n.
officially German National Assembly
(184849) German national parliament that tried and failed to create a united German state during the liberal Revolutions of 1848 .
Meeting in Frankfurt am Main , it proposed a constitution that provided for universal suffrage and a parliamentary government, with a hereditary emperor. The assembly offered the crown to Frederick William IV of Prussia, but he was too conservative to receive a German imperial crown from any hands but those of the other German princes, and he refused. Lacking support from either Prussia or Austria, the assembly was forced to disband.