Correct answers: 1 question: Which statement about an important event that led to german unification is true? They would have been Genoese or Sicilian or Veronese. This German dualism presented two solutions to the problem of unification: Kleindeutsche Lsung, the small Germany solution (Germany without Austria), or Grodeutsche Lsung, the greater Germany solution (Germany with Austria), ultimately settled in favor of the former solution in the Peace of Prague. During the Revolution of 1848, liberals met in the Frankfurt Assembly and drafted a constitution modeled on the ideals of the French Revolution of 1789. Others wondered if the railways were an "evil" that threatened the landscape: Nikolaus Lenau's 1838 poem An den Frhling (To Spring) bemoaned the way trains destroyed the pristine quietude of German forests. Early in his career, Wagner identified with the socialist movement and supported the Revolution of 1848 in Germany. Constructing Class and Nationality in Alsace, 1830-1945. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995. The unifications wouldn't have been achieved without the help of men and historical circumstances. And finally, the "makers" of Germany had to contend with foreign powers, especially Russia, France, and the Austrian Empire, all of whom had much to gain and lose with the emergence of a new central European power, necessitating the use of both skillful diplomacy and military aggression. Demonstrates the impact of German unification on the ethnically French region of Alsace. The prince withdrew as a candidate, thus defusing the crisis, but the French ambassador to Berlin would not let the issue lie. Due in part to the shared experience, albeit under French dominance, various justifications emerged to identify "Germany" as a potential future single state. German Nationalism and Religious Conflict: Culture, Ideology, and Politics, 1870-1914. With the proclamation of Wilhelm as Kaiser, Prussia assumed the leadership of the new empire. [111], Additional studies of different groups in Wilhelmine Germany have all contributed to a new view of the period. Some other pieces of content that you need to review are the rise . Sch?nhausen, Duke von Lauenburg--was a Prussian statesman who in 1871 founded the German . The four major reasons behind the unification of Germany are the role of Bismark, the strength of the Prussian economy, the decline of Austria, and the military power of Prussia. For the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, The first, original, and truly natural boundaries of states are beyond doubt their internal boundaries. The French public, still aggravated over the defeat at Sadov, demanded war. [93] He approached the Prussian king directly while Wilhelm was vacationing in Ems Spa, demanding that the King release a statement saying he would never support the installation of a Hohenzollern on the throne of Spain. When Italy and Germany were unified, they changed history. Bismarck's policies, especially the buildup of the Prussian army, led to conflict with the liberal-dominated Lower House of the Prussian parliament, which resisted his proposals to pay for the increase in military expenditures with new taxes until Bismarck and the crown agreed to lasting constitutional reform. Kaplan, in particular, pp. [22], Crucially, both the Wartburg rally in 1817 and the Hambach Festival in 1832 had lacked any clear-cut program of unification. Ultimately, many of the left-wing revolutionaries hoped this constitution would establish universal male suffrage, a permanent national parliament, and a unified Germany, possibly under the leadership of the Prussian king. This transfer particularly enhanced the territories of Wrttemberg and Baden. However, in 1876 the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), a Marxist party of workers, was formed. Scribner, Robert W. and Sheilagh C. Ogilvie. [98] The German High Command expected an overture of peace from the French, but the new republic refused to surrender. In particular, it involved a struggle over language, education, and religion. These annexations did not happen, resulting in animosity from Napoleon towards Bismarck. A confederated realm of German princedoms, along with some adjacent lands, had been in existence for over a thousand years; dating to the Treaty of Verdun i.e. Sheehan, pp. [48] Failure to achieve unification in 1848, this argument holds, resulted in the late formation of the nation-state in 1871, which in turn delayed the development of positive national values. Second, through diplomatic maneuvering, a skilful leader could create an environment in which a rival state would declare war first, thus forcing states allied with the "victim" of external aggression to come to the leader's aid. The Prussian king Frederick William III saw no advantage in traveling from Berlin to Potsdam a few hours faster, and Metternich refused to ride in one at all. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1991. Their own interests, which they understood as "civil" or "bourgeois", seemed irrelevant. Instead of a war of revenge against Prussia, supported by various German allies, France engaged in a war against all of the German states without any allies of its own. Agitation by student organizations led such conservative leaders as Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich, to fear the rise of national sentiment. [22] Promoted as a county fair,[23] its participants celebrated fraternity, liberty, and national unity. AP Euro P.4 2/14/23 German language: 1800 was one of the most influential elements that led to German unification; several diverse German writers and theorists started to give work towards uniting German identity that wasn't involved with French control under Napoleon Burschenschaft: 1815 [99] Nevertheless, in January, the Germans fired some 12,000 shells, 300400 grenades daily into the city. Finally, Francefearing Hohenzollern encirclementdeclared war on Prussia in 1870, resulting in the Franco-Prussian War. Through military victory, Prussia under Bismarck's influence had overcome Austria's active resistance to the idea of a unified Germany. The effects of the railway were immediate. This experience echoed the memory of mutual accomplishment in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly in the War of Liberation of 181314. The career and music of Richard Wagner offer a unique interdisciplinary approach to the romantic aspect of German nationalism. For more on this idea, see, for example, Joseph R. Llobera, and Goldsmiths' College. Harvey, David Allen. Aristocrat For a discussion of the tonal elements of Das Rhinegold and their significance, see The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, available online by subscription (free trial is offered). For instance Italy was brought together when the Franco-Prussian war withdrew France from Rome. Thus Wagner emphasizes that German identity is tied with geographical boundaries, in this case, the Rhine River. Rural farmer. The Franco-Prussian War. [2] Following the formal secession from the Empire of the majority of its constituent states, the Emperor dissolved the Holy Roman Empire.[3]. [115], For some Germans, the definition of nation did not include pluralism, and Catholics in particular came under scrutiny; some Germans, and especially Bismarck, feared that the Catholics' connection to the papacy might make them less loyal to the nation. Schneckenburger wrote "The Watch on the Rhine" in a specific patriotic response to French assertions that the Rhine was France's "natural" eastern boundary. On 15 November 1863, Christian IX became king of Denmark and duke of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg, which the Danish king held in personal union. Ap Euro Sample Guide. Furthermore, it was becoming increasingly clear that both Austria and Prussia wanted to be the leaders in any resulting unification; each would inhibit the drive of the other to achieve unification. Learn about the unification of Germany, a summary, and timeline in European history. [31], In contrast, the coastal states already had barrier free access to international trade and did not want consumers and producers burdened with the import duties they would pay if they were within the Zollverein customs border. He fled his U.S. Army post in the 1950s in danger of reprisals for his left-wing activities at Harvard and in Buffalo, New York. They brought Austria and Hungary together into one empire. The German Empire became," in Karl Marx's words, a military despotism cloaked in parliamentary forms with a feudal ingredient, influenced by the bourgeoisie, festooned with bureaucrats and guarded by police. Indeed, many historians would see Germany's escape into war in 1914 as a flight from all of the internal-political contradictions forged by Bismarck at Versailles in the fall of 1870. Since 1780, after emancipation by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Jews in the former Habsburg territories had enjoyed considerable economic and legal privileges that their counterparts in other German-speaking territories did not: they could own land, for example, and they did not have to live in a Jewish quarter (also called the Judengasse, or "Jews' alley"). This was particularly important for the emerging industrial centers, most of which were located in the Prussian regions of the Rhineland, the Saar, and the Ruhr valleys. AP stands for "Advanced Placement"; it is a test intended for U.S. or foreign high school students to prove extraordinary knowledge. He was first and foremost a politician, and in this lied his strength. Wilhelm refused to give such an encompassing statement, and he sent Bismarck a dispatch by telegram describing the French demands. During this period, European liberalism gained momentum; the agenda included economic, social, and political issues. The Mecklenburgs joined in 1867, while Bremen and Hamburg joined in 1888. This may have been a pleasing prospect for Bismarck, but it was unacceptable to either Napoleon III or to Agenor, duc de Gramont, his minister of foreign affairs. This sheet contains the Summer Assignments and introduces you to the material we will be studying next year The Textbooks: Spielvogel, Jackson J. AP European History Mr. Trinkner Boulder High School DBQ: German Unification Question: Weigh the relative importance of German nationalism and Prussian political aspirations in the unification of Germany. The states south of the Main River (Baden, Wrttemberg, and Bavaria) signed separate treaties requiring them to pay indemnities and to form alliances bringing them into Prussia's sphere of influence. Concurrent with this idea, movements to preserve old fortresses and historic sites emerged, and these particularly focused on the Rhineland, the site of so many confrontations with France and Spain.