The Confederation had only one organ, theBundesversammlung, or Federal Convention (also Federal Assembly or Confederate Diet). The Convention consisted of the representatives of the member states. The most important issues had to be decided unanimously. The Convention was presided over by the representative of Austria, but this was a formality, as the Confederation had no head of state, since it was not a state.
The Confederation was a strong alliance among its member states because federal law was superior to state law. (The decisions of theFederal Convention were binding for the member states.)[1] Additionally, the Confederation had been established for eternity and was impossible to dissolve (legally), with no member states able to leave it and no new member able to join without universal consent in the Federal Convention. But the Confederation was weakened by its very structure and member states, partly because its most important decisions required unanimity and the purpose of the Confederation was limited to security matters.[2] Moreover, the functioning of the Confederation depended on the cooperation of the two most populous member states, Austria andPrussia, which were often inopposition.
TheGerman revolutions of 1848–1849, motivated by liberal, democratic, socialist, and nationalist sentiments, attempted to transform the Confederation into aunified German federal state with a liberal constitution (usually called theFrankfurt Constitution in English). The Federal Convention dissolved on 12 July 1848 but was reestablished in 1850 after the revolution was crushed by Austria, Prussia, and other states.[3]
The Confederation finally dissolved after the victory of theKingdom of Prussia in theSeven Weeks' War over theAustrian Empire in 1866. The dispute over which had the inherent right to rule German lands ended in Prussia's favour, leading to the creation of theNorth German Confederation under Prussian leadership in 1867, to which the eastern portions of the Kingdom of Prussia were added. A number of South German states remained independent until they joined the North German Confederation, which was renamed and proclaimed as theGerman Empire in 1871, as the unified Germany (aside from Austria) with the Prussian king as emperor (Kaiser) after the victory over French EmperorNapoleon III in theFranco-Prussian War of 1870.
Frontispiece of the Acts of theCongress of ViennaChart: functioning of the German Confederation
Most historians consider the Confederation to have been weak and ineffective, as well as an obstacle to the creation of a German nation-state.[4] This weakness was part of its design, as theEuropean Great Powers, including Prussia and especially Austria, did not want it to become a nation-state. But the Confederation was not a loose tie between the German states, as it was impossible to leave, and as Confederation law stood above the law of the aligned states. Its constitutional weakness lay in the principle of unanimity in the Diet and the limits of the Confederation's scope: it was essentially a military alliance to defend Germany against external attacks and internal riots. The War of 1866 proved its ineffectiveness, as it was unable to combine the federal troops to fight the Prussian secession.[5]
TheWar of the Third Coalition lasted from about 1803 to 1806. Following defeat at theBattle ofAusterlitz by the French underNapoleon in December 1805,Francis II abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor on 6 August 1806, thus dissolving theEmpire. In the aftermath of theTreaty ofPressburg Napoleon created theConfederation of the Rhine in July 1806, joining 16 of France's allies among the German states (including Bavaria andWürttemberg). After theBattle ofJena–Auerstedt of October 1806 in theWar of the Fourth Coalition, various other German states, including Saxony and Westphalia, also joined the Confederation. Only Austria, Prussia, DanishHolstein,Swedish Pomerania, and the French-occupiedPrincipality of Erfurt stayed outside the Confederation of the Rhine. TheWar of the Sixth Coalition from 1812 to winter 1814 saw Napoleon's defeat and Germany's liberation. In June 1814, the German patriotHeinrich vom Stein created the Central Managing Authority for Germany (Zentralverwaltungsbehörde) in Frankfurt to replace the defunct Confederation of the Rhine, but plenipotentiaries gathered at theCongress of Vienna were determined to create a weaker union of German states than Stein envisaged.
