Looking back at history we can see that there was no united Germany by 1849 and the Bund was re-established in 1851, one view is that the revolutions had accomplished nothing, this is not necessarily true, yes it did no produce a united Germany but that was not truly the aim of the 1848 revolutions it was liberalism which was the driving force and also rulers became aware of the immense power of the educated middle classes.
Like I have briefly mentioned the Revolutions technically began when Louis Philippe was forced to abdicate by a revolutionary mob. This was a unique situation because Louis Philippe was known to be a supporter of Liberalism and is sometimes called the ‘Peoples King’ this begs the question if a relatively liberal monarch would revolutionary fever make of the autocratic feudal monarchs of Germany. The thought of being overthrown was on the mind of every monarch of Europe in February 1848. This cataclysmic event led to many revolutions all over the Bund.
The first place to be hit by revolutionary fever was the Rhineland, this region was under Prussian control but because it shared a land border with France it was not surprising it was the first German state that revolutionary fever spread to. Here the Handwerker attacked millowners. This was not because they were driving for political change but more simply they were starving because of poor grain harvests and because of the wealth of the millowners, they were an obvious target in which to show their anger. This revolutionary action’s aim was not to unite Germany but to try to change the Handwerker conditions in the Rhineland.
Again in Thuringia and Saxony, handwerker and artisans rose up and damaged mills this time not their owners but the machinery they worked on. This again was the action of a hungry working class, starving because of poor wheat and corn harvests for the past 3 years not because a group German nationalists wanted to rally the working class in order to unite Germany, it is simply a case of the working class wanting to improve their own conditions.
In Baden, peasants began to revolt, they, again, were angry at the fact that they were starving while the rich and the aristocracy lived in luxury, they were angry because they could not afford bread and not angry because there wasn’t a united German state.
For the ordinary peasants, handwerker and artisans they revolted at these three places because they were starving and their governments were not helping them and the revolted to encourage the rulers to do something about their conditions. Uneducated peasants were not interested in internal politics but the prospect of feeding their families without any money. So how can one expect these revolutions to result in a united Germany if the force of change, peasants in these cases, weren’t even considering the prospect of unification because quite simply it didn’t matter to them.
In Vienna many educated middle class people revolted and with the aid of the working class they managed to destabilise the capital of the Habsburg Empire for several months and also facilitated the fall of one of the greatest conservatives of all time, Prince Metternich. This shows the immense power of these revolutionaries because Austria was not a small nation it was powerful with a sizeable empire. There goal was not unification because in fact unification was less appealing than in other states but the formation of a peoples assembly for the Habsburg Empire, they wanted the Austrian Empire to become a constitutional monarchy and every male citizen would vote for an assembly. This didn’t happen because the mob was suppressed by the army in the end but the goals of this revolution was to promote liberalism throughout the Habsburg Empire not unify Germany.
Similarly in Berlin, the educated middle classes began revolting this, like Vienna, paralysed the city for a few months and once again similarly to Austria these revolutionaries wanted an assembly in order to convey their opinions democratically, they wanted an assembly in Berlin which had real power. Due to the sway of popular revolution Fredrick William IV granted this privilege and paraded through Berlin in revolutionary colours and appointed liberal minister. Notice that these ministers were not nationalist ministers but liberal minister again unification was not on any one’s mind it wasn’t on the revolutionaries and it wasn’t on the mind of Fredrick William IV. This was a temporary triumph for Liberalism in Prussia but it was not a triumph for nationalism.
In Baden, the tyrannical elector was overthrown and it was declared an independent republic. This is important because it basically, in my opinion, symbolises the attitudes towards Liberalism and Nationalism because it was proclaimed a republic means it was a Liberal victory because a republic fundamentally is an assembly elected by the people for the people with total power this was the main goal of the Liberalist movement throughout the 19th century, but it was an independent republic this shows that Liberalism and Nationalism did not go hand in hand. This new Republic of Baden had no intention of unifying German because it meant returning to autocratic rule under Prussia or Austria.
All these examples of Revolutions throughout the Bund show that unification was not one of the aims of the 1848 Revolutions, Liberalism and conditions for the working class were the real causes of the revolutions and in my opinion the revolutions hindered unification rather than encouraged it because after the revolutions had been suppressed the Bund was brought back (1851) and there was no indication that any of the representatives at the Bund were ready to unite under someone. The revolutions of 1848 as separate events did not lead to unification because the vast majority of revolutionaries did not want a unified Germany it was simply not in their interests.
