15ff.Google Scholar The land of Grundherren composed more than a tenth of Baden. Being a civil servant gave one legal standing, but not one as clear-cut as that of the nobility. According to the 1819 edict on civil servants, a civil servant (Staatsdiener) was an administrative or judicial official with decision-making authority. Unless he had acquired property or burgher rights before becoming a civil servant, he could not acquire them, and such rights could not be transferred to another community. Education, salary, and social rank also separated civil servants from burghers in local communities. See ch. II of my dissertation, “The Civil Servants of the State of Baden 1815–1848” (Cornell University, 1967).

6. Grossherzoglich Badisches Regierungsblatt, Dec. 23, 1809, Lit. D, 3. Hereafter cited as KB. The edict, reorganizing all aspects of administration, was published between Nov. 11 and Dec. 27, 1809. See Andreas, Verfassung, pp. 258ff.

7. Weizel, Gideon, Das badische Gesetz vom 5. Oktober 1863 über die Organisation der inneren Verwaltung mit den dazu gehörigen Verordnungen, sammt geschichtlicher Einleitung und Erläuterungen (Karlsruhe, 1864), p. 22.Google Scholar Weizel was a second-generation civil-servant reformer.

8. Badisches Generallandesarchiv, Karlsruhe, Abteilung 236, fasc. 3570, an 1846 report by Weizel, p. 14. Hereafter cited as GLA 236/3570.

9. Ibid.

10. RB, July 17, 1808, and Andreas, Veifassung, pp. 216ff.

11. Weizel's report, cited in n. 8 above.

12. RB, Dec. 16, 1809, Lit. C, l Beamtungen.

13. Ibid., Lit. B, 7, b.

14. Many of the provisions described above contradicted parts of the second edict of 1807 regarding community organization. Progress toward local reform seems to have been slow; the process continued through the 1840's. As for an immediate impact, some civil servants were hopeful. One Kreis in central Baden accepted thirty-four new full citizens and local residents and seven Jews and reported that the division of the commons was going quickly “in spite of the fact that it produced involved disputes in many communities.” On the other hand, many communities were deeply in debt, the gild and other public accounts were in disorder. GLA 236/511, report by Wechmar, Dec. 31,1810. Unfortunately, such reports are scarce.

15. RB, Dec. 16. 1809, Lit. C. In 1813 Karlsruhe claimed sole authority in criminal, civil, and canon law, and absorbed noble judicial officials into the state bureaucracy. RB, May 15, 1813.

16. RB, Apr. 7,1813.

17. RB, June 5, 1814.

18. GLA 236/3566, report by Fahnenberg, 1816, to the ministry of the interior.

19. Ibid., lengthy reports on reducing and simplifying civil administration, 1815–16, especially E. v. Baur's.

20. Ernst Freiherr von Sensburg (1752–1831). See Weech, Friedrich, ed., Badische Biographien (Heidelberg, 1875), 2:295–98, and Andreas, Verfassung, pp. 358ff.Google Scholar

21. Weech, Biographien, 2:99–106; Beck, Josef, Carl Friedrich Nebenius (Mannheim, 1866);Google Scholar and Böhtlingk, Arthur, Carl Friedrich Nebenius (Karlsruhe, 1899).Google Scholar Nebenius's extensive Nachlass, GLA 69, does not deal with his early years; moreover, his script is nearly indecipherable. The archival personnel files, GLA 76, are usually quite extensive, often including entrance examinations and biographical detail. In the case of civil servants who became ministers, however, this material has been removed.

22. Weech, , Biographien, 1: 95–104, and GLA 76/929.Google Scholar

23. GLA 65/2107, Correspondenz, Letter of Jan. 9, 1814.

24. Ibid., letter of Dec. 10, 1815.

25. Andreas, W., “Aus den Anfängen von Nebenius,” Zeitschrift für die Geschkhte des Oberrheins N.F. 28 (1913): 13.Google Scholar

26. Seiterich, L., “Kreisdirektorium und Kreisregierung im ehemaligenGrossherzogtum Baden,” Zeitschrift für die Geschkhte des Oberrheins N.F. 42 (1928): 517.Google Scholar

27. Nebenius, K., Karl Friedrich von Baden, ed. Weech, Friedrich (Karlsruhe, 1868), passim.Google Scholar Nebenius found these tendencies in Karl Friedrich's reign; the constitution, he wrote, brought them to fruition, p. 194.

