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137-606: The Frankfurt Constitution ( German : Frankfurter Reichsverfassung ) or Constitution of St. Paul's Church ( Paulskirchenverfassung ), officially named the Constitution of the German Empire ( Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches ) of 28 March 1849, was an unsuccessful attempt to create a unified German nation from the states of the German Confederation . The Frankfurt National Assembly drew up

274-649: A constitutional monarchy with a hereditary emperor who appointed ministers responsible to himself. The main legislative body, the Reichstag, had two chambers, the Volkshaus (House of the People), which was to be elected by universal male suffrage, and the Staatenhaus (House of States), half of whose members were to be appointed by the state governments and half by the state parliaments. The fundamental rights of

411-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it

548-402: A second language , and 75–100   million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220   million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90   million people, or 16% of

685-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become

822-647: A "federal state" ( Bundesstaat ), as the Central Power Act had already done in § 2a. The door is left open for the German-Austrian states to join the Empire in § 87 of the constitution ("As long as the German-Austrian lands do not participate in the federal state.."). Section II, "The Imperial Authority", defines the basic competences of the Reich. As a rule, administration and justice were to remain

959-515: A central legislative body, and, on the other hand, on the foreign policy pull that the German Customs Union would have as an all-German contracting party in trade policy. In addition, Hansemann expected the growing importance of the German Customs Union to strengthen the political position of the merchants compared to the nobility . The demands for dealing with the social and economic problems of small farmers and artisans, as well as

1096-636: A confederation of states that would include Austria . Because of the opposition, elections to the new Reichstag never took place, and the National Assembly was unable to enforce the Constitution. With the failure of the 1848 revolution, the Frankfurt Constitution was not implemented. It was nevertheless Germany's first democratic constitution and the first to encompass the entire nation. In the years and decades that followed,

1233-512: A constitution for the whole of Germany. It would then be agreed on by the individual states. The duly elected Frankfurt Parliament convened on 18 May 1848. The parliament formed a 30-member constitutional committee on 24 May to draft a constitution. The committee decided to deal first with the basic rights of the German people. It was later accused of having delayed the adoption of the full constitution by its long discussion of basic rights and that

1370-494: A full century." Anna Caroline Limbach emphasised in particular the great consistency with which liberal goals were enshrined in criminal law. The recognition of inviolable human rights and humanist thinking in the National Assembly was evident in the abolition of the death penalty, which was only realised in the Basic Law a hundred years later. The separation of powers and independence of the administration of justice demonstrated

1507-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from

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1644-401: A house of the Reichstag and by the government (§ 80 and 99); the government (executive) could exercise a suspensive veto over Reich laws. The head of the Empire had the title emperor ( Kaiser ) (§ 70). Once the imperial title had been transferred to a reigning prince, it was to be hereditary, falling to the first-born son (§ 69). The imperial ministers were appointed by the emperor; an act of

1781-507: A matter for the individual states, but the Empire reserved the right to extend its competences ( competence-competence ). Paragraph 66 states: "Imperial laws take precedence over the laws of the individual states, unless they are expressly attributed only a subsidiary application" and § 194 that "No provision in the constitution or laws of a single state may contradict the Imperial Constitution". Foreign and military power were

1918-534: A more conservative form in cooperation with the "central" states, which excluded Austria, Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, Hanover and a few smaller states. Even though the union was ultimately not realised, the draft constitution preserved much of the Frankfurt model and thus helped to moderate the reactionary period that followed the 1848 Revolution. When the North German Constitution of 1867

2055-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained

2192-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In

2329-457: A popularly elected assembly, only another German prince. As a result, the planned parliamentary elections did not take place, and the National Assembly was unable to enforce the constitution due to the military superiority of the individual states that refused to recognize it. Two months after its enactment, the Frankfurt Constitution served as a model for the draft Erfurt Union Constitution. Prussia wanted to make its own attempt at unification in

2466-495: A resolution of the Volkshaus with a two-thirds majority vote and the approval of the emperor. After eight days, the Volkshaus vote had to be repeated. Imperial interventions and executions were modelled on the corresponding measures of the German Confederation. If there was unrest in a state, it could ask the Empire to intervene. If necessary, the Empire itself could take action. An imperial execution , on

