178 



GERMANY 



The Electoral College, which consisted of the archi- 

 episcopal electors of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne, 

 and the secular electors, of whom there were origin- 

 ally only four, but whose number was subsequently 

 increased to five, and who at the dissolution of the 

 empire were represented by the sovereigns of 

 Bohemia, Bavaria, Saxony, Brandenburg, and 

 Brunswick-Liineburg or Hanover (see ELECTORS). 

 (2) The College of the Princes of the Empire, who 

 had each a vote in the diet, and were divided into 

 spiritual and temporal princes. (3) The Free 

 Imperial Cities, which formed a college at the diet, 

 divided into two benches, the Rhenish with four- 

 teen cities, and the Swabian with thirty-seven ; 

 each of these had a vote. These colleges, each of 

 which voted separately, formed the diet of the 

 empire. When their respective decisions agreed, 

 the matter under discussion was submitted to the 

 emperor, who could refuse his ratification of the 

 decisions of the diet, although lie had no power 

 to modify them. Ordinary meetings were usually 

 summoned twice a year by the emperor, who speci- 

 fied the place at which the sittings were to be held ; 

 during the later periods of the empire they were 

 held at Regensburg ( Ratisbon ). The diet had the 

 right to enact, abrogate, or modify laws, conclude 

 peace and declare war, and impose taxes for the 



feneral expenses of the state. The Aulic Cham- 

 er, and the Cameral or chief tribunal of the 

 empire, decided in cases of dispute between mem- 

 bers of the diet. The emperors were chosen by the 

 electors in person or by their deputies ; and after 

 their election and coronation, which usually both 

 took place at Frankfort-on-the-Main, the emperor 

 swore to the ' capitulation ' or constitution of the 

 empire. After the dissolution of the empire in 

 1806, its place was nominally taken by the Con- 

 federation of the Rhine, which owed its existence 

 to Napoleon, and which lasted till 1815. 



Germanic Confederation. The Germanic Confed- 

 eration was established by an act of the Congress 

 of Vienna in 1815, on the overthrow of Napoleon. 

 It was an indissoluble union, from which no 

 single state could at its own pleasure retire. Its 

 central point and its executive and legislative 

 powers were represented by the federative diet, 

 which held its meetings at Frankfort-on-the- 

 Main, and was composed of delegates from all 

 the confederate states, chosen, not by the people, 

 but by the various governments. The diet delib- 

 erated either in a limited council (the Federative 

 government) or as a general assembly (Plenum). 

 In the limited council there were seventeen votes, 

 of which eleven of the principal states had each 

 one, while the remaining states divided the six 

 collective votes between them. The Plenum, 

 which met only when any organic change was to 

 be effected in the diet itself, embraced seventy 

 votes, of which Austria and the five German king- 

 doms had each four, while the other states had 

 three, two, or one vote each in proportion to their 

 individual importance. It rested with the limited 

 council, which executed the enactments of the 

 Plenum, and despatched the ordinary business of 

 the Confederation, to decide (by a majority of 

 voices ) whether a question should be submitted to 

 the Plenum, where it was not debated, but simply 

 decided by a majority of ayes or noes. Austria 

 presided in both assemblies, and had a casting 

 vote in cases of equality. The diet, as a collective 

 body, had the right of concluding peace and 

 alliances, and declaring war ; but this poAver could 

 only be exercised for the maintenance of the inde- 

 pendence and external security of Germany and 

 the individual integrity of the several federative 

 states, which on their part were bound to submit 

 to the diet the consideration of all questions in 

 dispute between themselves and other powers. 



Where such differences could not be settled by the 

 committee empowered by the Plenum to consider 

 them, they were finally referred to a special tri- 

 bunal known as the ' Austragal ' Court, which was. 

 composed of several members of the Confederation 

 invested for the time with full powers. From 1866 

 to 1871 the place of this Bund was held by the 

 North German Confederation, which is described 

 in the historical part of this article. 



Present German Empire. The seventy-ninth 

 article of the constitution of the North German 

 Confederation provided for the admission of the 

 South German states into the new Bund ; and the 

 war between France and Germany, which broke 

 out in July 1870, and in which all the German 

 princes and peoples took part, gave an irresistible 

 impetus to the desire for national unity. On the 

 15th November 1870 the grand-duchies of Baden 

 and Hesse joined the Bund ; Bavaria followed on 

 the 23d, and Wiirtemberg on the 25th of the same 

 month. Shortly after, the king of Bavaria wrote 

 a letter to the king of Prussia, urging him ta 

 re-establish the German empire. This brought 

 the question under the notice of the Bund ; and 

 on the 10th December 1870 it was agreed, by 188. 

 votes to 6, that the empire should be restored, and 

 that the king of Prussia should be acknowledged 

 hereditary German emperor. The latter solemnly 

 accepted the new dignity at Versailles, 18th Janu- 

 ary 1871. 



The constitution for the new empire was pro- 

 mulgated by an imperial decree of April 16, 1871, 

 and is contained in seventy-eight articles, under 

 fourteen sections. Alsace and Lorraine were 

 brought under its provisions from January 1, 1874. 

 The preamble expressly declares that all the states 

 of Germany form an eternal union for the protec- 

 tion of the territory of the Bund, and for the care 

 of the welfare of the German people. The empire 

 possesses the exclusive right of legislation on all 

 military and naval affairs ; on civil and criminal 

 law for general application ; on imperial finance 

 and commerce ; on posts, telegraphs, and railways 

 in so far as the interests of the national defence 

 and general trade are concerned. Wherever the 

 laws of the empire come into collision with those 

 of particular states of the Bund, the latter must be 

 held as abrogated ; and in all disputes that arise 

 among the individual states, the imperial jurisdic- 

 tion is supreme and final. 



There are two legislative bodies in the empire 

 the Bundesrath, or Federal Council, the members 

 of which are annually appointed by the govern- 

 ments of the various states ; and the Reichstag, 

 the members of which are elected by universal 

 suffrage and ballot for a period of three years. 

 The former deliberates on proposals to be sub- 

 mitted to the latter, and on the resolution* 

 received from it. A simple majority is sufficient 

 to carry a vote in the Bundesrath. Acting under 

 the direction of the chancellor of the empire, the 

 Bundesrath, in addition to its legislative functions, 

 represents also a supreme administrative and con- 

 sultative board, and, as such, has eleven standing 

 committees viz. for the army and fortresses ; 

 naval matters ; tariff, excise, and taxes ; trade 

 and commerce ; railways, posts, and telegraphs ; 

 civil and criminal law ; financial accounts ; foreign 

 affairs ; Alsace-Lorraine ; matters affecting the 

 constitution ; and the arrangement of business. 

 Each committee consists of representatives of at 

 least four states of the empire, besides the pre- 

 sident ; but the foreign affairs committee includes 

 the representatives of the kingdoms of Bavaria, 

 Saxony, and Wiirtemberg, and of two other statee 

 annually selected by the Bundesrath. 



The Reichstag contains approximately one mem- 

 ber for every 120,000 inhabitants ; in 1889 there 



