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Why the Frankfurt Parliament Failed

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Why the Frankfurt Parliament Failed
Why the Frankfurt Parliament Failed

The Frankfurt Parliament, an ‘assembly of German men’ founded in 1848, failed for a numerous amount of reasons such as conflicting views on the concept of Germany, lack of power, a disconnection with the public and the liberal views of Frankfurt Parliament. One of the first reasons for failure was that the Frankfurt parliament was unable to distinguish what Germany was, especially when deciding where the German borders start and finish. The Frankfurt parliament also had struggles with power, or lack there of, when regarding military, leadership and financial matters. Probably the biggest reason why the Frankfurt parliament failed was because it was strongly disconnected with the greater public, which was mostly the working class. The last reason explored in this essay is how the Frankfurt Parliament was regarded as much too liberal for most people. These negative aspects of the Frankfurt parliament are the reasons for its failure.

Firstly, the Frankfurt Parliament was unable to agree on the actual concept of Germany. There was problems with the territorial extent of Germany, especially Prussia and the Austrian Empire. People had an issue with the fact that many parts included were mainly Czech and Polish speaking people, while areas with a lot of German speaking people were excluded. With the issue of German boarders, the parliament was split into two. One side wanted “Greater Germany” which included semi-German speaking provinces and the other side wanted “little Germany” which excluded Austria but included all of Prussia. This was one of the first problems encountered by the Frankfurt Parliament and one of the reasons why the Frankfurt Parliament Failed.

Another reason why the Frankfurt Parliament failed was due to the lack of power. The Frankfurt Parliament was unable to collect taxation which resulted in no financial power. The Frankfurt Parliament also had no military power. They tried to overcome this problem by
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