2603-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it

2740-521: A written account given by Itzstein to Blum in 1847, Itzstein met Hansemann by chance in the apartment of the co-editor of the Deutsche Zeitung , Karl Mathy . Hansemann advocated the idea that the opposition members of the Baden , Württemberg , Hesse , and Rheinpreussens state parliaments should hold a joint meeting to coordinate their actions in their respective chamber parliaments to help

2877-538: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as

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3014-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German

3151-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic

3288-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German

3425-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25   million speak it as

3562-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in

3699-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as

3836-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are

3973-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and

4110-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as

4247-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German

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4384-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c.  1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period

4521-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish

4658-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers

4795-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to

4932-521: The Staatenhaus were elected for six years, with half of the seats being renewed every three years (§ 92). A member of the Staatenhaus was not allowed to be an imperial minister (§ 123). An imperial court exercised jurisdiction at the federal level and was therefore not a general supreme court above the state courts. It served as the first and only authority for constitutional and political issues. It ruled on disputes between states or states and

5069-433: The Volkshaus , unlike under the constitutions in force from 1867 to 1918. The political development in 1848/49 went in the direction of parliamentarization, since a number of deputies proved to be suitable ministers and state undersecretaries. According to legal historian Ernst Rudolf Huber , there is much to suggest that the government would have been de facto parliamentarized after 1849. The constitutional monarchies of

5206-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as

5343-718: The Congress of Vienna in 1815, mostly based on Article 13 of the Federal Act and often linked to old traditions of professional law, were curtailed in the years between 1819 and 1830 by the Carlsbad Decrees and other restorative measures. For a short time, the unrest in France and Belgium in 1830 reversed this trend, as states such as Saxony and the Electorate of Hesse were granted constitutions, and freedom of

5480-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share

5617-480: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language

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5754-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout

5891-688: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in

6028-666: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c.  765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in

6165-511: The Prussian delegates who had been contacted. Some of those who refused, such as Theodor Reh and August Emmerling , also cited the fear of state reprisals and the unwillingness of their constituencies to support them, if their participation in a meeting that could be considered radical, became known. In the end, only 18 members of the Chamber attended the meeting, most of whom were members of

6302-554: The Rhineland and electoral Hesse, including Hermann von Beckerath , Ludolf Camphausen , August von der Heydt , Gustav Mevissen , Georg von Vincke , and Karl Wilhelm Wippermann . Mathy and Bassermann wrote primarily to southern German parliamentarians, including Theodor Reh and Heinrich von Gagern, who was always advertised in these letters because of his prominence as a participant, but also to more radical democratic politicians such as Franz Peter Buhl and Christian Kapp . Although

6439-676: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung

6576-550: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit.   ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this

6713-513: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and   Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German

6850-469: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from

6987-430: The "people's representatives have a decisive vote" on taxation and the state budget. The Frankfurt Constitution had a comprehensive catalogue of fundamental rights which extended for sixty paragraphs (§ 130 – § 189). Freedom of the press, the abolition of censorship, freedom of movement, freedom of association and assembly, freedom of religion and equal rights for all denominations were classic civil liberties. A citizen of

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7124-573: The 19th century were characterised by a bicameral parliament. Only the Left Party had called for a unicameral parliament in the National Assembly. The Frankfurt Constitution stated (§ 96) that all members of the Reichstag should have a free mandate – that is, not be bound by orders or instructions from their constituency – enjoy immunity (§ 117) and receive allowances (§ 95) so that they would not be dependent on their own assets in order to be able to devote time to parliamentary activities. The Reichstag

7261-703: The Baden Second Chamber in March 1847. On the other hand, Kapp, for example, one of the main speakers in Offenburg and therefore the subject of treason investigations, was present in Heppenheim, which speaks against the competition between the events. The Offenburg meeting also had the character of a regional people's assembly, so that the demands were necessarily simpler and more radical and were dominated by social issues and civil rights issues, whereas

