Transcript Prussia and the Wars of Unification

Bismarck, Prussia and the Wars
of Unification
House of Hohenzollern
• First Count of Zollern (a
county in the HRE)
identified in 11th century;
• Family took name from
castle in Swabian Alps.
• Dukes of Prussia since 16th
century;
• Kings in Prussia since 1701;
• Kings OF Prussia since
Frederick the Great (17401786)
• In 1772 the duchy of
Prussia was elevated to
kingdom in its own right.
House of
HohenZollern and
Prussia
• Frederick the Great (1740-1786)
is usually credited with
transforming Prussia from a state
with an army into an army with a
state and helped establish its
core values:
– Pervasive idea of Dienst or
‘service’.
– Absolute professionalism and
loyalty to the throne;
– Reciprocal relationship between
crown and aristocracy;
– Rigid distinction between
nobility and bourgeoisie;
– Military conception of honor;
– Hatred of Jews.
Kings of Prussia
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Frederick the Great (1740–1786) Previously king in Prussia
Frederick William II (1786–1797) (nephew of Frederick the Great)
Frederick William III (1797–1840) (son of Frederick William II)
Frederick William IV (1840–1861) (son of Frederick William III)
William I (1861–1888) (brother of Frederick William IV)
Frederick III (1888) (son of William I)
William II (1888–1918) (son of Frederick III)
Prussia during the vormarz (1815-1848)
• When the 1815 Congress of Vienna awarded Prussia lands to the
West of the Rhine in compensation for its losses during the
Napoleonic era, they did so in the expectation that this would not
increase Prussian strength–
• The lands were all farmland, and owned by a Catholic population, so
wouldn’t be welcomed by the Protestant Prussian nobility.
• However, what was unknown to Metternich and to the Junkers east
of the Elbe, was that those farms were sitting atop one of the
greatest coal seams in Europe.
• The inclusion of these states were going to make Prussia a
powerhouse of German industry, but it also made the state of
Prussia increasingly difficult to govern, unless the interests of the
landed classes could be reconciled with those of the increasingly
wealthy bourgeoisie.
• Those same bourgeoisie wanted a more liberal constitution and
more control over the state than the Junkers were willing to accept.
• The tensions would eventually lead to the 1848 revolution.
The 1848 revolution and the
Unification of Germany
• Frederick William IV seemed in a dilemma as to whether he should ride the revolutionary
wave as a supporter of liberal reform or repress it and reinforce the absolutist rule.
• In the end he opted for the latter but with some compromise. Prussia adopted a
constitution, which included a parliament (Landtag in German) with universal suffrage.
• This was subjected to three tier voting rights, which reserved two thirds of the Landtag to
the top two-thirds of Prussia’s tax payers (less than 20% of the electorate)
• Moreover, the King retained control of the army and had rights of veto and rule by
decree
• Although the new constitution was not what the Liberals might have envisaged at the
beginning, the fact that Prussia was willing to adopt any constitution at all was potentially
highly significant. It could be a starting point for future reform.
• The constitution therefore pleased moderate Liberals, isolated the radical Left and
consolidated monarchical authority.
• The restoration of the Habsburg dynasty in Vienna in 1849 (partly with Russian help)
meant that a Grossdeutsch solution, requiring the break up of the polyglot Austrian
empire, would be impossible.
• March 1849, the Assembly decided to offer the crown of Germany to Frederick William
IV, but the latter was never seriously tempted and on 3 April 1849 rejected the offer.
• Between May and July Prussian troops – acting throughout German territories outside of
Austria, crushed the rebellions one by one.
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The Erfurt Plan was invented by General
Joseph von Radowitz who had acted as
Frederick William IV’s plenipotentiary at the
revolutionary diet of Frankfurt.
His plan offered a Kleindeutsch solution in
which Austria would be excluded but retain a
kind of ‘union’ with the Reich;
The Austrians rejected the idea;
1850 March – Radowitz , now acting as
Prussian Foreign Minister, called a meeting
of representations of German states at
Erfurt, and opened a parliament there which
lasted from March 20th-April 29th 1850.
