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4ff; Evers, “Erörterungen über den preussischen Injurien-Prozess,” Archiv für preussisches Strafrecht 8 (1860), 609–17. The development of the law 21 reinforced by the disparate sentences meted out by estate. Legal redress for insult came in two forms: the Privatgenugtuung, a formal ritualized apology, retraction, and/or declaration of respect (Abbitte, Widerruf, and Ehrenerklärung); and the public punishment for violation of state laws. In the latter case, “minor insults” among people of the same estate or between parties belonging to the “peasant or the lower commoner estates,” for example, brought sentences of the workhouse or prison of between 24 hours and 3 days.

The pamphlet and other documents in the case can be found in Johann Jacoby, Gesammelte Schriften und Reden (Hamburg, 1872). Veronika Renner, “Karl Twesten, Vorkämpfer der liberalen Rechtsstaatsidee” (PhD thesis, University of Freiburg, 1954), pp. 150ff. The development of the law 23 Before 1848, legal reform had very limited success. 14 But overall, these changes had done little to ameliorate the system’s fundamental problems. 17 Legal equality, in turn, forced on the Prussian regime, which was otherwise doing its best to crush the revolution, the democratization of defamation law.

661. Verhandlungen des ersten deutschen Juristentages (Berlin, 1860), p. 71 provides Lewald’s original proposal, which was debated at length and partially amended. See, also, Verhandlungen des zweiten deutschen Juristentages, p. 363 and passim. 35 Almost immediately following the Juristentag resolution, the Privatklage issue moved into the legislative realm, surfacing in the Prussian lower house of parliament (Abgeordnetenhaus) within the context of liberal attempts to impose controls on arbitrary state power.