Frankfurt Assembly of 1848–49

(also Frankfurt Parliament), an all-German national assembly convoked during the Revolution of 1848–49 for the purpose of unifying the various German states and drafting a constitution.

The assembly opened on May 18, 1848, in Frankfurt am Main. Because of the vacillations of the liberal-bourgeois majority and the indecisiveness and inconsistency of the petit bourgeois left wing, the assembly was unable to resolve the basic task of the revolution: the unification of Germany. It took virtually no steps to eliminate feudal oppression or to stem the counterrevolution. Not until March 1849, when reaction had already triumphed in Prussia and Austria, did the assembly finally draft a middle-of-the-road constitution, in accordance with which the German states were to form a monarchical federation; the constitution was never implemented. The Austrian and Prussian governments soon recalled their deputies from Frankfurt, and the liberal deputies from other states subsequently quit the assembly. The left-wing petit bourgeois deputies moved their sessions to Stuttgart, where, on June 18, 1849, they were dispersed by troops of the Württemberg government.