Constitutional Discourse and Political Reality in Post-Napoleonic Germany

Abstract

When discussing the relevance and impact of foreign constitutional ‘models’, essential distinctions have to be made; firstly, regarding the actual point of reference, whether the model is indeed a legal document or whether it is more akin to a constitutional ‘concept’ or ‘idea’; secondly, between two levels of recipients, namely (a) that of the public sphere and political thought, and (b) that of ‘(constitutional) politics’ in the narrower sense of the meaning.¹ This is notwithstanding the fact that there are a multitude of (potential) reciprocal influences, for instance in that political thinkers are often influential politicians and vice versa.