Citizens’ meeting on April 5, 1848
“It’s high time”
It is high time for the will of the people, the spirit of the people and the voice of the people to rise up in our town too. And elsewhere in the “Kirchheimbolander Wochenblatt” of April 4, 1848, it is emphasized: “Only the most active exchange of ideas protects against one-sidedness and the united will strengthens and encourages us to stand up to the coming storms.
It was therefore foreseeable that the existing authoritarian state order would not move towards popular sovereignty based on fundamental rights and the separation of powers without public pressure.
A lively exchange of ideas was therefore still required; in terms of democratic theory, we would speak of discourse today
So it was noble intentions that gave rise to the idea of a citizens’ assembly in Kirchheimbolanden. In order to steer the whole thing in an orderly direction from the outset, the date and content were first set in a provisional meeting: April 5, Wednesday afternoon at 4 o’clock in St. Peter’s Church. And the subjects of the meeting were: 1. the election of a committee to lead the future citizens’ assemblies, 2. the discussion of the question: What material advantages can we expect from the near future?
A committee elected by the preparatory assembly was responsible for this. Its members included Dr. Friedrich Glaser [Standort 53], who subsequently took on the leadership role.
Invitation
The invitation to the citizens’ assembly was only published in the “Wochenblatt” on April 4. The associated short notice was not a specific individual case in those days, but was solely due to the revolutionary dynamics that characterized March and April 1848 in Germany.
This also included a linguistic moment: the “we”: what benefits can we expect from the future? But wasn’t such a question likely to overwhelm the meeting?
However, the report on April 5 is very euphoric and overconfident. The “Wochenblatt” of April 14 noted:
The whole assembly showed by its firm, dignified attitude that it was imbued with the spirit that only in a calm, orderly, lawful manner could the great, important affairs of the fatherland and the community be discussed, that the path be paved which would lead the fatherland inexorably towards its beautiful, high goal.
It was therefore essential to continue the discourse that had begun. The assembly therefore also elected a committee with the task of preparing and chairing the meetings, with Dr. Friedrich Glaser as chairman. Practicing democracy was taken very seriously.
This also affected the date of the next citizens’ assembly: eleven days later, this time on a Sunday and again in the afternoon in St. Peter’s Church.
Now the concrete work began: with an appeal to the Wo[h]llöbichen City Council. May the full number of seats be up for election in the forthcoming city council elections and not just half, as provided for in the existing municipal regulations.
However, the meeting seems to have triggered a considerable group dynamic. The “Wochenschau” of April 18, for example, contains telling mixed announcements.
The focus therefore also went far beyond Kirchheimbolanden – to the north, where the two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but had declared their independence in the wake of the general March euphoria. However, the Danish response was not long in coming. Support was therefore called for.
“It’s high time”, but
In the present free movement there is a definite need to convene a public assembly. But should a church be the place for this? For a different kind of freedom is to be achieved in the church than in the popular assemblies. The church should set people free inwardly. People’s assemblies, on the other hand, follow a different idea of freedom. And what’s more, whatever the people’s assembly outwardly strives for will sooner or later pass us by like a phantom. And that is why it would be a good thing if the committee of the Kirchheimerboland citizens’ assembly [zukünftig] were to discuss a more suitable venue for the assemblies – perhaps the castle? – and make suggestions to the citizens.
Friedrich Kemmer, candidate for the presbytery in Bischheim, made his opposition very clear in the “Kirchheimbolander Wochenblatt” of April 7, 1848. However, the opening of St. Peter’s Church had been preceded by a corresponding resolution in the “Board of the Presbytery”.
However, the theologian’s vote was not the only critical voice. In the same “Wochenblatt” of 7 April 1848, Dr. Glaser commented under the heading Zur Verständigung on the accusation that the citizens’ assembly was based on special interests, especially those of the civil servants and moneyed aristocrats. That was an accusation that went to the heart of the matter. Glaser replied very personally: “I am not a civil servant, and to be a moneyed aristocrat I lack the first necessary thing, the money. […] The only thing that drove me to propose the citizens’ assembly, as well as other public appearances, was the desire to serve the common good.
So were public citizens’ assemblies an appropriate way forward? This question arose in the same way elsewhere.
It also led to the founding of a “citizens’ association” in Kirchheimbolanden [Standort 60]. The invitation was issued by the “Citizens’ Committee”, the governing body of the citizens’ assembly, on May 31, 1848.
