page_title: German Empire (1848–49)
section_title: Continuity and status
hierarchical_section_title: German Empire (1848–49) / Continuity and status
caption_attribution_description: English: Imperial Fleet
context_page_description: The German Empire was a short-lived nation state which existed from 1848 to 1849.
context_section_description: Contemporaries and scholars had different opinions about the statehood of the German Empire of 1848/1849:
  One group followed a positivist point of view: law was statutory law. A constitution for Germany had to be agreed upon with the governments of all German states. This was the opinion of the monarchists and the German states.
  The other group valued natural law and the principle of the sovereignty of the people higher; the National Assembly alone had the power to establish a constitution. This was the opinion of the majority of the Frankfurt Parliament, but especially the republican left.
  In reality the distinction was less clear. The majority of the Frankfurt Parliament, based on the liberal groups, wanted to establish a dualist system with a sovereign monarch whose powers would be constrained by a constitution and parliament.
  A German Confederation was created in 1815. This treaty organization for the defense of the German territories lacked, in the view of the national movement, a government and a parliament. But it was generally acknowledged by German and foreign powers – to establish a national state, it was the easiest to present it as the continuation of the Confederation. This was actually the road the National Assembly took, although it originally saw itself as a revolutionary organ.
  The continuity between the old Confederation and the new organs was based on two decisions of the Confederation's Federal Convention:
  The Federal Convention (representing the German states' governments) called for elections of the Frankfurt Parliament in April/May 1848.
  The German states immediately acknowledged Archduke John, the provisional monarch elected by the Frankfurt Parliament. On July 12, 1848, the Federal Convention ended its activities in favor of the Imperial Regent, Archduke John. This was an implicit recognition of the Law concerning the Central Power of June 28.
  Of course, the German states and the Federal Convention made those decisions under pressure of the revolution. They wanted to avoid a breakup with the Frankfurt Parliament. (Already in August this pressure faltered, and the larger states started to regain power.) According to historian Ernst Rudolf Huber, it was possible to determine a continuity or even legal identity of Confederation and the new Federal State. The old institution was enhanced with a (provisional) constitutional order and the name German Confederation was changed to German Empire. Ulrich Huber notes that none of the German states declared the Imperial Regent John and his government to be usurpatory or illegal.
caption: Imperial war and commerce flag, according to the law of November 12, 1848
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