The growing amount of disunity between the revolutionaries gave the monarchy this opportunity; there was a wide difference in political aims of liberals and radicals. Liberals wanted a constitutional Government in all states and a United Empire with a national parliament while the radicals wanted a complete political and social change writing a republic framework. There were not only divisions between political groups, different social groups had very different interests. It was the popular movements, which were the basis of the revolution, it was the middle-classes who seized power. The middle classes secured the election of their own assemblies, however they were afraid of social revolution. Most of the workers were only concerned with removing their intolerable pressures of their own lives; they were not concerned with political ideologies. Some of them were not even aware of these political principles and they were also not united as the different groups of the working class had little in common.
The revolution was overwhelmingly urban and this was a crucial factor in the failing of the revolution as many of the peasants did not join in the revolution, did not enthusiastically support the revolutionary movements and helped suppress the movement by serving as loyal military conscripts and many were hostile to urban revolutionaries.
The failure of the Frankfurt Parliament was another key reason for the failure of the German revolution; its slow progress and divisions meant that within a few months the active support for national unity and a national parliament had died down. They were unable to make a decision, they had no power and relied upon Prussia meaning that they themselves were powerless. Their authority was never fully accepted by the German states, they had only pretended to follow them because they were afraid they would loose their thrones. It was clear that although the idea of a united and powerful Germany was attractive nobody wished to see their powers limited by liberal constitution and a strong central authority.
The failure of the Frankfurt Parliament was not the end of the Revolution. In the spring of 1849 a wave of disorder swept over Germany. However these riots and popular movements were swiftly crushed by Prussian troops. Constitutional changes that had been made were quickly taken back in several small states across Germany including Saxony and Hanover. Liberals all over Germany were arrested and imprisoned and some were executed, the lucky ones escaped into exile.
The main reason that the revolutions failed was that national consciousness failed to affect the German masses, the loyalty and obedience to large houses was still strong and this proved to be a further important factor standing in the way of national unity.
By 1850 any revolutionary feeling that existed in 1848 had disappeared across Europe, it seemed as if the events of the last two years had been to no avail and nothing had changed in most of the states. All traces of the Frankfurt Parliament had been wiped away. Austria, Prussia and Russia still dominated Central and Eastern Europe and no new states had emerged. Feelings of nationalism that had been created in these years were wiped out.
However, it is incorrect to presume that the period of 1848-49 was a total failure. The Revolution had swept away the leftovers of feudalism. And it had introduced a sort of Government in Prussia and after 1848 almost all the monarchies had accepted that they needed to change and modernise, even if some were still unwilling to have their traditional forms of power diluted. The revolutions helped to stir national consciousness across Germany and the revolutions also showed the Conservatives that if they wanted to win or maintain mass support they would have to show an interest to social problems of the lower classes.