The German Confederation was created by the9th Act of the Congress of Vienna on 8 June 1815 after being alluded to inArticle 6 of the 1814Treaty of Paris, ending the War of the Sixth Coalition.[6]
The Confederation was formally created by a second treaty, theFinal Act of the Ministerial Conference to Complete and Consolidate the Organization of the German Confederation. This treaty was not concluded and signed by the parties until 15 May 1820. States joined the German Confederation by becoming parties to the second treaty. The states designated for inclusion in the Confederation were:
Held byDanish kings inpersonal union since 15th century as a fief of theHoly Roman Empire; on 28 November 1863, the Federal Assembly removed the Danish delegate pending resolution of the succession issue and the naming of a new delegate from a government recognized by the Assembly; Denmark subsequently ceded it and Sleswig jointly to Austria and Prussia on 30 October 1864 as a result of theSecond Schleswig War; the duchy technically remained in the Confederation pending final resolution of its status; Sleswig did not become a member in the short time between this war and the dissolution of the Confederation; both duchies were annexed by Prussia on 24 December 1866
In 1839, as compensation for the loss of part of theprovince ofLuxemburg to Belgium, theDuchy of Limburg was created and became a member of the German Confederation (held by the Netherlands jointly with Luxembourg) until the dissolution of 1866. In 1867 the duchy was declared an "integral part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands". The cities of Maastricht and Venlo were not included in the Confederation.
Monarchs of the member states of the German Confederation (with the exception of the Prussian king) meeting at Frankfurt in 1863
TheAustrian Empire and theKingdom of Prussia were the Confederation's largest and most powerful members. Large parts of both were excluded from the Confederation because they had not been part of the former Holy Roman Empire, nor were the greater parts of their armed forces incorporated in the federal army. Austria and Prussia each had one vote in the Federal Assembly.
The rules of the Confederation provided for three different types of military interventions:[8]
the federal war (Bundeskrieg) against an external enemy who attacks federal territory,
the federal execution (Bundesexekution) against the government of a member state that violates federal law,
the federal intervention (Bundesintervention) supporting a government that is under pressure of a popular uprising.
Other military conflicts were foreign to the confederation (bundesfremd). An example is Austria's oppression of the uprising in Northern Italy in 1848 and 1849, as these Austrian territories lay outside of the confederation's borders.
During the existence of the Confederation, there was only one federal war: the war against Denmark beginning with the Schleswig-Holstein uprising in 1848 (theFirst Schleswig War). The conflict became a federal war when the Bundestag demanded that Denmark withdraw its troops from Schleswig (April 12) and recognized the revolutionary of Schleswig-Holstein (April 22). The confederation transformed into theGerman Empire of 1848. Prussia wasde facto the most important member state conducting the war for Germany.[9]
There are several examples of federal executions and especially federal interventions. In 1863, the Confederation ordered the execution of the duke of Holstein (the Danish king). Federal troops occupied Holstein, which was a member state. After this, Austria and Prussia declared war on Denmark, the Second Schleswig War (orDeutsch-Dänischer Krieg in German). As Schleswig and Denmark were not member states, this war was foreign to the Confederation, which took no part in it.
In June 1866, the Federal Convention took measures against Prussia. This decision was technically not a federal execution for lack of time to observe the actual procedure. Prussia had violated, according to the majority of the convention, federal law by sending its troops to Holstein. The decision led to the war in summer 1866 that ended with the dissolution of the confederation (known asSeven Weeks War or by other names).
TheGerman Federal Army (Deutsches Bundesheer) was supposed to collectively defend the German Confederation from external enemies, primarily France. Successive laws passed by the Confederate Diet set the form and function of the army, as well as contribution limits of the member states. The Diet had the power to declare war and was responsible for appointing a supreme commander of the army and commanders of the individual army corps. This made mobilization extremely slow and added a political dimension to the army. In addition, the Diet oversaw the construction and maintenance of severalGerman Federal Fortresses and collected funds annually from the member states for this purpose.
