16.5 The Unification of Germany

The princes of the German states proclaim the unity of the German Empire, 1871.

        Throughout the Middle Ages the region known as Germany had been divided into some 300 states under the nominal sovereignty of the Holy Roman Emperor. While united in language, culture, and, until the 16th century, religion, the Germans had never known political unity.  Germany's division was furthered with the Protestant Reformation when, following a bitter religious civil war, the northern states adopted Protestantism while the southern states remained Catholic.  The Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War in 1648, affirmed the full autonomy of each of the German states.  By the late 18th century, it was clear that the political future of Germany would be determined by one of the two most powerful German states, Austria or Prussia.  Under the Hohenzollern monarchy, Prussia had emerged as a European major power. In the mid-18th century the reforms of the enlightened King Frederick II (Frederick the Great), 1740 -1786, increased the sovereignty and efficiency of the Prussian royal government.  The powerful Austrian Hapsburgs had long played a major role in German affairs as the Holy Roman Emperors.  When Frederick II sent the Prussian army into Austrian Silesia in 1740, the Prussian challenge to Austria's dominating influence was clear.

            The upheaval of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars had great impact on Germany.  Defeated by Napoleon in 1806, both Prussia and Austria were compelled to accept the Napoleonic restructuring of Germany.  The Holy Roman Empire was abolished and the lesser German states were consolidated into some 32 states as the Confederation of the Rhine.  Although under Napoleonic "protection," much of Germany had taken a major step towards political unification.  German national identity was further heightened through growing nationalist resentment to the French domination of Europe.   

            With the defeat of Napoleon, the allied powers' concern for legitimacy and reactionary restoration of the pre-revolutionary status quo led to a further restructuring of Germany.  A number of the older states were restored as the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine was replaced by the 39-member German Confederation (sometimes referred to as the Bund, the German word for league).   While Metternich saw that Austria would dominate the German Confederation by holding permanent presidency over the new league, Prussia also made great gains in the 1815 peace settlement.  With the acquisition of most of Saxony and all of the German Rhineland, Prussia became the dominant power in northern Germany.  Enhanced by the commercial wealth and growing industrial strength of the Rhineland and the north, Prussia's leaders undertook policies intended to lessen Austria's influence and move Germany towards unification under Prussian rule.

             One of the first significant steps towards German unification was the formation of the Zollverein in 1819. The Zollverein was a customs union, a free trade zone formed under Prussian leadership with numerous other German states. Austria was purposely excluded. Under this economic union, the member states cooperated to standardize their currencies, drop tariffs between them, and seek mutually beneficial ways to increase their overall wealth. As Prussia was the largest and wealthiest state, its economy came to dominate the union; but all other states benefited from the relationship. The Rhineland, Hanover, Saxony, and Silesia (all parts of Prussia) became powerful centers of German industry and commerce, and German production and consumption experienced rapid expansion. By 1844 all German states but Austria belonged to the Zollverein.  Economic union would provide a strong base for future political union.

            In 1848 a wave of nationalist and liberal unrest swept through the German states as part of the greater European Revolution of 1848.  Essentially of the middle and working classes, the revolutionaries demanded an end to the Metternich System and the formation of constitutional governments.  Caught unprepared by the popular uprising, the German governments temporarily yielded and permitted elections for a representative assembly to meet at Frankfurt.  Overwhelmingly bourgeois and moderate, the Frankfurt Assembly sought unification of Germany under a constitutional monarchy.  The Assembly issued a Declaration of Rights of the German People (similar to that of the French revolutionaries in 1789) but divided over the matter of Germany’s territorial identity.  The “Great Germans” favored inclusion of German Austria (Austria minus its non-German territories).  The “Little Germans” wanted Austria excluded from a future German empire.  The Little German position prevailed and in early 1849 the Assembly agreed to a federal union of states under a constitutional hereditary monarchy of the Prussian Hohenzollerns. 