The union never came into effect and was
dealt a fatal blow when Austria and Prussia
reached an agreement in November 1850 at
Olmütz in Moravia.
Frederick William IV realised that Russia
would support its ally Austria, and that
Prussian troops would be outnumbered and
outmuscled by his Austrian counterpart.
The agreement in Moravia, sometimes called
the ‘humiliation of Olmütz’, led to the
Prussians returning to the Confederation.
Radowitz resigned as Foreign Minister.
The Erfurt Plan, 1849
Background to the Wars of Unification
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The humiliation of Olmutz was Austria’s last foreign affairs success for three decades.
In the 1850, Prussia was regarded by virtually all international states as the least important
of the major powers and was consistently underestimated by virtually all international
states – a factor which helped it succeed in the long run.
Prussian industrial strength stemmed from its natural resources, communications, growing
rail network, education system which favored technical knowledge up to the level of higher
education, entrepreneurs who were helped both by the Zollverein and by Prussian state
ministers who supported their efforts.
Russia’s attempts to expand its influence into the Ottoman empire was firmly resisted by
Britain and France and led to the Crimean war. The Tar expected Austria to contributed at
least diplomatic support to his cause but the latter supported the British and French
instead.
1855 Concordat between the Austrian empire and the Catholic Church alienated German
Protestants and anti-Catholic Liberals who saw the church as a force of conservatism and
reaction.
1859-61 North Italian War - Austrian diplomatic isolation was confirmed when it went to
war with France and Piedmont to try and defend its Italian posssessions. Its erstwhile
allies, Russia and Prussia, offered no assistance and the Austrians were defeated by the
French led by the idealistic Napoleon III, suffering a loss of prestige in the meanwhile.
Napoleon III did not appreciate that by weakening Austria in this way, he was empowering
a more dangerous foe on his borders.
But then again, he was not alone. Prussian power was consistently underestimated. Britain
felt it had nothing to fear from Prussia and it could prove a strong bulwark against France
and Russia;
The Prussian system
• More important in the long-term was the new Landtag with its three Tier voting
system and the post of Minister-President that was identified in the new
Constitution.
• The Minister-President was appointed as head of the government by the King and
was not answerable to the Landtag.
• However, his position would become precarious if he was unable to get the
Landtag onside.
• The difficulty that any Minister-President faced was that, despite the three-tier
voting system, the Landtag was dominated by Liberals (the Progressives).
• The tensions that led to 1848 revolution would be played out once again, but in the
constitutional environment of the elected Landtag.
• This conflict would come to a head in the constitutional crisis of 1860-62.
• Prince Otto von Bismarck, had been part of the imperial circle and had been an
active player in Prussian politics as an outspoken supporter of monarchy and critic
of Liberalism, but had gained a reputation for outrageous statements.
• In particular, his recommendation in the 1850s that Prussia should ally with
Napoleon III (the very embodiment of illegitimacy) against Austria, shocked his
contemporaries.
• When he was sent as ambassador to St Petersburg in 1859 he said he was being
placed ‘in cold storage’, and he was probably correct.
• However, the situation within Prussia was to become so fraught by 1862 that
Wilhelm turned to him to save the monarchy.
Background to Bismarck’s appointment
• Within Austria Albrecht von Roon (1803-1879), Minister of War,
1859-73, proposed army reforms that met with stern opposition
within the Prussian Landtag:
– Increase in military service from 2-3 years;
– New regiments and reduced role of Landwehr;
– Improve equipment;
• Parliament refused to agree, so fresh elections were called, but the
Progressives won a larger majority (285 out of 352 delegates).
• The problem was not so much the reforms or the expense, but the
status of the semi-civilian Landwehr (a sort of national guard or
citizens’ army).
• What was at stake was an army controlled by the king and an army
controlled by parliament.
