Later the monarchist flag reappeared, rallying about it all the deceptions and discontents. During the discussion of the draft of the Constitution the German Nationalists, among them the former Minister Delbrück, declared loudly that they preferred a constitutional, parliamentary monarchy to a republican government; but the other parties did not follow them. In Article 1 of the Constitution it was decided that “The German Reich is a Republic”; and in Article 17 that “each state must have a Republican Constitution.” As a symbol of this change in the form of government the Constitution changed the colours of the German flag; abandoning the black-white-red of the old régime and adopting the colours, black, red and gold because of their historical significance; because these colours had always symbolized in the courts of the nineteenth century the tendency toward political liberty and towards German national unity. However, the Constitution does not give the new German state the name “Republic” but keeps the name of “Reich.” The Independents protested against that; they insisted on the fact that “Reich” will be always translated in French and in English as “Empire” and that this word will always signify to foreign powers all that militarist domination implies, the despotic subordination and the dangerous pan-Germanism that characterized the old Empire. But Preuss, followed by all the other parties, observed that abroad “Reich” could not be translated as “Empire” except in bad faith, for Article 1 specifies that Germany is a republic and that the republican character of the state appears clearly in even the most casual reading of the text of the Constitution. For him the distinctive trait of the Constitution was that it places to the forefront German unity. “After all, our historical development is precisely in the words ‘Reich’ and ‘German Reich’ with which are associated the efforts of the German people towards unity and the re-establishment of national unity. I believe that to keep the word ‘Reich’ is entirely compatible with the marked emphasis on republican character with which the whole of the Constitution is impregnated.”[27] 2.--UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, THE POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE ELECTORAL LAW. Democracy being the government of the state by the will of the majority, the next problem, a difficult one, is how to indicate that will.