Political consciousness 1848-49
Revolutionary city council
Barely four weeks after the “May Revolution of 1849” – the Palatinate’s declaration of independence from Bavaria – the new Provisional Government of the Rhine Palatinate sought to secure the municipal level and promulgated a new “Municipal Code” on May 27, 1849. It stipulated in § 1: “The municipalities are independent in the administration of their own affairs and property as well as in the handling of their local police.
The newly elected town council in Kirchheimbolanden on June 9, 1849 met for its first session just four days later. The Prussian troops had just entered the Palatinate at this time. It was therefore decided that, in accordance with the request of the provisional government, every able-bodied citizen should provide themselves with a weapon at their own expense. However, those who are unable to acquire such weapons from their own resources are requested […] to make a declaration at the town hall so that the number of missing weapons can be ascertained, which will then be made and given to those concerned.
The anxious question was: would the Prussian troops attack the town? There were still several hundred irregulars here and Kirchheimbolanden was therefore a possible military battleground. So what was to be done?
Friedrich Bamberger reports on this in his “Erlebnisse aus der pfälzischen Erhebung im Mai und Juni 1849” (Experiences from the Palatinate Uprising in May and June 1849): “Mayors, city councillors and officers of the citizens’ militia, reactionaries and liberals, fraternally united, [kamen zu Zitz und mir], to give us the most urgent ideas against a defense [Kirchheimbolandens], as a result of which the city could suffer. Indeed, they even added that if we should nevertheless take up the fight or try to do so with barricades, we would have the citizens themselves as enemies behind us.
That was clear.
A short time later, the castle garden battle took place [Standort 48]. The revolution in Kirchheimbolanden had thus come to an end.
“Liberation from an anarchic yoke”
On June 25, 1849 – eleven days after the Kirchheimbolanden castle garden battle [Standort 48] – informed the Palatinate-Bavarian government, now back in office: The so-called provisional government, which has seized public power in a highly treacherous manner, as well as the authorities appointed by it for the Landcommissariat districts, cantons and municipalities of the Palatinate are hereby abolished and all acts and resolutions of the same are null and void and of no effect. The statutory authorities, agencies and officials shall immediately resume their powers and functions.
The “Announcement” concluded with an urgent appeal to receive the troops as their liberators from an anarchic yoke and to eliminate the previous lawless state and restore the rule of law.
A note in the “Wochenblatt” dated September 27, 1849 shows how persistently this was followed in Kirchheimbolanden.
The Prince of Thurn und Taxis was the commander-in-chief of the Bavarian troops in the Palatinate.
To ensure pacification, a company of the Bavarian 1st Jäger Battalion was also stationed in Kirchheimbolanden for a year, housed in the school in Amtsstraße [Standort 27].
Continuities and caesuras in public offices
As political revolutions attempt to replace previously dominant ideas with new ones by force and against the existing order, the question arises: How should the respective administrations react? Should they actively support the new ideas, strictly reject and undermine them, or should they wait and be passive? However, if the revolution fails, support could result in a loss of office.
It was therefore not an easy decision-making situation in 1848/49, especially for the mayors, judges and notaries.
The balance sheet was then drawn up after the revolution. In the case of Kirchheimbolanden, Mayor Reinhard Becker remained in office, as did Justice of the Peace Daniel Metzner.
However, both were not entirely without “blemish”: Mayor Becker is even on the list of those individuals against whom investigations already initiated as a result of the Amnesty Act of December 22, 1849 […] were ordered to discontinue proceedings, and Justice of the Peace Metzner was also classified as an “1849 sympathizer”.
In contrast, the revolutionary commitment had far greater consequences for notary Karl Wilhelm Schmidt. He was retired by the Bavarian government with effect from June 9, 1849 – five days before the castle garden battle [Standort 48]. His position was taken over by the second Kirchheimboland notary, Carl August Duderstadt, until he was reappointed.
Overall, therefore, administrative continuity dominated. However, the government and judiciary were not allowed to intervene too strongly, not only to cause new unrest.
However, the authors and participants of the highly treacherous movement were to be demonstratively punished. As a member of the National Defense Committee, Carl Wilhelm Schmidt was one of them, as was his notary Jakob Müller as the “civil commissioner” appointed by the Palatinate revolutionary government in the Kirchheimbolanden district commissariat. However, as both evaded their trial and death sentence by fleeing and emigrating to the USA, no further measures were required on the part of the Bavarian state.
“Deserving men”
It was not an easy task that was to be accomplished in the twelve Palatinate district commissariats (counties) in February 1849: The Bavarian government had requested a list of deserving men from the county commissioners who, in the days of the uprising […] as loyal supporters of His Majesty the King […] had distinguished themselves through their work […] in such a way that they deserved recognition from the state government.
The Kirchheimboland district commissioner then reported a total of 22 names from his administrative area.
For Kirchheimbolanden, the district commissioner’s office named seven deserving men who had stood loyally by the crown and altar with patriotism and courage during the revolution: Jakob Lutzenberger (district commissioner’s assistant), Daniel Metzner (justice of the peace), Hermann Dercum (supplementary judge), Carl Anton Duderstadt (notary), Kaspar Heim (tax inspector), Jakob von Traitteur (forester) and Konrad Völker (Catholic clergyman).
The 1848/49 revolution had therefore only been able to gain a partial foothold in public institutions. This decisively limited the impact of the “uprising”.
“Support for the revolution among the population was similarly patchy. According to the district commissariat, only a quarter supported it. In Kirchheimbolanden, however, sympathy was stronger than in the surrounding villages. Most people loved the peace and quiet. At the same time, according to the Landkommissariat, it could by no means be said that they had a “preference for the Bavarian state”.
It was no different after 1848/49 than before.
