The second attempt was made during the 1848 Revolution where the Frankfurt Assembly tried to install their Kleindeutsch plan in which the Assembly wanted to unify all German states, except Austria, under Prussia. This plan failed because the Assembly didn’t have enough power and King Frederick William cancelled the constitution, declaring his divine right to rule and said that he would never accept the “crown from the gutter”.
Zollverein
This was a custom union established to eliminate tariff barriers. Friedrich List first introduced this idea to abolish the custom barriers that were restricting trade within the German States. At first Prussia abolished internal customs and formed the North German Zollverein which in 1834 became the German Zollverein after merging with the South German Zollverein and the Central German Trade Union. Both of which had been founded in 1828. Custom barriers of member states were leveled and a uniform tariff was introduced against non members. The customs at foreign frontiers were collected in a joint account and the proceeds were distributed in proportion to the population and resources of the member states. By 1836 the Zollverein included 29 of the 39 states and the free trade area included 25 million people. The Zollverein drew the German Sates closer together and stimulated their economic growth whilst also establishing Prussia as the economic leader in Germany. It promoted the economic unification of Germany.
Background on Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck became the Prussian chancellor in 1862 and he had big plans for his country. He wanted to unite Germany under Prussian rule and at the same time stopping liberal advances. He hated liberalism, democracy and socialism. He believed that he could achieve his goals by controlling the people and manipulating them for his purposes. Bismarck wanted to gain the support of the lower class and gain a popular vote which he could then use against the liberals and Austria. He also used and manipulated the leaders of other countries to reach his goal of a unified Germany. Otto was an extreme loyalist who was willing to trick William in order to accomplish the very things that William had sent him to do.
Bismarck also believed in power and in one of his speeches he declared that “iron and blood “(meaning war and industry) would gain unification, not speeches and declaration like during the 1848 Revolution. He wanted an active foreign policy and emphasized that Prussia had to keep her power together at all times since the people of Germany didn’t look at Prussia’s liberalism but at her power.
How Bismarck achieved Unification
Bismarck knew that if he wanted to achieve his goal of a unified Germany he had to get the people on his side and stop other countries from forming coalitions against Prussia. He knew that the only way to unify the German States was through war but he also knew that it wouldn’t look good if Prussia declared war on the other countries since they would think that Prussia wanted to get too powerful. He knew that Europe wouldn’t allow this to happen since they had just dealt with Napoleon. So he had provoke the other countries to attack him.
His first step was to gain the two states of Schleswig and Holstein since they both had a majority of German speaking citizens and wanted to join the German empire. He got his opportunity when in 1863 Denmark tried to take away the autocracy of these two states. Bismarck declared that to the German Confederation that that was unacceptable and declared war on Denmark with Austria. After defeating them Austria received Holstein and Prussia Schleswig. By 1866 he wanted to also get Holstein so he moved his army to the borders of Holstein and tried to provoke Austria into declaring war on them. Bismarck wasn’t afraid of the war since he had increased the Prussian army significantly during the war against Denmark. After making sure that Austria wouldn’t be able to get any help he sent a message to Italy in the hope that Austria would intercept the message. The message said that Bismarck hoped that in case Austria declared war on Prussia, Italy would help them. He then sent a similar letter to the French king, but also stated that he would give France part of the German land if France stayed neutral if a war did break out. The French ambassador then wrote a letter saying “We the French demand South German land in return for remaining neutral in Prussia’s war against Austria. “ The trick was that Bismarck never signed the document and the French fell for it. This worried the Austrians greatly. The final step was when he declared in front of the Frankfurt Assembly that he wanted to create a unified Germany under the Kleindeutsch plan and one of the points was that Austria would be excluded. By now the Austrians were angered because they thought that first Prussia was planning to declare war on them and now they were going to kick them out of the German affairs and decided to launch war against Prussia, playing right into Bismarck’s hands.
Most German States joined Austria, believing that Austria was the defended of their independence. Prussia won the war thanks to Bismarck’s military force and made Austria and the South German states sign the Treaty of Prague. The Treaty stated that Austria was allowed to keep all her land except Venetia which had been promised to Italy so they would stay out of the war. To make sure that the Austrians wouldn’t seek revenge, he gave the Austrian King Hungary’s throne, creating the dual monarchy. Prussia however, was allowed to annex all of the North German States to form the North German Confederation.
By 1870, the next step was to go to war with France to unite the German States once and for all. This wasn’t too difficult to do since Bismarck had offered France territory as to keep them from joining the war he fought against Austria, but had never given them the territory. Soon the Spanish crown opened up and both Prussia and France tried to claim the throne. Prussia stepped down and France warned them to never try again for the Spanish crown. Bismarck responded harshly to this by sending a letter to the French, reportedly form William. The letter did nothing but mock the French and they soon declared war against Prussia. Bismarck then showed the unsigned letter from the French ambassador to the South German States which scared them. They thought that the only way to survive this attack was to join forces with Prussia. Prussia once again won the war and thanks to the fair terms in the Treaty of Prague, Austria had stayed out of the war. Prussia received Alsace and Lorraine and France had to pay high reparations.
After the war, Bismarck won over most of the princes who agreed to a unified Germany under the Prussian king, although most were allowed to keep some power over their state. On 18th January 1871, in Versailles, the King was proclaimed Kaiser William I.
It seems like Otto von Bismarck did plan ahead most of the events he wanted to do, but most of them also had to do with luck. There was no way of ensuring that all of his plans were going to run smoothly. To his luck, nothing really went wrong but if it had, there could have been major catastrophes. Then again, Bismarck had planned everything brilliantly and to the last detail. He was quick and left no time for intervention and he seemed to always be one step ahead of his rivals and most of all, he always appeared to be the innocent party.
I think most of all, Otto von Bismarck knew how to take advantage of certain situations and he did, to his benefit. He was also a very enthusiastic man who wanted nothing more then the unification of Germany.