7398-565: The Bundestag until the elections. The committees and assemblies were private initiatives but were nevertheless of considerable public importance. Between 31 March and 3 April, the pre-parliament met four times in plenary session in Frankfurt's St. Paul's Church . It made sure that the Bundestag incorporated Prussia's eastern provinces (the Province of Prussia and parts of Posen ) into the German Confederation, and its calls for freedom helped

7535-541: The Confederation served primarily to suppress national, liberal and democratic endeavours. The anti-democratic political status quo, combined with a sharp economic downturn in the mid-1840s, a series of failed harvests and the overthrow of King Louis-Philippe of France in February 1848, sparked the German revolutions of 1848–1849 , out of which came the Frankfurt Constitution. At the end of 1847, opponents of

7672-531: The Customs Union, which would then have more powers, would create a situation of economic coercion. Hansemann emphasized that this solution should not lead to Prussian hegemony , as it was already the case in the previous Customs Union due to the individual agreements between the member states and Prussia. The parliamentarians also demanded "The liberation of the press, so that the Germans can share in

7809-465: The Empire was allowed to emigrate and enjoyed the consular protection of the German state abroad. In addition, the constitution intended to abolish the prerogatives of the nobility (§ 137), which would have had a significant impact on the social structure of Germany. The Frankfurt Constitution was proclaimed on 28 March 1849. There was broad popular support and many calls in favour of recognising it. Twenty-eight mostly smaller states collectively recognized

7946-513: The Empire, between the imperial government, the Staatenhaus and the Volkshaus as well as between state bodies. The court was also open to constitutional complaints; a German could sue for his fundamental rights and other rights before the court on the basis of the constitution. Paragraphs 178 and 179 called for public trials, oral criminal proceedings and jury trials for the "more serious crimes and all political offenses". The introduction of

8083-670: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In

8220-610: The Federal Act. Together they formed the federal constitution. The most important federal body, the Federal Convention , was a congress of delegates from the individual states under Austrian leadership. There were no courts, no executive government, no parliament and therefore no separation of powers. The Confederation did not over time develop such functions since the largest members (above all Austria, Prussia and Bavaria ) had no interest in federal reform. For them

8357-409: The Frankfurt Constitution inspired politicians and had an influence on both state and later national constitutions such as the Constitution of the German Empire . The constitution's extensive catalogue of fundamental rights was especially important. After Napoleon 's defeat by the Sixth Coalition in May 1814, the Congress of Vienna reorganized Germany as the German Confederation in June 1815. It

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8494-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of

8631-425: The German Confederation held a meeting in Offenburg on 12 September and a conference at Heppenheim on 10 October. Their core demands were presented in a motion by Friedrich Daniel Bassermann in the second chamber of the Baden Parliament on 12 February 1848. His call for a national representation of the German estates , which would sit as a second chamber alongside the Federal Convention (Bundestag), helped trigger

8768-454: The German Confederation precisely as a pacemaker for the creation of a nation-state and the raising of general prosperity. The report on the conference in the Deutsche Zeitung triggered consultations with the governments in the German Confederation as well as secret service activities against the participating members of parliament. In a letter to his London envoy Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen , Prussian King Frederick William IV denounced

8905-446: The German Confederation. In the mid-1840s, the escalation of the First Schleswig War and the construction of the Rastatt and Ulm fortresses, as well as the growing social and economic tensions that led to the hunger riots of 1847 in several states, led to more intensive attempts to network and unify the cooperation of oppositional liberal and nationalist forces, such as the founding of the Deutsche Zeitung in 1847. According to

9042-408: The German Confederation. The public movement, which took on a life of its own, led via the Heidelberg Assembly of 51 to the convening of the Pre-Parliament, which prepared the elections to the Frankfurt National Assembly and whose final document of April 4, 1848 explicitly referred to the "men who had gathered in Heppenheim and Heidelberg". On May 18, 1848, the National Assembly finally convened for

9179-418: The German Customs Union. Those present were aware that the transformation of the German Customs Union into a political instrument would not be easy, especially as the German Customs Union was ultimately envisioned as a Greater German solution . The conference participants also assumed that the states would not join the Customs Union on their own and cede further powers, but hoped that the economic advantages of

