German Confederation

The German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund) was a loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to organize the surviving states of the Holy Roman Empire, which had been abolished in 1806.

The Revolutions of 1848

Main article: The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states

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However, the Zollverein, at this point, still did not suffice to eliminate the desires of the German middle class to attain the right to rule. News of the 1848 Revolution in Paris quickly reached discontented bourgeois liberals and more radical workingmen, only leaving the most reactionary regimes of the Romanovs and Ottomans unscathed.

Related Topics:
Zollverein - 1848 Revolution - Paris - Romanov - Ottomans

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On March 15, 1848, the subjects of Frederick William IV of Prussia thus vented their long-repressed political aspirations in violent rioting in Berlin as barricades were erected all over the French capital to contain urban combat between Parisians and the army. As France's Louis Philippe fled to Britain, the Prussian king, cowed and coerced, capitulated to revolutionary demand, promising a constitution, a parliament, and support for German unification.

Related Topics:
March 15 - 1848 - Frederick William IV of Prussia - Berlin - Louis Philippe - Britain - Constitution

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Meanwhile, from the point of view of the monarch, at least his regime was standing. In France, where the conservative aristocracy was soundly pushed aside by the Revolutions of 1789, 1830, and 1848, the new Second Republic erupted into civil war between rival revolutionary groups — the bourgeois moderates who favored order and constitutional democracy and the socialists, supported by the Parisian working class. In Paris, unemployed workers, with the cry of "bread or lead," hoisted the red flag, the first time that the red flag emerged as a symbol of the proletariat, and erected barricades to overthrow the Second Republic. Not since the Reign of Terror had Paris seen fighting on this scale, later crushed by savage repression that left a bitter hatred between the French working class and bourgeois elements.

Related Topics:
1789 - 1830 - 1848 - Second Republic - Civil war - Red flag - Proletariat - Reign of Terror - Paris

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On May 18 the Frankfurt Parliament opened its first session from various German states and Austria proper. However, it was immediately divided between those favoring a kleindeutsche (small German) or grossdeutsche (greater German) solution. The former favored offering the imperial crown to Prussia. The latter favored the Habsburg crown in Vienna, which would have integrated Austria proper and Bohemia (but not Hungary) into the new Germany.

Related Topics:
May 18 - Frankfurt Parliament - Kleindeutsche - Grossdeutsche - Vienna - Bohemia - Hungary

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From May to December, the Assembly eloquently debated academic topics while conservatives swiftly reacted against the reformers. Meanwhile, such competition intensified authoritarian and reactionary trends among the landed upper class, as it did under Metternich's Austria and Russia under staunch reactionary Nicholas I, as it found its economic basis sinking. Thus, it would turn to political levers to preserve its rule. As the Prussian army proved to be loyal, and peasants proved to be uninterested, King Fredrick Wilhelm regained his confidence. While the Assembly issued its Declaration of the Rights of the German people, and a constitution was drawn (excluding Austria since it downright refused the offer), the leadership of the Reich was offered to Fredrick Wilhelm, who refused to "pick up a crown from the gutter." Most delegates returned home, and the Prussian army responded to quell some rioting. Thousands of middle class liberals fled abroad, especially to the United States.

Related Topics:
Metternich - Austria - Russia - Nicholas I - Declaration of the Rights of the German people - United States

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In 1850 the Prussian king issued his own constitution, responding to the failed revolution from below. His document sponsored a confederation of North German states and concentrated real power in the hands of the Kaiser and the upper classes. However, Prussia responded to Austrian and Russian pressure, fearing a strong, Prussian-dominated Germany, at the conference of Olomouc, known as the "humiliation of Olmütz."

Related Topics:
1850 - Olomouc

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