[43]. At first Bismarck outlawed the SPD, but dissatisfaction with unification in Germany's cities, where workers sometimes viewed the German state as a tool of capitalism, proved that socialism was to become a significant force in post-unification German politics. Its former leading state, the Austrian Empire, was along with the majority of its allies excluded from the ensuing North German Confederation Treaty sponsored by Prussia which directly annexed Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau, and the city of Frankfurt, while Hesse Darmstadt lost some territory but kept its statehood. His guides also included distances, roads to avoid, and hiking paths to follow. [79] Complicating the situation for Austria, the Italian mobilization on Austria's southern border required a diversion of forces away from battle with Prussia to fight the Third Italian War of Independence on a second front in Venetia and on the Adriatic sea. [77], Opposition to Prussia's strong-armed tactics surfaced in other social and political groups. Initially, the Danes attempted to defend their country using an ancient earthen wall known as the Danevirke, but this proved futile. The possibility of German (or Italian) unification would overturn the overlapping spheres of influence system created in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna. March 2, 2023 2:09 AM PT. The negotiators at Vienna took no account of Prussia's growing strength within and declined to create a second coalition of the German states under Prussia's influence, and so failed to foresee that Prussia would rise to challenge Austria for leadership of the German peoples. They were intended to develop a mythic national history for the new empire, which had no actual political history on which to construct a national identity. Unification of Italy and Germany Social Issue High Imperialism World . Brunswick joined the Zollverein Customs Union in 1842, while Hanover and Oldenburg finally joined in 1854[32] After the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg were annexed by Prussia and thus annexed also to the Customs Union, while the two Mecklenburg states and the city states of Hamburg and Bremen joined late because they were reliant on international trade. This was only temporary, however, and the Franco-Prussian War began in 1870. Rail travel changed how cities looked and how people traveled. Publicly, he replied that he could not accept a crown without the consent of the actual states, by which he meant the princes. For the most part, these Polish-speaking Catholics did not assimilate into German culture, and Bismarck often dealt with the Poles in a brutal manner, eventually expelling large numbers of Poles and Polish Jews in 1885. What did they stand for? Its impact reached throughout the social order, affecting the highest born to the lowest. While many spoke about the need for a constitution, no such document appeared from the discussions. Meanwhile, the liberals in the Frankfurt assembly saw German unity as a process of negotiation that would lead to the distribution of power among the many parties. [13] Ever since the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg had made himself King in Prussia at the beginning of that century, their domains had steadily increased through inheritance and war. Play the overture to Das Rhinegold, which is approximately 5 minutes long. Hitler often called on the German public to sacrifice all for the cause of their great nation, but his regime did not create German nationalism: it merely capitalized on an intrinsic cultural value of German society that still remains prevalent even to this day. . As the rail network expanded, it became cheaper to transport goods: in 1840, 18 Pfennigs per ton per kilometer and in 1870, five Pfennigs. Travelers, both foreign and local, complained bitterly about the state of the Heerstraen, the military roads previously maintained for the ease of moving troops. The battle was a decisive victory for Prussia and forced the Habsburgs to end the war with the unfavorable Peace of Prague,[82] laying the groundwork for the Kleindeutschland (little Germany) solution, or "Germany without Austria.". The numerable challenges to German unification meant that, as one prominent historian of Germany observed, the making of Germany was only slightly less difficult than the making of Germans. [19] Metternich was able to harness conservative outrage at the assassination to consolidate legislation that would further limit the press and constrain the rising liberal and nationalist movements. [122], Mommsen's contributions to the Monumenta Germaniae Historica laid the groundwork for additional scholarship on the study of the German nation, expanding the notion of "Germany" to mean other areas beyond Prussia. German liberals were justifiably skeptical of this plan, having witnessed Bismarck's difficult and ambiguous relationship with the Prussian Landtag (State Parliament), a relationship characterized by Bismarck's cajoling and riding roughshod over the representatives. Privately, he feared opposition from the other German princes and military intervention from Austria or Russia. [31], By the early 19th century, German roads had deteriorated to an appalling extent. 