The 12 points ( hu, 12 pont) were a list of demands written by the leaders of the

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although th ...

History

On the morning of March 15, 1848, revolutionaries marched around the city of Pest, reading

Sándor Petőfi Sándor Petőfi ( []; né Petrovics; sk, Alexander Petrovič; sr, Александар Петровић; 1 January 1823 – most likely 31 July 1849) was a Hungarian poet of Serbian origin and liberal revolutionary. He is considered Hungary's ...

Nemzeti dal The Nemzeti dal (''"National Song"'') is a Hungarian patriotic poem written by Sándor Petőfi that is said to have inspired the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Petőfi read the poem aloud on March 15 on the steps of the Hungarian National Museum in ...

(National Song) and the 12 points to the crowd (which swelled to thousands). Declaring an end to all forms of

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

, they visited the printing presses of Landerer and Heckenast and printed Petőfi's poem together with the demands. A mass demonstration was held in front of the newly built

National Museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

, after which the group left for the

Buda Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...

Chancellery (the Office of the Governor-General) on the other bank of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

. When the crowd rallied in front of the Imperial Governing Council, the representatives of

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

agreed to sign the 12 points.

Text

What the Hungarian nation wants. Let there be peace, liberty, and concord. # We demand the

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...

, the abolition of

. # Independent Hungarian government in

- Pest. (All ministries and the government must be elected by the parliament) # Annual national assembly in Pest. (by democratic parliamentary elections, the abolition of the old feudal parliament which based on the feudal estates) # Civil and religious equality before the law. (Universal equality before the law: The abolition of separate laws for the common people and nobility, the abolition of the legal privileges of nobility. Absolute religious liberty, the abolition of the (Catholic) State Religion) # National army. # Universal and equal taxation (abolition of the tax exemption of the aristocracy) # The abolition of socage. (abolition of Feudalism and abolition of the serfdom of peasantry and their bondservices) #

Juries A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England durin ...

and courts based on an equal legal representation.(The common people can be elected as juries at the legal courts, all people can be officials even on the highest levels of the public administration and judicature, if they have the prescribed education) # A

national bank In banking, the term national bank carries several meanings: * a bank owned by the state * an ordinary private bank which operates nationally (as opposed to regionally or locally or even internationally) * in the United States, an ordinary p ...

. # The

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

must take an oath on the Constitution, send our soldiers home and take foreign soldiers away(repatriation of the Hungarian army). # Setting free the

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s (amnesty for those who have opposed or criticized the government). # Union ith_Transylvania.html" ;"title="Transylvania.html" ;"title="ith Transylvania">ith Transylvania">Transylvania.html" ;"title="ith Transylvania">ith Transylvania Equality, liberty, brotherhood!

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:12 Points Of The Hungarian Revolutionaries Of 1848 Hungarian Revolution of 1848 1848 documents