           The Prussian king Frederick William IV rejected the Frankfurt Assembly’s offer of a German crown.  Why? The Frankfurt Assembly did not represent all of the German states and unity would have to be imposed by force.  The Prussian army was not interested in waging war on other Germans.  Austria would not be receptive to the end of the German Confederation in which it still held the presidency.  And, it would not be fitting for a Prussian monarch, king by divine right, to accept a crown with limited powers offered to him by representatives of “the people” – offered, as he said, “from the gutter.”   The work of the Frankfurt Assembly was for nothing.  The Assembly then dissolved, although later “rump” assemblies unsuccessfully attempted to keep the unification plan alive.  By 1850 many of the states of the German Confederation had settled back into their pre-1848 autonomy and autocracy.  

           In 1850 the Prussian king did, however, issue his own constitution.  On the surface it appeared liberal, but, in effect, allowed the crown and conservative landowners and industrialists to exercise considerable power.  The Prussian constitution established a bicameral legislature with the lower house elected through universal male suffrage. Consequently, all adult male Prussians received the right to vote.  Representation in the assembly, however, was based on three levels of taxpayers wherein the wealthiest taxpayers had voting power equal to hundreds of peasants or workers.  This allowed for the domination of the assembly by conservative Junker landowners and Rhineland industrialists. 

Bismarck and Unification

            In 1862 the new King of Prussia, William I (Wilhelm I) appointed Prince Otto von Bismarck as the new Prussian Chancellor (Prime Minister).  Bismarck (1815 - 1898) was of the East Prussian Junker class of landed aristocrats.  Strongly conservative in his political thinking, Bismarck would become known to history as the "Iron Chancellor" who would unify Germany under the Prussian monarchy through a policy of "Blood and Iron."  An intense Prussian nationalist, Bismarck was skilled in diplomacy and a master of Realpolitik. His Machiavellian methods would forge Germany into the most powerful state on the European Continent.       

            As Prussian Chancellor, Bismarck had as his major goal the political unification of Germany under Prussian rule.  As Austria was the only German state powerful enough to prevent Prussia from unifying Germany, Bismarck sought to achieve this goal through two major objectives: 1) to remove Austria from leadership in the German Confederation, and 2) to overcome Austria's influence over the Catholic southern German states.  In Bismarck's mind, German unification would have to be voluntary.  The lesser states had to be made to see the advantage of Prussian leadership. To this end Bismarck devised a strategy whereby unification would be achieved in stages, each involving war - wars wherein the Germans would join together to defeat enemies opposed to German interests.  Unbeknownst to most Germans in 1862, Bismarck already knew who those enemies would be - Austria and France. He then set to work to create the conditions whereby Austria and France could be provoked to war. Three wars would be fought as Bismarck sought to create a Prussian-controlled Germany.

            The first was a short little affair with Denmark in 1864. Bismarck provoked war with Denmark in order to create cause for a future war with Austria. The issue was the status of Schleswig and Holstein, two small duchies populated by Germans on the Prussian-Danish border.  Acting to prevent the Danish king from extending his sovereignty over the duchies, Bismarck convinced Austria to join Prussia in a war to "save" them.  Against such powerful opposition, Denmark offered little resistance and the Prussian-Austrian alliance was victorious.  Now came what Bismarck wanted: disagreement between Prussia and Austria over the status of the duchies within the German Confederation.  But, before he could have war with Austria, he now had to use his skills as a diplomat.  It would be necessary to isolate Austria in order to keep the conflict from becoming a major European war.

            Bismarck entered into secret discussions with the government of the newly-unified Italy.  Italy wanted what Austria had - Venetia.  In a treaty, also secret, Italy agreed to support Prussia on Bismarck's promise that, once victorious over Austria, Venetia would be awarded to Italy.

            He then turned to France intending to take advantage of Napoleon III's imperial ambitions.  In a meeting with Bismarck, the French Emperor demanded that Prussia not oppose French territorial ambitions in Germany, particularly along the Rhine River. Napoleon made it clear that France wanted domination over Luxembourg, Belgium, and several of the southern German states. Bismarck made only a vague oral response to Napoleon, but requested that Napoleon put his territorial demands in writing.  Believing this was an official agreement, Napoleon did. Bismarck convinced Napoleon that a German war with Austria was not intended to destroy Austria nor upset the balance of power. Napoleon agreed that France would remain neutral.  With Napoleon's demands on paper and with French neutrality in hand, Bismarck proceeded to provoke war with Austria.                                      