Projections of army strength were published in 1835, but the work of forming the Army Corps did not commence until 1840 as a consequence of theRhine crisis. Money for the fortresses were determined by an act of the Confederate Diet in that year. By 1846, Luxemburg still had not formed its own contingent, and Prussia was rebuffed for offering to supply 1,450 men to garrison the Luxemburg fortress that should have been supplied by Waldeck and the two Lippes. In that same year, it was decided that a common symbol for the Federal Army should be the old Imperial two-headed eagle, but without crown, scepter, or sword, as any of those devices encroached on the individual sovereignty of the states. KingFrederick William IV of Prussia was among those who derided the "disarmed imperial eagle" as a national symbol.[10]
The German Federal Army was divided into ten Army Corps (later expanded to include a Reserve Corps). The Army Corps were not exclusive to the German Confederation but composed of the member states' armies, and did not include all of the armed forces of a state. For example, Prussia's army consisted of nine Army Corps but contributed only three to the German Federal Army.
The strength of the mobilized German Federal Army was projected to total 303,484 men in 1835 and 391,634 men in 1860, with the individual states providing the following figures:[11]
Between 1806 and 1815,Napoleon organized the German states, aside from Prussia and Austria, into theConfederation of the Rhine, but this collapsed after his defeats in 1812 to 1815. The German Confederation had roughly the same boundaries as the Empire at the time of theFrench Revolution (less what is nowBelgium). It also kept intact most of Confederation's reconstituted member states and their boundaries. Themember states, drastically reduced to 39 from more than 300 (seeKleinstaaterei) under theHoly Roman Empire, were recognized as fully sovereign. The members pledged themselves to mutual defense, andjoint maintenance of the fortresses atMainz, the city ofLuxembourg,Rastatt,Ulm, andLandau.
The only organ of the Confederation was theFederal Assembly (officiallyBundesversammlung, often calledBundestag), which consisted of the delegates of the states' governments. There was no head of state, but the Austrian delegate presided over the Assembly (according to the Bundesakte). Austria did not have extra powers, but consequently the Austrian delegate was calledPräsidialgesandther and Austria thePräsidialmacht (presiding power). The Assembly met in Frankfurt.
The Confederation was enabled to accept and deploy ambassadors. It allowed ambassadors of the European powers to the Assembly, but rarely deployed ambassadors itself.
During the revolution of 1848/49 the Federal Assembly was inactive. It transferred its powers to theProvisorische Zentralgewalt, the revolutionary German Central Government of theFrankfurt National Assembly. After crushing the revolution and illegally disbanding the National Assembly, the Prussian King failed to create a German nation state by himself. The Federal Assembly was revived in 1850 on Austrian initiative, but only fully reinstalled in the summer of 1851.
Rivalry between Prussia and Austria grew, especially after 1859. The Confederation dissolved in 1866 after theAustro-Prussian War, and was succeeded in 1866 by the Prussian-dominatedNorth German Confederation. Unlike the German Confederation, the North German Confederation was a true state. Its territory comprised the parts of the German Confederation north of the riverMain, plus Prussia's eastern territories and the Duchy ofSchleswig, but excluded Austria and the other southern German states.
Prussia's influence was widened by theFranco-Prussian War resulting in the proclamation of theGerman Empire atVersailles on 18 January 1871, which united the North German Federation with the southern German states. All the constituent states of the former German Confederation became part of theKaiserreich in 1871, except Austria,Luxembourg, theDuchy of Limburg, andLiechtenstein.
Impact of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic invasions
Austrian chancellor and foreign ministerKlemens von Metternich dominated the German Confederation from 1815 until 1848.
The late 18th century was a period of political, economic, intellectual, and cultural reforms—the Enlightenment (represented by figures such asLocke,Rousseau,Voltaire, andAdam Smith), but also earlyRomanticism, climaxing with theFrench Revolution, where freedom of the individual and nation was asserted against privilege and custom. Representing a great variety of types and theories, they were largely a response to the disintegration of previous cultural patterns, coupled with new patterns of production, specifically the rise of industrial capitalism.
