Otto Böckel (2 July 1859, Free City of Frankfurt – 17 September 1923, Michendorf ) was a German populist politician who became one of the first to successfully exploit antisemitism as a political issue in the country.
102-532: A native of the Free City of Frankfurt and a librarian by profession, he initially studied law at the University of Marburg but dropped it for Volkskunde and became a noted folklorist. He obtained his doctorate in 1882, having also studied at the University of Giessen , Heidelberg University and Leipzig University , with time also spent studying languages. Böckel witnessed the economic hardship of small farmers in
204-480: A ban on adding yellow food colouring to margarine, thus increasing the market for domestic butter. When the tariffs were raised in the Bülow tariff bill , the demand changed to defending the protectionist tariffs. BDL members, rural, conservative and generally Protestant, in general despised the immorality of city life, and often associated it with Jews. They believed that Jews were genetically incapable of farming. Within
306-406: A church to a parliament building in a rush. The walls and windows of the church were decorated with flags in the colours of black, red and gold, the pulpit was covered in a cloth, and the organ was hidden by a big curtain, which featured a painting by Philipp Veit depicting Germania , holding a flag and a sword. The figure was framed on either side with laurel wreaths and patriotic verses. A table for
408-580: A citywide community with one presbytery (Gemeindevorstand, comprising 36 elders), elected by the enfranchised parishioners, however, the voter turnout was always lower than 3% of the electorate. Only Frankfurt's five rural Lutheran congregations in Bonames , Bornheim , Hausen , Niederrad , Niederursel and Oberrad formed separate parishes. Since 1833 the executive board and the presbytery collaborated in appointing new pastors, forming permanent mixed bodies for this and other purposes since 1835. On 5 February 1857
510-541: A comment Böckel made that "the money-greedy capitalist, never mind whether Jew or non-Jew, is the destroying angel of our people" used by his critics to claim that he had abandoned antisemitism for socialism. He lost his seat in the 1903 election but returned in 1907 when the independent antisemites had an unexpected growth in support. However he had grown disillusioned with the democratic process, whilst his reputation had been damaged by fathering an illegitimate child, and he left politics in 1909. Having become reconciled to
612-504: A new law separated religion and state , thus the Lutheran consistory did not include senators of the city government any more. Already in 1851 the civil marriage had made a religious wedding a mere option, chosen by about half the couples. The city-area was newly divided into six parishes, each assigned to one of the six Lutheran churches, the rural congregations now also received elected bodies. The new church constitution remained untouched by
714-683: A technique later favoured by the Nazi Party . In 1893 the Antisemitische Volkspartei merged with Oswald Zimmermann 's followers under the name German Reform Party . However the Tivoli Congress killed off Böckel's political influence as the German Conservative Party adopted antisemitism and he rejected overtures from Theodor Fritsch to become part of a wider antisemitic coalition as he disliked Fritsch personally. Böckel
816-595: A troublesome conservative candidate, or throw its weight on a parliamentary vote over to the minority parties. However, the BDL's attempt to act independently of the Conservative Party did not always work. Thus in the Reichstag elections of 1903 the BDL attempted to run their own candidates, however only four were elected to the Reichstag. After this failure, Conservatives and the BDL recognized their need for each other, and there
918-477: Is paid to contribute to the salaries of the clergy at these churches. Other religious groups, such as Jews and Reformed Protestants were not part of that government funding. The deeds of dotation are until today binding law in Frankfurt. Unlike German area states Frankfurt's Lutheran state church had no parochial system territorially assigning parishioners to a particular church, but all Lutherans of Frankfurt formed
1020-599: The Polytechnische Gesellschaft [ de ] and the Physikalischen Verein [ de ] . In 1819 Freiherr vom Stein founded the Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica ). In 1825, municipal architect Johann Friedrich Christian Hess [ de ] built the representative city library. At the same time, the new construction of
1122-567: The Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft was developed at the Eschenheimer Turm . This is where Eduard Rüppell started his extended research expeditions to Africa. The Städelschule , which was opened in 1829, attracted renowned artists from all over Europe, among others Bertel Thorvaldsen , Philipp Veit , Eduard von Steinle and Moritz von Schwind . Civic foundations and clubs also fostered
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#17330861975131224-735: The Bundestag (officially called the Bundesversammlung , Federal Assembly) was located in the Palais Thurn und Taxis in Frankfurt's city centre. During the Revolutions of 1848 , the Frankfurt Parliament was formed in an attempt to unite the German states in a democratic manner. It was here that King Frederick William IV of Prussia refused the offer of the crown of " Little Germany ", because it
