Imperial Diet Research Articles

Judicial Independence and the 1891 Imperial Diet Building Fire of 1891 : Focusing on Issues Raised by the Written Opinion from Minister of Justice Yamada Akiyoshi

Judicial Independence and the 1891 Imperial Diet Building Fire of 1891 : Focusing on Issues Raised by the Written Opinion from Minister of Justice Yamada Akiyoshi

Between Austria and Prussia: clients and Partheyen at the permanent imperial diet, 1745–63

SUMMARYThe permanent imperial diet at Regensburg (1663–1806), one of the central institutions of the Holy Roman Empire, has been viewed in a negative light by historians for a long time. In recent decades there has been a fundamental re-evaluation of the diet by researchers. The diet is no longer seen as an institution which was incapable of action. Rather, in recent years the focus has been on its powers to maintain lawfulness and peace. One of the new research approaches is that the permanent imperial diet was an important forum for the courts of Vienna and Berlin in building and maintaining a loyal clientele and to gain the support for their own foreign and imperial policies from the imperial Estates. This became particularly obvious in phases of open conflict between Austria and Prussia. Both sides perceived the events at Regensburg increasingly as bipolar and this was especially the case in the Seven Years War (1756–63). If one visualizes the fiercely fought battles between the Partheyen that were dominated by Austria and Prussia, on stage and off stage, then it becomes obvious that it is high time to modify the one-sided old picture of the sleepy diet.

Reichsverfassung und ständische Interessen: der Streit um das Verfahren auf dem Deputationstag von 1564. Neue Erkenntnisse aus der Aktenedition

SUMMARYIn 1555 and 1559 the Imperial Deputation Diet was institutionalized in the Holy Roman Empire's constitution. Sixteen imperial estates were appointed to meet in cases of serious problems of peace-keeping and to discuss solutions together with the emperor's commissioners. But the constitution did not fix the mode of consultations: should the assembled electors, princes and cities (or else their envoys) debate in one common chamber or separately, as was usual at imperial Diets? This problem would be solved in practice at the first Deputation Diet in Worms (1564). Scholars have suggested that here the final decision for separate chambers – as the electors wanted – was the outcome of mainly legal reasoning, but the sources in a recent volume of the Deutsche Reichstagsakten clearly show that the better strategy of negotiation brought the final resolution in this dispute.

‘Little tools of state formation’. The admission of nobles to imperial and territorial diets in Early Modern Germany

SUMMARYModern public authority takes the form of a ‘legally established impersonal order’ (Max Weber). In pre-modern times, however, public authority was wielded as a personal right. But how could ‘state formation’ as a history of interactions between personal rulers result in a system of impersonal rule? This article shows, firstly, that some necessary preconditions for this transformation were produced by the early modern process of state formation itself and, secondly, that they were not fully intended. Focusing on the Holy Roman Empire and the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel, this article analyses the admission of nobles to diets, one of Becker and Clark's ‘little tools' that turned state formation into practice. Originally, participation in the diet was dependent on a mixture of factors which were personal (noble status) and impersonal (possession of and/or rule over land). Later on, the estates emphasized the latter in order to minimize the princes’ influence on matters of admission. From the first half of the seventeenth century, jurists and political philosophers drew on this tendency and increasingly imagined political participation as being founded on impersonal qualities like property alone. Political discourse therefore transported the tendencies towards impersonal authority – generated by actual political struggles among personal rulers – to the nineteenth century.

The Members of The Lower House of Representatives, The Imperial Diet of Japan, and Those from Colonial Joseon in the 1910s

The Members of The Lower House of Representatives, The Imperial Diet of Japan, and Those from Colonial Joseon in the 1910s

大正期の16 国立公園調査地の選定経過と田村剛の国立公園観

The first 12 national parks in Japan were designated from 1934 to 1936; however, the designation process actually began in 1921, with a survey of 16 proposed sites. From these original 16 sites, 11 were selected, and the selection process of 16 proposed sites illuminates the first stage of national park designation in Japan. First, this study details the selection process of 16 proposed sites, which has not been discussed in previous research. Second, it discusses the views on national parks of Tamura Tsuyoshi, who was charged by the Central Sanitary Bureau, Home Office with a central role in selecting national parks. The research method used in this study depends on the discovery and analysis of coetaneous, previously unknown material, including books, magazine reports, press reports, and Imperial Diet minutes during the Taisho era and the beginning of the Showa era. It seems that the 16 sites were chosen based on adjustment with regional requests and a criteria determined by Tamura.

