German Unification
As we have seen, after the outbreak of the revolution in Vienna in 1848 the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV, sought to supplant the Emperor of Austria and to head up the Germanic Confederation himself.
Austria’s military might, however, forced him to yield to the Austrian leader and sign the Punctation of Olmlitz in 1850.16.7.1 Bismarck, Architect of Prussian Hegemony
Frederick William IV died in 1861 without having managed for Prussia to lead the process towards German “national” integration.[920] His brother William I (18611888), however, would succeed at this task, as in September 1862, he was shrewd enough to appoint Otto von Bismarck to head his government, who would go down in history as the “Iron Chancellor” (Eiserner Kanzler) for having forged his nation into Europe’s leading power.
Bismarck rose to power at a time when the government was at loggerheads with the parliament, whose deputies refused to approve the taxes the government needed to supply the Prussian army. The new head of the Prussian government did not hesitate to promulgate a series of decrees allowing him to secure the money necessary to bolster Prussian military power (Darmstaedter 2008, 195-218).
16.7.2 The Defeat of Austria and the North German Confederation
In just 4 years, Bismarck managed to build up a Prussian army strong enough to defeat Austria at the Battle of Koniggratz-Sadowa (July 1866). As a result of this, the Iron Chancellor dissolved the German Confederation and created in its place the North German Confederacy (Norddeutscher Bund), led by Prussia and made up of the 21 states north of the Main River, with Austria excluded from the new confederation.[921]
The new North German Confederation was personally structured by Bismarck himself[922] as a federal government assuming some of the powers of its 21 member states.
It was presided over by the King of Prussia and its chancellor: Bismarck. It featured two assemblies: the Reichstag, which represented the German people and was elected by universal suffrage,[923]; and the Bundesrat, the heir to the former Diet, which represented the governments of the different states. The federal government had sovereign jurisdiction over all diplomatic affairs, economic policy and military matters. The Confederation also wielded full powers over the army, formed by soldiers and funded with money from all the states, but organized based on the Prussian model and under the direct command of the King of Prussia.[924]16.7.3 The Franco-Prussian War and the Second Reich
By this point, Prussia had become a formidable economic and military power, which allowed Bismarck, after taking control of the entire set of German states, to set his sights on German hegemony in Europe, an objective he was able achieve by provoking Napoleon III to declare war on William I, in the curious affair of the Ems Telegram.[925] [926] After Prussia’s crushing victory at the Battle of Sedan on September 1, 1870 (Wawro 2003, 211-229), the southern German states joined the Confederation of Northern Germany, giving rise to a new political entity: the German Empire (Deutsches Reich).8 On January 18, 1871, after Prussian troops conquered Paris, William I was proclaimed German Emperor (Kaiser) at the Palace of Versailles (Williamson 2011, 175). Germany’s Second Reich would last until the abdication of William II in 1918.
16.7.4 A Top Down Integration in a Federal and Laic State
While the “Italian nation” became unified through a democratic movement from the bottom up, which took shape from the outset through the adoption of a parliamentary regime, in the case of the “German nation” integration into a single state came about in the opposite way, from the top down, advanced by the princes of the various Germanic states, led first by the Emperor of Austria and later by the King of Prussia, who in 1871 became the German Emperor.
In this case integration was legitimized through diplomatic agreements between sovereigns rather than a popular vote.By 1871 German unity had been achieved, although the organization of this union of states was not decided by the respective peoples concerned, but by their 21 sovereigns, led by the King of Prussia. Unlike Italian unity, which was achieved bottom-up, from the people, German unification came about according to a top-down model, with Bismarck at the top (Cohen 2010, 36). That is, it was the work of the rulers and not something brought about by a popular vote.[927] Bismarck endeavored to consolidate the state structure of the German Empire by all means at his disposal, especially its essential pillar: the Kingdom of Prussia. This is why he never accepted the imperial government depending upon a majority in the Reichstag, insisting that it be freely appointed by the Kaiser, unilaterally. Thus, parliamentary government was not consolidated in the German Empire, as its emperor continued to unilaterally control the government.[928] Another important difference, largely a consequence of the above, was that, unlike in Italy where a unitary state was created, the German Empire continued to be a federation.[929] In fact,
the integration of the German nation into a single state would not come about until after World War I and the foundation of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933).[930]
Bismarck’s imperial conception was much more than a mere political or administrative idea, as proven by his radical opposition to the Church (Blackbourn 1988, 57-78), or Kulturkampf, a frontal assault in which the Iron Chancellor essentially declared on the Roman Catholic Church (Dwyer 2001, 174), as he desired to establish a powerful secular state completely independent of any spiritual or religious organization.[931]
16.8