• The issue ran to the heart of power. The Landwehr stood for
everything the Liberals wanted and everything that the Prussian
nobility hated.
• In essence, the issues of the revolution were being played out again.
• Roon recommended to Wilhelm that Prince Otto von Bismarck be
appointed Minister-President.
Blood and Iron
• Bismarck’s maiden speech to the Prussian
Landtag was an attempt to win over Liberals
and nationalists to his government:
– ‘The position of Prussia in Germany will not be
determined by its liberalism but by its power ...
Prussia must concentrate its strength and hold it
for the favorable moment, which has already
come and gone several times. Since the treaties
of Vienna, our frontiers have been ill-designed
for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches
and majority decisions will the great questions
of the day be decided - that was the great
mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by iron and
blood (Eisen und Blut)’
The Constitutional Crisis of 1860-62
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But in the end Bismarck’s solution was to act as if parliament did not
exist
– He raised money by taxation and threatened military action if
people refused to pay.
– Civil servants who objected were dismissed.
– Few were willing to risk a repeat of 1848.
• Both Albrecht von Roon AND Otto von Bismarck made
themselves deeply unpopular at the Landtag and among Liberal
Prussians generally.
• Would Wilhelm I ask them to resign?
• Was there a master plan (as Bismarck himself suggested in his
memoirs) or was it merely opportunism (AJP Taylor) that enabled
Bismarck to survive?
In any case, he was about to manipulate the international situation in
Prussia’s favour.
When the Polish revolted against Russian rule in 1863, Bismarck
offered to help the Russians put it down. This was refused, but an
important diplomatic point had been scored and it provides an
indication that Bismarck was preparing the road ahead.
1st War of Unification –
Austro-Prussian War against Denmark, 1864
The Austro-Prussian War against
1863 November – The succession of Christian of Glucksburg IX of Denmark, re-opened the
question of the sovereignty over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein which contained
predominantly German populations.
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The issue had arisen previously in 1848-9 but during the revolutions of that time, the
Frankfurt Parliament was forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Malmo.
The duchies, with the support of German nationalists supported the claims of the Duke of
Augustenburg (a German);
Meanwhile Danish nationalists encouraged Christian to absorb Schleswig completely within
the Danish state, thereby violating the 1852 Treaty of London.
Bismarck won Austrian support in a joint effort of the German confederation in support of
Augustenburg’s claims
Austria wanted an opportunity to regain lost prestige and saw this as an opportunity to reassert its dominance within the Federation.
As far as Bismarck was concerned, this was really about Prussia’s expansion and the
German question.
This war would reveal the horrors of warfare in the industrial era.
The Danes wrongly expected the British to intervene after the Battle of Duppel.
They surrendered by the Treaty of Vienna (August 1864) and had to hand over the duchies
to Austria and Prussia.
Aftermath
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Prussian success owed much to Danish miscalculation but
nonetheless, these events turned Albrecht von Roon from
persona non grata to national hero.
General Helmuth von Moltke, a student of Carl von
Clauswitz and a devotee of his philosophy, appeared as
Chief of Staff during the War with Denmark and made his
reputation.
The Treaty of Vienna in July 1864, gave Prussia and
Austria joint sovereignty over both Schleswig and Holstein
and completely by-passed the claims of the Duke of
Augustenburg.
Prussian resistance to Austrian requests for entry to the
Zollverein perhaps led Vienna to encourage
Augustenurg’s supporters to reassert their hero’s claims
to the Duchies.
War was averted by the Treaty of Gastein of August 1865,
by which Prussia took control of Schleswig and Holstein
was given to Austria.
1865 Convention of Gastein
Realpolitik in action
• Bismarck shocked conservatives by running counter to all
their assumptions about diplomacy, but which had the
effect of consolidating Prussia’s diplomatic advantage:
– Firstly, In October 1865 Bismarck met Napoleon III of France at
Biarritz (Austria’s enemy in the North Italian War, and the devil’s
nephew as far as most German nationalists were concerned).