1326-527: The German National Association , founded in Frankfurt in 1859, there were also influential Frankfurters who believed in the "Prussian mission" to establish German unity. The movement's voice was the national-liberal Frankfurter Journal, which was subsidized by the Prussians. The Prussian consul general of Frankfurt was the highly respected banker Moritz von Bethmann , who had been one of the hosts of
1428-747: The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt . After the defeat of Napoleon and the collapse of the Confederation of the Rhine , Frankfurt was returned to its pre-Napoleonic constitution via the Congress of Vienna of 1815 and became a sovereign city-state and a member of the German Confederation . During the period of the German Confederation, Frankfurt continued to be a major city. The confederation's governing body,
1530-455: The Grand Duchy of Hesse and the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau . This had several causes, such as falling agrarian prices due to international competition, backward production methods, uneconomic division of farmland and the rural depopulation because of industrialization. However, Böckel concluded that the real cause behind this were Jewish merchants and profiteers who had a strong position in
1632-530: The Holy Roman Empire created by artists such as Philipp Veit , Alfred Rethel and Eduard von Steinle . An umbrella organization of Frankfurt's democratic clubs, the Montagskränzchen (lit: "Monday clubs"), had been meeting since the winter of 1845/46. In the early days of March 1848 the revolutionary spirit from France spilled over to Germany. Like everywhere else, the people of Frankfurt called for
1734-472: The Junkers from the east Elbe region, Saxony and Pommerania . Exemplifying this control was Conrad Freiherr (Baron) von Wangenheim, a Pommeranian with extensive estates, who was chairman from 1898 to 1920. Thus the organisation favored the landlord interests as well as playing up to the interests of the actual farmers. Both the landlords and the farmers felt the shifting of political and economic power away from
1836-585: The Lutheran Reformation to less than 100, increased anew over the years because of immigration . However, Catholics were excluded from the citizenship and any government office of the Free Imperial City, they only enjoyed unlimited staying permits. In the course of the German Mediatisation the city finally secularised and appropriated the remaining Catholic endowments, however, leaving
1938-487: The Mitteldeutscher Bauernverein , an antisemitic agrarian movement that counted as many as 15,000 members involved co-operative and banking schemes that purposefully sought to exclude Jews. His various movements provided an early entry to politics for later figures such as Heinrich Class . The youngest member of the Reichstag, he continued his populist appeals, holding mass torch-lit rallies of his followers,
2040-645: The deeds of dotation (Dotationsurkunden) fixing its long-lasting practice of owning and maintaining the church buildings in its old city centre (see so-called dotation churches ; Dotationskirchen), but leaving their usage to congregations of the Lutheran state church or parishes of the Catholic church. The deeds of dotation statutorily established the eternal gratuitous usufruct of nine city-owned church buildings by six Lutheran congregations, and three church buildings by three Catholic parishes. A further fixed sum, later not altered any more and thus irrelevantly low today,
2142-426: The state church , financially and administratively indissolvably intertwined with city budget and government. The Lutheran citizens and their siblings living within the city walls formed a uniform Lutheran congregation, while those Lutherans living in neighbouring villages in the countryside under city-state rule formed separate entities, administered by the city not by congregational bodies. All Lutheran churches within
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#17330861975132244-614: The Altstadt or old city of the Staufer era and the Neustadt or inner city founded in the 14th century. Both were located within the city's fortification built at the beginning of the 19th century on the shore of the Main river. It mostly consisted of the Staufer old town and the new town established in the 14th century. Both were situated within the former city's fortifications on the right waterside of
2346-430: The BDL programme. Contemporary critics claimed that this was an unconstitutional practice, but it wasn't legal challenged, and the loss of BDL support could be critical for a candidate. As the BDL was not a political party, they had representation in most of the parliamentary caucuses. After nearly every election there would be up to 100 Reichstag members who belonged to the BDL or were otherwise politically tied to them. In
2448-457: The BDL this anti-semitism served a unifying function to help bring together the divergent interests of the Junker landowners and Hessian peasants. This commonality allowed the BDL to form large voting blocks which helped sway many a rural election, using machine politics . As the BDL grew in strength, the Conservative Party depended upon them more and more for the defense of conservative positions in
2550-574: The Berlin Tivoli Brewery and was attended by some ten thousand people. It drew its support from the most Protestant areas of the empire, northern and central Germany, and particularly from Prussia. In May 1893, just three months after its establishment, it campaigned for farmers' rights and won over 140 of the deputies who were elected in July, or about one-third of the members of the Reichstag , including
