Saxony part one
The Kingdom of Saxony, a German state since 1180, was a member of the German Confederation from 1815 to 1866. Prior to that, the Wettin dynasty had split in 1547 and the junior Albertine line took over Saxony. The senior line ruled the Thüringian area. In the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, Saxony declined Prussia’s offer of neutrality, and the Saxon army joined the Austrians. The Prussians occupied the entire kingdom. On the conclusion of peace, Saxony lost no territory, but had to pay a war indemnity of ten million Thalers, and was compelled to enter the North German Confederation. The military, postal and telegraph systems were placed under Prussian control. The Saxon military became a contingent of the Prussian army on 7 February 1867. Saxony became a member state of the German Empire in 1871.
King George of Saxony died on 15 October 1904; his son, as King Friedrich Augustus III, succeeded him until his abdication in 1918. Friedrich served in the Royal Saxon Army until his coronation and commanded several units. Friedrich Augustus IIIwas the only German royal who renounced his own rights for the throne, but not his family’s rights. The 800-year plus reign of House Wettin ended with his abdication. When he abdicated in 1918 he famously said: “you’ll just have to do your dirty business without my help!” Frederick Augustus III’s son, Crown Prince Georg of Saxony gave up his succession rights to become a Jesuit priest in 1923. During WWII he helped conceal Jews, and was consequently murdered by the Nazis. Second picture is Prinz Johann Georg Pius Karl Leopold Maria Januarius Anacletus von Sachsen, Herzog zu Sachsen. 1869-1938. A younger brother of the Kingdom of Saxony’s last king, Frederick Augustus III of Saxony. Prince Johann Georg only had an illegitimate son, John William (1927) who was killed in action in 1945.
Saxony was a hereditary constitutional monarchy with four votes in the Bundesratand twenty-three deputies in the Reichstag.Saxony was known as the “Red Kingdom,” when in 1903 with universal suffrage, 22 of 23 Reichstag deputies were Social Democrats. The parliament of the kingdom had two chambers known as the Ständekammer. The upper chamber consisted of princes, certain members of the nobility and prominent men appointed by the King. The lower chamber consisted of 43 members from the towns and 48 from the country, who were elected for six-year terms. All male citizens 25 years and older, who paid three marks per annum in taxes, had the vote. The number of Social Democratic delegates in the Kingdom’s parliament increased steadily. As a result, in 1896, a new electoral law was passed, introducing indirect elections and a franchise based on a three-tier system. In 1901, this change eliminated the Socialists from the Kingdom’s parliament but, by 1903, the Social Democrats were the overwhelming majority in the Imperial Reichstag. This majority changed further in 1909 with plural voting of between one and four votes determined by the amount paid in direct taxation.
In 1914, the population of Saxony was 4,986,000. Saxony was the most densely populated state in the empire, and its population increased at a more rapid rate than any of the larger German states. No kingdom had so large a proportion of urban population, forming 52.97 percent of the whole. About 94 percent of the inhabitants were Protestants; about 12,500 were Jews; and about 4.7 percent, including the royal family, were Roman Catholics. There was a neighboring Prussian province of Saxony that had the same name. The Kingdom was 14,993 km². The capital was Dresden. Saxon soldiers were concentrated into two Army Corps: the XII and XIX Army Corps. However, the 105th Infantry Regiment and the 12th Foot Artillery Regiment were located in Alsace-Lorraine