The Frankfurt Parliament

• Meeting of 6 states in Heidelberg called for a Vorparliament of all 39 states to meet in Frankfurt


  Mar. 1848
• Frankfurt Parliament met to draw up a constitution for a united Germany


  May
• Almost all the 596 delegates were university educated middle class liberals
• Only 15% favoured radical republicanism; the majority preferred constitutional monarchy
• The Frankfurt Parliament was already unrepresentative of society (1 peasant, 4 craftsmen)
• The Frankfurt Parliament lost the support of urban workers by rejecting the Artisan Congress' Industrial Code because it was protectionist in nature
• The Frankfurt Parliament abandoned German speaking rebels in Schleswig-Holstein in their fight against the Danish King by signing the Treaty of Malmo


  Sept.
• The Frankfurt Parliament's inability to defend German interests resulted in a radical nationalist mob attacking the Parliament (60 dead, 2 delegates lynched)
• The Frankfurt Parliament did agree in Dec. the Fifty Articles guaranteeing basic freedoms
• Division between liberal factions (conservatives met in Café Milani, moderates in the Casino, radicals in Donnesberg) and weak leadership from Archduke John & President Heinrich von Gagern meant progress was slow
• The Frankfurt Parliament's plan for Grossdeutschland unity was rejected by Austria in Oct.
• The Paulskirche Constitution (eventually published in Mar. 1849) was only accepted by 28 out of 39 states weakening its authority
• The role of constitutional kleindeutsch monarch was rejected by Frederick William IV ('A crown from the gutter') destroying the Parliament's credibility
• 400 delegates went home and the remaining 150 were forcibly driven out by conservative troops in June 1849