But Napoleon's defeat enabled conservative and reactionary regimes such as those of theKingdom of Prussia, theAustrian Empire, andTsarist Russia to survive, laying the groundwork for theCongress of Vienna and the alliance that strove to oppose radical demands for change ushered in by theFrench Revolution. WithAustria's position on the continent now intact and ostensibly secure under its reactionary premierKlemens von Metternich, theHabsburg empire was a barrier to contain the emergence of Italian and German nation-states as well, in addition to containing France. But this reactionary balance of power, aimed at blocking German andItalian nationalism on the continent, was precarious.
After Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, the surviving member states of the defunct Holy Roman Empire joined to form the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund)—a rather loose organization, especially because theAustrian Empire and theKingdom of Prussia each feared domination by the other.
In Prussia theHohenzollern rulers forged a centralized state. By the time of the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia, grounded in the virtues of its established military aristocracy (theJunkers) and stratified by rigid hierarchical lines, had been surpassed militarily and economically by France. After 1807, Prussia's defeats by Napoleonic France highlighted the need for administrative, economic, and social reforms to improve the efficiency of the bureaucracy and encourage practical merit-based education. Inspired by the Napoleonic organization of German and Italian principalities, thePrussian Reform Movement led byKarl August von Hardenberg andCountStein was conservative, enacted to preservearistocratic privilege while modernizing institutions.
Outside Prussia, industrialization progressed slowly, hampered by political disunity, conflicts of interest between the nobility and merchants, and the continued existence of the guild system, which discouraged competition and innovation. While this kept themiddle class at bay, affording the old order a measure of stability not seen in France, Prussia's vulnerability to Napoleon's military proved to many among the old order that a fragile, divided, and traditionalist Germany would be easy prey for its cohesive and industrializing neighbor.
The reforms laid the foundation for Prussia's future military might by professionalizing the military and decreeing universalmilitary conscription. To industrialize Prussia within the framework of the old aristocratic institutions, land reforms were enacted to break the monopoly of theJunkers on land ownership, thereby also abolishing, among other things, thefeudal practice of serfdom.
Romanticism, nationalism, and liberalism in theVormärz era
Although the forces the French Revolution unleashed were seemingly under control after the Vienna Congress, the conflict between conservative forces and liberal nationalists was only deferred. The era until the failed 1848 revolution, in which these tensions grew, is commonly calledVormärz ("pre-March"), in reference to the outbreak of riots in March 1848.
This conflict pitted the forces of the old order against those inspired by the French Revolution and the Rights of Man. The breakdown of the competition was, roughly, the emergingcapitalistbourgeoisie andpetit-bourgeoisie (engaged mostly in commerce, trade, and industry), and the growing (and increasingly radicalized) industrialworking class; and the other side associated with landowning aristocracy or military aristocracy (theJunkers) in Prussia, theHabsburg monarchy in Austria, and the conservative notables of Germany's smallprincely states andcity-states.
Meanwhile, demands for change from below had been fomenting due to the influence of the French Revolution. Throughout the German Confederation, Austrian influence was paramount, drawing the ire of the nationalist movements.Metternich considered nationalism, especially the nationalist youth movement, the most pressing danger: German nationalism might not only repudiate Austrian dominance of the Confederation, but also stimulate nationalist sentiment within the Austrian Empire itself. In a multi-nationalpolyglot state in which Slavs and Magyars outnumbered the Germans, the prospects of Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Serb, or Croatian sentiment along with middle class liberalism was certainly horrifying to the monarchist landed aristocracy.
