Constitutionalism as a force of popular loyalty: Constitutional and unconstitutional Württemberg in the early nineteenth century
bodie alexander ashton
Nationalism and the theories that govern it These national characteristics are, of are difficult to the point of being impenetra- course, comfortable (and, sometimes, un- ble. While nationhood is best defined quite comfortable) fictions, though their role simply as a «concept of unity», that concept in creating an identity consciousness (the — after Michael Hughes — is «something of community aspect of Anderson’s «im- a quagmire, deep and muddy, frequently agined communities») is indisputable. But not worth the struggle»1. In Benedict An- they are predicated upon a sort of eternity derson’s immortal phrasing, the nation is or longevity, of an identity stretching back little more than an «imagined communi- into history. On the other hand, the upsurge ty», defined less by geography and more in nationalist sentiment that was catalysed by the creative and sometimes inscrutable by and resulted from the Revolutionary means by which people feel as though they and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815) occurred belong2. Often, these feelings take the form within a context in which such longstanding of the equally slippery idea of shared values. identity markers were impossible. With the This is a staple of modern political rhetoric; post-1815 central European map redrawn «make America great again», for example, beyond pre-1789 recognition, Restoration works as a concept only if there is a gener- governments in the German hinterland al consensus of what America is and what sought to harness burgeoning national made (and will make) it great. Additional- consciousnesses in order to supplement ly, the shift towards an anti-migrant «love and bolster state loyalties among their sub- it or leave» mentality regarding citizenship ject populations, even while the complex- in the Anglosphere and elsewhere implies ion of those populations remained in flux3. a certain immutability: a country or nation In many cases, they were singularly un- demonstrates characteristics that should successful. However, as this paper argues, not change for newcomers or critics. the southwestern Kingdom of Württem- giornale di storia costituzionale / journal of constitutional history 34 / II 2017 137 Itinerari berg was one of the few German states for of Tübingen, 8 July 1514), and the Ludwigs- whom the invention — or reinvention — of burger Verfassung (Ludwigsburg Constitu- the state identity was successful in captur- tion, 25 September 1819). Both documents ing the spirit of the population as a whole. were, for their times, extraordinary in word Particularly in the crucial years between as well as spirit, not only because they af- the collapse of Napoleon’s reign in Europe forded rights and liberties heretofore un- and the end of the revolutions of 1848-9, a paralleled upon the citizenry, but also be- succession of Württemberg state govern- cause they embodied a concrete check and ments, and indeed the crown itself, refash- balance upon royal prerogative. Both were ioned Württemberg identity, engendering initiated during crisis points in the state’s its subjects not with a patriotism based on history, and both were intended to provide the coincidence of territory (Territorialpa- stability in the context of regional uncer- triotismus), but rather a patriotism based on tainty. Furthermore, the earlier Treaty of a commonly-held idea that was portrayed Tübingen acted as a blueprint for the later, as unique to Württemberg, in this case its and far more modern, Ludwigsburg exam- constitutional history and heritage. It was ple. Yet they were fundamentally different this «constitutional patriotism» (Verfas- in both their intentions and their results. sungspatriotismus) that maintained a genu- Codified in 1514 as a power-sharing ar- ine popular faith in the institutions of state rangement between Duke Ulrich of Würt- and crown during the tumultuous years temberg and the landed estates (Landstän- between the end of the Napoleonic Wars de), the Tübinger Vertrag followed the English (1815) and the formation of the German Magna Carta by some three centuries. Even Empire (1871). It was also, conversely, the so, it stood largely alone in early modern liberties afforded by this constitutionalism Europe as an example of a treaty and agree- that permitted prominent Württembergers ment between the duke and the occupants of to become leading figures in the liberal-na- the land he governed. To each Württemberg tionalist unification movement that pres- citizen, it guaranteed certain fundamental aged the 1871 Reichsgründung and argued for rights and privileges, including freedom the foundation of a unitary German state. of movement and migration, rights to or- In the final analysis, a good Württemberger dinary justice, and the right to bear arms. could also be a good German — but to be a At the same time, it determined that the good constitutionalist was central to being a duke’s ability to harness the resources of good Württemberger. his state were curtailed by the requirement that these be coordinated in conjunction with the agreement of the estates. Thus, no tax could be imposed by the duke unless it 1. Introduction to Württemberg constitutional was agreed to by the assembled estate rep- history resentatives in the Stuttgart State Assembly (Landtag). In times of emergency and for The history of Württemberg constitutional- the purposes of the «salvation of the state», ism as a whole is actually the history of two the duke could call upon the citizenry for constitutions — the Tübinger Vertrag (Treaty military service, but only «with the advice,
138 Ashton knowledge and will of the general estates» teed by the Treaty of Tübingen, would place (mit rat, wissen und willen gemainer land- an unreasonable financial burden on the schaft)4. What this meant in practice was estates, and was nothing less than a mock- not adequately expressed; as James Allen ery of «all legitimate Christian, German, Vann notes, much of it was formulated in non-Machiavellian polity»7. On much the order to address specific issues relevant to same issue, one of Sturm’s successors, Jo- the context of 1514 and, in other cases, the hann Dietrich Hörner, argued in 1724 that document was frustratingly vague5. Never- a standing army would require the hiring theless, the spirit of the contract was one of foreign mercenaries, who would be able of balance. The Landtag of 1584, at which to influence state politics and, potentially, the question of balancing state budgets was undermine the authority constitutionally a key issue, provides an example of this. guaranteed the estates8. At the conclusion of this assembly, Duke It is true that the constitution was an Ludwig III thanked the estate represent- asymmetric application of power distribu- atives for their «willing readiness» to ac- tion. That is to say, while the constitution cept and elevate him as the «rightful father conferred rights upon the ordinary citi- of the land» (rechter Landesvater), but also zenry, it did not concentrate power in those insisted that they were bound by the laws of citizens’ hands. That was left to the mem- the state and would be encouraged to limit bers of the so-called Ehrbarkeit (worthies). their expenses. «The estates accepted this This was a socioeconomic group consist- address “thankfully and with joy”», we are ing of select, close-knit, and intertwined told, «but they reminded the duke at the families, from which representatives were same time that it would not be enough for selected for the Württemberg Landtag. them to have appropriated the debts [of the Theoretically, Württemberg historically state], he himself would also have to right- lacked enduring traditions of primogeni- fully save»6. ture, which in turn precluded the develop- Financial issues were often at the fore- ment of the noble houses found elsewhere. front of estate concerns, and were a fre- In practice, the Ehrbarkeit dominated the quent source of tension between the ducal estates and therefore the political process house and the Landtag. In 1692, for in- entrusted to the estates. Its monopoly of stance, Friedrich Karl, Duke of Württem- power had the added effect of closing the berg-Winnental and regent of Württemberg Ehrbarkeit to outside influences; as Peter H. since 1677, attempted to raise a standing Wilson notes, by the 1680s «it was almost army by activating the emergency military impossible for any individual to join them duty clause in the Treaty. In spite of the fact either from the lower social orders within that Württemberg was, indeed, in the midst the duchy, or from other groups outside of a regional emergency, he was repudiated it»9. by the estates. The legal advisor to the Land- The implication with regards the actu- tag, Dr. Johann Heinrich Sturm, argued al implementation of the Treaty of Tübin- forcefully that the raising of a permanent gen was twofold. Firstly, it conditioned the Württemberg army was a gross violation of Württemberg political process towards an the traditional liberties and rights guaran- inherent institutional defence of vested es-