2652-459: The Free City as a "liberal cesspit". German national consciousness grew throughout the 1840s: The sculptor Ludwig Schwanthaler created a Goethe monument in 1844 and the unveiling ceremony, for example, became a rallying point for nationalists as did a meeting of German Studies scholars in Frankfurt's city hall , which, just before this meeting, had been decorated with images of all 52 emperors of
2754-468: The Fürstentag. He later resigned his post in protest against Bismarck's policy. When the German war inevitably loomed in the early summer of 1866, the town remained loyal to the German Confederation, according to its motto "faith in federal law". On 14 June 1866, they voted for the confederate execution against Prussia, though at the same time declaring that it would not participate in the civil war. Still,
2856-552: The Jews and the big landowners. His election in Marburg , secured at the expense of a sitting German Conservative Party member, meant that he would be the youngest member of the body and helped to secure him the nickname of the 'peasant king'. Böckel also published his own newspaper, Reichsherold , which was anti-clerical , anti-capitalist and advocated some radical democratic ideals as well as being highly antisemitic. He sometimes wrote under
2958-560: The Journal de Francfort, published in French, and the Handelszeitung, established in 1856. In the satirical magazine Frankfurt Lantern, first published in 1860, editor Friedrich Stoltze criticized Bismarck's policy in increasingly harsh commentaries and caricatures. This led to Prussia issuing a warrant for Stoltze's arrest so that he was not able to leave his home town. However, in the sphere of
3060-522: The Lutheran and the Reformed churches of Frankfurt merged into a united administration called Konsistorialbezirk Frankfurt am Main (i.e. consistorial district of Frankfurt upon Main), with each congregation maintaining its preferred separate confession. The two consistories merged into one, now called royal consistory. Starting in 1906 church tax was levied from the church members. More congregations were founded since 1901 constructing their church buildings in
3162-426: The Main, which were established as ramparts at the beginning of the 19th century. Over 40000 inhabitants lived within an area of only approximately two square kilometres. This number advanced to 70000 inhabitants up until 1866. 5000 people, mostly craftsmen and bourgeois, were living in the also walled urban district Sachsenhausen on the left waterside of the Main. The area lying within a 3–4-kilometre radius outside of
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3264-673: The Middle Ages ;– called " Sperrbatzen ", which led to bloody fights (" Sperrbatzenkrawall ") in 1830 and 1831. During the years in which Frankfurt was a "Free City", the traditional Frankfurt Trade Fair was of little importance. Nevertheless, Frankfurt rose to be one of the major centres for trade and finances in Europe. The most important banking house in Frankfurt belonged to the Rothschild family , who established banking and finance houses all over Europe. The only other banking house that
3366-713: The North (Province Upper Hesse), the Electorate of Hesse (District of Hanau) to the North and East, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg to the Northwest and the Duchy of Nassau to the West. The territory of the Free City included the actual city of Frankfurt as the city district, eight villages that accounted to the rural district as well as the forest district. The urban district consisted mainly of
3468-462: The Prussian annexing power in 1866, however, the church became supervised by the Prussian ministry of cult and education, ending the separation of religion and state again. Since 1882 the consistorial president was appointed by the Prussian government. Despite the growing population in the 19th century the Lutheran church built the first additional church, Luther Church in Nordend , in 1892 only. In 1899
3570-418: The Prussian foreign minister Otto Theodor von Manteuffel : "Regarding the democratic spirit and turmoils within the population of the city and its neighbouring regions... I am sure that we will only be able to successfully face these threats by subjecting this particular part of Germany to a military dictatorship, without any consideration of judicial norms or the preservation of these." After years of conflict
3672-582: The Prussian parliament, the BDL could always rely on at least a third of the deputies. During World War I, the BDL, consistent with its conservative position, had expansive war aims. At the beginning of the Weimar Republic, it merged with the Deutscher Landbund (German Agricultural League) and others to form the Reichslandbund (RLB) (Reich Agricultural League)in 1921, which then further merged with
3774-400: The Reichstag and in regional assemblies. However, this dependence ultimately changed the character of the party. The goals of the old-time conservatives, empire and enforced morality, defense of "throne and altar", became less important, while higher income for agroproducers gained in importance. Sometimes conflicts arose between the BDL and the party, and the BDL would withdraw its support from
3876-547: The State, are subject to the supervision of the State and must not form a separate State within the State. This supervision was arranged by the Senate of Frankfurt, which re-established the previously existing Lutheran consistory . According to Article 36, it was made up of two Lutheran senators, the Lutheran chief pastor (titled senior), two other Lutheran pastors and a jurist. With the exception of marital issues, which were taken over by
