German revolutions of 1848–1849 On 28 June 1848, four months after the outbreak of the German revolutions of 1848–1849, the
Frankfurt National Assembly created a
Provisional Central Authority () that was to take over the management of the executive branch for all of Germany until a constitution was adopted and a final head of state appointed. On the following day,
Archduke John of Austria was elected
Reichsverweser, an office that he was intended to hold until the National Assembly appointed an emperor as head of state. The power of John's government was limited, since the larger individual states in particular cooperated with it only when it suited their interests. Executive power remained with the individual states. After the revolution was suppressed in the summer of 1849, the Provisional Central Authority remained in office. It was not until 20 December 1849 that John transferred his powers to an Austro-Prussian Federal Commission ().
Abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II In the final weeks of World War I, calls increased for the abdication of Prussian King and German Emperor
Wilhelm II.
Walter Simons, an advisor to Chancellor
Max von Baden on international issues, thought that Wilhelm and the unpopular
crown prince should abdicate so that a regency council could be established for the next heir to the throne, the then 12-year-old
Wilhelm of Prussia. A law amending the
constitution of the German Empire would have been needed to establish a
Reichsverweser. Wilhelm II rejected the idea on 1 November 1918. When the
Social Democratic Party demanded the emperor's abdication, von Baden urged him plainly to step down. On 9 November 1918 he announced the abdication of Wilhelm II and the crown prince on his own authority. He thought that the abdication was imminent and that officials were simply working out the formulation of the announcement. He also feared that a revolution was imminent. In a meeting with leading Social Democrats, von Baden transferred the office of chancellor to
Friedrich Ebert. Baden's advisors had urged him to exercise the powers of the emperor as
Reichsverweser in order to keep the question of the head of state open until a decision was made by a national assembly. But that same afternoon, the Social Democrat
Philipp Scheidemann, acting on his own, publicly
proclaimed a republic in Germany. Immediately afterwards the surprised and angry Ebert asked von Baden to become
Reichsverweser, but he refused because he no longer believed such a course to be realistic. Beginning on 12 November, the function of emperor and Reich chancellor (and, to some extent, of other state offices) was exercised by the
Council of the People's Deputies, of which Ebert was one of the two chairmen. The Act on Provisional Reich Power () of 10 February 1919 gave Germany a provisional constitutional order and, soon thereafter, a president and government. No
Reichsverweser was ever named.
Nazi era In the
20 July 1944 plot to assassinate
Adolf Hitler, it was envisioned that
General Ludwig Beck would become provisional head of state as
Reichsverweser after Hitler was killed. When the plot failed, Beck and many other members of the resistance were executed. The anti-Nazi
Kreisau Circle outlined its ideas for a German constitution after the end of Nazi rule in the "Principles for Reorganization" of 9 August 1943. The office of
Reichsverweser that it contained was for the most part comparable to that of the
Weimar Reich president. He would have appointed and dismissed members of the government, who under certain conditions could also have been removed by the Reichstag. The
Reichsverweser would not have been elected by the people as under the
Weimar constitution but by the Reichstag. The right of nomination was vested in a Reichsrat, a body that would include the heads of the states. The document set the ''Reichsweser's'' term of office at 12 years. The Kreisau Circle's plans were never used. Most of its members were arrested following the failed July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler. == Hungary ==