HISTORICAL SCIENCES SHORT REPORT 103

KING FRIEDRIC WILHELM III AND THE refused to fulfill his promise, and in order to ELECTIVE RIGHTS OF THE PRUSSIAN calm the public opinion he started to ap- CITIZENS IN THE EARLY XIX CENTURY point commissions for discussing the re- Yu. Bokov forms. As B. Burdes remarked to the point, Volgograd State University “generous with extravagant promises at Volgograd, Russia hard times the German authorities called on the people to fight against Napoleon but The representative assemblies which appeared in they were hard to keep the word and often Prussia after 1808 can be characterized as “dragging took away with one hand what they gave out a miserable existence and powerless”. Most peo- with the other” [7, p. 6]. ple believed that the representative assemblies were not enough so the King failed to fulfill his promise Friedric-Wilhelm III in his decree of 22 about All-Prussian people’s representation, neverthe- May 1815 again declared about his intention less the political organizations made no complaints to form representative bodies on the basis [9, p. XXII]. And “the people refrained from violence of universal suffrage though he added that waiting patiently for the King to die; they were grate- he would do it “in due time”. This promise ful to him for the reforms which he had implemented was made against a background of a ban on in the early days of his reign”. liberal books and newspapers and persecu- The liberal ideas set forth by the Great tion of liberal-minded individuals. It was a French Revolution were in no way accepted kind of gratitude to the Prussians who in absolute monarchical Prussia for many bravely fought against Napoleon for free- years unlike in some other German states. dom of Prussia. But as time passed more and more citizens The election of All-Prussian people’s demanded a constitution and people’s rep- representation should have been a conclu- resentative bodies formed by elections. sion to all the Prussian reforms which had In 1807 the Prussian king Friedric been implemented by L. Stein and W. Hum- Wilhelm III, in order to boost the consolida- boldt [4, p. 290]. tion of the country after the devastating Less than three years later, on 21 French invasion and humiliating peace March 1818, the Prussian king in a new de- treaty, promised to establish representative cree duplicated his promise but no date was bodies which could be formed by all the citi- again appointed. zens. The king was forced to promise so un- In October 1819 Baron von Harden- der the pressure of the situation but he berg submitted to the commission a project broke his word as soon as an opportunity “On the class constitution of Prussia” in came because he feared lest the representa- which he proposed that deputies of the All- tive bodies limited his power. Prussian should be elected by the On the eve of the battle of Waterloo provincial assemblies. W. Humboldt in a the Prussian king in his address to the peo- memorandum “On the class constitution of ple said again about his intention to grant a Prussia” insisted on direct elections. But the constitution, liberty and voting rights to de- commission made an utterly conservative cide on the German affairs. Later he again

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED AND FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH №4 2010 HISTORICAL SCIENCES 104 SHORT REPORT decision that Prussia did not need people’s universal suffrage was temporarily enacted representation at all. in . The royal act of 1820 ordered the gov- On 5 June 1825 the Friedric Wilhelm ernment to lend or borrow or impose new III’s government implemented a law “On the taxes only with the prior consent of the regional class assemblies” that were to be people’s representatives. Constitutional gradually introduced in several provinces. commissions were again formed. The com- We can get a general notion of these missions on working out a project of the assemblies by analyzing, for instance, the people’s representation finished their work provincial landtag of . A. Bebel in 1823. According to the project by the 5th points out that “the noble landowners and 4 commission in which the chairman was the representatives of the ancestral nobility had Crown Prince (opposed to any extensive re- 35 votes, the towns had 23 votes while the forms and to people’s representation in par- peasantry had only 12 votes. Besides, the ticular), the King promulgated a law “On or- peasant and town representatives were not ganization of the provincial class representa- elected by all the peasantry and town citi- tion” on 5 June 1823 and a law “On organi- zens but by certain groups of voters” [6, p. zation of the representative bodies in some 13]. O. Buch points out that some 2000 no- provinces” on 1 July 1823. ble estate owners elected a half of the land- The class representative bodies were tag deputies while the other half were to be formed by regular elections taking elected by 1 335 000 citizens [3, p. 113]. place every two years. The provincial class It was established that the ratio of representatives had the right for consulta- class representation should be 3:2:1 but the tive votes in local and partly national legisla- actual ratio was different. The noblemen tion, also they could address the provincial elected slightly more than a half of the requests to the King on behalf of the prov- deputies, the townspeople – about 1/3 and ince (the could only express their the peasantry – no more than a quarter. wishes but not issue decrees). The age qualification to elect was set If one tries to characterize these newly at 25 and the age qualification to be elected formed bodies (the landtags or “land assem- was set at 30. It was only the nobility who blies”) one has to note that they were “quite had the right of direct voting. The citizens different from constitutional bodies” [8, p. aged above 25 constituted 20-23 percent of 20]. all the Prussia’s population [5, p. 31]. According to the suffrage of the Prus- The representative assemblies which sian provincial towns of 5 June 1823 and 2 appeared in Prussia after 1808 can be char- June 1824 in the town of Solingen only 511 acterized as “dragging out a miserable exis- of its 7934 citizens had the voting right (6.4 tence and powerless” [2, p. 223]. Most peo- percent), in Dusseldorf only 246 of 31 596 ple believed that the representative assem- (0.7 percent). Nevertheless even this limited blies were not enough so the King failed to suffrage was rather progressive in that time. fulfill his promise about All-Prussian people’s Owing to it, less than 50 years later almost representation, nevertheless the political

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED AND FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH №4 2010 HISTORICAL SCIENCES SHORT REPORT 105 organizations made no complaints [9, p. 3. Handbuch der preußischen Geschichte / His- XXII]. And “the people refrained from vio- torische Kommission zu Berlin: In 3 Bdn. – Berlin; New York, 1992. – Bd. Das 19. Jahrhundert und lence waiting patiently for the King to die; große Themen der Geschichte Preußens. they were grateful to him for the reforms 4. Huber E. Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit which he had implemented in the early days 1789: In 6 Bdn. – Stuttgart; Berlin; Köln, 1961 – of his reign” [10, p. 6]. 1978. Bd. 1. 5. Rohe K. Wahlen und Wählertraditionen in Deutschland: Kulturelle Grundlagen deutscher REFERENCES Parteien und Parteiensysteme im 19. und 20. 1. The abstract of the report is based upon the stud- Jahrhundert. Frankfurt-am-Main, 1992. ies carried out under the grant of the Russian 6. Bebel A. Socialism and universal suffrage. Saint- State Fund for Humanities (RGNF) (Project No 01- Petersburg, 1905. 03-00234a), and the grant of the Law Department 7. Burdes B. The political system and parties in pre- of the Volgograd State University, the fellowship sent-day Germany. Saint-Petersburg, 1906. programs of the H. Boell Fund (Project No 03 – 8. Pertsev V. Germany and Austria. A Historical Es- 2000) and of the German Historical Institution in say. Moscow, 1917. Moscow (Project “2007”). 9. The Prussian Constitution with interpretations 2. Bleiber H. Staat and Bürgerliche Umwälzung in drawn mainly from the comments by Dr. Arndt/ Deutschland: zum Charakter besonders des translated by A. Meyendorf. Saint-Petersburg, preußischen Staates der ersten Hälfte des 19. 1905. Jahrhunderts // Universalhistorische Aspekte und 10. Saturn D. The German Emperor and the people. Dimensionen des Jakobinismus. Berlin, 1976. Rostov-on-Don, 1906.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED AND FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH №4 2010