The Constitution of the German Empire (German: Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches) was the basic law of the German Empire of 1871-1919, enacted 16 April 1871. German historians often refer to it as Bismarck's imperial constitution.
The constitution was effectively a treaty between its signatories, the North German Confederation and four southern German states, adding those states as members of the confederation and giving the enlarged entity a new identity as the Deutsches Reich (conventionally translated as "German Empire"). The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 had resulted in the dissolution of the German Confederation in 1866 and formation of the North German Confederation in 1867, among other events.
The text of the constitution was based on that of the Constitution of the North German Confederation, which had likewise been instigated by Otto von Bismarck.
According to the constitution, head of state was the King of Prussia as the president of the Bundesrat, the council of representatives of the German states. His title was German Emperor. The Emperor installed the Chancellor, the head of government. Laws were enacted by the Bundesrat and the Reichstag, the Imperial Diet elected by male Germans above the age of 25 years.
The most important changes to this constitution, of October 1918, gave the Reichstag the right to call for a demission of the Chancellor. These changes have led to the notion October constitution.
It has the same German title as its successor, the Weimar Constitution (also known as the "Constitution of the German Reich"), which replaced it in 1919 creating the Weimar Republic.
Read more about Constitution Of The German Empire: Signatories and Members, The Emperor, Legislation, The Reichskanzler (Imperial Chancellor), Citizenship, Imperial Officials, Amendments
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“I never did ask more, nor ever was willing to accept less, than for all the States, and the people thereof, to take and hold their places, and their rights, in the Union, under the Constitution of the United States. For this alone have I felt authorized to struggle; and I seek neither more nor less now.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties; adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections; keeping inseparable and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
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—Abigail Adams (1744–1818)
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—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Without the Empire we should be tossed like a cork in the cross current of world politics. It is at once our sword and our shield.”
—William Morris Hughes (1864–1952)