Rede Hans Kudlichs 1848

What has not been discussed are precisely those laws which affect the personal liberty of the subject in such a way that we can look upon this as a state of emergency, as a state of siege upon personal liberty, and one which a high Assembly based upon the sovereignty of the people can no longer tolerate. (Applause) It will, of course, be objected that the thing will come to an end of itself, but I say: this cannot be silently given to the people; it must happen with a ceremonial proclamation of the Austrian people (applause), to complete those steps once started by a monarch called Josef. What a monarch has done for his subjects, the Austrian people should do for themselves, that is what we should do for our brothers. (Applause) It is an irony when one hears that the sovereign Austrian people grants itself a constitution built on democratic foundations, and that in all the provinces there is a state of affairs which, in essence, can hardly be distinguished from the old serfdom, (applause) and so it is contradictory if we have subjects sitting alongside citizens; now and forever I am unable to reconcile these two terms: ‘subjects’ and ‘citizens’.