Reichstag (institution)
The
Reichstag (
German for "Imperial/National
Diet") was the
parliament of the
Holy Roman Empire, the
North German Confederation, and of
Germany until
1945. The main chamber of the German parliament is now called
Bundestag, but the building in which it meets is still called "Reichstag" (see
Reichstag (building)).
The term "Reichstag" () is a
compound of
German Reich ("empire", "country") and
Tag ("assembly"; does not mean "day" here, but is derived from the verb
tagen "to assemble"). The
Latin term, a direct translation, was
curia imperialis. (Still today, the parliaments on the various federal levels in Germany are called
Bundestag,
Landtag etc.)
While the
Holy Roman Empire lasted (formally until
1806), the
Reichstag never was a parliament in today's sense; instead, it was the assembly of the various estates that the Empire was comprised of. More precisely, it was the convention of the
Reichsstände ("imperial states"), those legal entities that, according to
feudal law, had no authority above them besides the king himself (see
Holy Roman Empire for details).
The precise role and function changed over the centuries, as did the Empire itself, while the states gained more and more control at the expense of the imperial power. Initially, there was neither a fixed time nor location for the
Reichstag. It started as a convention of the
dukes of the old
Germanic tribes that formed the
Frankish kingdom when important decisions had to be made, probably based on the old Germanic law that each leader relied on the support of his leading men. For example, already under
Charlemagne, the
Reichstag in
Aachen in
802/
803 officially declared the laws of the
Saxons and other tribes. The Reichstag of
919 in
Fritzlar elected the first king of the Germans who was a Saxon,
Henry the Fowler, thus overcoming the longstanding rivalry between Franks and Saxons and laying the foundation for the German Empire. In 1158, the
Reichstag in
Roncaglia finalized four laws that would significantly alter the (never formally written)
constitution of the Empire, marking the beginning of the steady decline of the central power in favor of the local dukes. In
1356, the
Golden Bull cemented the concept of
Landesherrschaft ("territorial rule"), the largely independent rule of the dukes over their respective territories.
However, until the late
15th century, the
Reichstag was not actually formalized as an institution. Instead, the dukes and other princes would irregularly convene at the court of the king; these assemblies were usually referred to as
Hoftage (from German
Hof "court"). Only beginning in
1489 was the
Reichstag called as such, and was formally divided into several
collegia ("colleges"). Initially, the two colleges were that of the
Kurfürsten ("prince-electors") and that of the other dukes and princes. Later, the
imperial cities, that is, cities that were
reichsunmittelbar and were oligarchic republics independent of a local ruler that were formally only responsible to the king himself, managed to be accepted as a third party.
Several attempts to reform the Empire to end its slow disintegration, starting with the
Reichstag in
1495, did not have much effect. In contrast, this process was quite concluded with
1648's
Peace of Westphalia, which formally bound the Emperor to all decisions made by the
Reichstag, in effect depriving him of his few remaining powers. From then to its end in
1806, the
Reich was not much more than a collection of largely independent states.
Probably most well known are the
Reichstage in
Worms of
1495, where the
Imperial Reform was concluded, another in
1521, where
Martin Luther was banned (see
Edict of Worms), and several in
Nuremberg; see
Diet of Worms and
Diet of Nuremberg for details.
Only with the induction of the
Immerwährender Reichstag ("permanent Imperial Diet") in
1663 did the
Reichstag permanently convene in a fixed location, the city of
Regensburg.
For a list of members of the
Reichstag as of 1792, near the end of the Empire, refer to
List of Reichstag participants (1792).
 |
The opening of the German parliament in 1894 |
After the collapse of the Empire in
1806, the term was subsequently used for the Parliament of the
1849 Frankfurt constitution draft that never came into effect, the Parliament of the
North German Confederation from
1867-
1871 and finally that of the
1871 German Empire. In all three cases, it was a parliament elected by the people, albeit with varying degrees of power.
In the
1919 Weimar Republic, the
Reichskanzler (chancellor,
head of government) was responsible to the
Reichstag, which was directly elected by the people, and was a true democratic parliament. From
1930 on, however, the
Reichstag was practically circumvented with the use of the extensive powers that the constitution granted to the
president. After
Adolf Hitler was appointed
Reichskanzler on
January 30,
1933 the process of
Gleichschaltung ("marching in step", "synthesis") commenced with the
Reichstag Fire Decree (Reichstagsbrandverordnung) and the
Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz), in which the
Reichstag formally dispensed of its legislative powers. From then on it only functioned as a body of acclamation for the actions of the dictatorship. Even with this purpose, it had its last session in
1942.
The
Reichstag building in
Berlin was constructed as the seat of the
Reichstag in the German Empire in
1894 and, after a major reconstruction, has been the seat of today's German parliament, the
Bundestag, since
1999. After the building was gutted in the Reichstag fire of 1933, the puppet Nazi Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House.
After the
1871 formation of the
German Empire the Historical Commission of the
Bavarian Academy of Sciences started to collect imperial records (
Reichsakten) and imperial diet records (
Reichstagsakten). In
1893 the commission published the first volume. At present the years
1524 -
1527 and years up to
1544 are being collected and researched. A volume dealing with the
1532 Reichstag in Regensburg, including the peace negotiations with the
Protestants in
Schweinfurt and
Nuremberg, by
Rosemarie Aulinger of
Vienna was published in
1992.
The enormous amount of records in numerous archives and libraries in Germany,
Austria,
Switzerland,
France,
Italy,
Spain,
Denmark,
England and
Poland needs to be made available, gathered and worked through.
A
list on the Internet identifies the thousands of different localities. It gives an indication of the monumental task of locating and working on these official records, spread over large areas by the many different rulers, who all had the choice of their preferred seat of residence and government.
*
Höfe und Residenzen im spätmittelalterlichen Reich. Ein Handbuch (in German)