Figures likeAugust Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben,Ludwig Uhland,Georg Herwegh,Heinrich Heine,Georg Büchner,Ludwig Börne, andBettina von Arnim rose in theVormärz era. FatherFriedrich Jahn's gymnastic associations exposed middle-class German youth to nationalist and democratic ideas, which took the form of the nationalistic and liberal democratic college fraternities known asBurschenschaften. The 1817 Wartburg Festival celebratedMartin Luther as a proto-German nationalist, linking Lutheranism to German nationalism, and helping arouse religious sentiments for the cause of German nationhood. The festival culminated in the burning of several books and other items that symbolizedreactionary attitudes. One was a book byAugust von Kotzebue. In 1819,Kotzebue was accused of spying for Russia and then murdered by a theological student,Karl Ludwig Sand, who wasexecuted for the crime. Sand belonged to a militant nationalist faction of theBurschenschaften.Metternich used the murder as a pretext to issue theCarlsbad Decrees of 1819, which dissolved theBurschenschaften, cracked down on the liberal press, and seriously restrictedacademic freedom.[12]
German artists and intellectuals, heavily influenced by the French Revolution, turned toRomanticism. At the universities, high-powered professors developed international reputations, especially in the humanities led by history and philology, which brought new historical perspective to the study of political history, theology, philosophy, language, and literature. WithGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in philosophy,Friedrich Schleiermacher in theology, andLeopold von Ranke in history, theUniversity of Berlin, founded in 1810, became the world's leading university.Von Ranke, for example, professionalized history and set the world standard for historiography. By the 1830s, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology had emerged with world-class science, led byAlexander von Humboldt in natural science andCarl Friedrich Gauss in mathematics. Young intellectuals often turned to politics, but their support for the failed Revolution of 1848 forced many into exile.[13]
The population of the German Confederation (excluding Austria) grew 60% from 1815 to 1865, from 21,000,000 to 34,000,000.[14] The era saw thedemographic transition in Germany from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates[citation needed] as the country developed from a pre-industrial to a modernized agriculture and supported a fast-growing industrialized urban economic system. In previous centuries, the shortage of land meant that not everyone could marry, and marriages took place after age 25. The high birthrate was offset by a very high rate ofinfant mortality, plus periodic epidemics and harvest failures. After 1815, increased agricultural productivity meant a larger food supply and a decline in famines, epidemics, and malnutrition. This allowed couples to marry earlier and have more children. Arranged marriages became uncommon as young people were now allowed to choose their partners, subject to a veto by the parents. The upper and middle classes began to practicebirth control, and a little later so did the peasants.[15] The population in 1800 was heavily rural,[16] with only 8% of the people living in communities of 5,000 to 100,000 and another 2% living in cities of more than 100,000.
In a heavily agrarian society, land ownership played a central role. Germany's nobles, especially those in the East calledJunkers, dominated not only the localities, but also thePrussian court, and especially thePrussian army. Increasingly after 1815, a centralized Prussian government based in Berlin took over the powers of the nobles, which in terms of control over the peasantry had been almost absolute. They retained control of the judicial system on their estates until 1848, as well as control of hunting and game laws. They paid no land tax until 1861 and kept their police authority until 1872, and controlled church affairs into the early 20th century. To help the nobility avoid indebtedness, Berlin set up a credit institution to provide capital loans in 1809, and extended the loan network to peasants in 1849. When the German Empire was established in 1871, the nobility controlled the army and the Navy, the bureaucracy, and the royal court; they generally set governmental policies.[17][18]
