German Unification

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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.

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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.

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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

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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. With the capture of the Emperor came
the downfall of his government in Paris.

Peace talks eventually led to the Treaty of Frankfurt in May. The Treaty of Frankfurt had two
notable clauses. The first was the requirement that France pay an enormous war indemnity of
five billion gold francs to the victorious Germans. The other significant element of the Treaty
of Frankfurt was the annexation of the French frontier territories of Alsace and Lorraine by
the new German Empire. From the French point of view the annexation of the territories was
a constant reminder of the humiliation of 1871, their reclamation a matter of national honour.
It would remain so until 1914 when the outbreak of the First World War gave the French
army the opportunity to reclaim this honour with disastrous results.

The German Empire

Even before Paris succumbed to the weight of German artillery, the German princes had
gathered in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles to proclaim the foundation of the German
Empire. The independence objections of Bavaria and Württemberg were overcome by a
combination of money and realism. The two states would be no more meaningfully
independent outside a strong Germany than they would be inside a strong Germany, perhaps
even less so given the overwhelming economic, diplomatic and military power that the new
Germany would possess. Popular opinion within both states favoured joining the German
union. The German Empire was basically an extension of the North German Confederation.
Eighteen states, four kingdoms as well as the free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck
were brought together in a federal structure. Alsace-Lorraine would be administered as a
separate territory. Of course, Austria played no role in this structure. Central Europe now had
two empires.

Activities
1. Copy and complete the following table to show how war was central to German
unification.

Outcome Consequence for German Unification

The Danish War 1864

Austro-Prussian War 1866

Franco-Prussian War 1870

2. Did popular nationalism and industrial development play any role in German
unification? Explain your answer.
3. In what sense had the creation of the German Empire destabilized Europe and made
future war more likely?
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