BERLIN. Vor genau 140 Jahren wurde im Spiegelsaal von Versailles mit der Ausrufung des preußischen Königs Wilhelm I. zum Deutschen Kaiser das Deutsche Reich gegründet. Wilhelm I. versprach, „allzeit Mehrer des Deutschen Reichs zu sein, nicht an kriegerischen Eroberungen, sondern an den Gütern und Gaben des Friedens auf dem Gebiet nationaler Wohlfahrt, Freiheit und Gesittung“. Ihm zur Seite stand Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck.
The day had been 18 January chosen because he had been crowned at this 170 years before the first Prussian King Frederick I. A coronation William I did not take place because it is not his empire "by the grace of God" received, but from the German rulers under the leadership of the Bavarian King Ludwig II, although later the new imperial crown was present everywhere, whether in the crest of the empire or coins, it has never given them concrete was preceded
the Empire, the so-called three German wars of unification. - The German-Danish War of 1864, the Austro-Prussian War in 1866 and the Franco-German War of 1870-71 - which emerged from Germany or Prussia each victorious. The existing German Confederation since 1815 had been resolved already 1866th He was replaced by the North German Confederation, the Constitution of 26 July 1867 after the accession of the southern states (Grand Duchy of Baden, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Kingdom of Bavaria, Kingdom of Württemberg) in November 1870 also served as a template for the constitution.
emperor as supreme commander
On 9 December 1870 requested the Bundesrat, the federal government extended the "German Reich" to name what the Reichstag on 10 Approved in December 1870. On 31 December 1870, the new Constitution of the German Reich proclaimed, which the North German Confederation was officially the end. Most of the laws of the North German Confederation were transferred to the German Reich. On 29 January 1871 were eventually exchanged the instruments of ratification in Berlin.
As Reich flag were the colors black, white and red taken over by the North German Confederation. Otto von Bismarck in 1870, this combination of the Hanseatic red and white, with the Prussian black, white on the transfer newly established empire.
The empire was founded by all the German princes and free cities as a federal state. The title of emperor was hereditary and was the Prussian king, the emperor as the supreme commander of all German land and naval forces exercised. He had the right to convene, opening and closing of the Reichstag and appointed the Chancellor, who was usually also Prussian Minister-President and the Presidency of the Federal lead.
Introduction the Mark
were The Chancellor assumes the Secretaries of State as head of the Empire offices. Institution of the legislative process for laws of the Empire was the imperial capital of the new Reichstag in Berlin. Its 400 deputies were elected by universal, equal, direct and secret elections.
The merger of the German states made possible the standardization of weights and measures, customs tariffs and excise taxes, and coinage. In the years after unification and guilder coins disappeared from circulation. Instead of verschiedenen Währungseinheiten trat eine einheitliche, auf dem Goldstandard basierende Währung: die Mark zu 100 Pfennig. Das 1868 im Norddeutschen Bund eingeführte metrische System wurde auf das Reich übertragen.
Das Deutsche Kaiserreich, dessen Einwohnerzahl sich von 39 Millionen 1871 auf über 68 Millionen stieg, endete im November 1918 mit der deutschen Niederlage im Ersten Weltkrieg und der Abdankung Wilhelm II. (bä/krk)
Quelle: Junge Freiheit
