- Yg. 1929, No. 28 -
The camel and the snail once entered a bet who would be first on the river. The snail won; because the camel had taken the service route.
This venerable German fable always comes to my consolation when I read about the preparations for the German Unity State.
In January 1928, a conference of Reich and Land ministers (the "Country Conference") set up a "working committee" for this. This committee has split into two committees, the Finance Committee (for the preparation of the "final" financial settlement between the Reich and the Länder) and the Constitutional Committee. Since then, the Finance Committee has been sleeping. The Constitutional Committee, on the other hand, convened in May 1928 and commissioned "experts" to prepare papers. In October 1928 he met again, received the papers and set up two subcommittees. One should draft proposals for territorial reorganization, while the other should define the delineation of responsibilities between the Reich and the Länder. Eight days ago, these subcommittees have now met.
First, it was stated that the first, the Territorial Committee, could not work until the second, the Committee of Competence, had finished. The deliberations of the first was therefore delayed until the fall. The second one has spoken out; firstly, for the acquisition of the judiciary by the Reich (with 6 against 5 voices), secondly (with 9 against 2 voices) for the transformation of the Prussian provinces together with the small states interspersed between them in "new countries" next to the "old-style countries" Bavaria, Saxony, Wuerttemberg and Baden, where they keep a little more independence than those should get.
In September, the two subcommittees want to meet again. They then want to complete their work and report to the Constitutional Committee. He will then "take a stand" and report to the country conference. If the national conference, we assume next spring, has commented, the result will be submitted to the Government of the Reich, for better or worse.
This can then make a bill out of it, if she feels like it. Let us assume that this is the case, and then it is likely that for this purpose it will first have a committee formed in the Reich Ministry of the Interior with several subcommittees in which papers and correspondence will be prepared. Subcommittees will appoint experts and hold meetings. Then they will . , , Well, let's talk about it again next year!
1929, 28 wrench
"Concern is justified that the attempt will be made to reach the unitary state through more or less gentle pressure and detours. If this path is taken, an immediate danger to the existence of the empire is evoked; because nothing is more erroneous than the opinion that the countries would finally submit to their inevitable fate. As things are in Europe, this game of fire can set the whole continent on fire. "
Bazille at the country conference in January 1928