139 Itinerari tate interests. This occasionally brought the ry11. In spite of the efforts of some of the estates into conflict with the duke, as in the Württemberg dukes who, in the mould of example of Friedrich Karl’s appeal to ex- Friedrich Karl, attempted to exert a great- pand the standing army. The Landtag’s ret- er monarchical influence over the state icence may have forsaken prudent security than the constitution allowed, the Trea- in favour of vested financial interests. But ty of Tübingen remained in force (though this does not entirely do justice to Dr. Sturm its boundaries were periodically tested). and his contemporaries, who had reason to However, the process by which Württem- hold the regent under suspicion. The Ehr- berg’s constitutional history and identity barkeit represented itself as the defender of were transformed began in 1797, upon the constitutionalism, and in some respects it death of Duke Friedrich II Eugen. His suc- was correct. The Württemberg dukes were cessor — his eldest son Friedrich II — was, frequently overambitious in their aims, by most accounts, coarse, vulgar, and given often at the expense of the duchy. In 1688, to a violent temper; in 1785, his first wife, Friedrich Karl he had attempted to raise Augusta von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, three cavalry regiments to lend to William had sought sanctuary in St. Petersburg, on of Orange against the French. This he did the grounds of frequent and violent abuse. without consulting the Landtag, a flagrant Friedrich was also deeply suspicious of the breach of the Treaty of Tübingen made even estates and, in particular, their constitu- worse by the fact that the French respond- tional ability to rein in his own exercise of ed by invading Württemberg and imposing power. The most obvious example of this financial reparations upon the estates. Suc- was Friedrich’s withdrawal of the Treaty cessive dukes’ attempts to fulfil Friedrich of Tübingen in 1806, shortly after his ele- Karl’s ambition to transform Württemberg vation to kingship by Napoleon Bonaparte into a regional military power also failed in return for Württemberg’s alliance with on the estates’ refusal to approve new tax- the French of 5 September 1805. This, he es and conscriptions and, when they were argued, was a result of the complicated re- given free reign, the results were invaria- lationship between the traditional territo- bly financially ruinous10. This also meant ries of Württemberg (Altwürttemberg) and that the Ehrbarkeit became a lightning rod the new acquisitions — territories annexed for public opinion. After all, the same pro- by virtue of Friedrich’s bond with Napole- visions that guaranteed the representation on (Neuwürttemberg). It would be difficult, of the estates in the Landtag also provided perhaps impossible, Friedrich argued, to for the judicial rights of the public at large. extend the constitutional guarantees of the Estate reluctance to approve any new tax- Treaty of Tübingen to populations who had ations or levies, while probably motivated never been subject to it. In light of «the al- out of self-interest, also had positive con- tered state of things», the king argued, it sequences for non-Ehrbarkeit citizenry. would be both foolish and manifestly unfair It would be glib, perhaps, but still not to apply a state constitution to only half of entirely incorrect, to suggest that Württem- Württemberg12. With this pretence, nearly berg constitutionalism continued in much three centuries of constitutionalism came this vein until the early nineteenth centu- to a close, with the constitution itself sus-
140 Ashton pended indefinitely. However, Friedrich indigenous constitution — especially not had never made a secret of his disdain for one already defunct — in a state that, while the Treaty and its checks and balances. As theoretically an ally, was hardly more than a crown prince, he has written (albeit anon- vassal15. Thomas Nipperdey’s path-break- ymously) a novel, Schach Baham, in which ing survey of German history of the nine- he dismissed the Landtag as «the eternal- teenth century begins with the prosaic ly and completely meaningless Assembly words: «Am Anfang war Napoleon» («In the of High Cattle [being the Ehrbarkeit] and beginning there was Napoleon»)16. While representatives of individual towns»13. Af- the Franco-Württemberg Alliance of Sep- ter his ascension to the throne, Friedrich’s tember 1805 was not, in fact, the starting relationship with the estates became more point for the destruction of Württemberg and more strained, as he attempted to wrest constitutionalism, it did provide impetus to more legislative oversight away from those both internal and external forces that has- empowered by the 1514 constitution14. In tened the dismantling of the edifice of the 1803, coinciding with his elevation to the Tübinger Vertrag. The privations forced upon role of elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the citizenry soon outstripped anything that Friedrich began to extend his influence even Friedrich Karl had attempted when over local politics. This he did by directly Sturm had criticised him as «Machiavelli- appointing the district scribes (Schreiber). an». The immediate levies imposed by the These scribes, typically «unsupervised and French — to the tune of some eight million unregulated», fulfilled something akin to a francs and 2,000 horses — were soon out- de facto role of local administrator and ar- stripped by their demands on Württemberg biter within regional towns and districts, manpower17. Between 1805 and 1813, for while maintaining autonomy from the state instance, more than 80,000 French troops centre. By 1803, Friedrich had begun erod- were stationed in Württemberg, in what was ing this local institutional independence, essentially an occupation in all but name. ultimately doing away with it completely Just as French soldiers arrived, Württem- after the repudiation of the Treaty of Tübin- berg men were dragooned into service in gen. the Grande Armée. In the Russian campaign Friedrich’s anti-constitutional move- alone, beginning in 1812, some 15,800 ments coincided with significant develop- Württembergers took to the field. Of these, ments with regards his power relationships approximately 500 returned. The casual- on the geopolitical stage. His ascension to ties suffered in the Russian campaign made electorship in 1803 afforded him a greater up the lion’s share of the roughly 27,000 degree of prestige than his dukedom; his Württembergers killed during the Napole- elevation to king, facilitated and support- onic Wars18. ed by the arrival of French troops in Würt- It would, of course, be spurious to sug- temberg territory, did likewise. Moreover, gest that a more constitutionally dedicated whatever pretensions Napoleon might hold king than Friedrich would have been able in the historiography as a «symbol of lost to keep the Tübinger Vertrag intact in the liberty», or the totem of «liberal Bona- years of Napoleonic subservience. Had it partism», he had little need or use for an survived, the constitution would certainly
141 Itinerari have offered no resistance whatsoever to the surface he appears to have been wholly Napoleon’s designs. Even so, its absence inept at currying favour. In spite of numer- was keenly felt. Whatever Friedrich’s true ous entreaties to the Russian delegation, for power in his relationship with the French example, he was dismissed by Maria Nes- — negligible at best19 — the advent of the selrode, the wife of the Russian diplomat French alliance had permitted Friedrich the Charles de Nesselrode, as a despot, and by occasion to rid himself of the very constitu- the Prussian statesman Karl vom und zum tion he had been railing against for years. Stein (then in Russian service) as «the Moreover, while it would have offered no Württemberg tyrant or sultan»20. On the realistic protection against the privations other hand, and in spite of the personal op- suffered between 1805 and 1813, the fact probrium that he attracted, Friedrich was at that these would have been deemed uncon- the very least able to secure the territories, stitutional under the letter and spirit of the resources, and population that Württem- Treaty of Tübingen afforded the dissolved berg had gained by 1806 (although his pro- constitution a further measure of theoret- posal to annex a portion of eastern Baden ical (or emotional) relevance, as a symbol met with no success at all). of hypothetical, anti-Napoleonic and an- Having safeguarded Württemberg’s ti-despotic resistance. Gradually, as the continued external existence — which had war and public opinion turned against Na- hardly been a given when the Congress poleon, Friedrich began looking for means convened — the crown now faced an inter- to extricate himself from what had become nal crisis. The ratification of the German an unpopular conflict. The occasion of this Confederal Acts (Deutsche Bundesakte) on defection was the Battle of Nations, outside 10 June 1815 stressed the requirement that Leipzig, in 1813. From this point until Na- «in all confederal states an estate-based poleon’s final defeat at Waterloo, Württem- constitution will be enacted»21. Even be- berg counted itself a member of the allied fore this, however, Friedrich had surprised Sixth Coalition. many, both within his state and those sit- The end of the Napoleonic Wars left ting on the German Committee in the Con- Württemberg in a precarious political posi- gress, by announcing his intention to draft tion. Externally, Friedrich faced a complex a new constitution. This constitution, pro- diplomatic situation. The major victorious visionally announced on 18 January 1815, powers of the Sixth Coalition were hardly appeared on the face of it to contradict most well-disposed towards him, given his role of Friedrich’s established behaviour as a as one of Napoleon’s allies for the best part neo-absolutist king. After all, he had been of a decade. To this end, the Congress of quick to grasp any opportunity to mini- Vienna became a curious mixture of Fed- mise the constitutional borders imposed erician bravado and atonement, as the on him by the Treaty of Tübingen, and Württemberg king tried to consolidate and one of his first acts as king had been to do even expand the gains he had made under away with the constitution completely. But Napoleon, while at the same time mending with his newfound constitutional interests, fences with his once-foes. In this regard, he Friedrich was attempting to maintain con- was at least partially successful, though on trol of a process that was beginning to slip
