Overview
On March 9, 1848, Hanau—just a small city on the Main River—joined a growing movement sweeping across the German Confederation. People were done with the old ways. The target? Prince-Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse. The goal? A unified, modern Germany that didn’t just serve the elites.
Inspired by revolutions in Paris and Sicily, protesters in Berlin, Vienna, and beyond demanded basic freedoms: no more censorship, real representation, and the right to actually speak up. Barricades went up, shots were fired, and the black-red-gold banner—once a symbol of resistance against Napoleon—flew high.
The Frankfurt Parliament was set up to draft a new constitution, hoping to unite Germany under a single government. But by 1849, the movement collapsed. The dream of revolution was crushed—but its legacy lives on in modern Germany’s democracy and national flag.
