CHAPTER V FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF GERMANS Legal and political aspects of fundamental rights and duties 195 Fundamental rights and duties of the individual 202 Fundamental rights and duties of communities 216 Religion and the churches 222 Instruction and the schools 226 CHAPTER VI THE ECONOMIC CONSTITUTION AND SOCIALIZATION SECTION 1 THE ECONOMIC CONSTITUTION The “anchorage” of the Councils in the Constitution 236 Constitutional provisions relative to the Councils 244 Factory Workers Councils 248 The Trade Unions and the Councils 257 The Provisional Economic Council 263 SECTION 2 SOCIALIZATION The problem of socialization 269 Collective economy 275 The regulation of the coal industry 280 CONCLUSION APPENDIX The Constitution of August 11, 1919 (text) 297 The German Constitution CHAPTER I THE ORIGINS Up to the autumn of 1918 Germany was under the Empire of the Constitution of April 16, 1871. Then in November, 1918, the work of Bismarck was suddenly overthrown and military defeat and revolution plunged Germany into chaos. How she worked out of it, through what vicissitudes she passed and with what groping she finally achieved her new Constitution is the question to examine first. SECTION 1 THE REVOLUTION The revolution of November, 1918, was preceded by partial reforms embodied at a late hour in the Constitution of 1871; and when it broke out, in a few hours it completely threw over all the apparatus of the old régime. A new government sprang up which for several weeks held power in the name of a minority and without any right other than that of force. 1.--THE CONSTITUTION OF APRIL 16, 1871, AND THE REFORMS OF OCTOBER, 1918. The principal characteristics of the Constitution of April 16, 1871, are well known. Germany was a federal state, that is to say, above the member states, which renounced a part of their individual independence to strengthen their collective political and economic power, there existed a central state in whose favor they had given up that degree of independence--the German Empire.