Processi informativi per la nomina dei vescovi di Trento nell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano (secoli XVII–XVIII) (review)

Reviewed by: Processi informativi per la nomina dei vescovi di Trento nell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano (secoli XVII–XVIII) Alessandra Dattero Processi informativi per la nomina dei vescovi di Trento nell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano (secoli XVII–XVIII). Edited by Ugo Paoli. [Annali dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento, Fonti, 10.] (Bologna: Società editrice il Mulino. 2010. Pp. 771. €48,00 paperback. ISBN 978-8-815-13998-6.) In his book, Ugo Paoli introduces an important source for the historical reconstruction of the Prince-Bishopric of Trent: the information processes written for the appointment of the prince-bishop. The documents used were obtained from the consistorial archives of the Apostolic Datary and the Apostolic Nunciature in Vienna, preserved in the Vatican Secret Archives. The author was vice-prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives from 1997 to 2002, and this made the collection of data easier. Paoli previously published a similar book, the Relationes ad limina (Trento, 2000), which covered the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries for the Prince-Bishopric of Trent. The Relationes are a complementary source to the processes, since they contain more information on the dioceses, whereas the processes focus on detailed biographies of the bishops. The importance of this historical source is shown by the triple role carried out by the prince-bishop during the old regime: diocesan ordinary, prince of the Holy Roman Empire of Germany, and confederate member of the Tyrolean province. The prince therefore dealt with three authorities: the pope, the emperor, and the count of Tyrol. The bishopric of Trent was under the Holy Roman Empire, and as prince of the Empire the bishop had the right to vote in the imperial diet and the option of using the imperial courts; Trent also was a confederate member of the Tyrolean province, constantly fighting with the counts of Tyrol due to their repeated attempts to dominate. This book is divided into two parts. The introduction describes the origin, evolution, and characteristics of the information processes used for the appointment of new bishops. The purpose of the processes was to determine whether the appointed bishop had the necessary requirements to be confirmed by the pope. The process examined qualified witnesses who would provide answers under oath regarding the appointed bishop’s age, life, habits, doctrine, political views, and qualification to teach. The rest of the information pertained to the dioceses—boundaries, location, population, cathedral architecture and furnishings, structure of the cathedral chapter, number of city parishes and religious homes, number of students attending seminary, preservation of the bishop’s palace, and the status of the bishop’s revenue. In addition to this examination, the future bishop provided the following documents: certificate of appointment, baptism and confirmation certificates, ordination to minor and major orders, studies conducted and academic degrees, offices, profession of faith, proof of good manners and habits. The author then focuses on the content of the processes specific to the various bishops elected and on the historical circumstances affecting their election. [End Page 579] The second part of the book is a transcript of all the processes concerning the newly appointed bishops from 1665 to 1776. A total of eleven information processes is included—nine held in Vienna and two in Rome. This volume is a unique and fundamental source regarding the history of the bishops of Trent. The documents published are important from a prosopographical point of view in reconstructing a collective biography of the bishops, and for the study of political-institutional matters in a state that for several years was a nexus among the Italian states, the Roman Church, and the German world. Alessandra Dattero University of Milan Copyright © 2012 The Catholic University of America Press ...