3978-621: The circulation of liberal publications. They were, however, not successful in their attempts to do this. Spurred on by the July Revolution of 1830, opposition groups in the city of Frankfurt were ablaze with a revolutionary spirit. But the step from idealistic fervour to decisive action failed completely. Made up mostly of students and Polish officers in exile, a group attempting to start a revolution in Germany, called Frankfurter Wachensturm because of attacks made on police stations (German Wachen ),
4080-556: The city for imperial coronations from 1562 (previously in Free Imperial City of Aachen ) until 1792. Frankfurt was declared an Imperial Free City ( Freie und Reichsstadt ) in 1372, making the city an entity of Imperial immediacy , meaning immediately subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and not to a regional ruler or a local nobleman. Due to its imperial significance, Frankfurt survived mediatisation in 1803. Following
4182-472: The city unilaterally appropriated all ecclesiastical buildings within its boundary. This appropriation was protested by the emperor who – by the Augsburg Interim of 1548 – regained all former collegiate churches , including their endowments of earning assets , for Catholic parishes, which the city thus had to tolerate within its boundary. The number of members, which had declined after
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4284-468: The city walls was mostly used as agricultural space. Directly in front of the city were gardens and vineyards. The outskirts along the present-day Alleenring, however, were cultivated in the old-fashioned style of Flurzwang , which took the basic principles of the crop rotation system, dating back to the Middle Ages. One part of the land was cultivated with spring crop, another part with winter crop, while
4386-721: The city's culture life, e.g. the Frankfurter Kunstverein , the Museumsgesellschaft , the Cäcilienverein and the Städtische Theater . In 1828 city gardener Sebastian Rinz set aside land for a new main cemetery and a new Jewish cemetery, about 15 minutes from the old city walls. The old cemeteries, which dated back to the Middle Ages, the Peterskirchhof and the old Jewish cemetery were closed. Also in 1828
4488-584: The collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Frankfurt fell to the rule of Napoleon I , who granted the city to Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg ; the city became known as the Principality of Frankfurt . The Catholic cleric Dalberg emancipated Catholics living with the city boundary. In 1810 Dalberg merged Frankfurt with the Principality of Aschaffenburg , the County of Wetzlar , Fulda , and Hanau to form
4590-425: The company Knoblauch & Schiele, the first gasworks, started to provide private households with gas. In 1830 the city arranged the maintenance of the churches owned by the city, the priest's salaries and the clerical school system in two endowment contracts. A lot of the older and smaller churches, especially the former monasteries, which had been secularized in 1803 decayed or were used for profane purposes. But on
4692-598: The congress called by Austria, the Frankfurter Fürstentag, in August 1863 could not come up with a solution because of a Prussian boycott. As a result of the summit's failure, the Frankfurt public, which had long sympathised with Austria , was set completely against Prussia . The liberal Frankfurt Press was also predominantly anti-Prussian, especially the Frankfurt Ober-Postamts-Zeitung, founded in 1617,
4794-427: The democratic opposition continued to advocate their demands, despite the senate's restorative politics that were considerate of the German princes. Nevertheless, the city's antiquated constitution was gradually reformed. In 1853, an electoral reform entitled the residents of the rural district to vote. By withdrawing the senators from courts and legislative meetings, the 1856 judicial and administrative reform established
4896-468: The election that same year he became the first independent antisemite to be elected to the Reichstag . Böckel was elected to the Reichstag on a platform of both antisemitism and support for the establishment of peasant co-operatives. A disciple of Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl , he shared his faith in the common man against the higher echelons of society. His slogan was Gegen Junker und Juden (Against Barons and Jews), indicating his nature as an opponent of both
4998-513: The end of 1866, the emigrants were allowed to return according to a general amnesty. The Free City of Frankfurt was a state of its own. The state back then widely correlated to the borders of the city today. It spread on both riversides of the Main and remained mostly unchanged since the 15th century. The bordering states of Frankfurt were the Grand Duchy of Hesse to the South (Province of Starkenburg) and to
5100-408: The farmers; this kept food prices high for urban consumers. The new tariffs were designed to lower the cost of food to consumers, and open up new business opportunities for German exporters. The League was organized nationally like a political party, with local chapters, centralized discipline, and a clear-cut platform. It fought against free trade, industrialization, and liberalism. Its most hated enemy
5202-459: The grammar school there still existed nine "Quartierschulen" from the Middle Ages, these were private schools with municipal concession that could be bequeathed and sold. In general, every school had only one teacher. All teachers had united in a kind of guild. Since the school fees they levied were hardly enough to make a living, they often had to do additional work, e.g. the cutting of quills. As each of them had to take care of several hundred pupils,
