Crown & Gutter

It was noticed last week that someone has stolen the German Constitution of 1849 out of the Library of the Reichstag --not a copy but the original document. "The theft seems to have been committed quite a long time ago," apologized a Reichstag librarian, "but as soon as it was discovered, today, the police were told at once."

Germany's present Constitution is that of 1919, the "Weimar Constitution" which set up the German Republic.

Wilhelm II ruled as German Kaiser under the Constitution of 1871, remodelled from the Constitution of 1867, and adopted shortly after Prince Bismark proclaimed the existence of the German Empire in the French Palace of Versailles.

What, then, was the Constitution of 1849, discovered stolen last week? It was never actually adopted, merely drafted with a view to making King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia the first Kaiser of a united Germany. To this proud Prussian King the rest of Germany seemed not worth much. "I will never stoop," said His Majesty, "to pick up a crown out of the gutter."

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