Bismarck: The Founding of A

German Empire

Section 13.65

Introduction• Keeping Germany divided was the focus

of France and Russia since the Reformation

• One primary outcome of the fragmentation was the shift of modernization to the sea board

• A second outcome of the fragmentation was the rise of the military empire in Russia and its spread westward into Poland

• The marginalized position of Germany was evident at the Peace of 1856 (Crimean War)

Introduction• The Napoleonic Wars sparked a sense of

nationalism in Germany• Uniqueness of German culture and rejection

of Enlightenments universalism was germinating

• Superior feelings toward the Slavs• Hegelian philosophy fostered a feeling that

individualism was western, not German• Hegel’s philosophy glorified group loyalties,

collectivist principals and the state first• History would dictate to human beings (roots

and trees) the state’s destiny• “History was said to ordain, require,

necessitate, condemn, justify, or excuse.”

The German States after 1848• Revolutions of 1848 unseated

several gov of Germany• Private citizens assembled at

Frankfurt in hope of creating a united Germany via constitutional methods

• They failed. Why?• Frankfurt Assembly failed

because it had no power (Prussian Military)

• Frankfurt Assembly was not revolutionary enough

• Sober, orderly, respectful

The German States after 1848

• Movement toward die Macht (resume power)

• But member of Frankfurt Assembly were still attached to their own states

• The Italian example of the revolutionary destruction of all old governments (except Piedmont) would not work in Germany

• The loose confederation (Bund) was restored by 1850

Advantages of Unity• Revolutionist were confused after

the failure of 1848• Old states (Austria, Prussia,

Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, Wurttemberg were restored

• Loose confederation of 1815 (Bund) that linked them together restored

• But great economic and social changes were evident

• b/t 1850-1870 Coal and iron output was increasing

• The Zollverein (formed in Prussia in 1834) was growing to include most of Germany outside Austria (economic unity)

Advantages of Unity• Cities were growing• Rail and telegraph was expanding• Capital and labor (industrial

revolution) was increasing• Advantages of unity were obvious• German cultural character of: an

exaggerated respect for the state and power, habit of accepting events as the judgment of history made the plum was ripe for the picking;

• Enter Prussia

Prussia in the 1860s: Bismarck• Had always been the smallest and most

precarious of the great powers

• owed its international influence and character to its military

• Used the army to expand by conquest or diplomacy

• Silesia in 1740

• Poland in the late 1770s, 90s

Prussia in the 1860s: Bismarck• After 1850 the situation was grim

• Shaken by Revolution

• Crimean War and Congress of Paris 1856 Prussia was ignored

• Italy was unified to the south without any Prussian yes or no

• Prussia’s power was waning

Parliamentary politics• Prussia’s parliament was

led by the wealthy• Some of the wealthy

(liberal Rhinelanders) wanted parliament to have control over economic matters

• Junkers were perceived by the liberals as barriers to reform (they were)

• Liberals didn’t like professional armies and refused appropriations for its expansion

• Enter Bismarck

Bismarck• 1862 Bismarck is appointed as the

Chief Minister• From the finest cut of Junker class

but more intellectual than landlord class

• Was like Junkers in his pietism• Not deterred by criticism• Loyal to Prussia• German unification is a means to

elevating Prussian status• Junker sympathies in his nature

led him to find the west materialistic, turbulent, revolutionary

• Parliaments were ineffective• Liberty was selfish and disorderly

Bismarck• Stressed duty, service, order

(ordun)• “there has to be order”• Realpolitik philosophy• Had no ideology, No set principle• Somewhat Machiavellian• Used war as a tool of statecraft• Not farseeing• Was practical and opportunistic

and winged it as things came up

Constitutional Struggles (1862-1866)• Parliament refused to pass

taxes

• Bismarck (minister president) collected them anyway

• People paid them (orderliness)– Docile population who had

exaggerated respect for officialdom

• Liberals lack of power was exposed

• Parliament called his policies unconstitutional

Constitutional Struggles (1862-1866)• Bismarck acted anyway claiming the

best interests of the state– Said the constitution could not have

been meant to undermine the state

• Parliament argued that Prussian liberalism would attract Germany

• Bismarck argued that Prussian power would attract Germany and

• Prussia would grow “not by speeches and majority votes…but by blood and iron”

