The Comedy of the Imperial Crown

[The Comedy of the Imperial Crown]

["Neue Rheinische Zeitung" 
No. 263, April 4, 1849, 
Extraordinary Supplement]

* Cologne, April 3. Herr Brandenburg yesterday communicated to the Second Chamber what the King will do in the “German question”. The temptation was too great; the “faithful Eckarts” of the “Neue Preußische Zeitung”, with all their warnings, have been brushed aside. The King of Prussia will accept the proffered crown, and we may accordingly now look forward to the solemn entry of His Christian Germanic Royal Imperial Majesty into the seat of the “imperial government”.

While, however, Frederick William accepts the imperial crown from the hands of the plebeian Frankfurt Parliament, he simultaneously gives this same parliament and the illusion of its sovereignty a gentle kick.

The Minister-President 
“recognises that the resolution of the Frankfurt Assembly is a great step forward towards bringing about German unity. But he must also take account of the rights of the governments. He is of the opinion that the resolution first becomes valid through the free consent of the princes and is binding only for those German lands whose princes give this free consent. The Prussian government will, however, do everything to bring about this free unification.”[126]

Very cunning! The imperial crown is always acceptable, especially when it is a life’s goal long vainly desired — compare the well-known brochure by Radowitz: How Frederick William the Fourth Did Not Become German Emperor.[127] But too much plebeian dust clings to the crown proffered by the Frankfurt Parliament, too many unpleasant memories of the ill-fated days of the rule of the sovereign people, for a king by the Grace of God, and a rehabilitated one into the bargain, to be allowed to press it on to his head just like that.

Only when the other princes, likewise crowned by the Grace of God, have given their consent to it, only then will the new crown be cleansed and consecrated by the Grace of God of all sinful stains contracted in March; only then will the chosen one of the 290 professors and court councillors[128] take hold of it and speak, as once in Berlin: “By the Grace of God I have this crown, and woe to him who touches it!”[129]

We shall leave it to the wisdom of the “Kölnische Zeitung” to determine into what new stage the imperial German imbroglio will enter through the imperial comedy and specifically through the respective recognition or non-recognition of the individual governments.