The Congress of Vienna and German nationalism
German nationalism could trace its origin to the Romantic movement in the late 18th century against the French export of Enlightenment ideas. Challenging the view that scientific principles were universal, the Romantics in central Europe contended that individuals and individual peoples were unique, bound by a unique soul that was not subject to universal scientific inquiry. The Napoleonic invasions of central Europe reinforced German nationalism. The last part of the war against Napoleon was known as the War of Liberation in Germany. There had never been a united German state, but Germans saw what power a united France had achieved. Despite its early germination, the development of a German national identity from a romantic idea to actual political activities was the reaction against the Congress of Vienna and especially against Austrian dominance of the newly formed German Confederation.
According to a decision made at the Congress of Vienna, a Diet, or loosely-framed parliament for the whole German Confederation, including northern Germanic states and the Austrian empire, was to be formed.
Austria always presided over the Diet and had a total of 17 votes, whereas Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Hanover and Württemberg all had only four votes a piece. The other, smaller states had even fewer votes and the free cities had only one vote out of a total of 69.
1. The first phase: Liberals and German unification
2. The economic factor.
Nationalism was initially linked with Liberals who, especially in Germany and Italy lead the call for unification and replacing the old rulers with a liberal representative government.
Nationalist Liberals lead all 1848 revolutions but none obtained their goals - 1848 marks, especially for Germany and Italy the beginning of a new sort of nationalism. Unification of Germany and Italy was supported by the liberals, but it was Kings, not the "people" who eventually bring it about. And the unified state was dominated by kings and emperors with a limited parliament.
The eventual unification of the northern German states was shaped by the economic integration of them prior to unification. The Zollverein, started by Prussia in 1834 gradually moved south to incorporate the smaller states in one customs-free economic union. This customs union was a great boon to industrialization and had far-reaching implication for future political unification.
3. Otto von Bismarck and German unification
German unification was ultimately achieved under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, PM of Prussia and of the Junker (wealthy landowner) background, who detested democracy but found it useful to rally the people around him to support his policies. Although the pretext of unification was cultural: of Germans who shared same language, history, and customs, economic competitiveness was a major concern. Nationalism was also to crush socialist and liberal dissent to tax increases and the power of the king, and build a "united front" between the conservatives and liberals in the Prussian parliament. Socialism was especially strong in Prussia and the Germanic states because of the large number of artisans who were crushed by the Industrial Revolution and who joined the proletarian workers in poverty.
Bismarck’s steps of unification
War with Denmark 1864 over Schleswig-Holstein.
War with Austria 1866 and the consequent establishment of the north German confederation in 1866. Established the Bundesrat (Federal Council) and Reichstag (parliament).
The Prussian victory over Austria was to defeat any Austrian claim to leadership of the Germanic Confederation and to establish the prestige and leadership of Prussia among the Germanic states. Bismarck, a supreme politician of "balance of power," cautioned against King Wilhelm of Prussia's urge to go on taking territories from Austria for fear of weakening Austria too much and leading to nationalist revolutions all over Austria, creating a chaotic environment for Prussia.
War with France 1870-71 to bring the southern states into Germany.
The war with France was the ultimate way Bismarck proved to the southern Germanic states which still wavered over their loyalty to Austria or Prussia, because all Germanic states had a common enemy, France, due to the Napoleonic invasions early in the century. The defeat of that common enemy would help strengthen the bonds between the southern Germanic states such as Baden and Bavaria and Prussia.
The cause of the war was a French request that the Hohenzollerns rule themselves out from being considered as king of Spain. The Hohenzollerns were a powerful German princely family that ruled Brandenburg and later Prussia. A member of the Hohenzollern family was offered the throne of Spain in 1870, and France did not want to be sandwiched between two Hohenzollern rulers. Bismarck edited the telegram from King Wilhelm of Prussia to the French king Napoleon III, to make the Prussian king sound defiant, provoking Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon I, to declare war on Prussia.
4. Nature of unified Germany
The manner of Germany's unification affects the kind of state it becomes. Not a liberal democracy, but a slightly limited monarchy, still dominated by the old ruling class, and not the bourgeoisie as in other countries. German political history for the rest of the century was to be about the attempts to keep control of the state by that old Prussian ruling class.
Q: Does the unified Germany fit Mazzini’s definition of the nation?