28. Weech, , Biographien, 2:493–510,Google Scholar and Andreas, W., “Ludwig Winter über eine Reform der Verwaltungsordnung (1817),” Zeitschrift für die Geschkhte des Oberrheins 64 (1910): 477–501. He left no Nachlass.Google Scholar

29. GLA 236/3566. Report by Winter, Jan. 20, 1816, ministry of the interior.

30. Ibid., another report by Winter, no date, but probably 1816.

31. Winter, cited in Seiterich, “Kreisdirektorium,” p. 521.

32. Andreas, Vetfassung, pp. 216ff. Weech, Verfassung, pp. 151ff., contains two drafts for constitutions from 1808 and 1809; they are largely administrative in nature, one being referred to as Grundverfassung und Venvaltungsordnung.

33. Weech, , Biographien, 2: 528, and GLA 76/9002–9005.Google Scholar He participated in the commission drafting the 1814 constitutional proposals.

34. Meerwarth, D., Die Öffentliche Meinung in Baden nach den Befreiungskriegen (Heidelberg, 1908), pp. 99ff.Google Scholar

35. Andreas, Verfassung, pp. 4O9ff.

36. RB, May 7, 1816. The renewed promise of a constitution came in RB, Mar. 19, 1816, and included a call for a diet to meet on August 1 of that year. As of that time, the government possessed no written document, let alone plans for holding elections.

37. GLA 236/3567. Auszug aus dem Commissions-Bericht, Winter, May 14, 1817.

38. Weech, Verfassung, p. 52, quoting Nebenius.

39. Ibid., p. 96, letter of Dec. 5, 1818.

40. Ibid.

41. See Andreas, Verfassung, pp. 444–72, for the previous three paragraphs.

42. Weech, Verfassung, p. 96.

43. Cf. Meerwarth, Öffentliche Meinung, passim.

44. The full text can be found in Huber, Ernst, Dokumente zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte, 1 (Stuttgart, 1961): 157–70.Google Scholar

45. Verhandlungen der Ständeversammlung des Grossherzogthums Baden, Zweite Kammer, 1819, 8: 47.

46. See below for the basis of representation; Nebenius did not see the term “ständische Verfassung” as relevant to determining the form of representation. In memoranda he used the word Constitution for Verfassung.

47. The Staatsdieneredikt, RB, Feb. 5, 1819, also written by Nebenius, granted the Baden civil servants extensive tenure and pension rights. The 1818 Adelsedikt, written by Winter, was rescinded and replaced by a pronoble edict in April 1819, on the eve of the meeting of the first diet. Though this violated the constitution, when the second chamber, led by Winter, raised a strong protest, the grand duke prorogued the diet. Consequently, the liberals had no course but to accept this reversal, since the assembly of the German Confederation in Frankfurt recognized the 1819 edict as fulfilling the terms of the Acts of Confederation. Müller, Leonhard, Badische Landtagsgeschichte, 1 (Berlin, 1900): 184–202.Google Scholar

48. Weizel, Verwaltung, p. 51.

49. Bauer, Ludwig, ed., Die Mitglieder der Ersten Kammer der Badischen Ständeversammlung in den Jahren 1819 bis 1890 (Karlsruhe, 1890), notes those members who did not attend.Google Scholar

50. How much land communities owned in comparison to nobles is undetermined, but the argument was made that the first chamber could not represent land as some nobles claimed because community lands were not represented. They were, apparently, often extensive, though I have been unable to determine their overall extent. Cf. memorandum by Sanott (?), Vervollkommnung der Verfassungs-Urkunde, Apr. 28, 1831, GLA 231/1731. The procedures established for diet debates and voting also broke with traditional, corporative practices; see Kramer, Helmut, Fraktionsbindungen in den deutschen Volksvertretungen 1819–1849 (Berlin, 1968), pp. 18ff.Google Scholar

51. Huber, Dokumente, 1: 161, article 36. Cf. the constitutions of Württemberg, Section V, Ibid., pp. 178–79; Hesse, Section IV, pp. 206–7, both of which recognized the special rights of Gemeinden. See also Walker, Home Towns, pp. 260ff. For Winter's community reforms and the diet, see Ständeversammlung, Zweite Kammer, 1819, 7: 9ff.Google Scholar

52. Nebenius, K., Die katholischen Zustände in Baden (Karlsruhe, 1842), pp. 65–66.Google Scholar

53. GLA 52, Nebenius Nachlass, Conv. 23, Separatvotum des Staatsrates Nebenius, 1844.

54. In the first diet of 63 representatives in the lower house, 10 were local elected town officials and 17 from other burgher classes; there was one professor and 18 civil servants. Seventeen others offered various titles which do not permit a classification; most of these were rural representatives, often, probably, employees of noblemen.

55. Weech, Verfassung, p. 72, article 42, in the fourth draft, that of July 1816.

56. The extensive articles 57–60 in the final draft emphasized this point; Huber, Dokumente, 1: 163–64.