The Prussian three-class franchise was an indirect electoral system used from 1848 until 1918 in the Kingdom of Prussia and for shorter periods in other German states. Voters were grouped by district into three classes, with the total tax payments in each class equal. Those who paid the most in taxes formed the first class, followed by the next highest in the second, with those who paid the least in the third. Voters in each class separately elected one third of the electors who in turn voted for the representatives. Voting was not secret. The franchise was a form of apportionment by economic class rather than geographic area or population.
Prussian House of Representatives in 1900.