9316-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of

9453-405: The German people were enforceable before an imperial court. The largest German states, notably Prussia , actively opposed both the constitution and the National Assembly, and many conservative governments found the Frankfurt Constitution too liberal. The power struggle between Prussia and Austria also played a role. The southern German kingdoms, in particular Bavaria and Württemberg , favoured

9590-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c.  1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of

9727-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by

9864-437: The Heppenheim conference was a response by the moderate liberals to the "democratic" Offenburg event, and that the later break between the radical-democratic and constitutional-liberal opposition was already visible here. However, this conclusion proved to be premature. On one hand, the circle of invitees was limited to members of parliament from the outset, which excluded Blum and Struve, and Hecker had already resigned his seat in

10001-495: The Heppenheim meeting, as an assembly of delegates from several states, focused on German unification. Beyond that, the programs are still quite similar. For these reasons and from later friendly contacts between the two alleged camps, it can be concluded that the break in the opposition did not occur until 1848 and is not connected with the Heppenheim Conference. The only point of conflict that emerged at this time

10138-655: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are

10275-1033: The Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German

10412-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c.  thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c.  1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy

10549-530: The National Assembly began discussions on the draft constitution. The question of whether a united Germany was to include any part of Austria, notably its German-speaking regions, proved to be a considerable obstacle. It was not until March 1849, after Austria had reaffirmed its independence and unity in its new March Constitution (1. § 2), that the Frankfurt Parliament agreed on the lesser German solution and excluded Austria. The Volkshaus of

10686-400: The Reichstag was to be elected by equal manhood suffrage of "any person who is entitled to vote in the municipal elections of his place of residence and who pays any direct state tax". Germany was to have a hereditary emperor who could only postpone laws passed by the Reichstag (suspensive veto), not completely prevent them (absolute veto). In the opinion of the National Assembly, it alone had

10823-937: The Second Chamber in Baden or the Second Chamber in Württemberg. Most of the participants were well-known liberals beyond their state, and most of them were later represented in the Pre-Parliament and the Frankfurt National Assembly. Nine of the 18 participants in the Heppenheim conference were members of the Baden Second Chamber : Two participants were members of the Second Chamber of the Grand Duchy of Hesse: Five deputies from Württemberg's Second Chamber took part in

10960-481: The agreement made in Heppenheim" - a motion for a German National Assembly - albeit independent of the German Customs Union - in the Second Chamber of Baden on February 12, 1848, based on the motion Bassermann had already submitted in 1844. He attracted widespread attention in the course of the political development of the February Revolution in France and the subsequent March Revolution in the states of

11097-541: The conference participants as "sectarians" and "Heppenheim demagogues. The Baden Minister Alexander von Dusch told the Württemberg envoy that the conference "surprised him to the highest degree; he considered it to be the most important [event] that had occurred in Germany in our time; it was to be regarded as more than the beginning of a people's parliament that placed itself above the Federal Assembly and

11234-416: The constitution during the German revolutions of 1848–1849 for the emerging German Empire of 1848–1849 , which was committed to popular sovereignty and had already created a Provisional Central Power ( Provisorische Zentralgewalt ) for Germany. The National Assembly adopted the constitution on 28 March 1849, and twenty-eight German states collectively recognized it on 14 April. The constitution created

11371-549: The constitution on 14 April and accepted the choice of the Prussian king, Frederick William IV , as emperor, but the larger states in particular refused to accept it. Frederick William also rejected it, although his cabinet (conditionally) and the Prussian National Assembly spoke out in favour of its adoption. Frederick William also refused the offer of the imperial crown because he would not accept it from

11508-404: The courts and drafting of appropriate police penal laws, liberation of the land and its cultivators from medieval burdens, independence of the municipalities in the administration of their affairs, reduction of the expenses for the standing army and introduction of a national army." made it clear, however, that this should be achieved by constitutional means, i.e. not by revolution . Regarding

11645-414: The delay was one of the main reasons for the failure of the 1848 revolution. The representatives, however, considered fundamental rights to be crucially important in order to give Germany a standardised legal basis and to bind the individual states to it. The forward-looking catalogue of fundamental rights was passed as a federal law on 27 December 1848 and then incorporated into the constitution. In October

