Great Empire between Decay and Upheaval: Austria 1848 Cover Image

Großmacht zwischen Zerfall und Umbruch: Österreich 1848
Great Empire between Decay and Upheaval: Austria 1848

Author(s): Wilhelm Brauneder
Subject(s): History of Law, Constitutional Law, History of ideas, Political history, 19th Century, Period(s) of Nation Building
Published by: Evropská společnost pro právní dějiny, z.s.
Keywords: Revolutions of 1848; German Confederation; Modernization plans; Constitutional development in Austria; Democratic principle; municipal constitution; state constitution; Personal union; Dualism Austria-Hungary.

Summary/Abstract: As a result of the revolutions of 1848, numerous new constitutions were promulgated, particularly in Central Europe. The Swiss Confederation transformed from a loose confederation of states into a republican federal state modeled on the United States of America. Similarly, the German Confederation, as a confederation, was to be replaced by the "German Empire" as a federal state, but this ultimately failed. Individual German states, such as Bavaria and Hesse-Kassel, replaced their early constitutional constitutions with highly constitutional monarchical constitutions. Prussia received its first constitutional constitution. France also underwent a transformation: the monarchy was replaced by a republic. The revolutions in Austria and Hungary had a very different effect: Here, the issue was not just constitutional changes, but rather the very existence of the entire state, which threatened to disintegrate into individual parts, and especially the statehood of Hungary.

  • Issue Year: 16/2025
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 64-68
  • Page Count: 5
  • Language: German
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