bavarikon4UBasic Law of the Free State of Bavaria, 4 January 1919
On 4 January 1919, the revolutionary government passed a Basic Law. Thus the efforts to reorganise Bavaria's constitutional policy reached its first peak. As early as on 18 November 1918, a commission of lawyers, including Ministerial Councillor Josef von Graßmann (1864-1928) and Professor Robert Piloty (1863-1926), was entrusted with drafting a new constitution.
The Basic Law was passed on the initiative of Kurt Eisner (1867-1919) and was intended to lay down the most important guidelines for Bavaria's future constitutional policy.
Sovereignty of the people, independence of the courts, guarantee of property and the right to vote were important elements. All members of the Bavarian state who had reached the age of 20 were now citizens and thus eligible to vote, irrespective of gender, financial circumstances or birth.
Article 17 of the Basic Law, in accordance to which the provisional government was assigned the legislative and executive power until the Landtag would draw up a final bill, met with strong public criticism. Contrary to Eisner's original announcement in the proclamation of 8 November 1918, it remained uncertain when the Landtag would be able to meet. Home Secretary Erhard Auer (1874-1945) had merely succeeded in setting an election date for 12 January and 2 February respectively against the resistance of Eisner and left-wing radical Council representatives. The Basic Law of the Eisner government remained formally in force until it was replaced by a new provisional Basic Law on 17 March 1919.