The New German Constitution

by René Brunet

It was above all the question of the Rhineland. Through Trimborn, spokesman of the Centre, deputies of Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle, the inhabitants of the Rhine country presented their claims. Prussia, product of a political dynasty, is an aggregation of different races, for there is no Prussian nation. The people who live on the banks of the Rhine feel themselves handicapped in comparison with the other German races, since they are not in direct contact with the Reich, and are represented in it only through the medium of Prussia. It follows from this that the people of the Rhine cannot have free expression of their native tendencies nor develop their own culture. They suffer in every way by not having their own administration and by having to endure Prussian functionaries over them.

The objections which came from the Prussian side to the formation of a Rhine state were not valid, insisted the partisans of the latter. The separation of the Rhineland from Prussia need not entail in itself a separation from the Reich. On the contrary, the Rhineland would be more solidly and intimately welded to the Reich if they belonged to it directly instead of being only part of Prussia. Nor would they admit the argument that the Rhineland should belong to Prussia to supplement economically the relatively poor Eastern provinces of Prussia. “The old cry of the poor East and the rich West is to-day dead,” the Rhinelanders insisted. War and revolution have done infinitely more damage to industrial Rhine than to the rural Eastern provinces. Finally, while it is possible that for a certain period, undoubtedly short, there might be disturbances in Germany caused by the creation of a new state, these would be less harmful than leaving on the Rhine a situation that would remain a permanent source of trouble. In conclusion, the representatives of the Rhineland demanded the creation of a Republic of the West, which should take in the provinces of the Rhine, a part of Westphalia and the territories of Oldenburg and Bremen.

On the other hand, the representatives of Hanover demanded justice against the violent annexation to which it had been subjected in 1866. There was formed in the Assembly a “German-Hanoverian” group which demanded “a free Hanover within a new Germany.” It involved the fusion of Lower Saxony with Hanover and Brunswick.

In the same way the small states of Central Germany wanted to fuse into a single state which would take in also part of the territory of Prussia and the region of Erfurt, and would form the state of Thuringia.

To these claims the representatives of Prussia, particularly the Prussian Minister of Justice, Heinze, and the German Nationalist, Düringer, replied, that the separatists were rats who were deserting a sinking ship; and they presented a vigorous defence of Prussia.

Firstly, they insisted, Prussia is no longer what it was before the Revolution. Formerly it was a powerful state enjoying all the advantages of hegemony and all the privileges which came from the fact that the German Emperor was the King of Prussia. To-day, said they, Prussia, whose military backbone is broken, finds itself economically and financially ruined and all its ancient prerogatives taken away. Furthermore, its former electoral system based on a class suffrage is gone and all the elements, including those of the Rhine, can make themselves equally felt thereafter.

Prussia as it now exists should be maintained, they went on. Its dismemberment would hurt the Reich more than it would serve it. Only powerful states, in command of important financial resources, can discharge the innumerable duties that to-day are incumbent on public organisms. Not only is Prussian culture necessary for the development of German culture, but the downfall of Prussia would involve the downfall of Germany; for Prussia is the cement that holds together the unity of the Reich, and renders services proportional to its greatness. Then, too, what would be the result of a dismemberment of Prussia? Aside from the fact that the advocates of dismemberment are absolutely unable to indicate the number and extent of the states into which they would carve Prussia, its parcelling out would involve a considerable loss in power and spirit, in time and in money. For each new state will want to have new administrative apparatus complete in every respect, a separate constitution, a separate parliament, a separate legislature, and so on. These states by reason of their weakness will be unable to discharge the obligations that would fall upon them. Still further, nothing was more illogical than to create new states if one wants to realize some day or other the unity of the Reich; for, each of these states will constitute later on just one more obstacle to such a unity.

Finally, said the Prussians, Prussia, which has already given all and sacrificed all to the greatness of the Empire, is ready to renounce still more, for the benefit of the Reich, what still remains of its independence, provided, that the other states do as much.

But it was precisely this demand that made the proposition impossible of acceptance by the others. In “sacrificing to the Reich all that remained” of the ancient rights of Prussia, the latter in reality sacrificed nothing; on the contrary, it gained a great deal. For, mistress of the Reich as it would be, it would secure thereby not only everything it brought to it, but also all that the other states contributed to it. It was thus, therefore, that Preuss always came back to the same dilemma: either a Germany under Prussian hegemony or a Prussia dissolved into the Reich.