Also the Revolutions in 1848 did not lead to a united Germany because the Particularism and Tradition did not disappear the moment Louis Philippe was overthrown, they were still there. Prussia was still completely different culturally to the Saarland for example and each of those people were still fiercely proud of their regional identity. Just because many people wanted more rights did not mean they wished to abandon their regional identities and cultures. How could a united Germany work if the citizens were still loyal to their local rulers rather than the central government? Also, many Germans including the aristocracy respected the status quo, they respected Habsburg authority, they had grown up in a Bund controlled by Austria, a Bund that had always been controlled by Austria. A generation before, the German states were grouped by the Holy Roman Empire, and they were used to seeing a Habsburg leading them. Even Fredrick William IV was a traditionalist, he believed in the divine right of Kings and the authority of Austria because all his predecessors had thought this so he had no reason to change. How could Germany unify if so many of its populace had so much respect for the status quo and supported their regional identities so massively? The answer it couldn’t, unless the princes agreed to accept an Kaiser of a united Germany, which meant losing something no ruler was willing to do. Even at this time you were a Saarlander or a Prussian but not a German, this was the main problem at this time, people still did not consider themselves German, the united state of Germany could not evolve without a single national identity.
The 1848 Revolutions were not totally against unification one government body created in 1848 did campaign for a single German state and this was the Frankfurt Parliament. In 1848, astonishingly the German Princes allowed a national assembly to be elected by free democratic elections and these members would meet in Frankfurt, it is called the Frankfurt Parliament because of this. The Parliament was set up to encourage liberalism and to get educated, talented people into government. They succeeded in this aim because one historian describes the Frankfurt parliament as, “one of the most talented parliaments ever assembled,” this is a correct analysis because 80% of the delegates had university degrees, this was impressive in 1848 and showed the Parliament consisted of the some of the most intelligent people in Germany rather than Princes who were there because of hereditary power rather than ability. Note interestingly that it is not called the German Parliament but the Frankfurt Parliament, this shows that the Parliament believed it could not claim to speak for a greater Germany because they were not sure how it would exist (Kleindeutschland or GroBdeutschland?). The Frankfurt Parliament claimed executive power, this was one of the first steps towards unification but the problem was that the Frankfurt Parliament relied completely on the goodwill of the Princes and many of these did not want to lose power and would do so if power was transferred to Frankfurt.
The Frankfurt Parliament had long discussions on whether Germany should be a monarchy or republic and also whether it would be ‘eine Kleindeutschland’ or ‘eine GroBdeutschland’. In March 1849, the Frankfurt Parliament decided on a monarchy and Kleindeutschland so delegates travelled to Berlin and offered the German crown to Fredrick William IV of Prussia, he refused because he believed it was not their crown to offer, he believed that the German crown was to be given by all of the German rulers including the Habsburgs, and he respected the authority of Austria and the tradition of Austrian dominance.
Interestingly, the Frankfurt Parliament could have led to a united Germany in 1849 but many people were still opposed to unification and even people who wanted unification, e.g Fredrick William IV, did not want unification to come from a democratic assembly, many thought about democracy like Metternich did so they resented any decision or idea made from it. The Revolutions which caused the Frankfurt Parliament did not lead to a united Germany because the Parliament had no real power to build a united Germany, for German to unite it would need support or force neither of these the Frankfurt parliament had.
To conclude, the main reasons why the 1848 Revolutions did not lead to a united Germany were because firstly, when the Revolutions began it was food that was on the mind of the revolutionaries and not unification, if hardly any of the protestors wanted unification there was no way it was going to happen. Secondly, the later revolutions in Vienna and Berlin for example were about Liberalism and again not about nationalism, how could Germany unite without a strong sense of nationalism? The revolutionaries wanted assemblies in their states not a central government, it was only a small number who wanted a central assembly (50 people in the Vorparliament meeting), they got it because the princes were afraid of more revolts but this was an assembly not the creation of a new state. The Princes were not ready to abandon their autocratic power to an assembly of middle class people who they held in contempt. Austria did not want a unified because it would threaten its place as the dominant power of central Europe and also it Germany was united it would either be split according to language or would be excluded from German affairs. The decision was clear for Austria, it would try to stop unification because her position would be compromised otherwise. So Austria stopped the revolutions from leading to a united Germany because it used its influence and power to encourage or bully Princes into opposing unification, which she did and was the main reason why Fredrick William IV rejected the crown offered to him.
Prussia wanted to dominate like Austria had for so long but it did not want to get into conflict with Austria this was a precarious position because if it headed a German state Austria would object. Fredrick William IV wanted to rule a united Germany but would not commit himself in order to commit this goal, and because this and because of his indecisiveness he would never become Kaiser of Germany. He was willing to go as far as the Habsburgs allowed him to but not an inch further. The revolutions in 1848 did not lead to a united Germany because Prussia was not willing to lead a Kleindeutschland without Austria’s permission and a natural leader should not ask someone else to lead the leader.
In 1851, the Bund was re-established and many of the assemblies destroyed and the Princes were back up to their former level of power and unification was now a distant glimmer of hope, only a strong decisive leader would unite Germany, someone not like Fredrick William IV but someone like Otto von Bismarck.
Acknowledgments
Germany 1848-1914, Bob Whitfield
The Unification of Germany 1815-90, Stiles and Farmer
A History of Germany 1815-1945, W Carr