The Wartime Economy in Imperial Japan and the Mobilization of Munitions in Its Colony: With a Special Focus on the Implementation in Joseon of the Munitions Company Law during the Final Period of the War

This study focuses on the implementation of the Munitions Company Law passed by the Imperial Diet in Japan in 1943 that not only highlighted the stateness of capital but also fostered national intervention in the management of business. Policy differences between the imperial and colonial regarding the implementation of this law, and their conflicts over rights over munitions, are examined in this study, and the Government-General of Joseon (Chos?n)s opposition to the Japanese imperial governments principle of unitary control within the empire, especially regarding the implementation of the Munitions Company Law, is analyzed from the standpoint of the history of economic policy at the colonial government level. In March 1944, the Government-General of Joseon began negotiations with the imperial government regarding the implementation of the Munitions Company Law in Joseon leading to the reorganization of organizations related to the administration of munitions in accordance with the wider reorganization of the government structure and the implementation of an independent munitions mobilization policy known as the munitions production responsibility system. Although contrary to the original wishes of the imperial government, in September 1944, months of negotiations resulted in split, not unitary, control based on comprehensive authority of the Governor-General in September 1944. In other words, the Government-General of Joseon sought throughout the wartime period to enhance its colonial rule and the effectiveness of munitions mobilization by strengthening its autonomy vis-a-vis the imperial government in terms of industrial administration. This line of reasoning inevitably clashes with the assertions of Yamamoto Yuzo, who refused to recognize the comprehensive authority of the Governor-General of Joseon, and evaluated the policy of administrative integration within the empire implemented by the imperial government at the end of 1942 as the epitome of the institutional perfection reached by its assimilation-based ruling ideology.

The Context and Structure of the Meiji Nationality Law: The Establishment of 'Japanese' Nationality Through Assimilation and Exclusion

This paper (available in Japanese) examines the process by which the nationality was created during the Meiji revolutionary era of Japan. In particular, it explores the ideology behind the definition of nationality as established by the Meiji Nationality Law. This law was the first law that explicitly attempted to define the nationality in the context of the expansion of Western powers in East Asia. While insisting on the purity of Japanese blood, the Meiji Nationality Law also had to make maneuvers so as to allow Japan to expand its own territory and incorporate the Ainus, Okinawans, and a broader range of peoples in Asia. This paper primarily relies on the proceedings of the Imperial Diet that enacted this law, as well as manuscripts of major political and legal thinkers of the time. It was originally submitted as a Bachelor's thesis at Waseda University in 1999, but the author thinks that it contains materials that are worthy as a public asset and is making it available for the first time today (2011).

Revisiting narratives of Meiji ‘progress’: Seiji Shōsetsu as sexual and political opposition

In 1890, as Japan celebrated national unity through the opening of the Imperial Diet, Hara Hōitsuan's Secret Politician (Anchū seijika, 1890) spotlighted the government's violent suppression of opposition voices in the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement of the 1880s. Much more than just a notable embodiment of the contestatory nature of the creation of the modern Japanese nation-state, Secret Politician also punctuates the end of the period of political novels (seiji shōsetsu) with a provocative evocation of male-male sexuality (nanshoku). Loyal bonds among government-declared criminals on trial at the end of the novel are framed within the sexualized language and associations of love-pacts between warriors, while the state is depicted as a deplorable villain lacking fidelity to its male citizenry. Secret Politician's oppositional stance nevertheless reinforced a growing trend that envisioned the Japanese nation as overwhelmingly masculine, a trend that not only bolstered the very state Hara sought to challenge but also had far-reaching consequences for women. This article argues that Secret Politician's significance lies in its representation of the Meiji period's shifting boundaries of literature and politics and contentious struggle to define sexuality and gender that are obfuscated by grand narratives of Japan's smooth and natural ‘progress’ towards ‘civilization’.

Mazarin's Quest: The Congress of Westphalia and the Coming of the Fronde (review)

