1849 Baden Revolution
By 1847 Radicalism once more began to lift up its head in Baden. On September 12 that year, a popular demonstration held at Offenburg passed resolutions demanding the conversion of the regular army into a national militia which should take an oath to the constitution; a progressive income tax; and a fair adjustment of the interests of capital and labour.
The news of the revolution of February 1848 in Paris, brought the agitation to a head. Numerous public meetings occurred and adopted the Offenburg programme, and on March 4, under the influence of the popular excitement, the lower chamber accepted this programme almost unanimously. As in other German states, the government bowed to the storm, proclaimed an amnesty and promised reforms. The ministry remodelled itself in a more Liberal direction; and sent a new delegate to the federal diet at Frankfurt, empowered to vote for the establishment of a parliament for a united Germany.
The disorders, fomented by republican agitators, nonetheless continued; and the efforts of the government to suppress them with the aid of federal troops led to an armed insurrection. For the time this was mastered without much difficulty; the uprising, led by Friedrich Hecker and Franz Joseph Trefzger, lost at Kandern on April 20, 1848; Freiburg, which they held, fell on April 24; and on April 27 a Franco-German legion, which had invaded Baden from Strasbourg, was routed at Dossenbach.
At the beginning of 1849, however, the issue of a new constitution, in accordance with the resolutions of the Frankfurt parliament, led to more serious trouble. It did little to satisfy the Radicals, angered by the refusal of the second chamber to agree to their proposal for the summoning of a constituent assembly (February 10, 1849).
The new insurrection that now broke out proved a more formidable affair than the first. A military mutiny at Rastatt on May 11 showed that the army sympathised with the revolution, which was proclaimed two days later at Offenburg amid tumultuous scenes. On the same day (May 13) a mutiny at Karlsruhe forced Grand Duke Leopold to flee, and the next day his ministers followed, while a committee of the diet under Lorenz Brentano (1813-1891), who represented the more moderate Radicals as against the republicans, established itself in the capital to attempt to direct affairs pending the establishment of a provisional government.
This was accomplished on June 1, and on June 10 the constituent diet, consisting entirely of the most "advanced" politicians, assembled. It had little chance of doing more than make speeches; the country remained in the hands of an armed mob of civilians and mutinous soldiers; and, meanwhile, the Grand Duke of Baden had joined with Bavaria in requesting the armed intervention of Prussia, which Berlin granted on the condition that Baden should join the League of the Three Kings.
From this moment the revolution in Baden was doomed, and with it the revolution in all Germany. The Prussians, under Prince William (afterwards William I, German Emperor), invaded Baden in the middle of June 1849. Afraid of a military escalation, Brentano reacted hesitantly - too hesitantly for the more radical Gustav Struve and his followers, who overthrew him and established a Pole, Ludwig Mieroslawski (1814-1878), in his place.
Mieroslawski reduced the insurgents to some semblance of order. On June 20, 1849 he met the Prussians at Waghausel, and suffered complete defeat; on June 25 Prince William entered Karlsruhe; and at the end of the month the members of the provisional government, who had taken refuge at Freiburg, dispersed. Such of the insurgent leaders as were caught, notably the ex-officers, suffered military execution; the army was dispersed among Prussian garrison towns; and Prussian troops occupied Baden for a time. Franz Trefzger managed to escape to Switzerland.
Grand Duke Leopold returned on August 10, and at once dissolved the diet. The following elections resulted in a majority favourable to the new ministry, which passed a series of laws of a reactionary tendency with a view to strengthening the government.
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