142 Ashton away from him. Certainly, he could not af- ity to express that awareness, and conscious ford to alienate his allies in the Congress, of the relationship between constitution- nor ignore a groundswell of estate-based al mechanisms and a political milieu that opposition at home, led by the Stuttgart made this awareness and engagement not mayor Heinrich Immanuel Klüpfel and the only possible, but desirous. prominent lawyer and poet Ludwig Uhland. However, by this point, Friedrich himself was ailing and, on 30 October 1816, he died. Undoubtedly Württemberg’s most success- 2. Fostering pride in constitutionalism ful king in terms of territorial acquisition and the accumulation of power, Friedrich A constitution is unlike any other legislative nonetheless passed unlamented by a pop- document, and it holds a special place with- ulation almost universally alienated by its in the pantheon of laws and statutes. Glad- king. His successor, Crown Prince Frie- stone’s famous commentary on the United drich Wilhelm, adopted both the throne — States Constitution — that it is the «most as King Wilhelm — and the unresolved and wonderful work ever struck off at a given complex constitutional rivalry. time by the brain and purpose of man» — The Ludwigsburg Constitution, enacted interests us here less because of the specific by Wilhelm in 1819, was neither univer- constitution it praises, and more because of sally praised nor condemned; throughout its existence, it remained a battleground of what it tells us about the nature of constitu- opinion both within and outside the state. tions as a whole. Gladstone’s meaning be- Yet its importance can hardly be doubted. comes more intelligible once his point on With its introduction, the constitutional the American example is taken within the struggles (Verfassungskämpfe) in the af- context of its preamble, which claimed that termath of the Napoleonic Wars came to the «British Constitution is the most subtle an end; in comparison to the other states organism which has ever proceeded from around Württemberg, however, this caesu- progressive history». Here, Gladstone was ra was not a false dawn but a true beginning not criticising British constitutionalism in of consensual, holistic governance. Only favour of American, but rather comparing once, in the latter part of the maelstrom of two superlatives of the different methods by the 1848-9 revolutions, was the constitu- which constitutions could be realised: ei- tion suspended by the crown (and then only ther through an artifice of conscious genius briefly). Otherwise, from 1819 until the (as in America), or else through a quasi-or- foundation of the German Empire in 1871, ganic process that developed gradually over Württemberg remained an oasis of relative time, embodying a synthesis of acquired political and social calm. At a base level, the and assembled knowledge and rights22. The reason for this can be found in the manner necessary addendum to this point is that a by which Württemberg political identity in- constitution’s genius (whether artificial termixed with that of social identification. or organic) is of little relevance if it is not The end result was a society that was unusu- recognised to be such. In other words: con- ally politically aware, permissive in its abil- stitutional guarantees of rights and liberties
143 Itinerari
1833 lithograph showing the Halbmondsaal, the Plenary Hall of the Second Chamber of the Wurttemberg Landtag, opened in 1819
mean very little unless the population sub- fered existential crises after the Napoleon- ject to them recognise their importance. ic Wars, Württemberg’s remained for the In Württemberg, constitutional herit- most part intact and secure. age and its requisite guarantee of the rule of This stability was all the more surpris- law became a totem of cultural state iden- ing, given the relatively disparaging view tification. This identification was already of the state from the outside. Indeed, vis- well-established in the years between Duke itors tended not to think kindly of Würt- Ulrich’s founding of the Treaty of Tübingen temberg. In the 1760s, Giacomo Casano- in 1514, and King Friedrich’s abrogation va’s brief but typically scandalous stay in of it in 1806. But the establishment of the the capital, Stuttgart, led him to write that Ludwigsburg Constitution in 1819 initiat- Stuttgart was «wretched», the state popu- ed a new phase of constitutional apprecia- lated by «dull peasants and workmen of the tion, in which Württemberg constitution- lowest class», and the duke given to indul- al history in its totality became a point of gence and debauchery — a curious charge distinction and pride. This distinction was for Casanova, of all people, to level against encouraged by the state; because of this, him, but perhaps representative of many while most German state apparatuses suf- prevailing opinions of the time. Around the
144 Ashton same period, the journalist Wilhelm Lud- pride was reflected in the Württembergers’ wig Wekherlin agreed that Stuttgart was «a piteous attitude towards this Prussian visi- mass of ugly buildings», while the inhabit- tor. «Many Württembergers not only have ants were «uncivilised». The English nov- a special confidence in their country’s con- elist Frances Milton Trollope, writing in the stitution, which is very laudable, but also a 1830s about her travels through the south of very high opinion of its benefits», Nicolai Germany, thought the Württemberg capi- wrote. «With a smile I noted that these free tal was much like «any other […] ordinary citizens, while praising their unique consti- village»23. The Prussian brothers Jacob tution, look upon us poor Brandenburgers and Wilhelm Grimm, meanwhile, included as though we were slaves»25. Nicolai sought in their collection of German folktales the to explain why the Württembergers seemed story of the «Seven Swabians», a band of to be so cheerful and contented that they dim-witted and cowardly Württemberg- «cause in me […] such a comfortable ers who ended up drowning in the Moselle feeling». This feeling he contrasted with when they mistook the croaking of a frog for «those who complain about their situ- a command to ford the river24. ation, which is sure to [be heard by] any While the apparent view of Württem- stranger in Ulm or Nuremberg»26. Later, bergers was one of backwardness and a the English Whig statesman Charles James lack of sophistication, within the state this Fox would remark that Württemberg’s was was not the case, though a distinct identi- one of only two ‘genuine’ constitutions in ty had indeed developed. This identity was Europe (the other being Britain’s)27. In recognised in 1781 by the author and pub- fact, this observation predated both Fox licist Friedrich Nicolai who, like Casanova and Nicolai, the latter of whom cited the and Wekherlin before him, and Trollope «naïveté» of «the editor of the Geographie afterwards, had undertaken a tour of the Württembergs for claiming that «the form south German provinces. After returning to of government in Württemberg is like the Berlin, he published a volume of his travel English in miniature»28. reports shortly before the outbreak of the The observations of Nicolai, Fox, and French Revolution. These reports, collec- others are important here for a number of tively entitled Unter Bayern und Schwaben, reasons. Firstly, they demonstrate that a offer a glimpse of Württembergers fun- discourse already existed that prized the damentally different to that offered by the constitution as something that, on the Con- jaded Casanova, the acerbic Trollope, or tinent at least, was different to any other. the comical fairy-stories of the Grimms. Perhaps the unnamed author of the Geo- Perhaps expecting the coarse-mannered graphie was naïve, as Nicolai suggested, but and poorly-educated yokels reported years the fact that his search to find a compara- earlier by Wekherlin and Casanova, Nicolai tor for the Tübinger Vertrag took him across found instead a population unusually well- the Channel and to the vaunted pages of the versed in the state’s body politic. Central to Magna Carta shows the «special» nature of this was a core belief in and understanding this document. More relevant to our pur- of the state’s unique constitutional her- pose here, Nicolai showed that the Würt- itage. Much to Nicolai’s amusement, this tembergers were aware of this legislative
145 Itinerari uniqueness, and cherished it. Indeed, the effective, presupposed that the constitu- general contentedness of the people, which tion to which it adhered was still in force. Nicolai contrasted sharply to the dissatis- In effect, it acted as a complaint against a faction he found in other states and the im- breach of the constitution. The fact that it perial cities, was — in his estimation — the was actually a protest against the dissolu- fundamental result of constitutionalism. tion of that same constitution adds a level of This was also evident during the period farce to proceedings; Friedrich was playing in which the constitution was withdrawn. from a different set of rules than the Waib- In general, the prevailing attitudes in 1806 lingen constitutionalists. As for Cotta and followed two trends. The first was embod- his hoped-for liberalisation, his was an ied by the Schreiber Heinrich Bolley, from unfortunate misreading of the meaning of the town of Waiblingen. It will be remem- Bonapartism, which he soon recognised. bered that Friedrich had already intruded By 1813, Cotta was acting as a confiden- upon the political autonomy of the Schrei- tial courier between the courts of Austria ber tradition. But the total removal of the and Württemberg, and helped to facilitate constitution inspired Bolley and his fellow Württemberg’s defection to the Sixth Coa- Waiblingers to write a petition addressed to lition. the king, demanding its reinstatement29. The «special confidence» in the Treaty The other response to the end of constitu- of Tübingen, as remarked upon by Nicolai, tionalism was characterised by the Stuttgart was also, as F.L. Carsten notes in his sem- publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta. Cotta, inal Princes and Parliaments in Germany himself a liberal, continued to espouse the (1959), «a marked pride» on the part of beliefs and opinions that many others in the citizenry as a whole31. Because of this, and around his circle of intellectuals had its abrogation was seen not as a transaction held upon the outbreak of the French Rev- of state, but as a tremendous stain upon the olution: namely, that French intervention honour of the state as a whole, and a reflec- in the German hinterland might herald a tion on Friedrich himself as untrustwor- sociopolitical renaissance. Even after Na- thy and shameful. Such was recognised by poleon had changed the course of the revo- an anonymous pamphleteer who, writing lution, and even as late as 1808, Cotta wrote his essay Würtembergs Rechte as the «first to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, predicting word of an appeal to the high liberators of that Napoleonic influence on the House of Germany», asked his readers how much Württemberg would compel Friedrich to Friedrich’s kingly crown had cost, and grant a further liberalisation of domestic then provided the answer: «an outrageous politics, broaden the rights and liberties breach of an oath, many thousands of peo- enshrined in the constitution, and coun- ple coerced, exercises of force innumer- tenance a greater degree of direct popular able, suppressions of the [public] will and engagement in the Landtag30. Neither of exuberance. The purchase of the crown these branches of thought had any chance cost: human blood of 30 to 40 thousand of coming to fruition. In the first case, the of the most hopeful youths of the children Waiblingen complaint was a constitution- of the land». The responsible party, and ally-bound measure that, in order to be the act that facilitated this calamity, are