11782-482: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with

11919-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in

12056-514: The earlier ones at Hallgarten, in Saxony, etc." According to this newspaper report was the purpose of the meeting [...] apart from the desire to become personally acquainted with each other, the exchange of thoughts and views on the most expedient way to bring more unity and commonality into the management and representation of German national affairs and interests; then to determine the motions which in this respect, related to common rights and for

12193-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of

12330-547: The election of a pan-German parliament that would address political reform. On 5 March, liberals and democrats met as the Heidelberg Assembly of 51 and elected a Committee of Seven who were to prepare for a preliminary parliament to meet in Frankfurt . They selected 573 men (the pre-parliament) to prepare for elections to a national assembly. It in turn set up a Committee of Fifty, which was to critically monitor

12467-425: The emperor became valid only when a minister of the Empire countersigned and thus assumed responsibility (§ 73, § 74). The constitution says little more about the composition of the government or its exact responsibilities; in any case, a parliamentary form of government is not explicitly stipulated. The executive government did open up the possibility for it, however, for example by allowing ministers to be members of

12604-516: The exclusive competence of the Empire (§ 11–19). An individual state was therefore no longer allowed to have its own ambassadors abroad and had to accept guidelines for its military, although the individual states were still responsible for the deployment, training and provisioning of troops. Only the Empire had the right to wage war. The imperial constitution provided for a large number of fields of activity for its legislation (§ 20–67). They can be summarised as legal, social, and economic infrastructure:

12741-435: The first Reichstag election and three years thereafter (§ 94). The Staatenhaus (House of States) represented the individual states. The constitution allocated to each individual state a certain number of members according to a list (§ 87) which was based primarily on the number of inhabitants. Half of the members were appointed by the state government (executive) and the other half by the state parliament (§ 88). Members of

12878-602: The first time in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. After the Second World War , the FDP held its founding party conference in Heppenheim on December 10, 1948. At this party conference, the liberal parties of the three western occupation zones united to form a single party. With this choice of location, the founding members wanted to place themselves in the liberal legacy of the historic Heppenheim conference. In 2011,

13015-429: The formation of a unified state was to be achieved by transferring responsibility for trade, transportation, taxation, and industrial policy from the states of the German Confederation to the Customs Union. "The participation of the people through elected representatives was indispensable". At the conference, this was understood to mean, a consultative assembly of estates, on whose five-member college confidence should lead

13152-508: The framers of the Basic Law for West Germany and today's Federal Republic of Germany quoted from the Frankfurt Constitution. Historians and scholars of constitutional law largely agree that the Frankfurt Constitution was a great achievement and would have made Germany one of the most progressive constitutional states of its time. According to Jörg-Detlef Kühne, it was the only German constitution "for whose implementation broad sections of

13289-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,

13426-498: The idea of German unity and civil rights, gain greater influence. According to a letter written by Bassermann to Heinrich von Gagern, the organizers went so far as "we may hope to form the beginning of a German Parliament in Heppenheim. Hansemann then searched for a suitable venue and finally settled on Heppenheim in Hesse. Rural Heppenheim had the advantage of being far from the centers of potential revolutionaries such as Mannheim . At

13563-515: The individual governments. The assembly was comparable to the clubs that existed in Paris at the time of the Revolution, with the only difference being that the former would move from one German city to another. It was therefore the most urgent duty of the governments to take the appropriate measures in their own interests and he agreed that these should come from the Confederation." However, due to

13700-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of

13837-466: The initiators' letters repeatedly mention invitations to members of parliament in Saxony, these letters do not appear to have been sent. Those invited worked to coordinate their travel arrangements. Mevissen had the misfortune to get the date wrong and arrived one day after the event. The initiators received refusals from several invitees, including all of the Kurhessian, Bavarian , and almost all of

13974-614: The jury trial was followed by its adoption by the overwhelming majority of German states, continued in the German Empire and lasted until the Emminger Reform of 4 January 1924 during the Weimar Republic . The Empire was responsible for internal security if a state was unable or unwilling to provide it within its own territory. The aim was to prevent the constitution from being broken or circumvented by subversion from above or below. The constitution could be amended only by

14111-562: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Heppenheim conference The civil rights introduced in some German states after the French Revolution by the Napoleonic Code Civil , as well as the constitutions subsequently granted in some states of the German Confederation after