Bismarck’s Wars: North German Confederation,1867

• Danes wanted to make the duchy of Schleswig part of Denmark

• Population was mixed (Dane and German)• German Confederation called for all-German war on

Danes• Bismarck (not wanting to strengthen the Diet) joined

with just Austria and invaded Schleswig and Holstein

• Bismarck arranged that Prussia would occupy Schleswig, and Austria, Holstein

• Internal unrest over the occupation isolated Austria• Austria was isolated as Bismarck nurtured a

relationship with Napoleon III– Had charmed Nap at Biarritz

Bismarck’s Wars: North German Confederation,1867

• Russia had its own problems and liked Bismarck

• England was following a nonintervention policy

• Bismarck held out to Italy Venetia• Bismarck (under the pretense of

democracy) proposed to reform the German Confederation (universal male-suffrage)

• He knew that most Germans weren’t loyal to their existing governments and used democracy as his wedge

North German Confederation,1867

Seven Weeks’ War• Austria brought quarrel over

Schleswig-Holstein to German federal diet

• Bismarck said that this was an aggressive move, the diet had no authority, and moved in Holstein

• Austria appeals to all Germany (1866)• Prussian army showed its superiority• defeated the combined force at

Sadowa (Austro-Prussian War)– Needles guns (allowed infantryman

to deliver five rounds a minute)– Used RR– German von Moltke led capable

army to victory in seven weeks

Result of 7 Weeks’ War• Prussia annexed Schleswig-

Holstein, Hanover, Nassau, Hesse-Cassel, Frankfurt

• Old governments were swallowed up by “red reactionary”

• German federal union disappeared & was replaced by Northern Confederation (21 small states)

• German states south of river Main (Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Hesse-Darmastadt were outside the North Confed

• Italy takes Venetia

In this cartoon, the personification of Denmark watches contentedly as Austria and Prussia fight the Seven Weeks' (or Austro-Prussian) War, while Prussia's ally, Italy (in the guise of King Victor Emanuel), enters the scene with sword unsheathed.  Denmark's cession of Schleswig and Holstein to both Austria and Prussia jointly following the Danish War (1864) served as the immediate cause of the Seven Weeks' War two years later.

Result of 7 Weeks’ War• Prussia annexed Schleswig-

Holstein, Hanover, Nassau, Hesse-Cassel, Frankfurt

• Old governments were swallowed up by “red reactionary”

• German federal union disappeared & was replaced by Northern Confederation (21 small states)

• German states south of river Main (Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Hesse-Darmastadt were outside the North Confed

• Italy takes Venetia

In this cartoon, the personification of Denmark watches contentedly as Austria and Prussia fight the Seven Weeks' (or Austro-Prussian) War, while Prussia's ally, Italy (in the guise of King Victor Emanuel), enters the scene with sword unsheathed.  Denmark's cession of Schleswig and Holstein to both Austria and Prussia jointly following the Danish War (1864) served as the immediate cause of the Seven Weeks' War two years later.

A New Constitution

• Bismarck proposed new constitution

• A federal structure• King would be hereditary and

ministers responsible to him• 2 chamber parliament• Upper house was for the states• Lower house (Reichstag) was

elected by universal suffrage• This seemed crazy to the

conservative Junkers

Ferdinand Lassalle

A New Constitution• Bismarck believed that he could

use the masses as a key ally against private interests

• negotiated freely with popular interests

• He worked with socialists to improve working class conditions

– Socialist followed Ferdinand Lassalle who unlike Marx said that improvement could be attained via parliamentary means

• The empire is growing

Ferdinand Lassalle

The Franco-Prussian War• Who would the small

south German states gravitate to (France, Prussia, or Austria)

• Napoleon III was under heavy pressure in France for:

– His Mexico intervention– Allowing a united Italy to

emerge– Allowing a large German

state to emerge

The Franco-Prussian War• Bismarck used the potential

of French expansion to bring southern German states into the confederation and leave Austria out of the loop

– Threat of war with France would push the southern states toward Prussia

• Napoleon III felt a victory against Prussia would revive his position in France

France Thwarts New Spanish King• Revolution in Spain drove reigning queen into exile• Provisional govt. invited Prince Leopold of