146 Ashton also identified: «Friedrich the First, the lack of constitutional rule in Württemberg first tyrannical lord of Würtemberg [sic.], such as it existed when he wrote his trea- through the breach of the oath of his sovereign tise. But if this was extraordinary from the word»32. Other voices of protest soon fol- political-philosophical perspective, it was lowed. Politically, the most prominent of soon matched by one more accessible to the these was Karl August von Wangenheim. As public outside of Wangenheim’s academic the chancellor of the University of Tübin- community. In a series of «Fatherland Po- gen, Wangenheim had been a state appoin- ems» (Vaterländische Gedichte), first pub- tee. But Wangenheim, an intellectual in his lished in 1816, Ludwig Uhland mourned own right, was also heavily influenced by the «old good law» (altes gutes Recht) that one of his philosophy professors, Karl von had been stripped away by the withdraw- Eschenmayer, who himself closely followed al of the constitution. Much as the anon- the humanistic philosophical tenets of ymous author of Würtembergs Rechte saw Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling33. the abrogation as the moment of rupture Wangenheim’s 1815 treatise, The Idea of the that suppressed the «exuberance» of the State Constitution (Die Idee der Staatsverfas- public, Uhland recognised it as the event sung), is one of the most prescient master- that sullied all of Württemberg’s otherwise pieces of Restoration-era political thought, praiseworthy physical beauty and cultural made even more remarkable by Wangen- richness36. Uhland spared no blushes in heim’s relationship to the crown that he his works, and his anger towards the crown was criticising both obliquely and acutely. for abrogating the Treaty is palpable from Wangenheim’s work was essentially a de- the very opening poem of the Vaterländische mand to return to constitutionalism, argu- Gedichte. Entitled «Am 18. Oktober 1815», ing that the basis of the ideal civil society this honoured the mayor of Stuttgart, Hein- was «three principles», namely freedom, rich Klüpfel, who had become the totemic equality, and security, which were estab- figurehead of estate opposition to Frie- lished and expressed through property, the drich, and the leading voice in the calls to sociopolitical contract between state and reinstate constitutional law. Here, Uhland Volk, and the maintenance of popular rep- delivered an impassioned (albeit implicit) resentation in politics via electoral suffrage. criticism against the king by hailing Klüp- To the treatise’s author, these were the self- fel as a «forever faithful» representative of same principles that were enshrined in the Stuttgart, who «guards that most precious Treaty of Tübingen, which had guaranteed to us», and as a result became the man «the personal and political freedom of the «to whom we are most closely bound»37. Wirtembergers [sic]»34. Moreover, though Uhland took Klüpfel to be the embodiment the king was afforded powers, these were of the spirit of the altes gutes Recht, and thus «law-given», and constrained by «the of the Treaty of Tübingen; the ties between constitutionally accepted agreement with poet, people, and politician suggested a the representatives of his people»35. close popular relationship with and will for Wangenheim’s defence of the Treaty of the reinstatement of the constitution. Tübingen as a vital component to the state’s Friedrich’s death in 1816 came at a vi- legitimacy was therefore an assault on the tal moment. With the ascension of King
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Wilhelm, Württemberg now had a younger constitutional movement. Wangenheim, monarch, who had emerged from the Na- for example, had conceived of unity both poleonic Wars with his image relatively un- embodied in and encouraged by constitu- sullied (he had, after all, led the Württem- tionalism. He conceived of the ideal state berg ‘liberation army’ against the French as a «spiritual organism» characterised by in late 1813 and 1814). Wilhelm inherited «freedom» rather than «excessive force» a state bordering on both a crisis of iden- — which, without the Treaty of Tübin- tity and an even more pressing, material gen in force, was not what the Kingdom catastrophe. In the first place, a divide be- of Württemberg represented to the New tween the inhabitants of Altwürttemberg and Württembergers who had seen their own Neuwürttemberg remained. Indeed, the only states involuntarily absorbed in the name thing that bound the New Württembergers of Friedrich. Finally, Wangenheim insist- to the old state (beyond the bureaucratic re- ed that there was a necessity of the state to alities of annexation) was a shared history promulgate loyalty, both for its own good of recent suffering in the Napoleonic Wars. and the common good of the public and the If ever the suspension of the constitution individual: «If Man is to love the state more had helped to ameliorate the problems of than he loves himself – and this he must do, absorption, as Friedrich had claimed in for this is to him a matter of culture – then 1805, then this was certainly no longer the he must himself help to build the state»39. case. This was hardly a question of minor More publicly, on the streets of the capital, importance; annexed territories in oth- the mayor Heinrich Klüpfel led a demon- er states were hotbeds of insurrection and stration 8 July 1816, the three hundred unrest. During the Napoleonic Wars, for and second anniversary of the Treaty. This example, a rebellion against the Bavarian demonstration had two objectives. The first government was carried out by a band of was the familiar appeal to the altes gutes Tyrolean guerrillas led by Andreas Hofer38. Recht. The second was to raise concerns that In Baden, the political situation was best New Württembergers might be relegated to described as incendiary. In coming years, the status of second-class citizens, without public disorder was so endemic that, on protections built into whatever constitution several occasions, it verged on civil war. eventually resulted. «May the differenti- Deadly clashes swept throughout the ma- ation between Old and New Württemberg jor population centres in 1819, with further cease», one of the catch-cries of the dem- violence experienced in Tauberbischof- onstrators ran, «and every New Württem- sheim, Heidelberg and Pforzheim in 1832, berger become an Old Württemberger!»40. 1838 and 1839 respectively. This was some- In this way, Klüpfel tied the concept of the thing to be avoided and, as opposed to what altes gutes Recht to the equalisation of Old Friedrich had argued in 1805, some argued and New Württemberg rights. His prom- that the only solution was not only a rein- inent supporters, including Uhland, only statement of the constitution, but also an served to popularise the issue. extension of its competences. Before Frie- On top of these issues, the beginning of drich’s death, this argument had already Wilhelm’s reign was marked by a deep ex- been tendered by the protagonists of the istential crisis. No fighting had occurred
148 Ashton in Württemberg since 1805 and the state the traditional landed estates as a financial had not been laid waste by the privations of millstone around Württemberg’s neck. The war. However, having accrued major pub- vested agrarian interests of the gentry were lic debts during the war, the government antiquated, he decided, and in the present had pursued aggressive trade policies from crisis unconscionable. Württemberg now 1814 onwards; in a state founded largely on had double the mouths to feed, but the ma- agrarian commerce, this largely meant the jority of the casualties from the wars had exportation of surplus grain. Initially this come from the young, able-bodied men policy found some success, but 1816 was a who usually tilled the fields. Coupled with poor year for agricultural yields, and the the inclement weather, Württemberg’s state not only suffered a shortfall in its ex- dependency on agriculture was simply too port market, but also endemic food short- unreliable. A much better proposition was ages that resulted in malnutrition and wide- to follow the example of Great Britain, in spread related illness41. A combination of particular with regard to its emphasis on government malaise under Friedrich and mechanised industry. The appropriation of jealous protectionism by the landed gentry steam power and other facets of industrial- resulted in the state reacting only belat- isation could revitalise some sectors of the edly to the crisis. Because of this, in spite Württemberg export market (such as the of the universal privations of the «Year textile centres of Calw and Heidenheim), without Summer», Württemberg stood and perhaps open new ones, such as metal alone among the German states in terms production. This, however, would neces- of mortality, with the death rates exceeding sitate a large state investment in industry, those born in the same period42. However, which in turn would require a decrease in Wilhelm’s initial attempts to alleviate the crown subsidies in agriculture. For these hardships of this Hungerzeit met with little reasons, the estates responded with vehe- success. He was unable to convince the Diet ment opposition, deeming Weckherlin’s of the German Confederation to lift or ease proposed reforms to be yet another assault tariff barriers, which would allow econom- on whatever remained of the altes gutes ically viable importation of emergency food Recht. Consequently, only a handful of in- supplies, the representatives from Prussia nocuous reforms were enacted43. and Austria both contended that this would These events, however, brought into impinge on their sovereign rights to set sharp relief the problems facing both Wil- their own taxes, tariffs, and duties. At home, helm and the state that he now helmed. Wilhelm sought means by which a future It was in this context that he launched an Hungerzeit could be avoided. To this task he ambitious programme of political reform appointed Ferdinand Heinrich August von which, in September 1819, resulted in the Weckherlin, a state councillor, prominent introduction of a new constitution44. This figure within the treasury and, later, Wil- «Ludwigsburg Constitution» clearly used helm’s finance minister between 1821 and the Tübinger Vertrag as its foundation, but 1827. Weckherlin was a forward-thinking elaborated considerably upon it in matters economist with a keen eye for detail. He was of the rights of the citizen and the manner also no respecter of privilege, and he saw of the balance between crown and Landtag.