Peasants continued to center their lives in the village, where they were members of a corporate body and helped manage community resources and monitor community life. In the East, they were serfs who were bound prominently to parcels of land. In most of Germany, farming was handled by tenant farmers who paid rents and obligatory services to the landlord, who was typically a nobleman.[b] Peasant leaders supervised the fields and ditches and grazing rights, maintained public order and morals, and supported a village court which handled minor offenses. Inside the family, the patriarch made all the decisions and tried to arrange advantageous marriages for his children. Much of the villages' communal life centered around church services and holy days. In Prussia, the peasants drew lots to choose conscripts required by the army. The noblemen handled external relationships and politics for the villages under their control, and were not typically involved in daily activities or decisions.[20][c]
After 1815, the urban population grew rapidly, due primarily to the influx of young people from the rural areas.Berlin grew from 172,000 people in 1800 to 826,000 in 1870;Hamburg grew from 130,000 to 290,000;Munich from 40,000 to 269,000;Breslau (nowWrocław) from 60,000 to 208,000;Dresden from 60,000 to 177,000;Königsberg (nowKaliningrad) from 55,000 to 112,000. Offsetting this growth, there was extensive emigration, especially to theUnited States. Emigration totaled 480,000 in the 1840s, 1,200,000 in the 1850s, and 780,000 in the 1860s.[21]
Despite its name and intention, the German Confederation was not entirely populated by Germans; many people of other ethnic groups lived within its borders:
Further efforts to improve the confederation began in 1834 with the establishment of acustoms union, theZollverein. In 1834, the Prussian regime sought to stimulate wider trade advantages and industrialism by decree—a logical continuation of the program ofStein andHardenberg less than two decades earlier. Historians have seen three Prussian goals: to eliminate Austrian influence in Germany; to improve the economies; and to strengthen Germany against potential French aggression while reducing smaller states' economic independence.[22]
Inadvertently, these reforms sparked the unification movement and augmented a middle class demanding further political rights, but at the time backwardness and Prussia's fears of its stronger neighbors were greater concerns. The customs union opened a common market, ended tariffs between states, and standardized weights, measures, and currencies within member states (excluding Austria), forming the basis of a proto-national economy.[23]
By 1842 theZollverein included most German states. Within the next 20 years, German furnaces' output increased fourfold. Coal production also grew rapidly. In turn, German industry (especially the works established by theKrupp family) introduced the steel gun, cast-steelaxle, and abreech-loading rifle, exemplifying Germany's successful application of technology to weaponry. Germany's security was greatly enhanced, leaving the Prussian state and the landowning aristocracy secure from outside threat. German manufacturers also produced heavily for the civilian sector. No longer did Britain supply half of Germany's needs for manufactured goods, as it had before.[24] But by developing a strong industrial base, the Prussian state strengthened the middle class and thus the nationalist movement.Economic integration, especially increased national consciousness among the German states, made political unity far likelier. Germany finally began exhibiting the features of a proto-nation.
The crucial factor enabling Prussia's conservative regime to survive theVormärz era was a rough coalition between leading sectors of thelanded upper class and the emerging commercial and manufacturing interests. Even if the commercial and industrial element is weak, it must be strong enough (or soon become strong enough) to become worthy of co-optation, and theFrench Revolution terrified enough perceptive elements of Prussia'sJunkers for the state to be sufficiently accommodating.
While relative stability was maintained until 1848, with enoughbourgeois elements content to exchange the "right to rule for the right to make money", the landed upper class found its economic base sinking. TheZollverein brought economic progress and helped keep the bourgeoisie at bay for a while, but it swiftly increased the ranks of the middle class—the social base for the nationalism and liberalism that the Prussian state sought to stem.
TheZollverein was a move toward economic integration, modern industrial capitalism, and the victory of centralism over localism, quickly ending the era of guilds in the small German princely states. This led to the 1844 revolt of theSilesian Weavers, who saw their livelihood destroyed by the flood of new manufactures.
TheZollverein also weakened Austrian domination of the Confederation as economic unity increased the desire for political unity and nationalism.