432; Holt, p. 75. Thus, by 1836, all states to the south of Prussia had joined the Customs Union, except Austria. The dramatic prelude to the war occurred largely in Frankfurt, where the two powers claimed to speak for all the German states in the parliament. Although they initially sought to restore central Imperial power, preserving a weak and fragmented Empire was convenient for France and Sweden, and therefore, their ensuing intervention led to the Peace of Westphalia which effectively thwarted for centuries any serious attempts to reinforce the imperial central authority and petrified fragmentation, resulting in the German-speaking territories comprising on the eve of the Napoleonic Wars still more than 300 political entities, most of them being parts of the Holy Roman Empire, though portions of the extensive Habsburg Monarchy (exclusively its large non-German-speaking territories: Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen and the Austrian partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) or of the Hohenzollern Kingdom of Prussia (both the German-speaking former Duchy of Prussia and the non-German-speaking entire territory of the Prussian partition of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) as well as the German-speaking Swiss cantons were outside of the Imperial borders. The man-made factors included political rivalries between members of the German confederation, particularly between the Austrians and the Prussians, and socio-economic competition among the commercial and merchant interests, and the old land-owning and aristocratic interests. The decrees were the subject of Johann Joseph von Grres's pamphlet Teutschland [archaic: Deutschland] und die Revolution (Germany and the Revolution) (1820), in which he concluded that it was both impossible and undesirable to repress the free utterance of public opinion by reactionary measures. At Hambach, the positions of the many speakers illustrated their disparate agendas. Post-1945 historians, however, see more short-term opportunism and cynicism in Bismarck's manipulation of the circumstances to create a war, rather than a grand scheme to unify a nation-state. Members of the Upper House of the parliament, the Bundesrat, were appointed by the princes of the individual German states and were therefore beholden to the monarchs. Supporters of Grossdeutsch, or Greater Germany, insisted that Prussians and Austrians with a common language naturally should be part of one nation. Initially conceived by the Prussian Finance Minister Hans, Count von Blow, as a Prussian customs union in 1818, the Zollverein linked the many Prussian and Hohenzollern territories. [41], The words of August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben expressed not only the linguistic unity of the German people but also their geographic unity. [4], A common language may have been seen to serve as the basis of a nation, but as contemporary historians of 19th-century Germany noted, it took more than linguistic similarity to unify these several hundred polities. These individual governments rejected the potent combination of enticing promises and subtle (or outright) threats Bismarck used to try to gain their support against the Habsburgs. The Hambach rhetoric emphasized the overall peaceable nature of German nationalism: the point was not to build barricades, a very "French" form of nationalism, but to build emotional bridges between groups. Consequently, Prussian leaders expected to play a pivotal role in German politics. Guy, Monika Chavez, Thomas A. Lovik These skeptics saw the proposal as a ploy to enhance Prussian power rather than a progressive agenda of reform. One of the major questions concerning German unification centered on this Prussian-Austrian rivalry, which was both diplomatic and cultural. He instead created a seating plan by which all seats faced the stage directly. This new version of the course involves breadth of the knowledge you as students must possess on test day. Despite the legal, administrative, and political disruption caused by the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the German-speaking people of the old Empire had a common linguistic, cultural, and legal tradition. Bismarck was also confronted with problems from religious minorities in Germany, especially from Catholics and Jews. The rank of nobility is abolished. That Obama wanted Merkel to stay on during what he foresaw would be a chaotic period under Trump was not only due to her formidable skills - it was. Like their French counterparts, wealthy German Jews sponsored salons; in particular, several Jewish salonnires held important gatherings in Frankfurt and Berlin during which German intellectuals developed their own form of republican intellectualism. .We need a powerful ruling house. Luther and Qin both lived in a society filled with disunity and corruption, hence why both decided to make a change. [12], Problematically, the built-in Austrian dominance failed to take into account Prussia's 18th-century emergence in Imperial politics. [75], The debate over the proposed national constitution became moot when news of Italian troop movements in Tyrol and near the Venetian border reached Vienna in April 1866. A master strategist, Bismarck initiated decisive wars with Denmark, Austria and France to unite 39 independent German states under Prussian leadership. As Giuseppe Garibaldi wrote to German revolutionary Karl Blind on 10 April 1865, "The progress of humanity seems to