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#17330861975135304-675: The incorporation of more suburbs into the city boundary also eight united Protestant congregations of the Hesse-Casselian Protestant church body belonged to the city, but not to the Frankfurt regional church. In 1928 the Hesse-Casselian Protestant church body ceded these eight congregations and their parishes to the Frankfurt regional church body, which thus then comprised 19 Lutheran and eight united parishes, 2 Reformed congregations (German Reformed, Huguenot) and one Lutheran deaconesses congregation. On 12 September 1933
5406-489: The influential group that would found the Economic Association ( Wirtschaftliche Vereinigung ) some years later with Wilhelm von Kardorff , Berthold von Ploetz and Diederich Hahn. By the end of 1893 the BDL had over 200,000 members. Only about 1% were rural landlords , with 24% coming from large family-owned farms, and the rest being small plot and tenant farmers. However, the leadership were from that 1%, primarily
5508-528: The initiative of its chairmen Friedrich Maximilian Freiherrn von Günderrode and Wilhelm Friedrich Hufnagel, the dynamic senior of the Lutheran Preacher 's Ministry a comprehensive school reform was finally instigated in 1803. In 1803 Hufnagel founded Frankfurt's first junior high, the Musterschule , based upon the pedagogical concept of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi . The Lutheran church formed since 1533
5610-479: The land, and desired to maintain their vested interests. As a result, they worked closely with the political parties most aligned with that interest, but most especially with the Conservative Party (DKP). By 1897 the BDL was headed by a three-member Executive Committee, one of whom was the chairman. It had a number of divisions, a speakers bureau which sent out inspirational speakers to the farming villages in
5712-410: The left-centre parliamentary group, Westendhall, and later belonged to the so-called Erbkaiserliche, a political group led by Heinrich von Gagern . With the increasing conservative reaction and endless parliamentary debates, the enthusiasm of the people of Frankfurt for the revolution disappeared. After the break-up of the national assembly and the re-establishment of the German Confederation in 1850,
5814-597: The legal validity of the merger. So the three church bodies reconstituted separately after the Second World War and their freely elected synods voted in the merger on 30 September 1947, establishing today's Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau . Since the Middle Ages, the Catholics of Frankfurt had belonged to the archbishopric of Mainz . With the adoption of Lutheran Reformation by the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt in 1533
5916-446: The less labour-intensive winter months, an electoral division to identify candidates to support and to lobby candidates into supporting BDL initiatives, during election run-ups they had a propaganda division that provided BDL viewpoints on the candidates. There was a separate lobbying division for elected members of the Reichstag. In addition the organisation provided things like purchasing cooperatives which offered economic benefits to
6018-419: The majority of the synod of the Frankfurt regional church voted for a merger with the regional church bodies of former Nassau and the regional church in the People's State of Hesse in order to form Evangelische Landeskirche in Hessen-Nassau (Protestant State Church in Hesse-Nassau). However, the usurpation of leading positions by Nazi-submissive clergy made the opponents of Nazism in the regional church doubt
6120-407: The members and acted as incentives to retain membership. By 1913 the BDL had over 330,000 members, employed more than 350 staff at headquarters, and approximately 400 regional workers. The goal of the BDL was to preserve the leading position of agriculture in the economy and politics of Germany. In one of the founding documents it says: "German agriculture is the primary and most important industry,
6222-425: The members of a constituent assembly for the city. This assembly was then to work out a new constitution to replace the laws which had been made as a mere addition to the old constitution. On 9 March 1848 a flag in the colours of black, red and gold was first flown from the roof of the Palais Thurn und Taxis . On 31 March the so-called "pre-parliament" held a meeting in the Paulskirche , which had been converted from
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#17330861975136324-422: The more traditional right he occasionally spoke for the Conservatives and the Agrarian League but a failed attempt to return to the Reichstag in 1912 was to be his last political activity. He retired to Michendorf in Brandenburg and faded into obscurity, dying in poverty. Free City of Frankfurt Frankfurt was a major city of the Holy Roman Empire , being the seat of imperial elections since 885 and
6426-400: The municipal court, the jurisdiction of the church continued to abide by the rules set forth in 1728. Article 37 left it up to the Reformed Church to establish a Consistory as well; this was then realised by ordinance of the Senate on 8 February 1820. 1820 there were six functioning Lutheran churches within the city proper with 12 pastors for about 28,000 Lutherans. In 1830 the free city issued
