Revolutions of 1848 in The German States - The Rhineland or Rhenish Prussia

The Rhineland or Rhenish Prussia

The Rhineland shares a common history with the Rhenish Hesse, Luxembourg and the Palatinate in that in 1795 these areas came under the control of Napoleonic France. Napoleon's armies smashed armies of the Holy Roman Empire and then the social, administrative and legislative measures taken by Napoleon in the area smashed the feudal rule that the priests and the nobility had exercised over the area previously. The soil of the Rhineland is not the best for agriculture. Forestry has traditionally been a strong industry in the Rhineland. Thus, the combination of the lack of good agriculture and the early elimination of the feudal structure and the fact that a logging industry was traditionally strong in the Rhineland meant that industrialization was destined to come to the Rhineland. Additionally, the close proximity of coal in the Mark and fact that the Rhine River was excellent for transportation to the North Sea meant that the west bank of the Rhine River in the Rhineland became the premier industrial area in Germany in the nineteenth century. Thus by 1848, the towns of Aachen, Cologne and Düsseldorf were heavily industrialized with a number of different industries represented. The impact of industrialization on the Rhineland was quick and quite thorough. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, over the 90% of the population of the Rhineland was engaged in agriculture however by 1933 only 12% was still involve in agricultural occupations. Accordingly in 1848, there was a large proletarian class in the Rhineland and because of the influence of Napoleonic France they were educated and politically active. While in other German states the liberal petty bourgeoisie led the uprisings of 1848, in the Rhineland the proletariat was already aserting its interests openly against the bourgeoisie as early as 1840.

In 1848, Prussia controlled the Rhineland as part of "West Prussia." Prussian holdings in the Rhineland had first been acquired in 1614. During the Napoleonic Era, as noted above, the Rhineland west of the Rhine River was incorporated into France and feudal structures were crushed. However, following the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the west bank of the Rhineland was given over to Prussia. Prussia treated the Rhinelanders as subjugated and alien peoples and began to reinstate the hated feudal structures again. Accordingly, much of the revolutionary impulse in the Rhineland in 1848 was colored by a strong anti-Prussian feeling. However, as Prussians the Rhinelanders took careful note of the announcement by King Frederick William IV on March 18, 1848 in Berlin that a United Diet would be formed and that other democratic reforms would be instituted. Elections for the United Diet were indirect. Electors were elected by universal male suffrage and it was these electors that would choose the members of the United Diet. The Rhinelanders remained hopeful regarding this progress and did not participate in the early round of uprisings that were occurring in other parts of Germany.

The Prussian government mistaked this quietude in the Rhineland for loyalty to the autocratic Prussian government. The Prussian government began offering military assistance to other states in suppressing the revolts in their territories and cities, i.e. Dresden, the Palatinate, Baden, Wűrttemberg, Franconia, etc. Soon however, the Prussians discovered that they needed additional troops in this effort. Presuming on the loyalty of the Rhineland, in the spring of 1849, the Prussian government called up a large portion of the army reserve—the Landwehr in Westphalia and the Rhineland. This cause a reaction in the Rhineland, because the order to call up the Landwehr affected all males under the age of 40 year and because the call up was to be done only in time of war and to order the call up in peacetime was illegal. The Prussian King also dissolved the Second Chamber of the United Diet because on March 27, 1849 that chamber passed a version of the Constitution which the King disliked. The entire citizenry of the Rhineland, including the petty bourgeoisie, the bigger bourgeoisie and the proletariat, rose up to protect the political reforms that they felt were slipping away.

On May 9, 1849, uprisings occurred in the Rhenish towns of Elberfeld, Düsseldorf, Iserlohn and Solingen. However, the uprising that broke out in Düsseldorf was suppressed the following day on May 10, 1849. In the town of Elberfeld, the uprising showed strength and endurance as 15,000 workers took to the streets and erected barricades and confronted the Prussian troops that were sent to suppress the unrest and to collect quota of Landwehr conscripts from the town. In the end only about 40 conscripts for the Landwehr were collected in the town of Elberfeld. A Committee of Public Safety was formed in Elberfeld to organize the citizens who were now in revolt. Members of the Committee of Public Safety included Karl Nickolaus Riotte, a democrat and a lawyer in Elberfeld; Ernst Hermann Höchster another lawyer and democrat, who became chairman of the Committee, and even Alexis Heintzmann, a lawyer and a liberal who was also the public prosecutor in Elberfeld. Members of the Palatinate provisional government included Nikolaus Schmitt, serving as Minister of the Interior, and Theodor Ludwig Greiner. Karl Hecker, Franz Heinrch Zitz and Ludwig Blenker were among the other of the leaders of the Elberfeld uprising. The members of the Committee for Public Safety could not agree on a common plan, let alone control the various groups that were participating in the uprising. The now awakened working classes were pursuing their goals with single minded determination. However, citizen-military forces sprung up to support the uprising. Military leaders of these military forces included August Willich and Feliks Trociński and Captain Christian Zinn On May 17 through 18, 1849, a group of workers and democrats from Trier and neighboring townships stormed the arsenal at Prüm to obtain arms for the insurgents of the uprising. Workers from Solingen stormed the arsenal at Gräfrath and obtained arms and cartidges for the insurgents. (As noted above under the heading on "The Palatinate" Frederick Engels played a role in the uprising in Elberfeld from May 11, 1849 until the end of the revolt. On May 10, 1849, he was in Solingen and making his way toward Elberfeld. Along the way. Engels carried two cases of cartridges that had been obtained from the arsenal at Gräfrath.)

The sight of working classes carrying out these military actions scared the big bourgeoisie. They began to separate themselves from the whole movement for constitutional reform and the Elberfeld Committee of Public Safety. They began to label Karl Hecker, Ernst Höchster, Karl Riotte and even public prosecutor, Alexis Heintzmann as bloodthirsty terrorists. In actuality, these members of the Committed of Public Safety, as members of the petty bourgeoisie were starting vacillate. Rather than seeking to organize and direct the various factions of the protest activity, the Committee of Public Safety began to disassociate itself from the revolutionary movement and especially those actions that were destructive of property. The whole goal of the Committee of Public Safety became one of trying to calm the reformist movement and quell the demonstrations.