            The Seven Weeks War in the summer of 1866 achieved Bismarck's first objective - removal of Austria from the German Confederation. The issue that set off the war was a dispute between Austria and Prussia over the status of Holstein in the German Confederation. Believing it could easily defeat Prussia, Austria declared war. Bismarck presented the matter of Austrian aggression as proof of Austria's intention to dominate Germany and convinced the north German states to join Prussia in alliance. Italy, honoring its secret treaty, also declared war on Austria and sent troops into Venetia.  In a stunning defeat that amazed Europe, Austria's main forces were caught unprepared by a sudden invasion of Prussian armies from across the Silesian border. Their armies defeated within three weeks, the Austrians called for a negotiated settlement which Bismarck granted.  A formal peace settlement came four weeks later.

            Why were the Prussians so successful?  As war was his means to the end, Bismarck made military readiness and strategy a priority.  Earlier he had sent his leading generals to the United States to observe the American Civil War (1861 - 1865).  Bismarck was quick to recognize the role industrialization could play in warfare, and his generals saw it in action.  In the US, the Union (North) very effectively applied its industrial manufacturing capabilities, railroads, and telegraph communications to its military strategy. The southern Confederate states were largely agricultural and their limited resources made it impossible for their armies to defeat the Union forces. To Bismarck, the American lesson was clear. Prussia was industrial. Austria was not. The Austrians and French apparently did not put great importance on new Prussian railroad construction across Silesia towards Austria and across the Rhineland towards France.

            The Treaty of Prague ending the war with Austria dissolved the German Confederation. Holstein and several other lesser German states were annexed to Prussia, and Venetia was ceded to Italy.  The treaty was important for what it did not do.  It was not harsh and punishing to Austria.  Considering the extent of the Austrian defeat, the Austrians considered themselves fortunate that Bismarck did not break up their empire.  Bismarck purposely kept the peace terms moderate as he did not want an angry Austria to seek revenge in a future war, especially the war he now had planned with France. 

            With the dissolution of the German Confederation, Austria was effectively removed from Germany.  In 1867 Bismarck formed the North German Confederation, in effect, the "dress rehearsal" for the anticipated German Empire.  The northern German states joined together under the hereditary presidency of the Prussian king.  The member states would retain their separate identities and exercise autonomy over their internal affairs, but their foreign and military affairs would be under the control of the confederacy's central government in Berlin. The confederation's bicameral legislature would be elected through universal male suffrage, but it was organized in such a way that Prussia could control whatever legislation was made.  With most of Germany under Prussian control, Bismarck now undertook to bring the southern states into a unified Germany.  This he would do through war with France.

             Bismarck had been anticipating (and planning for) war with France ever since the start of his efforts to unify Germany.  To the alarm of the southern states, Bismarck now revealed Napoleon III's written demands for territory along the Rhine.  Bismarck's intent was to show France to be a greater threat to their security than was Prussia.  In this, he was successful.

             In 1868 a revolution in Spain caused the Spanish throne to become vacant.  In 1870 the Spanish revolutionaries offered the crown to Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, a cousin of King William of Prussia.  France protested, claiming that a dynastic union of Spain and Prussia threatened the balance of power, and stated that it would oppose a Hohenzollern monarchy in Spain.  France demanded that William order Leopold to reject the Spanish crown.   The Prussians rejected the Spanish crown, but France demanded further satisfaction.  The French ambassador was sent to the German resort town of Ems where King William was vacationing.  There he demanded that William renounce any future Hohenzollern claim to a foreign throne and make a public apology to Napoleon III.  An angry William refused and sent a telegram to Berlin informing Bismarck of the French demands and his response.  He authorized Bismarck to publish the telegram if Bismarck wished.

            The matter of the Ems Telegram suited Bismarck's plans perfectly. He saw it as an unexpected but excellent opportunity to provoke war with France and set about to "edit" the text of the telegram.  He carefully revised the telegram to change not its meaning but its emphasis, making it seem as if the French ambassador had insulted the king.  It could also read that the Prussian king had insulted the French ambassador.  Bismarck then released it to the press.  The result was war hysteria in both Germany and France. The vain Napoleon III took the bait.  Five days later (July 19, 1870) France declared war on Prussia.