6528-488: The name Dr. Capistrano, in tribute to Saint John of Capistrano , who was known as the "Scourge of the Jews". Initially an independent at the start of the 1890s he formed his own group, the Antisemitische Volkspartei . This party ran in alliance with the Deutschsoziale Partei of Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg in the 1890 election , with the new alliance capturing five seats of which four were held by Böckel's party. As well as his political movement, Böckel also organised
6630-416: The other hand, the new construction of the Paulskirche , which had been in ruins since 1789, was finally completed. The city's urban area only slowly grew beyond the area of the ramparts, which were built on the area of the old city fortifications , firstly along the old country roads. Up until 1837, the wrought-iron gates to the city were closed at nightfall. Whoever was late had to pay a fee – like in
6732-459: The political side they along with their political ally, the Conservative Party, were unable to prevent the fall of the Bülow government over budget issues and the reform of the inheritance tax in 1909. Overall, the BDL operated a highly successful lobbying effort both within and outside the Reichstag and regional assemblies. The BDL solicited the various candidates before the elections and only supported those who affirmed in writing their support of
6834-415: The president was set up where the altar normally stood. On 18 May 1848 the parliamentarians of the Frankfurt national assembly, among the first free voted German parliaments, congregated in the Paulskirche in a celebratory fashion. Friedrich Siegmund Jucho, a legal practitioner, was elected as the representative of the free city on 28 April. He was once a reporter for the National Assembly and affiliated with
6936-422: The quality of the education in the "Quartiersschulen" was expectably low. The grammar school as well had a bad reputation in the 18th century, as the curriculum was completely outdated and the discipline of the pupils often led to complaints. Since 1728 the supervision over all schools has lied with the Lutheran Consistory , a committee established by the City Council, consisting of secular and sacred members. On
7038-539: The remains of the medieval guild system finally disappeared in 1864. Economic freedom prevailed and even the last restrictions on the rights of Jewish citizens were abolished. In June 1866, right before losing its status as a free city, a direct majority voting system for all citizens was introduced to the legislative branch, instead of the previous electoral procedure which had been arranged according to profession. This new system still presumed citizenship, which meant having at least 5000 guilder. This new election law, however,
7140-450: The rights of freedom of the press and freedom of assembly, constitutional equality for all citizens, amnesty for all those who had been imprisoned because of political activities and the right for every citizen to bear arms. On 3 March 1848, the senate of the city granted all rights except full emancipation of the Jews. The reformists who had met in the Montagskränzchen called for a reform of the city's constitution. All citizens were to elect
7242-401: The same attention as industry; if both do not go hand in hand, the strength of one will not suffice for a lack in the other. Bismarck helped foster support from these conservatives by enacting several tariffs protecting German agriculture, and incidentally industry, from foreign competition. In the early 1880s agriculture employed more people than industry and trade combined. However, Germany
7344-403: The senate, were imposed with accommodations. The citizens had to provide their own saddle-horses for the army and the traders and landlords were forced to hand over large provisions, vine and cigars to the Prussian army command. Publishing was forbidden for all the newspapers of Frankfurt except for the journal. The editor of the newspaper of the main post office and privy councillor Fischer-Goullet
7446-472: The separation of powers. Trials were henceforth held in public and verbal hearings and the elsewhere already common jury court was established. The Prussian ambassador, Otto von Bismarck represented the interests of Prussia at the German Bundestag in Frankfurt from 1851 to 1859. The liberality of the Frankfurt middle class and the freedom of the press were much to his dislike. On 14 April 1853 he wrote to
7548-427: The shop assistants, rural workers, sailors and fishermen and small wine growers. Basically they took all non-industrial workers, and small businesses under their wing. The most major demand of the BDL was the restoration of protective tariffs on food stuffs. Other major demands were: With these were a host of minor demands such as strengthening the disease control on meat imports, thus making them more expensive, and
7650-485: The southwestern states of Germany, the BDL operated in conjunction with or as the local farmers' union or league. The BDL met with some successes and some failures. After several years they brought down the Caprivi government over the question of tariffs. But they never got the strict import restrictions on grain that they desired. The new tariff act of 1902 was indeed a victory for agrarians. However, as Nick Koning shows, it
7752-419: The strongest support of the empire and of the several states. To protect and strengthen agriculture is our first and most serious task because by the blossoming and flourishing of agriculture, the welfare of all professions is secured." But the BDL also came to the defense of the mom and pop shops as against big-city department store chains, they safeguarded the interests of the rural and small urban middle class,
