Room 8c

PROCLAMATION OF THE EMPIRE IN TIME OF WAR - VERSAILLES

This imperial delivery was a difficult one, and in such times kings like women have their strange cravings before they bring into the world what they cannot keep in any case. As a midwife, I had the urgent necd several times to explode like a bomb so that the entire building would have been reduced to ruins.

Thus complained Bismarck to his wife in a letter dated 21 January 1071 about the difficulties he had to endure until the proclamation of the German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles on lo January. After the treaties had been concluded and ratified with the southern German states, Bismarck's goal of a unified empire had been achieved. The separate states had at first agreed on the term "German Federation" for the state as a whole and on "Federal Presidency" for the supreme federal executive authority. But Bismarck wanted to create a special symbol of the unity of the empire by restoring the rank of "German Emperor." King William initially refused to accept this title, which was the only one provided for by the constitution. He wanted to be "Emperor of Germany" in order to make the increase in the power of the House of Hohenzollern clear to all the world. Pressured by Bismarck, however, he yielded to the exigencies of reality. The situation at Versailles on 18 January 1871 was saved by the Grand Duke of Baden when he proclaimed "Long live Emperor William!"

In the heart of defeated France, in the circle of military officers, courtiers, and diplomats, the German princes celebrated the unification of Germany, which now excluded Austria. The public, above all the representatives of the people, were pushed aside by the posturing of the dynastic state, the self-aggrandizement of which was later stylized as a national holiday. For all the joy over what had been achieved, even one of the royal participants was unable to hide his disquiet. As Prince Otto of Bavaria described the ceremony to his brother, King Louis of Bavaria: "Everything was so cold, so proud, so glittering, so showy and swaggering and heartless and empty."

Since the outbreak of the war, Bismarck had been willing to concede particularist prerogatives to the southern states of Bavaria and Württemberg in the negotiations over unification. On 13 September 1870 he had the president of the Federal chancellory, Rudolf Delbrück, formulate a memorandum outlining the constitutional basis for the future arrangements in Germany.

It would thus be a German Empire consisting of the North German Confederation and the southern German states for the purpose of protecting Germany and pursuing the interests of the German people, [and would be] vested with legislative and supervisory authority over land forces and sea power; customs, excise taxes, and shipping duties; the system of measures, weights, and coinage; railroads; commercial laws, international exchange, and consular rights; and the protection of German foreign trade.

The newly founded German Empire consisted of twenty-five federal states: four kingdoms, six grand duchies, five duchies, seven principalities, and three free cities. Like the German Empire, most of the federal states were constitutional monarchies. The three Hanseatic city republics were the only exceptions, along with both Mecklenburg grand duchies, which retained their sixteenth-century constitutions with the assemblies of the estates provided for therein. Eight separate states had universal equal manhood suffrage, as did the national parliament, the Reichstag. Eleven states had franchises based on a class system. The "Law Regarding the Constitution of the German Empire," promulgated by the emperor on 16 April 1871, took effect on 4 May 1871 with the acceptance of the terms "emperor" and "empire." Alsace and parts of Lorraine, which had been ceded to Germany in the peace preliminaries at Versailles on 26 February 1871, became an imperial territory (Reichsland) of the German Empire on 3 June 1871. The peace preliminaries signed in Versailles were confirmed in the Treaty of Frankfurt on 10 May 1871. Elections for the first Reichstag took place on 3 March 1871, the day on which the peace preliminaries ending the Franco-Prussian War were signed. The Free Conservatives and the two right-of-center liberal factions received a slim majority 192 of 382 seats.

The sharp-tongued chronicler of the German Empire, Baroness von Spitzemberg, condemned the gifts distributed by the emperor on 2 March 1872 to military leaders and army organizers, who were rewarded with sums of up to 300,000 talers for their achievements in the war against France.

Extending these monetary rewards right down to individual generals and smaller sums has something undignified to my mind. One should give national awards on a grand scale to the two, three top figures, but not to every general who was just doing his duty.

Bismarck was generously compensated. William I elevated both him and his first-born son to the rank of a hereditary prince and endowed them with the Sachsenwald (near Hamburg, in the Duchy of Lauenburg) from the royal domains.

After the Treaty of Frankfurt had been concluded, Bismarck declared that Prussia, which had been expanded into the German Empire, was now "satiated" and henceforth would strive only to preserve the new status quo. The European public and the leading statesmen were not totally convinced bv this appraisal. The empire had to prove itself in Europe first.

Marie-Louise von Plessen