14248-603: The legal status of waterways and railways, customs, common taxes on production and consumption, trade, post and telegraphy, coinage, weights and measures, imperial and state citizenship laws and general measures for health care. The Empire was authorised to introduce imperial taxes "in extraordinary cases" (§ 51). The constitution provided for a head of the Empire with an executive branch, a Reichstag (legislature) and an imperial court (judiciary). The powers were not simply to be separated from each other but were also to be able to control each other. Imperial laws could be proposed both by

14385-629: The meeting in Heppenheim: The negotiations and results of the discussions at the Heppenheim meeting were mainly made public through a report by Mathys in the Deutsche Zeitung on October 15, 1847. Other newspapers took over this information and thus ensured that the results of the Heppenheim conference were widely disseminated. The creation of this publicity was a special feature, as previous meetings had always been kept private for fear of state persecution. Bassermann saw this publication in particular as "the big difference between this meeting and

14522-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted

14659-721: The movement for a German nation-state were then essentially confined to the chamber parliaments of the states in which state constitutions had been implemented. This was particularly true of the southern states, especially Baden. However, the members of the various state parliaments had comparatively little contact with each other during the Vormärz , although individual politicians had personal networks throughout Germany. The Hallgarten circle around Adam von Itzstein stands out here in particular. But other well-known politicians such as Robert Blum , David Hansemann , and Friedrich Daniel Bassermann also had extensive contacts in many states of

14796-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from

14933-405: The other hand, was directed against a state government which violated the constitution or breached the peace of the Empire (§ 54 and § 55). The German Empire of 1871 to 1918 drew its revenue almost exclusively from state payments to it. The Frankfurt Constitution envisioned a more mixed system. The federal government was allowed various sources of income in addition to financial contributions from

15070-480: The people that this entailed. At the suggestion of Hansemann and Mathys, in particular, and against the initial resistance of Bassermann and Welcker, the participants wanted to achieve these "national issues" by extending the powers and creating a government for the German Customs Union , which had existed since 1834, since "nothing fruitful could be expected from the German Confederation ". The latter

15207-617: The political events at the beginning of 1848 in the run-up to the approaching March Revolution, there was hardly any government action. The Heppenheim program points appeared together with the Offenburg demands at various points and in several popular assemblies, for example at the Stuttgart popular assembly on 17 January 1848 and the Mannheim popular assembly on 27 February 1848. Bassermann finally submitted - in his own words "following

15344-509: The population actively fought." According to Günter Wollstein, the theoretical structure of the Frankfurt Constitution was a coherent and practicable draft, as well as being balanced and progressive. It retained its appeal even during the modernisation efforts of Imperial Germany. Ernst Rudolf Huber wrote: "The Frankfurt attempt to combine the great principles of freedom, equality, unity and central leadership in constitutional law retained its defining power in German political thought and action for

15481-559: The press was no longer restricted in Baden . However, after the demonstration for civil rights and national unity at the Hambach Festival in 1832 and the unsuccessful attempt at an armed uprising at the Frankfurt Wachensturm in 1833, the pressure on representatives of constitutional and democratic ideas was increased again through censorship and bans on meetings. The parliamentary-democratic opposition and

15618-422: The pressing social problems of the lower classes, who had suffered considerable hardship ( pauperism ) as a result of several failed harvests and the collapse of pre-industrial structures, the list of results of the conference simply stated that a commission was to study the matter and formulate proposals in a year, that took into account the "fair distribution of public burdens to relieve the small middle class and

15755-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation

15892-594: The remedy of the general evils arising in the present, should be submitted to the State parliaments[...]. However, the meeting went far beyond this topic, as it already paved the way for the Heidelberg Assembly of the 51 and the Pre-Parliament through the desire for annual meetings. The negotiations and decisions of the Assembly focused primarily on creating a German national state and the representation of

16029-474: The right to bring the constitution into force. The governments of the individual states were asked for their opinions in the final phase but not for a formal constitutional agreement. According to the Central Power Act, the Central Power was not to be involved either (§ 3). In a close vote (267 to 263), the National Assembly on 27 March 1849 approved the constitution. It was not Archduke John of Austria ,