7854-499: The subsequent years. With the Weimar Constitution religion and state were finally separated again on a nationwide scope. So the consistorial district convened a church assembly in 1921 which passed the new church constitution on 13 December 1923, assuming independence of the consistorial district and transforming it into Evangelische Landeskirche Frankfurt am Main (i.e. Protestant State Church of Frankfurt upon Main). After
7956-511: The third part lay fallow. In between these parts lay small woodland areas and acres including the Knoblauchsfeld (garlic field) in the Nordend district, which was the source of the city's water supply. The construction of the water supply between 1827 and 1834 was one of the most important public projects of the Free City. Frankfurt's Forest District ranged over 22.123 morgen (4480 hectare). The City Forest , belonging to Frankfurt since 1372,
8058-540: The town was not able to refrain from the entanglements of war, as Prussia regarded Frankfurt's loyalty to the Confederation as hostile. Bismarck was determined to violently establish German unity under Prussian rule and to oust Austria from German politics. On 16 July 1866 the undefended city was occupied by the Prussian Army under their General Eduard Vogel von Falckenstein , who immediately imposed strict reprisals on
8160-477: The town. Only one day later, on 17 July, a first payment of 5.8 million guilder was imposed on the town. Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel , who was appointed as successor of Falckenstein on 20 July raised a second demand of contribution of 25 million guilder. This contribution had to be paid by the 35000 citizens of the free town, among whom approximately 8000 had to pay taxes. Numerous citizens, among them all members of
8262-479: The trade of neighbouring cities, like Offenbach , Höchst and Bockenheim , flourished. In 1836 the Free City of Frankfurt was the last one to join the German Customs Union. The fortunate location of the city led to the development of Frankfurt becoming a transportation hub. In 1832 Britain and Frankfurt signed a contract allowing free trade and shipping. For this purpose the city flag was designed using
8364-461: The trade with farmers in Hesse. In 1887 he published a pamphlet, Die Juden - die Könige unserer Zeit (The Jews - the kings of our times), in which he attacked the Jews for their perceived dominance over German life. He presented a populist appeal to the peasantry, which along with his natural charisma and good looks, made him very popular and saw him dubbed the "Hessian peasant-king" by his supporters. In
8466-558: The traditional colours of Frankfurt: two red and two white stripes with the Frankfurt Eagle in the upper left corner. From the beginning, the city had a leading role in the expansion of the German railway system . All the bankers from Frankfurt supported the initiative and the first railway shares were in great interest. Nevertheless, negotiations went slowly and the initial construction of the railway did not start until 1839. The Bundestag
8568-451: The usage to the existing Catholic parishes. Thus Lutherans and Catholics enjoyed gratuitous usufruct of church buildings owned and maintained by the city. Complete legal equality was achieved simultaneously with the end of the free imperial city (German: Freie Reichsstadt ) and the Edict of Toleration , 1806. German Agrarian League The Bund der Landwirte ( Agrarian League ) (BDL)
8670-488: The walls were owned by the city and gratuitously used by the uniform congregation. During the rule of Dalberg all Christian denominations were to be treated equally according to an 1806 revision of the constitution of the church. The supplementing file to the Frankfurt Constitution of 1816 said in article 35: Each Christian congregation and every other congregation, even though they have a right to be protected by
8772-530: The wood harvest was one of the major economic factors. On Wäldchestag, the Tuesday following Whitsun , the majority of the citizens went to the forester's house in the city forest to celebrate Frankfurt's biggest folk festival. Until 1803 there had only existed one municipal school in Frankfurt, the Municipal grammar school which was founded in 1520 and which was reserved exclusively for sons of Lutheran citizens. Beside
8874-523: Was a German advocacy group founded 18 February 1893 by farmers and agricultural interests in response to the farm crisis of the 1890s, and more specifically the result of the protests against the low-tariff policies of Chancellor Leo von Caprivi , including his free trade policies. According to James C Hunt, the Agrarian League was launched to protest the reduction in tariffs against imported grains; The old tariffs were designed to keep prices high for
8976-506: Was against Prussian activities. However, they were not able to prevent their neighbouring state, the Grand Duchy of Hesse , from joining the customs union. After the founding of Germany's Customs Union in 1834 of which Nassau also became a member, Frankfurt was the only city that was not part of the Customs Union, in contrast to the surrounding area. Within a short period of time, trade in Frankfurt had been dramatically reduced. Meanwhile,
9078-618: Was annexed by decree of the King of Prussia on 20 September, and became part of the newly formed Province of Hesse-Nassau . Next to the main street Zeil , at the Roßmarkt, along the city ring and at the banks of the River Main , the wealthy population of the city had spacious houses erected by architects such as Salins de Montfort [ de ] and Friedrich Rumpf [ de ] . They also endowed several scientific societies, for example