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The «General Relationship of Rights of the filled a function similar to that of Britain’s State Citizens» (chapter III) assumed a House of Lords, and comprised the leading particular significance, directly following members of the Stände. The Second Cham- the chapter «of the King, of the Heir to the ber (Kammer der Abgeordneten; Chamber of Throne and the Imperial Administration» Representatives) comprised twenty-three (chapter II), and appearing well before the «privileged» members (nobles, the high- discussion of the privileged rights of the est officials of the Lutheran and Catholic estates (chapter IX). Furthermore, the new Churches and the chancellor of the Uni- constitution realigned the role of the king. versity of Tübingen) and seventy «people’s True, the constitution began with the cus- representatives», made up of seven from tomary salutation «Wilhelm, by the Grace Stuttgart, Tübingen, Ludwigsburg, Ell- of God King of Württemberg», and Article wangen, Ulm, Heilbronn and Reutlingen, 4 articulated that «[the king’s] person is and another sixty-three from the remain- holy and inviolable». But the same article ing electoral districts. Also, the Landtag placed restrictions on the king’s behaviour. enjoyed new vested powers. While the old In particular, it stipulated that «[t]he king Treaty of Tübingen, for example, had pro- is the head of state, unites in himself all vided the estates with the ability to veto new rights of the state executive, and exercises taxes, its successor gave them the right of them in accordance with the regulations approval or disapproval for both direct and set through the constitution». The rights indirect taxation, as well as the three-year- of the citizen, too, were expanded under ly government budget (chapter VIII). This this legislatively-bound protection. «All also required that ministers explain in de- Württembergers have the same state civil tail their budgetary requirements, and that rights», Article 21 specified, followed by a yearly accounting of the state treasury be Article 24’s guarantee that «the state guar- prepared by a commission jointly appoint- antees to every citizen individual freedom, ed by the crown and the estates; this re- freedom of belief and thought, freedom of port would then be made available publicly property, and movement freedom», and (Article 123). In effect, the estates now had Article 25’s reassurance that «serfdom near-total oversight over the crown’s fi- remains forever annulled». Of particular nancial affairs. interest, too, was Article 28, which guar- These alterations were hardly acci- anteed «freedom of the press and the book dental. It is clear to see Wangenheim’s trade […] to its fullest extent». influences on Wilhelm’s formulations; Other innovations, too, made it clear this is not surprising, as Wangenheim was that the Ludwigsburg Constitution was a (briefly) Wilhelm’s education minister, different beast from its 1514 predecessor. and thereafter took up Württemberg’s rep- Indeed, if the king’s privileges were to be resentative seat in the Frankfurt Diet. In regulated by constitutional articles, then so keeping with Wangenheim’s Idea of the State too were those of the estates. Specifically, Constitution, Wilhelm had expressly laid a Wilhelm introduced a bicameral Landtag. groundwork for the expansion of rights to The First Chamber (Kammer der Standes- the citizenry, the representation of that cit- herren; Chamber of the Estate Lords), ful- izenry in the political process to a degree
150 Ashton that far exceeded the Treaty of Tübingen, helm by greeting him as «the king of the and the voluntary binding of the crown to Germans»45. But perhaps the most telling permissive constitutionalism. The estates response was from reactionary Austria. had gained new powers, but these were ex- On the eve of the constitution’s approval, pressly not limited to the Old Württemberg Clemens von Metternich wrote to the em- powers-that-were; indeed, the privileged peror, Franz, expressing his fear that «the positions afforded the traditional power balance of the Württemberg assembly may centres of Württemberg (such as Stuttgart, perhaps decide the destiny of Germany»46. Tübingen and Ludwigsburg) were now ex- Franz, evidently moved by Metternich’s tended to New Württemberg towns, such fears, warned Wilhelm in a letter that a con- as Reutlingen. Moreover, the requirement stitution as liberal as the Ludwigsburg Con- of the public treasury reports, as well as stitution would likely encourage a «scourge the ministerial justifications, introduced a of revolution». In response, Wilhelm em- measure of transparency; to put it bluntly, ployed an argument straight from the pages taxpayers could now see precisely where of Wangenheim’s Die Idee der Staatsverfas- their florins went, and why. This, coupled sung: liberal constitutionalism would not with the expansive rights of the citizens as foment rebellion, he wrote, but would in- stipulated in chapter III, afforded the Lud- stead bind the people, the estates, and the wigsburg Constitution an air of anti-abso- monarch, in a holistic and symbiotic rela- lutism heretofore unprecedented in central tionship that could only serve the wellbeing 47 Europe in general, and among the states of the whole . that now made up the German Confedera- tion in particular. The reaction to the introduction of the Ludwigsburg Constitution, both domesti- 3. Maintaining constitutional identification cally and outside Württemberg’s borders, in an era of crisis also demonstrates the degree to which it was a liberalising document. At home, it did Wilhelm and the Württemberg state appara- much to repair much of the damage done tus conceived of the Ludwigsburg Constitu- by Friedrich the decade before. Uhland, tion as a twofold mechanism. The first aspect who had been so vocal in his demands for of it was the «ordinary» function of consti- the return of the altes gutes Recht, now took tutive legislation: it acted as concrete regu- his place in the Landtag as a representative. lation for the rights and liberties afforded Klüpfel’s protestations also faded into the Württemberg citizens. The second aspect, background. Wangenheim, who had argued however, was arguably more important. As that the state enjoyed no legitimacy if it Wangenheim had argued in 1815, and as Wil- were not backed by fair constitutionalism, helm reaffirmed to Emperor Franz in 1819, continued to serve that state in a conspic- the constitution was the medium through uous capacity as its spokesman in the Con- which a loyalty between the leadership of federal Diet. At the ministerial conference the state and the subjects of that leadership in Vienna in March 1820, Wangenheim could be formed and encouraged. Friedrich showed the esteem in which he held Wil- Nicolai had already noted the importance
151 Itinerari of this role when he claimed that, by virtue am Main50. But even in 1819, there were of the Treaty of Tübingen, «the Württem- strong indicators that Baden would contin- bergers have always loved their dukes, even ue to suffer public disorder and unrest, the when they were not particularly satisfied constitution notwithstanding. Six months with some decrees»48. In Vienna, both before Wilhelm unveiled the Ludwigs- Metternich and Franz feared that the dan- burg Constitution, the New Badenese city ger of the Ludwigsburg Constitution lay in of Mannheim was the site of the assassi- the fact that it was more permissive than its nation of August von Kotzebue by the stu- predecessor, and that it introduced greater dent liberal-nationalist Carl Ludwig Sand, regulations on state power in relation to the the act which had prompted Metternich citizenry. Moreover, it was explicitly so. In to introduce the anti-nationalist Karlsbad other words, the Ludwigsburg Constitution Decrees51. The fact that Württemberg ac- was not only liberal, but it could be seen to be tively opposed these decrees, in spite of the liberal. This, they feared, would weaken both apparent danger of what Baron vom Stein the state in fact as well as in perception. The called «this accursed sect», further caused result of this would be an undermining of concern amongst the more conservative re- the state’s legitimacy to govern and, inevita- actionaries in the German Confederation, bly, the outbreak of revolution. Wilhelm and which turned to alarm when Wangenheim Wangenheim, on the other hand, believed refused to ratify the Verona Circular. This that the very opposite would be the case: the was a proposal denouncing radicalism in more the state surrendered to the oversight general and, though it did not specifically and jurisdiction of the people, the more the mention Germany, Wangenheim opposed it people would, in turn, trust the state. on the grounds that it could be used not just The Austrian fears were not without as an instrument of law and order but also of some grounding. Indeed, permissive con- oppression. As a result, in 1823 both Aus- stitutionalism in and of itself was no guar- tria and Prussia demanded he be recalled to antor of safety. The Grand Duchy of Baden, Stuttgart, leaving Wilhelm little choice but for example, faced similar challenges to to acquiesce. In 1824, fearing the influence Württemberg and, in 1818, it introduced of radical liberalism, and perhaps remem- a constitution that was arguably «Germa- bering Wangenheim’s significant influence ny’s most advanced and liberal document» there, the Prussian government further at the time, as well as also being intended issued an edict banning Prussian students as a glue to meld the New Badenese with from attending the University of Tübin- the Old49. Yet, as we have seen, Baden was gen. Other observers, such as the British habitually a hotbed of revolutionary senti- diplomat Edward Cromwell Disbrowe, de- ment. Its most dramatic examples of this nounced the nature of the electoral fran- were yet to come; in 1848, for instance, the chise, which allowed «unprincipled Agita- Badenese Landtag deputy Gustav von Struve tors», «factious Demagogues», and «very formed a «revolutionary army» in the considerable numbers» of liberals to be Black Forest, with the intention of march- elected to the Second Chamber52. ing on the capital, Karlsruhe, and thereafter For all these fears, however, Württem- the seat of the Confederal Diet in Frankfurt berg neither erupted into violence nor be-
