Death on the barricades

The March Revolution in Berlin

In the 1830s and 1840s, many Germans became increasingly angry about the widespread censorship, lack of political participation and failure to achieve national unification. News of a revolution in Paris in March 1848 led to unrest throughout the German Confederation; German revolutionaries made the “March demands” for greater political rights.

The situation in Berlin escalated on 18 March. Whilst reforms were being announced to a large crowd gathered in front of the royal palace, two shots were suddenly fired. Believing that the concessions were a sham and that troops were trying to disperse the crowd, the citizens quickly erected barricades and street fighting broke out with military, resulting in at least 230 deaths. As the revolutionaries were able to hold their ground, King Frederick William IV withdrew his troops and honoured the request to pay public respect to the “March martyrs”, the dead revolutionaries who had been laid out in public. In the heady days of March, it seemed to many, that the revolution had the upper hand.