9180-405: Was arrested and suffered a deadly stroke. The senators Bernus, Müller and Speltz were held hostage in the fortress of Cologne but were allowed to return to Frankfurt as a consequence of pledging their word of honour. Numerous citizens of Frankfurt escaped to foreign countries, like Friedrich Stoltze who escaped to Stuttgart and the natural scientist Eduard Rüppell , who escaped to Switzerland. In
9282-421: Was betrayed on 3 April 1833 to the police and was brutally put down by the city's small army. The incident, while largely ineffective, did, however, have a chilling effect on the bourgeois elite of the city because as a result 2,500 Austrian and Prussian soldiers were stationed in the city, representing a direct challenge to the sovereignty of the city which, in turn, led to royal government diplomats denigrating
9384-535: Was comparable to the Rothschild bank was the Christian-owned Bethmann Bank . Both of these banks dominated the trading of bonds for different European countries. There were several significant uprisings against plans to develop a Prussian Tariff Union because they threatened to undermine Frankfurt's role as a centre of transport and trade. In 1828 the city joined Middle Germany's trade association which
9486-454: Was fast becoming an industrialized state with increased rural exodus to the cities. After Bismarck resigned in 1890 and Leo von Caprivi became chancellor, the demands of industry were much more compelling, and the free trade treaties with Russia and Austria as well as legislation favorable to industry was seen as a threat to agriculture. The inaugural meeting of the Bund der Landwirte was held in
9588-722: Was greater unanimity. In the areas where the Conservatives were poorly represented, for example, in the Province of Hanover , in Hesse and in the Palatinate , the BDL worked together with the right wing of the National Liberals . After all, the BDL had enlisted the support of about 60% of the National Liberal candidates for their programme before the general election of 1907. In parts of
9690-480: Was headquartered in Palais Thurn und Taxis in the Großen Eschenheimer Straße starting from 5 November 1816. The member states established delegations in the city. The Central Federal Bureau for Investigations (German: Bundes-Central-Behörde für Untersuchungen), a central coordinating institution of the political police for the federal member states, had been based in Frankfurt since the 1830s. Frankfurt
9792-407: Was never used before Prussian annexation. Because of the economic structure determined by trade and craft and because of the lack of economic freedom, there was no industrial proletariat in Frankfurt up until 1866. The first workers' association, founded in 1863, had only 67 members, of which 33 were tailors. The Austro-Prussian rivalry was, by then, pushing Germany more and more towards war. Even
9894-479: Was not simply forced through by the aristocracy or agrarians. Instead it resulted from a new shift in the position of the urban interests that created an industrial-agrarian agreement. That agreement was initiated by the industrialists, not the junkers. The BDL was particularly effective on small issues, where the Reichstag members were less committed to their constituencies, such as forbidding yellowing of margarine and stiff restrictions on brandy and sugar imports. On
9996-664: Was offered to him by a popularly elected assembly composed of revolutionaries whom he opposed, and because he regarded the offer of the crown, only as the right of the ruling monarchs of the individual German states. In 1866 the Kingdom of Prussia went to war with the Austrian Empire over Schleswig-Holstein , causing the Austro-Prussian War . Frankfurt, remaining loyal to the German Confederation, did not join with Prussia, but remained neutral. Following Prussia's victory, Frankfurt
10098-663: Was one of the major centres of the revolutionary movement leading up to the rebellions of 1848. The journalist Ludwig Börne was born in 1786 in the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt, called the Judengasse or "Jews' lane". Ludwig Börne was the author of satirical writings and later became one of the prominent figures of the literary movement " Young Germany ". Because the Federal Assembly and Frankfurt's city authorities feared for their reputation, they tried to ban political unions and to suppress
10200-484: Was replaced as leader of the independent antisemites in 1894 by Otto Hirschel and Philipp Köhler and his influence declined. Meanwhile, his agrarian group, hamstrung somewhat by Böckel's own lack of money was, much to his dismay, largely swallowed up by the Junker-controlled Agrarian League . He was attacked by conservative antisemites such as Adolf Stoecker for a supposed lack of commitment, with
10302-454: Was socialism, which it blamed on Jewish financial capitalism. The League helped establish grassroots anti-Semitism of the sort that flourished into the 1930s. The Reichstag was dissolved in June 1878 because it refused Bismarck's Anti-Socialist Law . Chancellor Bismarck in the newly elected parliament relied on a broad agro-conservative majority with the slogan: Agriculture is owed by the state
10404-514: Was the most important part of the district. It was situated south of the River Main, stretching out over almost 40 square kilometers. The Riederwald , located south of Bornheim , as well as the exclave Hohemark in Taunus, which had been part of Nieder-Erlenbach , Bonames , Niederursel and Dortelweil, also belonged to the forest district. While the use of forests for pig fattening became less important,
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