152 Ashton came a staging post for revolution. Indeed, population. No equivalent to Carl Ludwig even though the period in between the in- Sand emerged in Württemberg, nor any troduction of the Ludwigsburg Constitution similar outrage to the Kotzebue assassina- and the outbreak of the 1848 revolutions was tion, in spite of Württemberg’s marked in- one of general regional unease, Württem- transigence when it came to following the berg was almost singularly unaffected. In- letter of the Karlsbad Decrees. On only one deed, one of the most dramatic acts in 1848 occasion in these years did public violence was more reminiscent of Heinrich Bolley’s of any significance erupt, and then it was civil attempts to protest the end of the Trea- still relatively minor. In 1846, Württem- ty of Tübingen; on 2 March, 1,000 citizens berg once more suffered food shortages. of Tübingen signed a petition, addressed to Though this was significantly less severe the Landtag, requesting that the electoral than the 1816-17 Hungerzeit, this event nev- laws be liberalised to allow for greater direct ertheless sparked bread riots in Ulm, where participation in the constitutionally-regu- two people were killed, and Stuttgart, where lated political process53. To be sure, there the king himself was attacked with stones. were some public demonstrations, but none Yet even this demonstrates the stable na- of these came close to resembling the gen- ture of the state; as the British charge d’af- uine unrest experienced in Baden, Bavaria, faires in Stuttgart noted in a telegram to the Prussia, Austria, and the Rhenish states. Foreign Office, this thunderclap of «anger The reason for this can be seen in the very and discontent» was quite remarkable be- constitutionalism that Metternich and oth- cause Wilhelm «had always been regarded ers feared would lead to disaster. Württem- with adoration by His People»54. This was berg had a constitutional history on which hardly the revolutionary violence of liber- to fall back, and the Federician years could al «Agitators» that Disbrowe had warned be interpreted as an interregnum in an oth- against, but rather a brief and spontaneous erwise consistent special path. Such could expression of popular discontent in the face be seen even in the response to Friedrich’s of specific hardships. authoritarianism, whereby opponents to In many ways, the crown appropriated the king’s reign, such as Uhland and Klüp- even radical liberalism for its own ends. In fel, consistently referred back to the Treaty 1820 and 1821, two pamphlets were pub- of Tübingen as the solution to the problems lished, under the names «George Erich- they had perceived. From the outset, Würt- son» and «Karl Heinrich Kollmanner». temberg constitutionalism was present- Both publications — the Manuscript from ed by its proponents as inclusive; Klüpfel, South Germany (1820)55 and About the Cur- while promoting the altes gutes Recht, stip- rent Situation in Europe (1821)56 — followed ulated that its renewal should dissolve the similar lines; the future peace and prosper- barriers between Old and New Württem- ity of the German region, they argued, were bergers, while Wangenheim (and Wilhelm, at risk from the authoritarian tendencies following Wangenheim’s argumentation) of the great powers (Austria and Prussia). saw the state constitution as a measure to The solution to this was to follow the lead unify the country and create a holistic or- of Württemberg, which had «more for the ganism comprising crown, parliament, and cause of freedom and independence of the
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Germans than all of the lovely words at lations with Berlin; nevertheless, the Lud- the Congress [of Vienna] did». This it had wigsburg Constitution afforded Württem- done by adopting a «contemporary con- berg citizens rights and protections under stitution […] as […] fundamental law»57. Württemberg law and Herwegh remained a In the event, both «Erichson» and «Koll- citizen worthy of protection under consti- manner» were revealed to be Friedrich tutional law. Ludwig Lindner, an infamous ultra-liberal It is a tribute to the enduring vitali- agitator. Circumstantial evidence suggests ty of the Ludwigsburg Constitution (and that Lindner may have been commissioned its forebear, the Treaty of Tübingen) that by Wilhelm for the purpose of writing the opposition, when it manifested, general- documents. Either way, however, they are ly followed a pattern of remaining within landmark publications, solidifying (either the constitutional bounds. In other words, with secretive official backing or otherwise) while Wilhelm had his critics, by and large a legislative narrative, in which the crown, they retained enough of the ‘special confi- the constitution, and the people’s well- dence’ that Friedrich Nicolai had identified being were all explicitly linked. This link at the end of the eighteenth century to trust provided for reciprocal obligation, much as that the constitution — whatever its flaws Wangenheim had intended when he argued might be — could be positively reformed. for the holistic «spiritual organism» of the While Disbrowe and others concerned state through constitutional law-making. themselves with «considerable numbers» In 1843, for instance, Wilhelm interceded of «factious Demagogues», the Ministry of with the Prussian government on behalf of the Interior was able to confidently claim in the Württemberg poet and liberal-nation- a retrospective report that, before the 1848 alist activist Georg Herwegh. Herwegh was revolutions, «there was no talk of a repub- hardly a darling of Württemberg state-bu- lican movement»58. reaucratic opinion; a deserter from army One must be careful regarding the use service, he had taken to wandering through of the term «republican» or «republican- the German hinterland espousing radical ism». Here, the ministry correspondent political opinions and generally making cannot have meant the term in the sense a nuisance of himself. Somehow, he had used among German late-Enlightenment managed to secure an audience with King and early Idealist circles, in which the con- Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, in whose cept of a republic was synonymous with presence he spouted such «obnoxious» re- popular representation and liberty59. In- publican sentiment that Friedrich Wilhelm deed, taking Kantian conceptions of repub- had ordered him immediately expelled. licanism as the baseline, it is immediately While Herwegh was hardly a likely figure for apparent that the Ludwigsburg Constitu- Stuttgart’s sympathy, the incident earned tion was (broadly speaking) «republican» Friedrich Wilhelm an official complaint in intent, in turn effectively defining the from the Württemberg capital on Herwe- Württemberg state apparatus and the crown gh’s behalf. This was especially surprising itself as «a republican movement». If, given Wilhelm’s continuing attempts at instead, the ministry intended «republi- the time to maintain good diplomatic re- can» as a euphemism for «reformative»,
154 Ashton then here, too, its report was misleading. Yet here, too, we see the profound confi- The opposition in Württemberg, begin- dence in and loyalty to the constitution. ning with the three liberals whom Disbrowe The Märzministerium was made up of polit- considered «very considerable number» ical radicals with an unprecedented degree in the 1831 Landtag, was indeed willing and of political agency. Nevertheless, the most intended to enact sweeping changes. Yet they agreed on was that the Ludwigsburg here, we can perceive the wisdom of the Constitution required some amendments, ministry’s unnamed reporter, insofar that, and these took the form of relaxed regula- while these liberals pushed for change, they tions in electoral franchise and property did so within the confines of the constitu- laws. At the same time, popular loyalty was tion; the aim, it seems, was to improve a expressed in surprising ways. When Römer constitution rather than scrap it, since it called elections to the Frankfurt National had become central to what it meant to be Assembly, and ran for the seat of Göppin- a Württemberger. The prominent liber- gen, some twenty-six voters appear to have al-nationalist Robert von Mohl was one of believed that they were in fact voting in a the most frequent and ardent critics of the referendum on the future of the monarchy, Ludwigsburg Constitution, arguing that its and scribbled in Wilhelm’s name in sup- emphasis on representation denied the port of the king’s governance63. people «the right to govern themselves»60. Nevertheless, not only was he also a fre- quently elected member of the Landtag, but he also entered the government of the Conclusion so-called «March Ministry» (Märzmini- sterium) appointed by King Wilhelm during the crisis of the outbreak of Europe-wide In 1850, the official state-runStaats-Anzei - revolutions at the end of February 184861. ger (State Gazette) ran the first of a series of Prior to this, during his tenure as a pro- articles that would continue to appear reg- fessor at Tübingen he had also been the ularly in the paper’s pages for more than a personal tutor of Crown Prince Karl. Other decade. These articles focused on the con- highly visible opposition figures, includ- stitution as an institution of Württemberg ing Paul Pfizer (one of the original «fac- political identity. This constitutionalism, tious Demagogues») and David Friedrich the newspaper’s editors insisted, was far Strauß, were no less influential but again, more advanced than anything else to be unlike frustrated and disenfranchised rad- found in Germany and was the product of icals like Struve in Baden, their opposition a singular heritage that dated back to 1514. was aimed not to undermine their state but What this meant for Württembergers was to invigorate, support, and strengthen it62. that the state enjoyed a «healthy political They, like Mohl, also joined the Märzmini- life» that resulted from the joint powers of sterium. So, too, did the liberal republican the «prudence and wisdom» of the mon- Friedrich Römer, who was invited by Wil- arch, and the protections afforded his sub- helm to form the Märzministerium and act jects in the word and spirit of the Ludwigs- as de facto state minister on 9 March 1848. burg Constitution64.
