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Special pages :
The New Prussian Constitution, May 1849
First published: in Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 297, May 13, 1849.
Cologne, May 12. In November of last year, after the dispersal of the peopleâs representatives, the Potsdam member of the Trinity,[1] blessed by divine grace and the state of siege, imposed a Constitution which was to be revised by the Chambers soon to be convened. As we know, the new representatives of the people suffered a fate similar to that of the old ones; the latter were dispersed by Wrangelâs bayonets, the former received from Manteuffel a simple little notice of dissolution [2] ordering them to go home. That put an end, too, to the revision of the Constitution.
Thus the Christian-Germanic sovereign and his accomplices, the whole host of lay-abouts, parasites and vampires sucking the blood of the people, whether of high-born lineage or without ancestry, whether decorated with orders or undecorated, have acquired free scope for planting whatever kind of fruit they like.
In November of last year, the royalty, bureaucracy and Junkers were still compelled to use various hypocritical statements and to accept articles of the Constitution which seemed very liberal. The November Constitution had to be framed in a way that would make it possible to ensnare the numerically large, stupid part of the so-called âPrussian peopleâ.
Now all such subtle diplomatic considerations have become superfluous. Is not brother-in-law Nicholas already on German soil with 20,000 men? Has not Dresden been demolished by artillery shelling? Does there not exist the closest alliance of Prussia with the cowardly fugitive in KĂśnigstein, with imperial Max in Munich, [3] with the bulldog Ernest Augustus of Hanover, with the whole counter-revolutionary gang inside and outside Germany?
Certainly, this moment has been used by the Hohenzollern to the best advantage. He had a new Constitution drawn up for his âbelovedâ subjects, and he sanctioned and imposed it in Charlottenburg on May 10.
The latest royal-Prussian Constitution, the only one sincerely intended, which also has the advantage over the November Constitution of consisting of only seventeen paragraphs, reads as follows: .... [There followed the text of the decree of May 10 1849]
- â Marx has in mind the close bond between the three monarchs â the Prussian King, the Russian Tsar and the Austrian Emperor
- â The majority of the Prussian National Assembly which continued its sittings in Berlin despite the Kingâs order to transfer the Assembly to Brandenburg was dispersed by General Wrangelâs troops on November 15, 1848. The Second Chamber was dissolved on April 27, 1849
the Prussian Government dissolved the Second Chamber because, at its sitting on April 2 1, it had approved the imperial Constitution drawn up by the Frankfurt National Assembly. The Chamber took this resolution on the initiative of the opposition deputies, in spite of the head of the Governmentâs statement that the King had definitely decided to reject the imperial Constitution.
On the basis of the Brandenburg-Manteuffel Governmentâs memorandum, sanctioned by the King - â The Saxon King Friedrich Augustus 11 found refuge in the fortress of K5nigstein to which he fled from Dresden during the uprising in May 1849. Imperial Max in Munich â King of Bavaria, Maximilian II, nominated by certain deputies of the Frankfurt National Assembly for German emperorship