Diana Carey

IB Euro
10/24/16
The Carlsbad Decrees DBQ
The Napoleonic Wars spurred a small, yet influential nationalist
movement in Germany. Most supporters of these movements were
students and professors. Student veterans founded a series of
nationalist fraternities or Burschenschaften. These fraternities
promoted the values of Germanness, militancy, honor, and chastity.
Students and professors took advantage of the new press freedoms
granted in Saxony-Weimars 1816 constitution to promote liberal and
nationalist positions and critique the slow pace of reform in Germany
since the Congress of Vienna. Clemens von Metternich was alarmed
with these developments. He saw the student movements as a serious
threat to the order established at the Congress of Vienna. Metternich
believed the radicalism was encouraged by government officials in
Prussia and by the broader push toward constitutional government in
Baden, Bavaria, Wrttemberg, and Saxony-Weimar.
Student and member of the Burschenschaften, Karl Sand,
assassinated the conservative playwright August von Kotzebue in
March of 1819. Kotzebue had been a loud critic of the nationalist
movement and as successful author of light comedies he was deemed
an embodiment of Old Regime frivolity. Kotzebue was also found to be
sending reports on German cultural affairs to the Russian tsar. Also a
deranged student had made an attempt on the life of a district official
in Nassau, adding to the feeling of unrest and imminent revolution.
At a meeting in Teplitz in August, Metternich and the Prussian king
agreed they would form an alliance against the revolutionary party
in Germany. Two weeks later, a group of ministers met at Carlsbad to
outline policy.
The group made a series of decrees, which were then approved at a
meeting of the Diet in September 1819.
The Carlsbad Decrees were drawn to combat a growing nationalist
party that had begun to turn violent. These decrees were valuable in
the sense that they helped quell revolution in the areas. Unfortunately
these decrees only reflected the views of the people already in power,
and did not give any concessions to he young nationalist party.
Members of the Burschenschaften would consider this document to
completely destroy their freedoms of expression because it does.
Metternich was in favor of these decrees because he wanted to keep
things in line with the old regime. He also wanted to keep unrest from
happening in the young German Confederation. Revolution would be
bad for him because he could lose his power over the Confederation. A
limitation of the decrees is that they do not allow for any freedom of

expression, like the Alien and Sedition Acts, so they were really biased
to the leadership at the time.
In the end, another revolution was required for the Diet to repeal
the Carlsbad Decrees in April 1848.

Source: Carlsbad Decree

Value

Limitations

Origin

A series of resolutions drawn up by

the Carlsbad Conference

Tells only what was decided, not why

it happened.

Purpos
e

Laws limiting freedom of speech

and expression

Resolved by leaders from one side of

the issue

Content

Laws that block opposition

movements against Austria and
especially geared towards college
students

Really biased to the leadership and

doesnt allow any freedom of
expression, like the Alien and
Sedition Acts