– Secondly, in April 1866 – Bismarck then made a secret alliance
with Italy, perhaps with Napoleon III’s help. The result would be
to force Austria to divide its forces.
• The negotiations with the upstart Napoleon III were bad
enough, but alliance with Liberal Italy against the imperial
Franz Josef, a fellow German and sovereign emperor, ran
counter to their assumptions about revolution and the
preservation of the old order. But Bismarck went even
further, making contacts with Hungarian and Balkan
revolutionaries as well.
The 2nd War of Unification:
the Austro-Prussian War of 1866
• Bismarck then deliberately stoked up tensions by
publishing new proposals to reform the German
Confederation by expelling Austria and introducing
universal male suffrage and all troops to be controlled
by Prussia.
• William I proclaimed ‘To the German People’, Prussia’s
decision to take up the struggle for the unity of
Germany hitherto thwarted by the self-interest of the
individual states.’
• Austria asked the Bundestag to reject those proposals.
• Prussia withdrew from the Bundestag.
Battle of Königgrätz
• 1866 June – start of the Seven Weeks’ War
• Not wishing to be dominated by Prussia, and perhaps fearing a tide of
liberalism, most states allied with Austria, but Prussian troops were able to
defeat northern states very quickly.
• The German army under the command of General Helmuth von Moltke (17681845), was in the hands of military genius.
• The Prussian General Staff planned the mobilisation, deployment and
provisioning of Prussia’s forces by exploiting Prussia’s superior railway
network.
• The decisive battle was fought at the village of Sadowa, northwest of the
Bohemian town of Königgrätz.
• Prussia held 5 lines leading down to the Bohemian war zone, compared
with one serving Austrian needs. The Austrian troops were thus able to
mobilise themselves in half the time it took the Austrian forces.
• By splitting the army into three units along a front 200 miles long, Moltke
was able to increase its speed of movement and flexibility.
• Breech-loading rifles gave the Prussians an ability fire at five times the
rate of the Austrian’s muzzle-loading musket. (7 shots a minute; 5 times
faster than the Austrians, leading to 5 times more casualties on the
Austrian side).
The aftermath of Königgrätz
• The German Confederation was now dead, and Austrian influence
within German too.
• Bismarck did not need an enemy on his doorstep and wanted
Austria as an ally in the future, so the Treaty of Prague (23 August)
was mild, forcing Austria to pay an indemnity, and to give Venetia to
Italy but otherwise not to be punished.
• Bismarck struggled to get these terms agreed not because of
opposition from France or Austria, but because Wilhelm I and
General von Moltke wanted more.
• Prussian territory was extended, not at Austria’s expense – e.g.
Holstein, Schleswig, Hanover, Hesse and Nassau – which had
opposed Prussia, were now added to Prussia and their lands filled
out the strategic gap between Prussia in the east and its Rhineland
provinces.
The Prussian Constitution
• Given all the difficulties with the Landtag, Bismarck’s
Conservative contemporaries expected him to tear up the
constitution and start again, now that he had so much
popular support.
• Once again Bismarck confounded expectation and did the
very opposite – he used Königgrätz to negotiate, from a
position of strength, a new political alliance with the Liberals.
• He presented an Indemnity Bill in which the Prussian
executive recognised that its four years of rule without a
parliamentary approved budget had been without ‘legal
foundation.’ and sought Parliament’s assurance that no
action would be taken against it.
• The result was the National Liberal Party – committed to
consolidating the drive towards unification, and supporting
Bismarck.
• This would become Bismarck’s main political ally in the early
years of the Second Reich after 1871.
The North German Confederation and
the Zollparlament
• In fact, Bismarck went even further.
• As well as retaining the existing constitution in Prussia, and designed a
new ‘federal’ constitution for the North German Confederation based
on the Prussian Constitution, with an assembly elected by universal
male suffrage.
• The North German Confederation offered northern states like Saxony,
the ability to preserve a measure of their sovereign independence
whilst accepting the Kaiser as Supreme Ruler.