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These articles go some way to demon- their satisfaction to it, just as Wangenheim, strating the importance of the constitu- Lindner, and eventually the Staats-Anzeiger tion; it is notable, for example, that they newspaper would do. Ludwig Uhland would began to appear in print so soon after the immortalise Württemberg constitution- revolutions of 1848 and 1849, as well as alism in the same verses that would make the constitutional crisis that developed in his name as a poet. Liberal activists of a Hesse-Kassel (in which Württemberg took type feared in other states regularly took part). In a period of profound political un- part in public life. Lindner’s claims of the certainty and instability, the Staats-Anzeiger unique desirability of Württemberg con- (and, by extension, the state) could point stitutional heritage was echoed elsewhere to a constitutional history that began with by non-Württembergers; Philipp Jakob the Tübinger Vertrag and continued, albeit Siebenpfeiffer, among others, saw Würt- with some interruption, into the contem- temberg as a potential unitary nucleus for porary era. They acknowledged that Würt- German nationalism for just this reason65. tembergers were, in general, politically At the crux of this understanding of engaged, and that this was a product of both Württemberg constitutionalism was the re- of monarchical sagacity and constitution- alisation that the constitution was designed al progressiveness. What the articles also specifically to provide a positive, binding demonstrate, in taking such a prominent mechanism of identification. A measure of position within the pages of the state media the success of this mechanism can be found apparatus, is how central the constitution in the fact that Fox, Nicolai, Wangenheim, was, or had become, in the conceptualis- Siebenpfeiffer, and others believed it to be ation of Württemberg, Württembergers, so, as well as the fact that a succession of and «Württemberg-ness». Throughout liberals of various stripes saw the consti- the preceding decades (and, indeed, centu- tution not as document to be replaced, but ries), Württembergers had turned in times rather to be reformed and improved. An- of crisis and uncertainty to the constitution other, more prosaic indicator was provided as a form of sociopolitical «safety valve» by Karl Julius Weber who, in 1826, visited and identifier. Consistently, both internal former territories of the Duchy of Swabia. and external commentators reflected on the Afterwards, he reported that, having asked vitality of the Württemberg constitutional whether the people he met identified with heritage. Charles James Fox and the author their old Territorialpatriotismus, as Swabi- of the Geographie Würtemberg may have been ans, the response he received, albeit in the overly simplistic in considering the Treaty broad Swabian dialect, was invariably: Noi, i of Tübingen as the equivalent of the Magna bin a Wirtaberger66. Carta, but with respect to the centrality of the document within the state’s conception of self, their understanding of the unique- ness and importance of Württemberg Ver- fassungspatriotismus was repeated time and again. The happy Stuttgarters Friedrich Nicolai met on his travels in 1781 attributed
156 Ashton
1 M. Hughes, Nationalism and Soci- Friedrich Karl von Württemberg, decriminalisation of homosexu- ety: Germany 1800-1945, London, Stuttgart, 3 June 1692. HStAS. ality in Bavaria in 1805. In Spain, Edward Arnold, 1991, p. 8. A203 Bü.27. the arrival of French troops swept 2 B. Anderson, Imagined Commu- 8 P.H. Wilson, War, State and Society away a repressive absolutism that nities: Reflections on the Origin and in Württemberg, 1677-1793, Cam- hearkened back to the Inquisi- Spread of Nationalism, London, bridge, Cambridge University tion, to the approval of the small Verso, 2006. Press, 1995, p. 56. number of afrancesados. See also 3 Typically, English-language 9 P.H. Wilson, The Power to Defend, A. Roberts, Napoleon the Great, histories of Germany refer to the or the Defence of Power: The Conflict London, Penguin, 2014. period beginning with the fall between Duke and Estates over De- 16 T. Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte of Napoleon in 1815 (or else the fence Provision, Württemberg 1677- 1800-1866: Bürgerwelt und starker establishment of the German 1793, in «Parliaments, Estates Staat, Munich, C.H. Beck, 1998, Confederation in 1819) as and Representation», n. 1, 1992, p. 1. Restoration. German-language p. 39. 17 Kurpfalzbaierische Staats-Zeitung histories tend to use Vormärz 10 Ivi, p. 32. von München, n. CCLIX, 2 Novem- (Pre-March), denoting that the 11 This is not to say that there were ber 1805. period ended with the outbreak not constitutional conflicts; in- 18 L.S. James, Witnessing the Revo- of revolutions throughout deed, these were prevalent partic- lutionary and Napoleonic Wars in Germany in March 1848. See, for ularly in the eighteenth century. German Central Europe, London, example, M. Fulbrook, A Concise None of them, however, directly Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p. History of Germany, Cambridge, threatened ducal legitimacy, nor 38; J.R. Elting, Swords around a Cambridge University Press, the privileged position of the es- Throne: Napoleon’s Grande Armée, 2004, pp. 104-115; T.S. Hamerow, tates. For a comprehensive anal- New York, Da Capo, 1997, p. 387; Restoration, Revolution, Reaction: ysis, see F.L. Carsten, Princes and H.-J. Harder, Militärgeschichtli- Economics and Politics in Germany, Parliaments in Germany, Oxford, ches Handbuch Baden-Württem- 1815-1871, Princeton, Princeton Clarendon, 1959, pp. 123-48. bergs, Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, University Press, 1954, pp. 1-93; 12 I.U. Paul, Württemberg 1797- 1987, p. 62. J.J. Sheehan, German History 1770- 1816/19: Quellen und Studien zur 19 Prior to the signing of the alliance, 1866, Oxford, Clarendon, 1989, Entstehung des modernen würt- and concerned that Friedrich pp. 389-654. tembergischen Staates, Munich, R. might not agree, Napoleon and 4 Tübinger Vertrag, 8 July 1514. Both Oldenbourg, 2005, pp. 370-5. his foreign minister, Talleyrand, original copies of the constitution 13 Cited after P. Sauer, Der schwä- discussed deposing Friedrich and have since been lost; one was de- bische Zar: Friedrich, Württembergs replacing him with Crown Prince stroyed during the Second World erster König, Stuttgart, Deutsche Friedrich Wilhelm, in return for War, while the other’s location is Verlags-Anstalt, 1984, p. 128. rank and honours. In the event, unknown. Duke Ulrich’s confir- 14 H. Fenske, Der liberale Südwesten: this was not necessary. See B.A. mation of the treaty survives, and Freiheitliche und demokratische Ashton, The Kingdom of Württem- is reproduced as: Duke Ulrich von Traditionen in Baden und Württem- berg and the Making of Germany, Württemberg, Urkunde über den berg 1790-1933, Stuttgart, W. Kohl- 1815-1871, London, Bloomsbury, Vertrag zu Tübingen vom 8. Juli 1514, hammer, 1981, pp. 32-3. 2017, p. 24. dessen Bestätigung und dessen Voll- 15 S. Hazareesingh, Napoleonic Mem- 20 Maria Nesselrode to Hélène Gou- zug (23 April 1515), in G. Adriani ory in Nineteenth-Century France: rief, Stuttgart, 14 January 1814, in and A. Schmauder (eds.), 1514: The Making of a Liberal Legend, in A. de Nesselrode (ed. by), Lettres Macht, Gewalt, Freiheit. Der Vertrag «MLN», n. 4, 2005, pp. 747-73; et papiers du chancelier comte de zu Tübingen in Zeiten des Umbruchs, Theodore Ziolkowski, Napoleon’s Nesselrode, 1760-1850, vol. V, Paris, Ostfildern, Jan Thorbeke, 2014, Impact on Germany: A Rapid Sur- A. Lahure, n.d., pp. 153-4. pp. 194-9. vey, in «Yale French Studies», 21 Die teutsche Bundesacte vom 8. 5 J.A. Vann, The Making of a State: 1960, pp. 94-105. There is no Juny 1815 (1815), in E.R. Huber Württemberg 1593-1793, Ithaca doubting some of the liberalis- (ed. by), Dokumente zur deutschen and London, Cornell University ing effects of Napoleonic hege- Verfassungsgeschichte, vol. I, Stutt- Press, 1984, pp. 45-6. mony over central and southern gart, Kohlhammer, 1961, n. 19, 6 K. Pfaff, Geschichte des Fürsten- Europe. The introduction of the pp. 75 ff. hauses und Landes Württem- Code Napoléon, for example, gave 22 A comprehensive discussion of berg, Stuttgart, Verlag der J.B. Feuerbach the impetus to differ- Gladstone’s remarks can be found Metzler’schen Buchhandlung, entiate between «moral» crimes in The Originality of the United 1839, p. 164. and «human» crimes, thus pav- States Constitution, in «Yale Law 7 Johann Heinrich Sturm to Duke ing the way for the first European Journal», n. 6, 1896, pp. 239-46.