            The Franco-Prussian War (July 1870 - May 1871) would complete Bismarck's ambitions. The southern German states joined the others in enthusiastic alliance.  German armies invaded and soundly defeated France in a smashing campaign that again astounded Europe.  Napoleon III attempted to rally his demoralized armies and was captured.  German armies surrounded and besieged Paris.  A new French government declared the establishment of the Third Republic and in May accepted the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt. The German humiliation of France continued as France was compelled to cede the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to the new German Empire. 

            German unification was completed on January 18, 1871, when the German princes met in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris and proclaimed the formation of the German Empire. Bismarck stood in proud triumph as William of Prussia was hailed as Germany's first Kaiser (Emperor).

The German Empire 

            Bismarck now worked to assure that the new constitution made Prussia supreme over the empire's 25 states.  Like that of the North German Confederation before it, the constitution of the German Empire was a mixture of democracy and autocracy, with autocracy supreme.  While legislative power was vested in a bicameral legislature, the Reichstag (lower house), chosen through universal male suffrage and representing the German people, had very little real power.  The Bundesrat (upper house), representing the states, was controlled by Prussia and had veto power over the Reichstag.  As the German Empire was a federal system, the states retained authority over their own internal affairs.

            The real power in the German Empire was exercised by the Kaiser (or, as in the case of Bismarck, by the Chancellor for the Kaiser). The Emperor held the power to appoint the Chancellor, command the military forces, control foreign policy, declare a defensive war, and declare an offensive war with the approval of the Bundesrat.  He also had the power to appoint 17 of the 58 members of the Bundesrat -enough to give the Emperor a controlling veto of constitutional changes.

German Foreign Policy, 1871-1900

            The newly unified Germany would be a powerful force in European affairs. Having created Germany through war, Bismarck's foreign policy was intended to prevent war. German involvement in a future war could weaken and perhaps undo German unity, thus peace was essential. In 1878 Bismarck diffused a crisis in the Balkans that threatened a major European war. A Russo-Turkish war resulted in 1877 when the Slavic peoples of the Balkan region declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire. When it appeared that a Russian victory might cause the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, Britain threatened to go to war against Russia. With the Balkan crisis threatening the balance of power, Bismarck called for a great power conference in Berlin. Agreements made at the Congress of Berlin resolved the crisis and prevented a wider war but at the same  time made the Balkans a region of potentially destabilizing nationalism.

            Bismarck's main foreign policy concern was France. Smarting under its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, France sought revenge. Bismarck directed his energies to prevent a French alliance with Russia that would isolate Germany. To this end he used personal diplomacy to create the League of the Three Emperors with Russia and Austria in 1881.  Here each pledged neutrality in the event one of the others became involved in a war. In 1882 he organized the formation of the Triple Alliance, a mutually defensive military alliance of Germany with Austria and Italy. Relations between Germany and Russia, however, became increasingly strained in the late 1880s. In 1890 Bismarck was dismissed as Chancellor by the new Kaiser, William II, who was determined to make his own foreign policy. In 1894 Russia and France concluded a mutually defensive military alliance between them. 

             Overseas, Germany sought imperial possessions for both reasons of wealth and prestige. By 1900 Germany would have imperial holdings in West Africa (today the nations of Togo, Cameroon, Namibia), East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi), China (Shandong), and the Pacific Islands (the Marianas, Carolines, Marshalls, Solomons, Bismarcks, Samoa, and New Guinea). German business sought  investment opportunities in the United States, the Latin America countries, the Boer states in southern Africa, North Africa (particularly in Morocco where they clashed with French interests), and the Ottoman Empire (plans were made for a Berlin-to-Baghdad railroad).

            In order to defend itself and protect its interests in both Europe and abroad, Germany actively continued the Prussian tradition of militarism. Bismarck once stated, "We Germans fear God but nothing else in the world." All German males were subject to military conscription and training. The army was constantly being increased in size and modernized. Germany was the first modern nation to create a General Staff of commanding officers to plan and oversee the operation of strategy. Army officers held important positions in civilian departments of government. Determined to challenge Britain's domination of the seas, Germany began a program to build a powerful navy.  Proud, defiant, and powerful, Germany marched into the twentieth century.

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                                The listing of sources for The Great Powers of the 19th Century: Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia follows the section on Russia (16.6).