Herzogenaurach- for around four weeks, an exhibition on two anniversaries in bavaria can be viewed at the herzogenaurach town museum, which will take place in 2019. 200 years ago the bavarian constitution was enacted, 100 years ago the free state of bavaria was declared.
The exhibition was developed by the working group history of the 9. Class of the school year 2017/2018 at the realschule herzogenaurach: marlon ruhnke, tobias wagner, mario mirsberger and lukas loos with their teacher sebastian thienel.
Strictly speaking, it was in 1818 that bavaria received a constitution, but as a result of this, the first assembly of representatives was opened in bavaria in 1819.
Researched in the city archives
The impetus for the exhibition came from a call for entries from the district of central franconia, in which the realschule in herzogenaurach participated. The principal approached teacher sebastian thienel with the question: "who would like to study the constitution??" Thienel had already worked on several projects together with christian hoyer from the city museum and found four schoolchildren who wanted to work on the topic in a working group.
Marlon ruhnke, tobias wagner, mario mirsberger and lukas loos met twice a week and first worked out the historical key dates, then they went to the city archives to research what effect the constitution had in herzogenaurach. They summarized their findings in posters for the years 1808, 1818, 1848, 1871, 1919, 1933 and 1946.
Democracy is hard won
In a short presentation, three of the four students presented the dates. The first preparations for a constitution were made as early as 1808, and it came into force in 1818.
One effect on herzogenaurach was that, after a district court was established here in 1812 and the town advanced to become an administrative seat, it was not until 1818, with the introduction of the constitution, that it felt like a part of bavaria.
The sign with the bavarian coat of arms, which was attached to the old town hall, the chako of a landwehr soldier and a flintlock rifle bear witness to this in the exhibition.
However, the bavarian constitution was only effective until 1817; after the foundation of the german empire, bavaria also had to submit to the laws of the empire.
At the end of the first world war, the bavarian monarchy was the first to be overthrown in 1918. For herzogenaurach, 1919 meant municipal self-government and a town council elected by the people.
One finding from their research is particularly important to the students. Events always have a background, the constitution of 1818 is a cornerstone for our coexistence today, such as freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Democracy had to be fought hard in 1919, so today’s democracy is anything but self-evident.
As teacher sebastian thienel reports, the posters created will be permanently displayed in the secondary school building after the exhibition.