| Republic Of Mainz |
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| client states of the great french war | |
| mainz, republic of | |
| rhineland-palatinate | |
| 1793 | |
| mainz | |
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]] CONTEXT In the course of the French Revolutionary Wars , the Prussian and Austria n troops that had invaded France retreated after the Battle Of Valmy . The French revolutionary army counterattacked. The troops of General Custine entered the Palatinate in late September, and occupied Mainz October 21 , 1792 . The ruler of Mainz, Electoral Prince and Archbishop Friedrich Karl Joseph Von Erthal , had fled the city. JACOBIN CLUB On the next day, 20 citizens of Mainz founded a Jacobin club, the ''Gesellschaft der Freunde der Freiheit und Gleichheit'' (Society of the Friends of Liberty and Equality). Together with their filial clubs founded later in Speyer and Worms , they promoted the Enlightenment and the French revolutionary ideals of ''liberté'', ''egalité'', ''fraternité'' in Germany, aiming for a German republic to be established following the French model. Most of the founding members of the Jacobin club were professors and students of the University Of Mainz , together with the University librarian, Georg Forster , some merchants and Mainz state officials. FOUNDING OF THE REPUBLIC By order of the French National Convention , elections in the French occupied territories west of the Rhine were held on February 24 , 1793 . 130 cities and towns sent their deputies to Mainz. The first democratically elected parliament in Germany, called the ''Rheinisch-Deutscher Nationalkonvent'' (Rhenish-German national convention) first met on March 17 , 1793 , in the ''Deutschhaus'' building in Mainz (nowadays the seat of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament). The convent declared the represented territory (which extended to Bingen in the west and to Landau in the south) to be free and democratic, and disclaimed any ties to the Empire . On March 23, it was decided to send delegates (among them Georg Forster and Adam Lux ) to Paris and to request accession of the Mainz republic to France. The French national convention granted this on March 30. END OF THE REPUBLIC Prussian troops soon after retook all the French occupied territory except for the heavily fortified city of Mainz itself. After a long siege, in which much of the city was destroyed, Prussian and Austrian troops conquered the city on 22 July. The republic ended, and the Jacobins were persecuted until 1795, when Mainz came under French control again. |
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