have come to a halt, and you with your superior intelligence will know why. The king of Prussia as emperor and Bismarck as chancellor had complete authority over foreign affairs and the army. AP European History Textbook Western Europe Since 1945 Western Civilization I: Certificate Program . [16], The surge of German nationalism, stimulated by the experience of Germans in the Napoleonic period and initially allied with liberalism, shifted political, social, and cultural relationships within the German states. Meanwhile, Helmuth von Moltke had become chief of the Prussian General Staff in 1857, and Albrecht von Roon would become Prussian Minister of War in 1859. My three part lecture on German Unification covers the complete unification process, starting with the failure of liberal nationalism after the Revolutions of 1848 and then focusing on Otto von Bismarck's domestic and foreign policies that put Prussia at the helm of a unified German state through the shrewd application of realpolitik . The Congregations Law of 1875 abolished religious orders, ended state subsidies to the Catholic Church, and removed religious protections from the Prussian constitution. The Prussian army invested Paris and held it under siege until mid-January, with the city being "ineffectually bombarded". Officially, the chancellor functioned as a one-man cabinet and was responsible for the conduct of all state affairs; in practice, the State Secretaries (bureaucratic top officials in charge of such fields as finance, war, foreign affairs, etc.) One school of thought, which emerged after The Great War and gained momentum in the aftermath of World War II, maintains that the failure of German liberals in the Frankfurt Parliament led to bourgeoisie compromise with conservatives (especially the conservative Junker landholders), which subsequently led to the so-called Sonderweg (distinctive path) of 20th-century German history. Nevertheless he always remained faithful to the ideal of a united continent for which the creation of individual nations would be an indispensable preliminary. That is a short German unification summary, but the process was complex, and you can learn more about it by looking at the German unification timeline and detailed account of the wars of . The Danes were no match for the combined Prussian and Austrian forces and their modern armaments. [40] Karl Baedeker wrote guidebooks to different cities and regions of Central Europe, indicating places to stay, sites to visit, and giving a short history of castles, battlefields, famous buildings, and famous people. Prussia thus exercised influence in both bodies, with executive power vested in the Prussian King as Kaiser, who appointed the federal chancellor. Consequently, these decrees drove the Burschenschaften underground, restricted the publication of nationalist materials, expanded censorship of the press and private correspondence, and limited academic speech by prohibiting university professors from encouraging nationalist discussion. Crimean War in 3 Minutes MindTap: The France of Napoleon . Today we'll look at how Italy and Germany pulled it together in the second half of the 1800s. The German Confederation could use the ethnicities of the area as a rallying cry: Holstein and Lauenburg were largely of German origin and spoke German in everyday life, while Schleswig had a significant Danish population and history. [17] In this context, one can detect its roots in the experience of Germans in the Napoleonic period. At a meeting in Biarritz in September 1865 with Napoleon III, Bismarck had let it be understood (or Napoleon had thought he understood) that France might annex parts of Belgium and Luxembourg in exchange for its neutrality in the war. The German unification was also brought together by the Franco-Prussian war. Cocks, Geoffrey and Konrad Hugo Jarausch. As German states ceased to be a military crossroads, however, the roads improved; the length of hardsurfaced roads in Prussia increased from 3,800 kilometers (2,400mi) in 1816 to 16,600 kilometers (10,300mi) in 1852, helped in part by the invention of macadam. The other states retained their own governments, but the military forces of the smaller states came under Prussian control. Following adoption of the North German Constitution, the new state obtained its own constitution, flag, and governmental and administrative structures. All Germans are equal before the law. Russia says US, NATO's 'increasing' involvement in Ukraine 'fraught with direct military clash of nuclear powers' Anadolu Agency. Italy had its own way of unifying. The Bavarian king, Ludwig II, who was one of the last German princes to agree to join the Prussian-dominated German Empire, provided the majority of the funds for its construction. The Imperial Diet had the power to pass, amend, or reject bills, but it could not initiate legislation. All parties in France rejected the terms, insisting that any armistice be forged on the basis of territorial integrity. France, in other words, would pay reparations for starting the war, but would, in Jules Favre's famous phrase, cede neither a clod of our earth nor a stone of our fortresses". The French public resented the Prussian victory and demanded Revanche pour Sadov ("Revenge for Sadova"), illustrating anti-Prussian sentiment in Francea problem that would accelerate in the months leading up to the Franco-Prussian War.