The Role of Bismarck in the German Confederation

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“Why is it that Prussia rather than Austria emerged as the dominant German power by 1867? “

When the German empire was established in 1871, after the defeat of the French Empire, a legend was created that Germany had been unified by the Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck. “A legend created by Bismarck to minister to own vanity as an individual and to the cause of his indispensability as a politician.” Seaman’s thoughts on the German unification show that not all historians believe that it was the “dynamic ruthless realist” who had planned ahead these events to ensure unification of a German empire. Different interpretations have been created to attempt and find Bismarck’s actual goal of unification also paying close attention to the actual importance of his role during the unification lasting from 1815 to 1871. This essay will try and determine and assess the importance which Bismarck possessed in creating the new German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I.

The first actual event which contributed to the unification of Germany was the Vienna Settlement in 1815. Through its decisions a German confederation had been formed by the Great Powers to not upset the delicate balance of power in the European continent. Historians see this Confederation as an attempt to stabilize Europe, but also preventing any emergence of wants for an actual German unification. Regardless of its name, “the German confederation was no more a national state than the old Empire had been.” It had left out important German minorities in territories, like Schleswig, West Prussia or Posen, but adding parts which had only a minor German speaking population like the Czech areas or Slovene area around Styria. In spite of its broad and sometimes confusing boundaries, the Confederation also proved to be a rather successful assembly at the beginning, organizing the states and encouraging nationalism, an important tool for the future. It was a “perpetual” union, sometimes lacking the power to act out laws which had been created by the Great Powers, during the Vienna settlement. Its benefits can however been seen in future years, where the close work between a series of states helped create the ultimate German unification, both politically and economically.

The next vital factor to German unification is the economic success during the 1850’s and 1860’s. The key to this success lay in the Prussian Customs Union and the Zollverein, which had been created by the Prussian government to improve trade quality and the availability of goods. Prussia’s personal economic strength was the Ruhr area, which they had gained after the Vienna Congress, providing them with vital material for further development. Economic strength was a key to political strength as well. British economist Keynes considered that “the long period of economic and industrial preparation, must be taken into account for without this the German nation would haven been a mere shell.” The Zollverein created in 1834, was a continuation of the Prussian Customs Union, and was aiming for “the isolation of Austria, not only economically but also politically.” Austria would be isolated, due to its protectionist policies, not wanting to join the Zollverein, which had slowly developed as a national economic union, unifying currency or a system of weights and measures. Through the whole economic success, created by the Zollverein, Prussia was able to extend its power virtually over most of the German confederation, except Austria who had refused to join the economic union, granting Prussia a perfect opportunity.

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After a period of quiet social and economic rearranging, revolutions were triggered by Metternich’s and Louis-Philippe fall throughout Germany. The “profound psychological effect” causing several riots during 1948 in German cities, was crushed by the incapability of the revolutionaries to plan out the future. As a reaction to these revolutions, the major states decided to reissue the German situation. A “national representation elected in all the German lands” was created in the Vorparlament, which had replaced the old Frankfurt Diet of 1815, with the new Frankfurt assembly, which was intending to “establish a united Germany under a constitutional monarch ...

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