The Revolutionary Spring of 1848

Europe in 1848 was a continent ablaze with revolution. From Paris to Vienna, citizens rose against conservative monarchies, demanding constitutional reforms, national unification, and civil liberties. The German states, fragmented into 39 entities under the loose German Confederation, were no exception. On May 18, 1848, a historic gathering convened in Frankfurt’s St. Paul’s Church—the first freely elected all-German parliament, known as the Frankfurt National Assembly.

Composed predominantly of educated bourgeoisie—professors, lawyers, and civil servants—the assembly included luminaries like Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (father of German gymnastics), poet Ludwig Uhland, and four of the famed “Göttingen Seven” professors who had protested Hanover’s absolutism in 1837. Though often mislabeled a “professors’ parliament,” its 585 delegates (49 university professors, 157 judges, and 66 lawyers) reflected the liberal middle class’s aspirations, with workers conspicuously absent.

The Constitutional Dream and Its Challenges

The assembly’s primary mission was drafting a constitution for a unified Germany. On June 28, it took the bold step of establishing a provisional central authority, appointing Archduke Johann of Austria as imperial regent. However, this “central power” lacked real authority, relying on Prussia and other states’ cooperation—a weakness exposed during the Schleswig-Holstein crisis.

When Prussia, under international pressure, signed the August 26 Malmö Armistice with Denmark, abandoning German claims to Schleswig, public outrage erupted. The Frankfurt Assembly initially rejected the treaty (September 5) but, facing Prussia’s defiance, reversed its decision on September 16. This capitulation sparked riots; two conservative delegates were lynched in Frankfurt, and radical uprisings flared in Baden and Cologne.

The Clash of Visions: Großdeutschland vs. Kleindeutschland

By October 1848, the assembly faced its defining dilemma: should a unified Germany include Austria (“Großdeutschland”) or exclude it, led by Prussia (“Kleindeutschland”)? The “Great German” solution, favored by Catholics and democrats, required dissolving Austria’s multi-ethnic empire—a prospect Vienna rejected. Meanwhile, Heinrich von Gagern, the assembly’s president, championed a compromise: a Prussian-led Germany allied with Austria.

Austria’s counterstroke came in March 1849. Minister-President Felix Schwarzenberg demanded Habsburg dominance over a broader Germanic federation, prompting the assembly to pivot decisively toward the “Little German” option. On March 28, 1849, the Frankfurt Constitution was adopted, offering the imperial crown to Prussia’s Frederick William IV.

The King’s Refusal and the Revolution’s Collapse

Frederick William’s rejection of the “crown from the gutter” (April 28, 1849) doomed the constitution. Prussia, Saxony, and Hanover recalled their delegates, while radical “rump parliaments” in Stuttgart were dispersed by troops. The final uprising—the May 1849 “Imperial Constitution Campaign”—saw brief republics in Dresden, the Palatinate, and Baden, crushed by Prussian forces. By July, the revolution was extinguished.

Legacy: The Unfinished Blueprint for German Democracy

Though the Frankfurt Parliament failed, its ideals endured. The 1849 constitution—enshrining equality, parliamentary government, and direct suffrage—became a model for future German democrats. Its unresolved tensions between liberalism and monarchy, federalism and centralization, echoed in Bismarck’s empire and the Weimar Republic.

For modern Germany, the revolution remains a poignant “what if”—a democratic road not taken, yet one that laid the groundwork for the nation’s eventual unification in 1871 and its postwar democratic rebirth. As historian Friedrich Engels (a participant in the Baden revolt) later reflected, 1848 was not an endpoint, but a prologue to Europe’s democratic struggles.

The Frankfurt Assembly’s true legacy lies not in its collapse, but in its audacity: the first attempt to forge a united Germany not by dynastic decree, but by the will of its people.