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THE GERMAN REVOLUTION OF 1848/49
"THE MARCH REVOLUTION"
KEY POINTS:
- People started a revolution to unify Germany
- Germany's first free elected parliament met on March 18, 1848, inside the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt / Main
- The revolution failed and many leading political heads fled to the United States. They became known as the 48ers
In 1848, news spread to the German Confederation that an insurrection had overthrown the French King Louis-Philippe. As a result, a series of
sympathetic, loosely coordinated protests broke out in the German states and many other European countries. Since the War of Liberation, student unions, or Burschenschaften, passed
on the idea of a unified, democratic Germany under the colors of black, red, and gold. Their ideas were expressed when a large group of people peacefully gathered at Hambach Castle in
1832. Other groups, however, tried to achieve a German unification in a more violent way. This was the case when the Frankfurt guardhouse was stormed in 1833, and police officers came under
attack. They also wanted to storm the parliament the following day to trigger a coup d'état. The Hambach Festival of
1832 laid the groundwork for growing unrest in the face of political censorship. The rebellions in 1848 demonstrated widespread discontent with the traditional
autocratic political structure of the Confederation. Furthermore, the hard times in the late 1840s, caused by economic depression, transformed these rebellions into a full-blown
revolution.
Whereas artisans in big cities were fighting for a stable livelihood, the middle-class was committed to liberal principles. In March 1848, crowds of
people gathered in Berlin to present their demands for liberal reforms in an address to the king. On March 18, fierce fights swept across Berlins streets, and more than 200 civilians lost their
lives. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV yielded to all the requests, which included:
■ parliamentary elections
■ a unified Germany with a constitution
■ freedom of the press and
■ freedom of assembly
THE FORTY-EIGHTERS
The aristocracy was also able to defeat the democratic process in 1849 because the middle-class and working-class split. As a result, many liberals were forced into exile to escape persecution. The ones who fled to the United States became known as the Forty-Eighters.
Immigration to the U.S. had already increased since 1845 and spiked after the failed revolution of 1848. Only the intellectuals and
leading political heads of the unsuccessful revolution who immigrated to the United States are called 48ers (not to be confused with the 49ers who moved to the west because of the California
Gold Rush). Approximately 4000 immigrants fell into this category. Even though the refugees did not receive any governmental support, most Americans welcomed them with sympathy because
of equal ideologies. Many of them were able to put their democratic ideas into action on American soil. Some Forty-Eighters founded German-American organizations such as Turnvereine and
became known as the Turners. Not a few 48ers became Americanized and launched a successful career, such as Carl Schurz, who became ambassador for Spain, a general in the American civil war
and Interior Secretary. Another German-American who made his career in the United States was Franz Sigel, who led a militia in the Baden insurrection and fought as another German-American general
for the Union during the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). Those 48ers who still engaged for the German cause once they reached American soil experienced rejection. They were expected to
assimilate to American customs and practices. Some 48ers went back to Germany with broken dreams as things calmed down.