War ensign of theReichsflotteNaval jack of theReichsflotte
News of the1848 Revolution in Paris quickly reached discontented bourgeois liberals, republicans, and more radical workingmen. The first revolutionary uprisings in Germany began inBaden in March 1848. Within a few days, there were revolutionary uprisings in other states, including Austria and finally Prussia. On 15 March, the subjects ofFriedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia vented their long-repressed political aspirations in violent rioting in Berlin, while barricades were erected in the streets of Paris. KingLouis-Philippe of France fled to Great Britain.Friedrich Wilhelm gave in to the popular fury, and promised aconstitution, a parliament, and support for German unification, safeguarding his own rule and regime.[25][26]
On 18 May, theFrankfurt Parliament (Frankfurt Assembly) opened its first session, with delegates from various German states. It was immediately divided between those favoring akleindeutsche (small German) orgrossdeutsche (greater German) solution. The former favored offering the imperial crown to Prussia. The latter favored the Habsburg crown in Vienna, which would integrate Austria proper andBohemia (but not Hungary) into the new Germany.
In May to August, the Assembly installed a provisional German Central Government, while conservatives swiftly moved against the reformers. As in Austria and Russia, this middle-class assertion increased authoritarian and reactionary sentiments among the landed upper class, whose economic position was declining. It turned to political levers to preserve its rule. As the Prussian army proved loyal and the peasants were uninterested,Friedrich Wilhelm regained his confidence. The Assembly belatedly issued itsDeclaration of the Rights of the German People; a constitution was drawn up (excluding Austria, which openly rejected the Assembly), and the leadership of theReich was offered toFriedrich Wilhelm, who refused to "pick up a crown from the gutter". As monarchist forces marched their armies to crush rebellions in cities and towns throughout Austria and Germany the Frankfurt Assembly was forced to flee, first to Stuttgart and then to Württemberg, where, reduced to so few deputies that it could no longer form a quorum, its final meeting was forcibly dispersed on 18 June 1849 by the Württemberg army. With the complete triumph of monarchist reaction rampaging across all of Europe, thousands of German middle-class liberals and "red"Forty-eighters were forced to flee into exile (primarily to the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia).
In 1849,Friedrich Wilhelm proposed his own constitution. His document concentrated real power in the hands of the King and the upper classes and called for a confederation of North German states—theErfurt Union. Austria and Russia, fearing a strong, Prussian-dominated Germany, responded by pressuring Saxony and Hanover to withdraw, and forced Prussia to abandon the scheme in a treaty dubbed the "humiliation ofOlmütz".
A new generation of statesmen responded to popular demands for national unity for their own ends, continuing Prussia's tradition of autocracy and reform from above. Germany found an able leader to accomplish the seemingly paradoxical task of conservative modernization. In 1851,Bismarck was appointed by KingWilhelm I of Prussia (the future Kaiser Wilhelm I) to circumvent the liberals in theLandtag of Prussia, who resisted Wilhelm's autocratic militarism. Bismarck told the Diet, "The great questions of the day are not decided by speeches and majority votes ... but by blood and iron"—that is, by warfare and industrial might.[27] Prussia already had a great army; it was now augmented by rapid growth ofeconomic power.
Gradually, Bismarck subdued the more restive elements of the middle class with a combination of threats and reforms, reacting to the revolutionary sentiments expressed in 1848 by giving them the economic opportunities for which the urban middle sectors had been fighting.[28]
The German Confederation ended as a result of theAustro-Prussian War of 1866 between theAustrian Empire and its allies on one side and theKingdom of Prussia and its allies on the other. The Confederation had 33 members immediately before its dissolution. In thePrague peace treaty, on 23 August 1866, Austria accepted that the Confederation was dissolved.[29] The next day, the remaining member states confirmed the dissolution. The treaty allowed Prussia to create a newBundesverhältnis (a new kind of federation) in the North of Germany. The South German states were allowed to create aSouth German Confederation, but it did not come into existence.
Prussia created theNorth German Confederation in 1867, a federal state combining all German states north of the riverMain and also theHohenzollern territories inSwabia. Besides Austria, the South German states Bavaria,Württemberg,Baden, and Hesse-Darmstadt remained separate from the rest of Germany. But due to the successful prosecution of theFranco-Prussian War, the four southern states joined the North German Confederation by treaties in November 1870.[30]
In Frankfurt at the Paulskirche, June 14, 2008: The German navy commemorates the 160th anniversary of the decision of the Frankfurt Parliament to create theReichsflotte.
