Karl Marx

The Dissolution of the National Assembly

Cologne, December 6. The counter-revolution has reached its second stage.

No. 162, December 7, 1848.
Extrablatt
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.

The National Assembly is dissolved. An octroyed constitution has been simply promulgated by “Most High Grace”.

The whole hypocrisy pursued since May with the “agreement” has shed its last veil.

The March revolution is declared null and void, and “divine right” celebrates its triumphs.

The camarilla, the Junkerdom, the bureaucracy and the whole reaction, with and without uniforms, jubilate that the stupid people are at last to be driven back into the stable of the “Christian-Germanic” state.

The “Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger” of December 6 contains the following ordinance in the “official section”:

We, Frederick William, by the grace of God, King of Prussia, etc., from the accompanying report of Our State Ministry on the last sessions of the Assembly summoned to agree on the constitution, have, to Our deep sorrow, gained the conviction that the great work for which this Assembly was summoned can no longer be carried on with the same without injury to the dignity of Our Crown and without detriment to the inseparable welfare of the country. We therefore ordain, on the proposal of Our State Ministry, as follows:

§ 1.
The Assembly summoned to agree on the constitution is hereby dissolved.

§ 2.
Our State Ministry is charged with the execution of this ordinance.

In witness whereof, under Our Own Hand and the affixed Royal Seal.

Given at Potsdam, December 5, 1848.

Frederick William.

The State Ministry.
Count von Brandenburg. von Ladenberg. von Strotha. von Manteuffel.
Rintelen. von der Heydt.

The preamble to the constitutional charter reads:

We, Frederick William, by the grace of God, King of Prussia, etc., etc., make known and give to understand: that We, in consequence of the extraordinary circumstances that have arisen, which have rendered the intended agreement on the constitution impossible, and in accordance with the urgent demands of the public welfare, with the fullest possible consideration of the extensive preliminary labours emanating from the elected representatives of the people, have resolved to issue the following constitutional charter, subject to the revision thereof, ordered at the end, by the ordinary process of legislation.

The third document summons the two chambers designated in the octroyed charter to Berlin on February 26, 1849. As regards the second chamber, the elections of the electors shall take place on January 22 and the elections of the deputies on February 5; as regards the first chamber, the elections of the electors on January 29 and the elections of the deputies on February 12. A naturally most graciously octroyed electoral law for the formation of the first chamber will follow immediately.

This document is entitled: “Patent concerning the convocation of the representatives.” Thus we have happily arrived once more at the patent period of the year 1847.