• After 1871, after the final war of unification with France, the same
constitution would be extended to include the southern German
kingdoms, consisting of Bavaria (Catholic), Wurttemberg (Protestant),
Baden (Protestant) and the Grand Duchy of Hesse.
• Further still, Bismarck then created yet another level of government –
the Zollparlament – that would include ALL the states of the Zollverein,
including the southern states mentioned above.
• Bismarck hoped this would help get the southern states used to
working nationally but it was not to prove easy - elections from the
southern states returned opponents of Prussia.
The Hohenzollern Candidate
• French designs on Luxembourg bitterly opposed in the German
Confederation’s Reichstag. King William III wanted to sell it to pay off
his debts; Napoleon III was the likely buyer for the former member
of the German Confederation.
• Moltke sought to use the affair as a pretext for war. A conference in
London, however, caused both sides to retreat.
• Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a relative of the King of
Prussia, was invited to rule in Spain. Bismarck urged Wilhelm I to
give this his full support – precisely because he knew it would
unsettle Napoleon III.
• When news leaked, protests from Paris caused Wilhelm I to give his
verbal assurance that Leopold’s candidacy would be withdrawn.
• Bismarck found a way to rescue the situation – he edited the
telegram he received from Wilhelm I at the Spa town of Ems (the socalled ‘Ems Telegram’) and released a version of it that to the press
that he knew would inflame French opinion.
• Bismarck had no way of knowing what the result would be but
France declared war.
The 3rd War of Unification:
Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71
• Bismarck claimed that France had ‘committed a grievous sin against
humanity’ and called upon the southern states to support Prussia. They
agreed to do so.
• This was the 1st war in which all the German states fought; all wished to be
associated with a German triumph.
• Prussian victory once again depended upon Moltke’s strategic use of
railway lines (French were outnumbered 6-2 here); the Germans mobilised
470,000 troops compared with 300,000 for the French;
• 1st September Battle of Sedan – German artillery had longer range and a
higher rate of fire than the French and the Krupp breech loading rifle
proved more efficient than its French equivalent.
• Napoleon was imprisoned on 2nd and taken prisoner; he was deposed by a
revolutionary government that continued to fight on until 20th September.
• The German armies surrounded Paris on 20th September and defeated the
French army at Metz in October, but the French fought.
• On the 18th January Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall
of Mirrors in Versailles. 10 days later the French finally agreed to accept
an armistice.
Consequences
• Against the backdrop of German nationalist sentiment, separate
treaties were signed with each of the four southern states by
which they agreed to join the German empire.
• Bismarck’s trump card – call upon the German people to remove
those rulers who stood in the way of unity.
• The Federal Constitution allowed each state to keep its
monarchies and power over internal maters but real power was in
the hands of the emperor. Army officers and handpicked ministers.
• May 1871 – Treaty of Frankfurt – imposed an indeminty upon
France that was the equivalent to that which Napoleon had
imposed upon Prussia at Tilsit in 1807.
• Alsace and Lorraine were annexed to Germany – useful as a source
of iron ore and for the strategic fortresses of Strasbourg and Metz.
Did Bismarck make Germany or did
Germany make Bismarck?
• The big debate is whether Bismarck foresaw
events and brilliantly achieved his goals or
merely used the opportunities as they
presented themselves.
• A number of factors helped Bismarck:
– German nationalism
– Prussian economic growth
– The International situation
– The Prussian army
Realpolitik
• Bismarck played the nationalist card in the hope of
uniting the Prussians, Liberals and Conservatives alike,
behind the Hohenzollern dynasty, using it to justify and
to accelerate a programme of Prussian expansionism.
• Bismarck was himself no German nationalist – he was
interested in Prussian power, and Prussian power alone
– but he was willing to manipulate idealistic forces to
serve the interests of Prussian power.
• Realizing the power of mass politics, Bismarck ‘used
the techniques of the French Revolution to frustrate its
ends’ (Jonathan Steinberg).