16166-690: The same consistency. Liberal criminal law was not to be restricted even in times of emergency. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and

16303-533: The same time, the newly opened railroad line from Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg made it easily accessible from the north via Frankfurt am Main and from the south via Mannheim, and it also had a nationally known inn, Halben Mond , near the station. The invitations to the desired participants were sent out by letters from Hansemann, Bassermann, and Mathys to selected members of parliament on September 20, 1847, who were asked to invite other trustworthy members of parliament. While Hansemann invited primarily members of

16440-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,

16577-417: The states: customs and shipping duties, production and consumption taxes and numerous other sources (§ 34 to § 36). The federal government was allowed to distribute the revenue from customs duties, common indirect taxes and financial monopolies to the individual states at its own discretion; there was no provision for the other levies. Per paragraph 187, part of the constitution's section on fundamental rights,

16714-474: The temporary head of state ( Reichsverweser ), but the president of the National Assembly and the deputies who signed the constitution. The existing German Confederation was renamed the German Empire . Article I of the Constitution explicitly refers to the Confederation: "The German Empire consists of the territory of the former German Confederation." In § 87, the constitution refers to the Empire as

16851-410: The term "fundamental rights" achieve a certain universality. The pre-parliament was also important because politicians began to group themselves according to their political leanings. The pre-parliament initiated two Bundestag resolutions on the election of a national assembly by the German people. The individual states were to elect representatives to a constituent national assembly which was to draft

16988-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in

17125-455: The unfettered efficacy of this most powerful means of education, and be freed from the shame that foreign countries so often cast upon their faces because they have not yet attained one of the highest goods of free nations, long promised to themselves; public and oral trial by jury, separation of the administration from the administration of justice, transfer of all branches of the administration of justice, administrative justice and police power to

17262-524: The ways and means of achieving political goals, differed from the demands of the Offenburg Assembly , which had been proclaimed a month earlier in Offenburg as part of a people's assembly. From this, as well as from the fact that left-wing politicians such as Gustav Struve , Robert Blum, and Friedrich Hecker were not invited, it has often been concluded in research, especially in GDR research, that

17399-412: The working people." The results of the conference thus deviated from the traditional liberal list of demands, which usually included parliamentary representation in the German Confederation. Hansemann's argument for preferring the German Customs Union to the German Confederation was based, on one hand, on the harmonization of laws already taking place within the German Customs Union, which would result in

17536-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during

17673-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching

17810-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of

17947-548: Was a confederation of states that was to provide security both internally and externally. The purpose of the Confederation was thus quite limited: it was not intended, for example, to standardise legal relationships or create a common economic area. Federal law was based primarily on the Federal Act of 1815 and the Final Act of the Vienna Ministerial Conferences of 1820, which drew up a supplement to

18084-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially

18221-429: Was an economic one and was concerned with securing the living conditions of the small farmers and craftsmen affected by the disintegrating pre-industrial structures. Here, Hecker and Struve advocated what the liberals saw as a backward-looking industrial and commercial program that was directed against the abolition of customs duties and cross-border trade, while the liberals saw the liberalization of trade and commerce in

18358-579: Was drafted, the Frankfurt Constitution was heavily referenced. The constituent Reichstag amended Bismarck 's draft constitution in its direction. Later during the German Empire, it was a basis for discussion in the development of the new imperial constitution . When the Weimar Constitution was drafted in 1919, the Frankfurt catalogue of fundamental rights was an important model. Even in the Parliamentary Council (1948–1949),

18495-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which

18632-468: Was mainly due to the fact "that foreign powers such as Denmark and the Netherlands" were part of the Confederation and the latter could therefore never have an interest in the unification of Germany. For those present, however, the customs union was "the only bond of common German interests" and this was "not created by the Confederation, but outside it by treaties between the individual states". Thus,

18769-477: Was to consist of two chambers (§ 85), and a member could belong to only one at a time.( § 97) A resolution of the Reichstag required the consent of both houses ( § 100). The Volkshaus represented the German people as a whole and was elected according to equal manhood suffrage. The basis for the election was the Imperial Election Act of 12 April 1849. The legislative period was four years after

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