bavarikon4UConstitutional Charter of 1818
With the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bavaria taking effect on 26 May 1818, the Constitution of 1808 was replaced by a new Basic Law. The revision or updating of the first Bavarian constitution, i.e. the Constitution of 1808, began as early as in 1814. Nonetheless, it was only in 1817, after the fall of Minister Montgelas (1759–1838), that implementation really took off. The most important new regulation concerned the Assembly of Estates, which was divided into two chambers.
The constitutional charter of 1818 is bound in blue velvet, the sealing cords or fastening bands are white or silver and blue. The 134 sheets of parchment not only contain the main text, which is divided into an introduction and ten headings, but also provide evidence of the other integral parts of the 1818 Constitution, which turn it into a comprehensive body of law. For example, a total of ten edicts on the assembly of the estates (Edict X), on the nobility (Edict V) or on the freedom of the press (Edict III) supplement the constitutional text; with the 1817 concordat and with the edict on the Protestant community, two additional amendments were added to the religious edict (Edict II), which in turn formed the most important legal basis for Catholic and Protestant state-church law in Bavaria.
Despite several adaptations to changed political circumstances, for example in the revolutionary year of 1848 or after the foundation of the Reich in 1871, the constitution of 1818 remained valid in its core until the end of the monarchy in 1918. It thus formed the basis of Bavarian statehood for a full century.
The text of the constitution in edited form can be found here.