Reviewed by: Mazarin's Quest: The Congress of Westphalia and the Coming of the Fronde Frederic J. Baumgartner Mazarin's Quest: The Congress of Westphalia and the Coming of the Fronde.By Paul Sonnino. Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-674-03182-1. Maps. Illustrations. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. vi, 307. $49.95. Giulio Mazarini, aka Cardinal Mazarin, is usually seen as the principal architect of the Peace of Westphalia and, depending upon how the historian views the results of the peace, is praised or damned for it. Paul Sonnino takes a fresh look at the work of Mazarin and his diplomatic team at the peace sessions at Münster and Osnabrück in Westphalia. As he points out, the historian researching the topic is confronted with the problem not of the paucity of sources, almost always a major difficulty in writing on eras prior to Mazarin's time, but of an overwhelming amount of them. Many of them have long been in print, but the author used original documents in numerous archives and found that often the printed editions were badly abridged, leaving out what he regards as crucial information on what Mazarin intended his diplomats to present in the meetings of the Congress and how his mind changed from month to month. The book begins with a synopsis of why and how Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII formally entered the Thirty Years War in 1635, the destruction of Habsburg power being the overriding goal. It then describes how Mazarin, originally in papal service, ingratiated himself with Richelieu and, much to everyone's surprise, was named prime minister (Sonnino's term) at his death in 1642. The death of Louis XIII early in 1643 left Mazarin in a precarious position, but his ability to charm the regent, Queen-Mother Anne of Austria, enabled him to keep power and enhance his authority. Writes Sonnino: "This adventurer who had risen from obscurity was fully convinced that he was the only person, out of 20 million Frenchmen, who knew what was good for the state" (p. 34). He describes how Mazarin took charge of the peace negotiations, already underway. His principal negotiators, Claude d'Avaux and Abel Servien, despised each other, but Sonnino [End Page 941]shows how their mutual hostility worked to French advantage, because one or the other was quick to object to a position the other held, thereby slowing the negotiating process and forcing Mazarin to come up with a better thought out proposal. The book's core is a detailed study of the four years of negotiations that finally led to peace. It lays out the goals and hopes of states represented at the Congress and the process by which each state was forced to reduce its aspirations. It pays attention to military events in so far as they impinged on the work of the diplomats, or as several times happened, how they were set in motion to influence it. The author examines the mutual suspicions among the states and how on several occasions they derailed what appeared to most to be reasonable settlements. In respect to Alsace, the obtaining of which was one of the key French goals, Sonnino shows how the issue of whether the French king would be given a seat in the Imperial Diet if he were to receive full sovereignty resulted in an intentionally vague clause regarding French authority over it, which left Louis XIV in a position years later to annex it entirely. By late 1647, most of the issues delaying peace had been resolved, but Mazarin continued to demand the Spanish Netherlands for France. Spain, which at one point was so desperate as to consider granting it, now dug in its heels, and the two Catholic kingdoms failed to achieve peace, even as the other parts of the war were settled with treaties collectively called the Peace of Westphalia. The author shows how tightly tied the failure to end the war with Spain was to the first events of the Fronde. Whether with one more military exertion Mazarin would have been in position to gain his goal is beside the point; the French people had run out...

The Trial of Martin Luther (1521): Selected Links and Bibliography

This is a bibliography of links focusing on the heresy trial of Martin Luther at the Imperial Diet of Worms in 1521. It includes links to selected works of Luther, the 95 thesis that he nailed to the church door in Wittenberg, links about Lutheranism and the Reformation and additional readings by and about Luther.

On the political background of the Reform Bill at the 56th Imperial Diet

On the political background of the Reform Bill at the 56th Imperial Diet

清水澄の憲法学と昭和戦前期の宮中

Toru Shimizu was a scholar of constitutional and administrative laws in Modern Japan. He lectured the Taisho Emperor as an employee of the Imperial Household Ministry, and young Showa Emperor as an employee at the educational section of the prince's palace. The objective of this study is to elucidate the political processes in the pre-war Showa Era, in which the Meiji constitutional system unsettled and collapsed, by reviewing the doctrine of Shimizu and its political position. In this study, the doctrine of Shimizu is compared with the constitutional theory of Tatsukichi Minobe from the viewpoint of constitutionalism and liberalism. In detail, the author discussed the commonalities and differences regarding the Emperor's political power, the state minister's consulting responsibility, the Imperial Diet's position and roles, party cabinet system theory, and electoral system theory, etc. In addition, the author attempts to conduct a comprehensive analysis, discussing how the doctrine of Shimizu was evaluated by the emperor's entourages including Nobuaki Makino and Kouichi Kido, middle-class army personnel, and right-wing constitutional scholars, and to position his presence in the Japanese political history in the 1930s.