The modern German nation state known as the Federal Republic is the continuation of the North German Confederation of 1867. This North German Confederation, a federal state, was a totally new creation: the law of the German Confederation ended, and new law came into existence. The German Confederation was, according to historian Kotulla, an association of states(Staatenbund) with some elements of a federal state(Bundesstaat), and the North German Confederation was a federal state with some elements of an association of states.[33]
Still, the discussions and ideas of the period 1815–66 had a huge influence on the constitution of the North German Confederation. Most notably may be the Federal Council, the organ representing the member states. It is a copy of the 1815 Federal Convention of the German Confederation. The successor of that Federal Council of 1867 is the modernBundesrat of the Federal Republic.[34]
The German Confederation does not play a very prominent role in German historiography and national culture. It is mainly seen as an instrument to oppress the liberal, democratic, and national movements of the period. The March revolution (1848–49), with its events and institutions, attracts much more attention and devotion. The most important memorial sites are thePaulskirche in Frankfurt, a cultural hall of national importance, and theRastatt castle with theErinnerungsstätte für die Freiheitsbewegungen in der deutschen Geschichte (a museum and memorial site for the freedom movements in the German history, not only the March revolution).
The remnants of the federal fortifications are tourist attractions at least regionally or for people interested in military history.
Belgium (nine of the eleven cantons ofEupen-Malmedy,Liège Province); the larger province of Luxembourg had left the Confederation at its accession to Belgium in 1839
Denmark proper was never a member state, but its king was at the same time the duke of the member states Holstein and Lauenburg. The Duchy of Schleswig (which now partly belongs to Denmark) was never a part of the Confederation, though it was mentioned in the 1849 Frankfurt Constitution and governed briefly by a government installed by the German Central Government. Holstein, Lauenburg, and Schleswig were combined under an Austrian-Prussian condominium in 1864–1866.
^The monasteries of Bavaria, which controlled 56% of the land, were broken up by the government, and sold off around 1803.[19]
^For details on the life of a representative peasant farmer who migrated in 1710 to Pennsylvania, seeKratz, Bernd (2008). "Hans Stauffer: A Farmer in Germany Before his Emigration to Pennsylvania".Genealogist.22 (2):131–169.
^Ernst Rudolf Huber:Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Vol. I:Reform und Restauration 1789 bis 1830. 2nd ed., Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [et al.] 1967, pp. 601–602.
^Ernst Rudolf Huber:Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Vol. I:Reform und Restauration 1789 bis 1830. 2nd ed., Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart [et al.] 1967, pp. 594–595.
^Lee, Loyd E. (1985). "The German Confederation and the Consolidation of State Power in the South German States, 1815–1848".Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750–1850: Proceedings.15:332–346.ISSN0093-2574.
^Ernst Rudolf Huber:Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Band III: Bismarck und das Reich. 3rd ed., W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 559/560.
^Following Ernst Rudolf Huber:Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. vol. I:Reform und Restauration 1789 bis 1830. 2nd ed., W. Kohlhammer: Stuttgart et al., 1967, pp. 607–609.
^Ernst Rudolf Huber:Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. vol. 2:Der Kampf um Einheit und Freiheit 1830 bis 1850. W. Kohlhammer: Stuttgart et al., 1960, pp. 669–671.
^Treitschke, Heinrich.History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century. Jarrold & Sons, London, 1919. Vol. VII, p. 519.
^Beilage zum Militaer-Wochenblatt fuer das deutsche Bundesheer. No. 3, 1860.
^Kitchen, Martin (2006).A History of Modern Germany, 1800–2000. p. 105.
^Otto Pflanze,Bismarck and the Development of Germany, Vol. 1: The Period of Unification, 1815–1871 (1971)
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