The provisional constitution adopted at Weimar in February, 1919, was naturally only a makeshift. It contained but ten paragraphs, furnishing the barest outline for the organization of the new state. Its basis was a draft of a proposed constitution made by Dr. Hugo Preuss, a leading authority on constitutional law, who had been appointed Minister of the Interior. This draft was published on January 20th. More than a hundred representatives of the various German states met in the Department of the Interior at Berlin on January 25th to consider it. This conference appointed a commission from its number, which was in session for the next five days in Berlin and then adjourned to Weimar, where it finished the draft of the provisional constitution.
Even the short period intervening between the first publication of the Preuss draft and its submission to the National Assembly had sufficed to bring about one important and significant development. Preuss himself was an advocate of the so-called Einheitsstaat, a single state on the French plan, divided into departments merely for administrative purposes. Many of his friends of the German Democratic Party and all Socialists also wanted to do away with the separate states, both for doctrinal and selfish partisan reasons. Preuss realized from the beginning the impossibility of attaining his ideal completely, but he endeavored to pave the way by a dismemberment of Prussia, the largest and dominant German state, and by doing away completely with several of the smaller states, such as Anhalt, Oldenburg, etc. His constitutional draft of January proposed the creation of sixteen "territories of the state" (Gebiete des Reichs): Prussia (consisting of East Prussia, West Prussia, and Bromberg), Silesia, Brandenburg, Berlin, Lower Saxony, the three Hansa cities (Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck), Upper Saxony, Thuringia, Westphalia, Hesse, the Rhineland, Bavaria, Baden, Wurtemberg, German-Austria, and Vienna.
It became quickly apparent that Preuss and his followers had underestimated the strength of the particularistic, localized patriotism and respect for tradition cherished by a great part of the Germans. Not only were the South Germans aroused to opposition by the implied threat of a possible eventual onslaught on their own state boundaries, but the great majority of the Prussians as well protested mightily against the proposed dismemberment of Prussia. The unitarians saw themselves compelled to yield even in the temporary constitution by inserting a provision that "the territory of the free states can be altered only with their consent." The plan to reduce the states to mere governmental departments was thus already defeated.
With the erection by the National Assembly of the Staatenausschuss, or Committee of the States, [67] the draft of the constitution was laid before that body for further consideration. On February 21st the committee submitted the result of its deliberations to the National Assembly, which referred it in turn to a special committee of twenty-eight members, whose chairman was Conrad Haussmann, a member of the German Democratic Party.
[ [67] Vide p. 245.
The National Assembly began the second reading of the constitution on July 2d and finished it on July 22d. The third reading began on July 29th. This brought a number of important changes, one of which is of deep significance as indicating the extent to which the members of the National Assembly had already succeeded in freeing themselves from the hysterical mode of thinking induced by the immediate revolutionary period. All drafts of the constitution up to that date had provided that no member of a former reigning house in Germany should be eligible to the Presidency. This provision was stricken out on third reading.
The constitution was finally adopted on July 31, 1919, by a vote of 262 ayes to 75 nayes. The negative votes were cast by the German National People's Party, the German People's Party, the Bavarian Peasants' League, and one member of the Bavarian People's Party (Dr. Heim). The constitution was signed by President Ebert and the ministry at Schwarzburg on August 11th, and went into effect three days later. On this date the imperial constitution of April 16, 1871, several paragraphs of which were still in effect under the provisional constitution of February, 1919, ceased to exist.
The Weimar constitution consists of two "main divisions." The first, dealing with the construction of the state, is divided into seven sections, which are subdivided into 108 articles. The second main division, dealing with "fundamental rights and fundamental duties of the Germans," has five sections, with 57 articles.
A comparison of the preambles of the old and new constitutions indicates the different point of view from which they were approached. The constitution of 1871 began:
"His Majesty the King of Prussia, in the name of the North German Federation, His Majesty the King of Bavaria, His Majesty the King of Wurtemberg, His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Baden, and His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Hesse and on the Rhine, for those parts of the Grand Duchy of Hesse situated south of the Main, form an everlasting federation for the protection of the territory of the federation and of the right prevailing within its borders, as well as for the furtherance of the welfare of the German people."