The grand duchy and the constitution of 5 May 1816
The Congress of Vienna made Carl August a grand duke with a larger land in 1815; on 5 May 1816 he gave it the first constitution in Germany after the wars against Napoleon, with an elected Landtag and full freedom of the press.
Weimar's second founding date after Goethe's arrival is a law. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, with the help of his Russian daughter-in-law Maria Pawlowna, Duke Carl August came home a grand duke with a land nearly twice as populous as before, and the enlarged state needed a new order. On 5 May 1816 he proclaimed the Grundgesetz über die Landständische Verfassung des Großherzogtums Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach: thirty-one elected deputies of the landowners, the townspeople and the peasants, no tax without their consent, a share in legislation, and freedom of the press written into the law. It was the first state constitution in Germany to take effect after the wars of liberation, and for a few years the little grand duchy on the Ilm was the place where liberal Germany looked for its future, until the great powers made Carl August enforce the Karlsbad decrees of 1819.[1]
Vienna, 1815: a grand duke and 1,700 square kilometres more
Carl August had fought the last campaign himself, commanding the army corps that freed the Netherlands and Belgium in 1814, and he attended the Congress of Vienna in person.[1] The marriage of his son Carl Friedrich to the tsar's daughter in 1804 now paid off: to Alexander I's influence the duke owed his elevation to grand duke and an enlargement of some 1,700 square kilometres, part of the Neustadt district from Saxony, most of the old Mainz exclave of Erfurt, small lordships such as Blankenhain and Kranichfeld, and a new Eisenach Oberland in the Rhön out of former Hessian and Fulda lands.[2] The population rose from about 100,000 to about 180,000, and the addition gave the occasion for a reform of the state, beginning with the privy council turned into a ministry of state answerable to the prince.[1]
A decree on the duchess's birthday, 30 January 1816
The path to the constitution ran through the estates the duchy already had. Carl August had united the separate estates of his three old provinces in 1809 into one general deputation; now, minded of the promise of Article 13 of the Federal Act of 8 June 1815 that every member state of the German Confederation should have a constitution of estates, he called the deputies of the old lands and delegates of the new ones together with some of his officials to agree the terms on which the estates' rights would be exercised.[3] He chose the day for it deliberately: 30 January, Duchess Louise's birthday, which he had made the day for measures that mattered to the land.[4] The assembly worked out a draft, and the grand duke confirmed it with only a few changes that touched nothing essential, advised by his minister Karl August von Gersdorff.[3]
What the law of 5 May 1816 said
The Grundgesetz recognised three estates, the owners of manors, the townspeople and the peasants, and had all three represented by men elected from their midst. Thirty-one deputies made up the Landtag, eleven for the manor owners, ten for the towns and ten for the peasants, each elected for six years and each with a substitute; an ordinary Landtag met every three years in the first week of January, as a rule in Weimar.[3] No tax, levy or loan could be raised without the estates' express consent, they examined the state's needs and its accounts, and they had a voice in legislation.[3] The eleventh seat of the first estate belonged to the University of Jena, which held manors of its own and sent a member of its senate.[5] The law also granted in writing the freedom of the press that already existed in practice.[1]
Why Germany looked at Weimar, 1816–1817
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was the first German state after the wars of liberation to receive a constitution of this kind.[5] Its features were older than modern parliaments, estates rather than a people's assembly, but with the Landtag's right to approve taxes and share in lawmaking, a comparatively fair representation of the peasants and full freedom of the press it met the tendencies of the age far more than other states did; it caused a considerable stir and woke early constitutional hopes across Germany.[1] The grand duke went further: he favoured the Burschenschaft that the Jena students had founded in 1815, the first in Germany, and let them celebrate the Wartburgfest in October 1817, supporting not only the students' reform movement but, indirectly, the national and liberal aspirations behind it.[1]
The Karlsbad decrees and the long life of the law, 1819–1918
That policy earned Carl August the sharp reproaches of the great powers united in the Holy Alliance, which he at first bravely resisted; the Karlsbad decrees of 1819, raised to federal law, he had to carry out.[1] The constitution itself outlived him. It was revised on 15 October 1850 after the reforms of 1848, and under it the grand duchy remained a constitutional monarchy, hereditary in the male line, until the revolution of 1918 ended the monarchy; the Landtag it created sat in Weimar from 1816 to 1918.[6]
Questions visitors ask
- When did Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach become a grand duchy?
- In 1815: the Congress of Vienna resolved it, and Carl August, helped by his daughter-in-law Maria Pawlowna and the influence of Tsar Alexander I, gained the grand-ducal title and some 1,700 square kilometres of new land, raising the population from about 100,000 to about 180,000.
- What was the constitution of 5 May 1816?
- The Grundgesetz über die Landständische Verfassung des Großherzogtums Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, proclaimed by Carl August on 5 May 1816: thirty-one elected deputies of the manor owners, the towns and the peasants in one Landtag, no tax or loan without its consent, a share in legislation, and freedom of the press. The first constitution of its kind in Germany after the wars of liberation.
- Who sat in the Landtag of 1816?
- Eleven deputies of the manor owners, one of them a senator of the University of Jena, ten of the towns and ten of the peasants, each elected for six years; an ordinary Landtag met every three years in January, as a rule in Weimar.
- What did the constitution have to do with Duchess Louise?
- The decree of 30 January 1816 that convened the deputies to draft it was issued on her birthday, the day Carl August reserved for measures that mattered to the land.
- What happened to the constitution after 1819?
- Carl August had to enforce the Karlsbad decrees of 1819 against the freedoms his law had granted. The constitution itself was revised in 1850 and stayed in force until the monarchy ended in 1918.
Sources (6)
- Karl August, Herzog, seit 1815 Großherzog von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach — Deutsche Biographie (NDB 11, 1977; ADB 15, 1882), retrieved 14 September 2026
- Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach — Wikipedia, retrieved 14 September 2026
- Grundgesetz über die Landständische Verfassung des Großherzogthums Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach vom 5. Mai 1816 — verfassungen.de, retrieved 14 September 2026
- Luise, Herzogin (seit 1775), Großherzogin (seit 1815) von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach — Deutsche Biographie (NDB 15, 1987), retrieved 14 September 2026
- Landtag des Großherzogtums Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach — Wikipedia, retrieved 14 September 2026
- Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach — Wikipedia, retrieved 14 September 2026
Historical figures
Historical figures
1757–1828 • duke • grand duke • patron
He came home from Vienna a grand duke in 1815 and proclaimed the constitution on 5 May 1816, the act his reign is counted by.
1757–1830 • duchess • grand duchess
The decree that set the drafting in motion was issued on her birthday, 30 January 1816.
1786–1859 • grand duchess • patron
Her Russian connection at the Congress of Vienna brought her father-in-law the grand-ducal title and the new lands.
Period
Stay and eat nearby
Around Weimar
19 km East
The university held the eleventh seat of the first estate, and its students' Burschenschaft of 1815 and Wartburgfest of 1817 were the constitution's first public echo.