1848/49 in the museum

From the Hambach Festival in 1832 to the 1848/49 Revolution

One of the focal points of the museum in the Kirchheimbolanden town palace is dedicated to the 1848/49 revolution (room OG 9). The Hambach Festival of 1832, at which the ideas of unity and freedom were laid down in a politically effective and public way, is also a topic (room OG 8). The Kingdom of Bavaria, to which the Palatinate had belonged since 1816, also has its place in the museum (room OG 7).

The Hambach Festival is portrayed primarily through its two main exponents, Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer [1798-1845] and Johann Georg August Wirth [1798-1848], whose German national festival on May 27, 1832 was attended by around 30,000 people – men and women. There was also a group from Kirchheimbolanden, including the postman and innkeeper Johann Theobald Ritter [location 52] and the baker Jakob Daum, who reports on the festival and the legal consequences in an audio station.

In the adjoining museum section (room OG 9), the three main phases of the revolution are presented on over 120 square meters using more than 200 objects.

The political upheaval in the spring of 1848 with the demand for greater rights of co-determination in Kirchheimbolanden is closely linked to the physician Dr. Friedrich Glaser (1814-49) [Standort 53]. His commitment contributed significantly to the political mobilization of the public with the citizens’ assembly on 5 April 1848 [Standort 56] and the Kirchheimbolanden Citizens’ Association [Standort 60]. The memorial plaque donated in his memory (Station 4) aptly summarizes his work in the language of the time: The Kirchheim Citizens’ and People’s Association dedicated this monument to the noble fighter for truth, light and unity, Dr. Friedrich Glaser, in May 1849.

The institutionalization of the revolution that followed in the summer and autumn of 1848 is marked, among other things, by two striking black, red and gold flags – the Bürgerwehr and the Freischar (Stations 8, 1). Despite all the national euphoria, internal security had to be guaranteed and the democratic awakening had to be made visible and accompanied with determination, especially as the German National Assembly had been working on a constitution for the Reich in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche since May 18, 1848 (Stations 11, 12).

However, Bavaria and Prussia in particular rejected the imperial constitution proclaimed on March 28, 1849, which led to a test of power. An uprising also broke out in the Palatinate. The constitution was now to be enforced militarily “from below”.

The details of how this took place in the Palatinate are presented in detail (Stations 2, 3, 10, 13, 20), beginning with the Palatinate’s Declaration of Independence and the four-week period of activity of the Provisional Government of the Palatinate (Station 13).

The end then reveals the Kirchheimboland castle garden battle between Rheinhessen irregulars and Prussian troops [Standort 48]. The events are dramatized on a room-high room divider (Station 18) and at an audio station with the report of a privateer (Station 16).

The episode is marked by the “Emperor’s Table” (Station 2), at which the commander-in-chief of the Prussian troops, Crown Prince Wilhelm, who later became Emperor Wilhelm I (Station 3), issued the declaration of the Rhineland Palatinate as a state of war.

So had the political commitment to unity and freedom paid off?
This was not just a men’s issue. It also concerned women. This is explained at the listening station

(Station 10), where Mathilde Hitzfeld (1826-1905) has her say.
The Kirchheimboland revolution icon shows very clearly how the female sphere of life was emancipated by the revolution.

Despite the formal failure of the revolution, it was not only the emancipatory direction that was fundamental to its further socio-political development; above all, the ideas of freedom (fundamental rights, popular sovereignty and separation of powers) and unity (creation of a German nation state) now remained on the political agenda.

First of all, however, the victorious state authorities had to restore “order” and hold the perpetrators of the revolution to account (Stations 25, 26).

However, the “Foundation of Remembrance” soon began in Kirchheimbolanden with the erection of a “Germania” (Station 23) [Standort 49]. While this was a striking sign of “memoria” in 1872, it was also repeatedly emphasized later (Station 24). The Freischaren- Stadt-Tour Kirchheimbolanden is also part of this.