Title: Germany revolution 1848 - Frankfurt Vorparlament - German National Assembly
Headings: The German revolution 1848
Frankfurt Parliament - German National Assembly

The German revolution 1848
Frankfurt Parliament - German National Assembly
The revolutionism of 1848 - in Germany
The German Lands
and central Europe
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Content: Germany revolution 1848 - Frankfurt Vorparlament - German National Assembly
The German revolution 1848
Frankfurt Parliament - German National Assembly
The revolutionism of 1848 - in Germany
In 1848 the many, locally fully sovereign states - Empires, Kingdoms, Grand-Duchies, Duchies, Free Cities etc., - involved in the German Confederation were directly descended from the terms of settlement agreed at the Congress of Vienna held in 1815 at the close of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Early in 1848 several outbreaks of revolution had caused the French King Louis Philippe to abdicate (24th February) and Metternich, the chief minister of the Habsburg Monarchy and architect of a system of restored monarchical government in Europe since before the fall of Napoleon (1815), lost the confidence of the Habsburg ruling family and was driven into exile. In these times in the diverse states of the Germanies several rulers were faced with respectful, yet determined, demands for change and, starting with Baden in early March, moved to award Constitutions or to allow liberalisation of existing Constitutions. The powerful north german Kingdom of Prussia was then ruled by King Frederick William IV who was determindly anti-liberal in outlook. During the inaugurating ceremonies to an 'United Diet' of his territories that had been  called in the spring of 1847 in order to gain formal consent for the raising of new taxes and the raising of a state loan in relation to unprecedented spending on railway construction, (and was the first such assembly of representatives from all the provinces of Prussia that any Prussian monarch had been prepared to recognise), King Frederick William IV had said that:-
"There is no power on earth that can succeed in making me transform the natural relationship between prince and  people ... into a constitutional relationship, and I never will permit a written sheet of paper to come between  our God in heaven and this land ... to rule us with  its paragraphs and supplant the old, sacred loyalty." In the closing sections of this inaugural address Frederick William that the United Diet would only be reconvened if it showed itself to be "good and useful, and if  this Diet offers me proof that I can do so without injuring the rights of the crown." The turbulences of 1848, however, spread to Berlin and after an incident precipitated street fighting the King withdrew his soldiers rather than see even more fatalities amongst his "beloved Berliners" and was subsequently  called upon by the populace on the 19th to stand bareheaded whilst the earthly remains  of those Berliners killed in the street fighting were paraded with their wounds exposed. The King formalised a change in political direction through the appointment of a new ministry and proclamation issued on the morning of the 21st offered official recognition to the emergence of a single German nation. It was announced that the King had placed  himself at the head of the movement for the redemption of Germany and would appear on horseback that day in his  capital wearing the "venerable colours of the German Nation".