Zur politischen Kultur in der Frühen Neuzeit

Participation is an essential indicator of civic culture in early modern times. The characteristic components are active and passive involvement in governance, in political action, communication, and information. This thesis concerns the Holy Roman Empire as an example of participation in the early modern period. Accordingly, the political proceedings of the Imperial Diet, the participatory activity of the subjects, and the possibility of achieving political information will be discussed. For the understanding of the Holy Roman Empire and its political structure, »consensus« is one of the keywords. The early modern politician was in need of the ability to bring about a compromise and required considerable expertise in current politics. Subjects were able to participate by petitions, which addressed the Emperor or the Estates. These contained, for example, economic, social or legal questions and thus brought them to the appropriate political committee. In this manner a direct communication between ruler and subjects took place, the growth of which was a sign of the cumulative communication in the Holy Roman Empire. In addition, the possibility of participation implied the need of better information about political processes and activities. The civic culture of early modern times was shaped by »consensus«, compromise, competence and communication as expressions of political participation. Recommended citation: Neuhaus, Helmut, Zur politischen Kultur in der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History Rg 15 (2009) 97-108, online: http://dx.doi.org/10.12946/rg15/097-108

Japan's hollywood boycott movement of 1924

On July 1, 1924, major movie exhibitors in Japan initiated a boycott of Hollywood films. This boycott was one of the manifestations of the anti-American movement, triggered in response to the 1924 ...

Zur Auffindung der ältesten Augsburger Kirchenordnung von 1534 Mit einer Edition der Handschrift

ABSTRACT In the city archive in Giengen on the Brenz, a manuscript was discovered that in all probability deals with the oldest known ecclesiastical ordinance of Augsburg. On the basis of other information, the text itself has long been regarded as lost. The ordinance encompasses regulations for the contraction of marriage, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and also evening prayers. In its content, it stands in close relation to other ordinances governing evangelical church activity in Augsburg. On the basis of its internal structure and its visible connection to the Reformation in Strasbourg, Martin Bucer may be regarded as its intellectual father. The ordinance originated toward the end of 1534. It is thus two and a half years older than the July 1537 text that up until now has been regarded as the first ecclesiastical ordinance of Augsburg. The ordinance of 1534 does not, to be sure, contain any of the earliest Reformation mandates, but it is nevertheless the first comprehensive ordinance for the Augsburg churches. Together with the Strasbourg ecclesiastical ordinance of the same year, this text belongs to the phase of comprehensive reorganization of evangelical religious existence. Numerous upper German imperial cities undertook such restructuring in the aftermath of the 1530 imperial diet of Augsburg. This document belongs, therefore, to the important evidence of the creation of a Lutheran order in the upper German imperial cities.

帝国議会上程期の建築士法案に対する考察 : 建築士法の成立過程に関する研究 その4

Purpose of this study is to examine contents about the Article 6 of the Bill of the Architect Law: regulation on Architect and its probable side jobs in the Imperial Diet before WW II. Conclusion of this study is as follows: 1. The Article 6 of the Bill had already been considered toward its amendment after the questionnaire to those mainly involved in the architectural business. 2. The amended Article 6 became rather ambiguous. Therefore, it was objected by the Members of the Imperial Diet. 3. Nevertheless, the legislators of the Bill did not make any farther major amendment to it before WWII. 4. The reason seems to be the existence of the Account Law, which had the similar law structure. 5. The Accountant Law was disputed due to lack of article to prohibit Registered Accountants from having probable side jobs. Therefore, a new bill was continued proposed to reform the Law only after two years of its enactment. 6. On the contrary, the Bill of the Architect Law had an article to prohibit Registered Architects from having probable side jobs, which seems why the legislators thought the Bill of the Architect Law as reasonable and did not feel necessity to amend it.