Hohenzollern, king of Prussia’s cousin, to be king of Spain

• 3 times Hohenzollern family refused offer• Bismarck persuaded Spanish to ask once more• 7/2/1870 Paris heard that Leo had accepted• French ambassador to Prussia, Benedetti, met king

of Prussia at resort (Ems)• Demanded Leo withdraw it, which it was- on July

12• Then France demanded a commitment from

Hohenzollerns that no they would never rule Spain• King politely refused

Ems Telegram

France Thwarts New Spanish King• The exchange was recorded (Ems

dispatch), edited by Bismarck and published

• He saw a chance “to wave a red flag before the Gallic bull”

• Made it seems that King was insulted (Germany was insulted)

• Made it seem that the ambassador of France was snubbed

• War parties gathered in both countries

• 7/19/1870 Napoleon declares war on Prussia

Ems Telegram

A Short War• England felt France was in the wrong

(concerned about actions in Mexico)• Italians were poised to seize Rome

– They did in 1870• Russia was waiting for a chance to get

a naval presence in the Black Sea – This was against the Peace of 1856– They did in 1870

• France had no allies• At Sedan the French were defeated• Napoleon III was taken prisoner• Riots in Paris deposed the government

and declared the Third Republic• Prussia took Paris after laying siege

for 4 months

This Harper's Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast sketches the crowning of King Wilhelm I of Prussia as Emperor (Kaiser) of Germany, after the unification of the German states into a single nation in 1871.  Nast portrays Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian chancellor, as the (political) artist who has redrawn the map of Germany.  Wilhelm I looks vainly in a mirror, admiring his imperial crown, while his kingly (König) crown lies in the trash basket.  The mirror is held by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who joined the Prussian fight against France in July 1870, and that December, at Bismarck's urging, wrote a public letter proposing creation of a unified German empire. 

A Short War• England felt France was in the wrong

(concerned about actions in Mexico)• Italians were poised to seize Rome

– They did in 1870

• Russia was waiting for a chance to get a naval presence in the Black Sea

– This was against the Peace of 1856– They did in 1870

• France had no allies• At Sedan the French were defeated• Napoleon III was taken prisoner• Riots in Paris deposed the government

and declared the Third Republic• Prussia took Paris after laying siege

for 4 months

This Harper's Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast sketches the crowning of King Wilhelm I of Prussia as Emperor (Kaiser) of Germany, after the unification of the German states into a single nation in 1871.  Nast portrays Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian chancellor, as the (political) artist who has redrawn the map of Germany.  Wilhelm I looks vainly in a mirror, admiring his imperial crown, while his kingly (König) crown lies in the trash basket.  The mirror is held by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who joined the Prussian fight against France in July 1870, and that December, at Bismarck's urging, wrote a public letter proposing creation of a unified German empire. 

The German Empire, 1871• The German rulers assembled

at Versailles• The Prussian King is

proclaimed Emperor, German Empire is proclaimed

• Paris surrendered (starving) • No government existed for

Germany to negotiate with• Bismarck called for the election

of a Constituent Assembly (by universal suffrage)

• Demanded reparations of 5 billion gold francs

• Seized Alsace and Lorraine (They were not asked)

The German Empire, 1871• The German rulers assembled

at Versailles• The Prussian King is

proclaimed Emperor, German Empire is proclaimed

• Paris surrendered (starving) • No government existed for

Germany to negotiate with• Bismarck called for the election

of a Constituent Assembly (by universal suffrage)

• Demanded reparations of 5 billion gold francs

• Seized Alsace and Lorraine (They were not asked)

The Strength of the German State• War reversed the dictum of the Peace of Vienna and

Westphalia• Germany became at its birth the strongest state on the

continent• Continued its rapid industrialization• Bis had outsmarted everyone (even the Germans)• Bismarck and the Parliament made amends

– He admitted to high handedness during the constitutional struggles and they passed his taxes (ex post facto)

• Liberalism was derailed by nationalism• German Empire was a federation of monarchies

(divine right)• But the Reichstag was elected by universal male

suffrage

The Strength of the German State• Ministers were responsible to the emperor,

not the elected chamber• The rulers, not the people joined the empire• Each state kept its own laws and gov• Emperor (the king of Prussia) had legal

control over foreign and military policy• The Emperor was the king of Prussia and

magnified Prussian influence

• Bismarck’s masterpiece was nearing completion…

• Stay tuned for “dropping off the pilot”