German Unification www.internationalschoolhistory.net The German states before unification The 39 states that made up the German Confederation created in 1815 varied in size, government, economy, religion, influence and even dialect. On the one end of the scale were the two rival powers in the Confederation, Prussia and Austria—both large powerful monarchies with modern militaries—one Protestant, one Catholic. At the other end of the scale were the free cities such as Frankfurt. In between these two ends of the spectrum were all manner of states generally ruled by some form of princely monarchy. Although the industrialization of the German states had begun earlier, it accelerated rapidly after 1850. As in other industrializing states, the process was driven by an expansion of railways throughout the region. Railways made raw materials such as coal and iron available to industries far from their sources. Products that had once enjoyed limited local markets now found consumers throughout Germany. Between 1850 and 1870 the length of rail in Germany more than tripled. Although the percentage increase was far greater in Austria, the absolute length of track in Germany was also three times what it was in Austria. After 1850, Prussia's coal and iron industry began to expand rapidly. An exploding population worked in these new industries. The states of the German Confederation experienced a 60 per cent increase in population between 1816 and 1865. In Prussia this increase was over 80 per cent and in Austria close to 50 per cent. In 1800 there were three German cities with a population over 100,000; by 1870 there were 11. Economic unification – the Zollverein The practical merits of unity first emerged less as a result of liberal nationalist sentiment and more out of the power of free trade. In the early 1820s there had been efforts to take apart the many customs and tax regulations that restricted trade across Central Europe. The end result of this argument was the creation in 1834 of a customs union called the Zollverein that encompassed 28 of the 39 states in the German Confederation by 1842. The Zollverein was a customs union in Central Germany, in which internal tariffs were abolished and a common trade policy with outside states was developed. Austria remained outside the Zollverein while Prussia emerged as the acknowledged its leader. 1 The emergence of Prussia: Otto von Bismarck When Friedrich Wilhelm I came to the Prussian throne in 1860 there were a number of powerful forces on the move in both Germany and Prussia. Demographic and economic changes have been noted. Ideologically there was resurgence in liberalism during this period. The new industrialists, especially in the west, embraced a liberalism that looked to more of a constitutional basis for Prussian society and a more limited role of for government. This liberalism was being wedded to a renewed German nationalism that had been dormant in the aftermath of 1848. The power balance between Prussia and Austria also became strained in the years leading up to the accession of King Wilhelm I. Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) Born into a Junker family, he was educated in the law and drifted into political life as a member of the Federal Diet and later as ambassador to Russia and France. When he took the post of minister president in Prussia in 1862 he set about freeing the Prussian executive from the constraints of the assembly and the constitution. Throughout the process of German unification he showed himself to be a sharp political realist as well as a perceptive opportunist. He embarked on the unification of Germany as a means to the great power and glory of Prussia. He had a tumultuous relationship with King Wilhelm I of Prussia, and threatened to resign on numerous occasions. After the three wars of German unification, he sought to avoid a war that could tear apart the German Empire. To that end he designed and maintained a number of complex alliances with the powers of Europe. Within Germany he continually sought to co-opt, limit and repress elements such as the Catholic Church and the socialist movement that he believed to be a threat to the autonomy of the Crown and executive in the German Empire. He resigned after a clash with the young King Wilhelm II. Bismarck would come to epitomize an approach to politics known as Realpolitik. Principles mattered less than outcomes. Ideology mattered less than the exercise of power. Alliances were tools of policy and once they had served their purpose could be abandoned. He had no grand scheme for German unification, but rather responded to opportunities to strengthen Prussia. It was this Prussian focus that drew Bismarck to the conclusion that the future of Prussia depended on the exclusion of Austria from German affairs. Bismarck was not alone in this estimation. The inability of Prussia to play significant role in the Crimean War had illuminated the fact that the once fierce Prussian army, had fallen into neglect. This was to be rectified with the appointment of Helmut von Moltke to the position of army chief of staff in 1857. Moltke instituted a series of military reforms in the early 1860s that were to transform the Prussian military into the model of a modern army. Prussian military reform Terms of Service - Males owed the state three years military service in the regular army, followed by four years of service in the reserve army after which they served in the militia (Landwehr) Organization - Moltke created a professional General Staff, which spent the time between conflicts studying strategy and planning situational operation plans. Transportation - The growing Prussian railway system wasintegrated directly into the operational plans and supervised by military officers: New rail lines, were constructed to meet military as well as commercial needs. Technology- The professional officers of the General Staff continually looked for technological advantage and to remedy technological problems as they arose. 2 The Danish War Germany was famously unified after a series of three wars. The first of these was the Danish War. When the new king, Christian IX, came to the throne, he moved to absorb Schleswig into Denmark by way of a new Danish constitution. While this was met with great approval by Danish nationalists, German nationalists were outraged and the German Confederation voted for armed intervention. When the Danes would not back down, a joint force of Austrians and Prussians moved into the duchies in early 1864. After eight months of fighting, the Danes capitulated. Prussia annexed Schleswig and Austria Holstein. The Austro-Prussian War Both Prussia and Austria were ambitious and jealously guarded their major power status. Austria had been fighting against growing nationalism within its borders since 1815. By the 1860s it had seen its European stature rocked first by the Crimean War and later by the chiselling away of some of its Italian influence. Prussia, on the other hand, had seen its fortunes, both within Germany and within Europe, rise in this period. Economically Prussia's mines and factories were consistently increasing production while the Zollverein increased trade revenues. After 1862 it had at its helm a statesman of ability and determination. Bismarck had as his goal the expansion of Prussian power and authority both within Germany and within Europe as a whole. By 1866, therefore, the German States had one major power in a slow decline and the other in ascendancy. While it was not necessarily inevitable that they would come to blows, the fact that the overall goals of the two powers were mutually exclusive made war likely. Before provoking war with Austria, Bismarck carried out a complex set of diplomatic negotiations to keep France out of the war. The combination of effective troop movement and tactical advantage helped the Prussians deliver a crushing defeat on the Austrians at Sadowa on 3 July 1866. Three short weeks later an armistice was concluded that ended the fighting before the other European powers could react. The treaty that emerged in August 1866 cemented Prussia as the dominant German power and banished Austria from a meaningful role in German politics. By the Treaty of Prague Prussia annexed Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, Hessen- Kassel, Nassau, and Frankfurt. The German Confederation was dissolved and replaced by a North German Confederation, which consisted of an expanded Prussia and 21 other northern German states. The Franco Prussian War The Treaty of Prague left southern Germany in an unstable situation. The states were militarily allied to Prussia and economically part of the Zollverein, but politically independent. Public opinion in the southern states largely opposed any unification with the north. German nationalists, however, saw the exclusion of these states from the North German Confederation as an affront to national unity. Bismarck saw in them a potential ally 3 for either France or Austria and as such a threat. The unlikely cause of war between France and Prussia was an argument over the future king of Spain. French opposition to the Prussian candidate, Leopold of Hohenzollern and Bismarck’s manipulation of public opinion in France led to the declaration of war by France in July 1870. The perceived French aggression was important to Bismarck’s plans to frighten the south German states into seeking Prussian protection and consequent German union. The Prussian military machine quickly mobilized over a million soldiers and transported over 400,000 to her western frontier. Mobilizing far more slowly, the French could bring only 250,000 troops to meet them. Moltke outmanoeuvred one of the main French armies and with Napoleon III in attendance encircled them at the Battle of Sedan on 1-2 September 1870.