Cities and Urban Life

This chapter looks at the efforts of the Brandenburg–Manteuffel and Manteuffel Ministries of State, as well as the police, to reform local government in the 1850s. At the centre of this project stood the introduction of a statewide municipal ordinance developed according to the earlier templates of Baron Karl von und zum Stein. The Municipal Ordinance of 1850 was designed to energize urban activity by increasing the power of state supervision. In addition, the ordinance sought to replace corporate-based participation in local affairs with class affiliations, thus continuing to break down the last remnants of feudalism in Prussia. Realizing such a reform agenda was no easy task, but, when coupled with energetic policing, change was soon achieved. The police became an important element in this process of revitalization, overseeing a range of new programmes to develop towns and better to provide for the welfare of residents, particularly in Berlin.

Crime and Punishment

This chapter sets out to chart the reforms to criminal and penal affairs undertaken in Prussia in the 1850s. Both Manteuffel and the Justice Minister Ludwig Simons believed that revolutionary unrest could be countered by completing unattended work from the Vormärz era pertaining to criminal justice. But realizing a reform agenda was no easy task. On the political extremes it elicited opposition, especially in the symbolically charged terrain of substantive criminal law. To avoid such complications, both ministers worked hard to shift debate to the realm of procedural reform in the 1850s, creating a surprising and largely integrating space for state-building. In doing so, the post-revolutionary ministries pursued reform without slipping into parochialism. That is, they did not permanently close avenues for the creation of a set of unified national codes to regulate criminal and penal affairs.

Cabinets, Constitutions, and Parliamentary Representation

This chapter traces the formation of the Brandenburg–Manteuffel and Manteuffel Ministries of State, and their efforts to bring revolutionary unrest to an end. Ending revolutionary instability included addressing calls for Prussia to enter the constitutional age by debating basic rights, the merits of a constitution, and a representative system. The resulting ‘System Manteuffel’ was a surprise to many, especially as Manteuffel elided the interests of those on the political extremes, making their agendas appear dangerously retrograde. And, yet, this impulse to find a moderate path out of revolutionary upheaval was not unique to Prussia. As a result, the analysis of the politics of the Prussian Ministry of State in the 1850s is couched within a larger framework of government activity across the German states.

Conclusion

This chapter draws together the themes raised in the book. It reminds the reader that the Minister-President Brandenburg was appointed to restore monarchy and this he did with tenacity, but not in the way expected by the king or the court camarilla. Manteuffel too confounded expectations. Throughout their terms in office, these ministers eschewed ideological agendas in preference for realist settlements that would strengthen and extend the reach of the state. The bureaucracy was essential to carrying out these reforms, ushering in new forms of legal certainty, economic growth, and social reform. This chapter concludes that the reforms of the 1850s were formative for the development of the Prussian state—a second Reform Era. And it ends with a reflection on the legacies of this period for the formation of Imperial Germany.

Public Opinion and Press Management

This chapter explores the adoption of a system of press management by the Brandenburg–Manteuffel and Manteuffel Ministries of State in the 1850s. Press management included the institutionalization of a press office, which was responsible for the production of daily reports on the state of the news. It also included the production of official newspapers, circulation of government friendly articles, and granting of subventions to non-oppositional papers. Yet it soon became clear that the office could not shape public debate, as had been hoped. The disappointing results of official press measures in Prussia and other German states meant that governments had increasingly to show themselves willing to open up the workings of the state to greater scrutiny through a circulation of state materials. This would shift the relationship between the state and public sphere, especially after the unification of the German states.

Agriculture, Industry, and Communications

This chapter looks at the efforts of the Brandenburg–Manteuffel and Manteuffel Ministries of State to reform agriculture, industry, and communications in the post-revolutionary decade. Throughout the 1850s, Manteuffel and the Trade Minister August von der Heydt sought to create economic growth in ways that had not been possible before the revolution. On a macro-scale, they implemented long-developed plans for peasant emancipation to make agriculture more profitable. They also looked to ease the effects of free trade. In Prussia’s industrial sectors, the Trade Ministry oversaw a programme of substantial direct and indirect interventions to stimulate growth, the likes of which were predominantly being borne by the business class before 1848. And, in communications, the state reached into the countryside with the construction of railways, roads, and telegraph lines. Prussia’s economic reforms were essential to the making of the modern Prussian state and, despite their domestic focus, did not preclude the possibility of national codification.

Bureaucratic Geographies of the State

This chapter explores the nature of the Prussian state on the eve of 1848 and the administrative challenges it posed to officials. This includes an overview of Prussia’s territories and administrative structures. Within this bureaucratic geography, the Prussian Central Statistical Office comes to the fore as an institution that would be of great importance to state-building in the post-revolutionary decade. The chapter examines the activities undertaken by the director of this office and the bureaucrats who worked with him. It also establishes their role in facilitating an exchange of government materials with other states in the 1850s. The Prussian Ministry of State would rely on many of these statistical materials in exacting reforms, as will be indicated in the chapters that follow.

Introduction

This chapter introduces the Prussian governments of the post-revolutionary period, situating them within a divided political landscape. The Brandenburg–Manteuffel and Manteuffel Ministries of State promoted ambitious reforms to bring stability after years of revolutionary upheaval in Prussia. These ranged from restructurings of criminal justice to the adoption of press management. Similar initiatives could also be seen in other German states in the 1850s and 1860s. Indeed, across Europe, this was a period of innovative state action. The chapter draws our attention to what reform in Prussia can tell us about government and state-building in the post-revolutionary period. It also places the post-revolutionary period within a longer history of transition away from lingering feudal structures, thereby encouraging us to turn back and to turn forward in our analysis of Prussian restructurings.