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23 See here, in lieu of many, G. Ca- emphasis mine. While neither ständischem Abgeordneten der Stadt sanova, The Memoirs of Jacques the author nor the publisher are Stuttgart, Vaterländische Gedichte Casanova de Seingalt, vol. III, New identified, the pamphlet presum- n. 1, in Ivi, p. 49. York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1961, ably had some prominence; the 38 Hofer was killed in 1810 and, lat- pp. 369-84; F. Trollope, Vienna extant copy in the Bavarian State er, his rebellion was coopted into and the Austrians; with Some Ac- Library was presented as a «pres- the national myth of the ‘Libera- count of a Journey through Swabia, ent of His Majesty the King Lud- tion Wars’ (Befreiungskriege) that Bavaria, the Tyrol and Salzbourg, wig I, from His Highness’ Private became something akin to the London, R. Bentley, 1838, p. 42; Library». proto-foundational legend of the W.L. Wekherlin, Anselmus Rabio- 33 Ashton, The Kingdom of Württem- united German nation. None of sus Reise durch Oberdeutschland, berg, cit., p. 66. Schelling had this should distract from the fact Salzburg, 1778, p. 56. also been a student at Tübingen, that Hofer’s guerrillas fought spe- 24 J. and W. Grimm, Kinder- und receiving his doctorate there cifically against Bavaria, in favour Hausmärchen, vol. III, Göttingen, in 1795. He was never a profes- of Tyrolean rights. Dieterische Buchhandlung, 1843, sor there, though in 1810 he did 39 Wangenheim, Die Idee der Staats- pp. 185-8. arrive in Stuttgart to give some verfassung cit., p. vii. 25 F. Nicolai, Unter Bayern und lectures. At the time Wangen- 40 D. Langewiesche, Magna Charta Schwaben: Meine Reise im deut- heim was chancellor at Tübingen, der Württemberger — vom Kampf schen Süden 1781, Stuttgart and however, Schelling was based in ums alte gute Recht zur geschichtli- Vienna, Erdmann, 1989, pp. 166- Munich. chen Erinnerungsformel, in Adriani 7. 34 K.A. von Wangenheim, Die Idee and Schmauder (eds), 1514 cit., 26 Ibidem. Ulm became a Württem- der Staatsverfassung in ihrer An- pp. 477-8. berg city after Friedrich’s alliance wendung auf Wirtembergs alte 41 Ashton, The Kingdom of Württem- with Napoleon. Nicolai could Landesverfassung und den Entwurf berg cit., p. 39. contrast it unfavourably with zu deren Erneuerung, Frankfurt/ 42 D. Krämer, «Menschen grasten Württemberg as a whole because, Main, Bernard Körner, 1815, p. nun mit dem Vieh»: Die letzte gro- at the time of his travels, it was an 68. ße Hungerkrise der Schweiz 1816/17, imperial free city. 35 Ivi, p. 21. Basel, Schwabe, 2015, pp. 46-7. 27 M. Fulbrook, Piety and Politics: 36 L. Uhland, «Das alte, gute 43 King Wilhelm I. of Württemberg, Religion and the Rise of Absolutism Recht», Vaterländische Gedich- I. Edikt, mehrfache Änderung- in England, Württemberg and te n. 2, in Ludwig Uhlands Ge- en im Abgabenwesen betreffend, Prussia, Cambridge, Cambridge dichte, Stuttgart, Verlag der J.G. Stuttgart, 18 November 1817, in University Press, 1983, p. 67. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1867, Königlich Württembergische Staats- See also F.L. Carsten, Princes and p. 50. The same sentiments are und Regierungsblatt, 1817; Walter Parliaments in Germany: From the expressed in other Vaterländische Grube, Der Stuttgarter Landtag Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century, Gedichte, most notably «Würt- 1457-1957. Von den Landständen Oxford, Clarendon, 1959, p. 5. temberg» and «Gespräch» (Va- zum demokratischen Parlament, 28 Nicolai, Unter Bayern und Schwa- terländische Gedichte n. 3 and n. Stuttgart, Ernst Klett, 1957, p. 511. ben cit., pp. 166-7. 4, in Ivi pp. 50-1). Of note, too, 44 All references to the Ludwigs- 29 I.F. McNeely, The Emancipation is the fact that Uhland referred burg Constitution relate to: of Writing: German Civil Society in to the traditional balance as the Verfassungsurkunde für das Kön- the Making, 1790s-1820s, Berkeley, «old good law», rather than igreich Württemberg 25. September University of California Press, the more linguistically sound 1819, reproduced at Universität 2003, pp. 96-7. «good old law». This suggests Würzburg,
158 Ashton
eines deutschen Landtags, Düssel- Eine Dokumentation zur Überwa- Peace. A Philosophical Sketch, in dorf, Droste, 1987, p. 31. chung der Öffentlichkeit nach der H.S. Reiss (ed.), Kant Political 47 P. Sauer, Reformer auf dem Königs- Revolution von 1848/49, Tübingen, Writings, Cambridge, Cambridge thron: Wilhelm I. von Württemberg, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1983, p. University Press, 20162, p. 99; Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-An- 210. Novalis. Glauben und Liebe, oder stalt, 1997, pp. 180-2. 59 It is difficult to trace the origins of Der König und die Königin (1798); 48 Nicolai, Unter Bayern und Schwa- this ‘republic = freedom’ model of En. tr. Faith and Love or The King ben cit., p. 169. political paradigm, though by the and Queen, in M.M. Stoljar (ed.), 49 L.E. Lee, Liberal Constitution- time of the Interior Ministry re- Novalis Philosophical Writings, alism as Administrative Reform: port the terms had largely become Albany, State University of New The Baden Constitution of 1818, in synonymous through usage. In York Press, 1997, p. 89. «Central European History», n. literary-philosophical circles, the 60 Robert von Mohl, Die Geschichte 2, 1975, pp. 91-2. As Lee points link was implied on many occa- der württembergischen Verfassung out, this was perhaps even more sions by Friedrich Schiller, most von 1819, in «Zeitschrift für die pressing than in the Württemberg notably in his second play, Die gesamte Staatswissenschaft», n. example, since Badenese territo- Verschwörung des Fiesko zu Genua 1, 1850, pp. 47-51. ry had quadrupled by virtue of the (1783). Frederick Beiser has ar- 61 It was also at this point that Wil- state’s ties to Napoleon. gued that Schiller’s On the Aesthet- helm suspended the constitution. 50 Ashton, The Kingdom of Württem- ic Education of Man (1795), which However, this was only ever in- berg cit., pp. 78-9. he himself described as an ‘ana- tended as a temporary means in 51 Sheehan, German History 1770- lytic of the beautiful’, can only be view of the extant state of emer- 1866 cit., p. 407. Cf. also Ashton, properly understood as a political gency at the time. This can also The Kingdom of Württemberg cit., treatise rather than aesthetic one, be seen by the fact that Wilhelm’s pp. 43-4. within the republican tradition other actions at the time still re- 52 In fact, there were only three of the French political philoso- flected a commitment to liberal- during the 1831 election to the phers Jean Jacques Rousseau and ism. Landtag — the subject of Dis- Charles-Louis de Montesquieu. 62 Strauß, in fact, condemned St- browe’s report. Edward Cromwell More explicitly, the link was ruve’s actions as endangering the Disbrowe to Palmerston, n. 8, identified by Immanuel Kant in wellbeing of the Badenese popu- Stuttgart, 15 February 1832. FO his 1795 essay Zum Ewigen Frieden, lation. Schwäbische Kronik, n. 109, 82/ 26. and later by Friedrich von Hard- 19 April 1848. 53 Ashton, The Kingdom of Württem- enberg (Novalis) in his 1798 col- 63 B. Mann, Die Württemberger und berg cit., p. 76. lection of fragments, Glauben und die deutsche Nationalversamm- 54 Augustus Loftus to Palmerston, Liebe, oder Der König und die Köni- lung 1848/49, Düsseldorf, Droste, n. 6, Stuttgart, 5 May 1847, in gin. In the former, Kant defines 1975, pp. 399-409. Markus Mösslang, Sabine Freitag, republican constitutionalism 64 Staats-Anzeiger für Württemberg, n. and Peter Wende (eds.), British as ‘firstly, the principle offree - 167, 14 July 1850; Staats-Anzeiger Envoys to Germany, vol. 2, Cam- dom for all members of a society für Württemberg, n. 40-41, 15-16 bridge, Cambridge University […]; secondly, the principle of February 1850; Staats-Anzeiger für Press, 2002, p. 403. the dependence of everyone upon Württemberg, n. 296, 14 December 55 The edition used here is the same a single common legislation (as 1861. document, albeit printed in En- subjects); and thirdly, the prin- 65 P.J. Siebenpfeiffer, in Die Bote aus gland the following year. F.L. ciple of legal equality for everyone Westen, 19 February 1832. Lindner [G. Erichson], Manu- (as citizens).’ Novalis agreed with 66 K.J. Weber, Reise durch das König- skript aus Süd-Deutschland, Lon- Kant that monarchical rule was reich Württemberg, Stuttgart, J.F. don, James Griphi, 1821. not incompatible with republi- Steinkopf Verlag, 1978, p. 144. 56 F.L. Lindner [K.H. Kollmanner], canism and, in fact, that the legit- Ueber die gegenwärtige Lage von Eu- imacy of a king would be marked ropa, Frankfurt/Main and Leipzig, by the fact that his society would Friedrich Ludwig Lindner, 1821. be republican: ‘The true king will 57 Lindner [Erichson], Manuskript be a republic, the true republic a cit., pp. 236, 256-7. king.’ F. Beiser, Schiller as Philos- 58 Ministerium des Innern opher: A Re-Examination, Oxford, (Württemberg), Wochenbericht, Clarendon, 2008, particularly Stuttgart, 24 November 1851, in ch. 4, pp. 119-68; I. Kant, Zum Wolfram Siemann (ed. by), Der ewigen Frieden. Ein philosophischer Polizeiverein deutscher Staaten: Entwurf (1795); En. tr. Perpetual
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