Learning outcomes

The course intends to bring the student closer to the political-constitutional history of the German world between the eighties and the twentieth century, with particular reference to the slow and contrasted transition process from the absolute regime to the constitutional regime of the main states of the German Confederation (1815-1866), namely Austria and Prussia. At the end of the course the student will be able to: - know about the modalities, times and circumstances of the transition from the absolute (or cetual) regime to the constitutional regime, and to illustrate the new relationship established within the constitutional state between (monarchical) government and representative institutions.

Program

Prerequisites:
It is not assumed by the student any basic knowledge and / or abilities, but only the propensity to look at the history of the German states (Prussia and the Austrian Empire in particular) from the "special" point of view of political and institutional history.

Contents:
Title: Constitutional History of the German World between eighteenth and twentieth century

Content: The subject of the course will be the political-constitutional situation of the German states from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the first world war. Particular attention will be paid to the Germanic Confederation (1815-1866) founded at the Congress of
Vienna, the main historical-political-constitutional issues on the agenda in Austria and Germany before their transition to the constitutional state, the meaning of 1848 for the beginning of the process of their constitutionalization, and finally the difficulties it encountered particularly in Prussia and the Austrian Empire until the First World War. Particular attention will be paid to the more or less central role assigned to the parliament in the functioning of the constitutional political system and to the timing and the extent to which constitutional declarations on the parliamentary institution were effectively translated into the political-constitutional reality.

Teaching Methods:
Lessons will have a frontal character.

Texts:
Group A on Germany:
- Anna Gianna Manca, Costituzione e amministrazione della monarchia prussiana (1848-1870), Bologna, Il Mulino, 2016, from the beginning until to p. 87 and p. 139-205;
- Heinrich August Winkler, Grande storia della Germania. Un lungo cammino verso Occidente, Roma 2004, p. 145-232;
- H.-U. Wehler, L'impero guglielmino 1871-1918, preface of Pierangelo Schiera, Bari 1981, pp. 31-50 e 69-147;
- V. Sellin, L'unità nazionale, la legittimità imperiale e la caduta di Guglielmo II nel 1918, in Marina Tesoro (ed.), Monarchia, tradizione, identità nazionale, Milano 2004, pp. 9-20;

Group B on Austria:
- Brigitte Mazohl, Lo sviluppo della problematica costituzionale dopo la rivoluzione del ’48, in P. Schiera (ed), La dinamica statale austriaca nel XVIII e XIX secolo. Strutture e tendenze di storia costituzionale prima e dopo Maria Teresa, Bologna 1981, p. 305-322
- Brigitte Mazohl, Costituzioni e costituenti nell'Europa del 1848-49, il caso dell'Austria e dell'Ungheria, in P. L. Ballini (ed.), 1848-1849. Costituenti e Costituzioni. Daniele Manin e la repubblica di Venezia, Venezia 2002, p. 15-30;
- Brigitte Mazohl, L’Impero austriaco e l’unità italiana, in «Archivio storico lombardo», vol. XVIII della serie dodicesima, CXXXIX, 2013, pp. 93-119;
- Giorgio Bongiovanni, Reine Rechtslehre e dottrina giuridica dello Stato. Hans Kelsen e la costituzione austriaca del 1920, Milano 1998, p. 143-207;
- Antonio Traversa (ed), La costituzione della repubblica austriaca, Firenze, Sansoni, 1946, p. 5-118.

More Information:
It is strongly recommended frequency.

Examination Methods

Verification of learning will take place with oral exam on one of the text groups (A, B) listed below.For those who are not attending, the examination will be an oral exam as for the attending