The German imperial diets in the 1540s

SUMMARY After nine years without meetings because of the deadlock over the Reformation, the German Reichstag met eight times between 1541 and 1548 to attempt once more to reach a religious settlement and also to confront both the renewed Ottoman threat in the East and Emperor Charles V's conflict with Francis I of France. Nine recently published volumes of the proceedings of four of the diets of the 1540s reveal how their working had become even more cumbersome than it had been at the end of the fifteenth century. Henry Cohn first examines the special circumstances of imperial politics and finances which explain the laborious nature of the diet and its increasing consumption of both time and paper. Thereafter an assessment is attempted of the degree of success which the diets had in dealing with the problems of the Empire. They are shown to have prepared the way for the religious settlement of 1555 which contributed greatly to preserving the peace for 63 years while Western Europe was embroiled in confessional wars. Moreover, by revealing the shortcomings of the imperial constitution, the diets of the 1540s also set parameters for the constitutional changes of 1555 which remained largely in place until the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

Madame Chats With Coquettes: The Evolution of Early Modern Theories of Conversation

He that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled with it: and he that hath fellowship with the proud, shall put on pride.Ecclesiastes 13:1Voicy l'endroit le plus important de ce discours: car puis que la diuersite des humeurs ne peut long-temps subsister dans la Conuersation, il faut a la fin imiter les vitieux ou les hair. Il faut leur estre semblable, ou ennemy; il faut en communiquant auec eux. . . espouser leur malice, ou s'en deffendre. Mais quand on seroit asseure de la victoire, quel besoin est-il de se donner la peine de les combattre, puis qu'il y a tousiours bien moins de danger Oc d'incommodite en la fuite, qu'en la resistance.[See here the most important point of this discourse, for since the diversity of humours cannot long subsist in Conversation, they must at last either imitate the vicious, or hate them, they must either be like them or be their enemies; they must in complying with them . . . put on their malice, or contest against it. But though they were certaine of the victory, what need is there to take the paines to combat with them, while there is alwaies lesse danger and incommodity in the flight, than in the fight?]Jacques Du Bosc (1632)1Is someone who converses with a bad person in danger of being infected with badness? Karl Ludwig, palsgrave of the Rhine and elector Palatine, seemed to think so. To borrow the metaphor used in Ecclesiastes, the pitch that Karl Ludwig feared would defile his family was coquetry, which he believed was at large in the House of Palatine in the person of his wife, Charlotte of HesseKassel. As a result, the elector harangued the electress incessantly about her flirtatiousness, tried to wring a written confession of coquetry from her, sent her brother the landgrave of Hesse-Kassel a book on the evils of coquetry, and groped her breasts at the Imperial Diet in front of the emperor himself as a rebuke for her having chosen a dress that displayed her cleavage like 'la coquette la plus declaree' (the most unabashed coquette).2 Convinced that Charlotte's coquetry was incurable and her refusal to let him share her bed was final, Karl Ludwig divorced her in 1657. Adamant that their daughter Elisabeth Charlotte should inherit nothing from her mother but her second Christian name, Karl Ludwig inserted a clause in the employment contract of the girl's governess stipulating that Elisabeth Charlotte, or 'Liselotte', must at all times be shielded from conversations and books that encourage coquetry.3 To prevent Liselotte from having fellowship with her mother and potentially putting on her saucy ways, in 1659 Karl Ludwig packed the seven-year-old off to Hanover to live for several years with his sister Sophie, who dutifully assured him that little Liselotte would not learn coquetry at her court.4Twenty years later the issue of coquetry was still current when Sophie visited her former charge at the French court where Liselotte resided as duchess of Orleans, or 'Madame', the title she bore as the wife of 'Monsieur', Louis XIVs younger brother Philippe, duke of Orleans. It is Madame's good conduct, Sophie reports to Karl Ludwig, that earns her Louis XIVs friendship, for she is not infected with any coquetry (Sophie, Briefwechsel, p. 376). And in 1718, some sixty years after her governess was exhorted to protect her from the baleful influence of coquetry, Madame confesses in a letter to her half-sister Amelise (one of the thirteen fruits of Karl Ludwig's second marriage) that she converses at court with coquettes and gallant women. The matter is important enough for Madame to explain herself in considerable detail over the course of several letters in an effort to allay Amelise's concern that her conversations with bad people will infect her with badness. In the words of the second epigraph to this essay, Du Bosc's L'Honneste femme (a book, coincidentally, listed in the catalogue of Madame's personal library), Madame must dispel the fear that a 'diversity of humours cannot long subsist in Conversation' and that, when conversing with the vicious, she must necessarily 'put on their malice, or contest against it'. …