THE GERMAN REVOLUTION 127
Weitling was not a member of the famous Parliament that met
in St. Paul's Church of Frankfurt. Though that body received
numerous petitions from workers' groups in Germany, few of its
members were aware of the impact of the industrial revolution
on the German states. It adopted generalities about the rights of
man modeled on the French Constitution of 1791; but its leftist
members, who were badly divided, were unsuccessful in securing
the adoption of such radical demands as Gustav Struve's proposal
for a ministry of labor, and their discussion of such issues evapo
rated very quickly in high-sounding phrases.^5
Despite the failures at Frankfurt, the revolution did succeed in
bringing many dormant workers' associations back to life. Gen
erally speaking, these societies did not have a comprehensive pro
gram for revolution. They were content, for the most part, with
piecemeal reforms. In Berlin, for example, the organized tailors
seized the opportunity to demand a twelve-hour day and no Sun
day work; requested that masters refrain from training and em
ploying women tailors; and petitioned for recognition of the right
to organize, for national workshops, and for better educational
facilities for their children.^6 A printers' strike in Berlin resulted
in a call for a workers' congress; and Der Volksfreund, a paper
launched in the Prussian capital, "in the year one of liberty," of
fered a program of reform which included breaking up the large
landed estates, abolishing titles of nobility, and establishing
people's banks, workers' factories, public education, and a long
list of purely political reforms.
In response to a call issued by a central committee of the work
ers of Berlin, a "workers' parliament" met in that city on August
23, 1848, and remained in session for ten days. Its deliberations re
sulted in the founding of a workers' brotherhood (Arbeiterver¬
brüderung), with headquarters in Leipzig, and in a program of
reform which advocated changes in the banking system, im-
(^6) "Die Arbeiterfrage im Frankfurter Parlament," Die Neue Zeit, I (1883),
38-46.
(^6) Bernstein, Die Schneiderbewegung in Deutschland, I, 81.