12 demands, or „What does the Hungarian nation demand?”

Birth of the 12 demands

In response to news of the Paris revolution, Lajos Kossuth presented a proposal to Parliament on 3 March 1848 in which he outlined the unification of interests and internal reforms as the main goals, and demanded a constitution for the peoples of the empire which later played an important role in the outbreak of the revolution in Vienna. The lower house approved the proposal immediately, and further proposed the emancipation of serfs, the introduction of taxation and the establishment of an independent national government.

The next day, the Opposition Circle comprised of reform politicians, too, debated the proposal. They complained that it failed to make mention of the freedom of the press, annual sessions of parliament and other institutions. Therefore, the first draft of the 12 demands worded by József Irinyi was completed on 12 March which pointed far beyond the original proposal. This version also contained an introduction which proclaimed that the nation now demanded the full reform of the constitution and was no longer satisfied with part-results.

The radical youth of Pest decided in Pilvax Cafe to present the 12 demands at the 19 March Joseph Day fair to the market crowd. The outbreak of the revolution in Vienna on 13 March and the fact that the young students of Vienna successfully made members of the diet accept their petition of 11 March accelerated events here. On 14 March, the revolutionary youth led by Sándor Petőfi, Mór Jókai and Pál Vasvári resolved to take action and decided at the Pilvax Cafe to organise a demonstration in Pest-Buda the next morning and to proclaim the 12 demands in the entire city.

 

The 12 demands during the course of „the great day”

In the morning of 15 March, after the wording of a petition that also included the 12 demands, all four of them went to Pilvax Cafe wearing tri-colour rosettes on their chests where Petőfi recited his National Song. The poem was welcomed as a great success. Fifteen of them set out from the café towards the medical university where Petőfi repeatedly recited the National Song, while Jókai read out the petition to the students.

People had, in the interim, continuously joined the crowd of now 300 to 400 that set out for Egyetem tér. When arriving at Egyetem tér, thousands of people listened to the repeatedly recited National Song and proclamation. The crowd, increased in numbers and enthusiasm, set out for the printing press of Landerer and Heckenast in order to have the National Song and the 12 demands printed. These represented the demands of the Hungarian people.

In the afternoon, a crowd of tens of thousands outside the National Museum repeated the oath after Petőfi: „We shall be slaves no more!”. They decided to liberate Mihály Táncsics from the prison of the Council of the Governor-General in the Buda Castle and set up a negotiating committee of six to negotiate with the Council of the City of Pest. In response to the some 300 people that flooded the council hall and the crowd of 10 to 15000 waiting outside the building, the city council accepted the 12 demands, and then signed and sealed a printed copy. After this, they marched to the Buda Castle where Pál Nyáry, Gábor Klauzál and Lipót Rottenbiller presented the 12 demands to the Council of the Governor-General. The Vice-Chair of the Council, Count Ferenc Zichy, frightened by the crowd of twenty thousand and the news of the Vienna revolution, gave in to the demands at around half past five. He forbade all military intervention, censorship was lifted and Mihály Táncsics was released from prison.

On 11 April 1848, at the last session of the Hungarian Diet, King Ferdinand V approved the so-called „April laws”. The legislative package mostly represented the codification of the 12 demands of the Pest revolution which ensured the civic democratic development of the Hungarian part of the country and effectively transformed Hungary from a feudal country into a parliamentary state. While the new, neo-absolutist regime annulled the April laws after the suppression of the revolution, they became a point of reference in Hungarian politics and were partially realised upon the 1867 Compromise and through the constitutional evolution that took place during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.