prussia’s constitutional crisis and the german wars of unification

PRUSSIA’S CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS AND THE GERMAN WARS OF UNIFICATION

1859-61: Regent William announces a “New Course” in Prussia, but as King William I he insists on Army Reform

1861-62: House of Representatives rejects any increase in military spending

Sep 1862: Bismarck appointed Prime Minister of Prussia

Jan-June 1864: War with Denmark over Schleswig-Holstein

August 1865: Gastein Convention (see N. Rich, p. 198)

June-July 1866: Seven Weeks’ War between Prussia and Austria; Battle of Königgrätz, July 3, 1866

July 13-15, 1870: Publication of the Ems Dispatch provokes France to declare war on Prussia

The German Confederation of 1815

Under the Prussian constitution of 1850, the prime minister was NOT “responsible” to

parliament, and votes were weighed according to the amount of taxes paid

ECONOMIC POLICY DECISIONS BY THE GOVERNMENT OF PRUSSIA

1811: Chancellor Hardenberg strips guilds of their power1818: All internal tariffs abolished, and external tariffs lowered1818-34: Prussia unites most German states in Zollverein1842: Railroad Law imposes a tax of 33% on all dividends from railroad stock over 5%, to benefit shareholders in all lines with dividends under 3.5%. 1850s: Manteuffel cabinet provides subsidized loans to peasants that create 640,000 new freeholds; guilds are revived as voluntary chambers of handicrafts1861/63: Most coal mines are privatized; a free press and freedom of association are restored

Alfred Krupp (1812-1887) and his steel works in Essen (1874):

He expanded the work force from 7 to 20,000

Krupp breech-loading steel cannon displayed at the Paris World Exposition of 1867

Werner Siemens (1816-1892) and his railway telegraph (1856):

This army engineer co-founded Siemens & Halske in 1847

Kladderadatsch finds that the path of the new German National League is blocked by the princely houses,

September 1859

“Keep Smiling!”Kladderadatsch,October 9, 1859

Options for the German Confederation:1)Retain confidence in Austria?2)Or exclude Austria from Germany?3)Follow Bavaria and the middling states?4)Or should Germany merge completely with Prussia?5)At any rate, we must soon agree, OR ELSE….

William of Hohenzollern, born 1797, appointed regent of Prussia 1859,

reigned as King William I, 1861-1888

Adolph Menzel, “Coronation of King William I in Königsberg,” 1861

Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898):EARLY CAREER

1815: Born the son of a Pomeranian country squire (Junker) and a brilliant bourgeois mother

1848-50: Champion of monarchism; accepts peace with Austria (the “Humiliation of Olmütz”)

1851-59: Represents Otto von Manteuffel cabinet in the Diet of the German Confederation; comes to detest Austria

1859-62: Bismarck posted to St. Petersburg and Paris

1861: Foundation of Progressive Party; Prussian parliament deadlocks over Roon’s Army Bill

1862: Bismarck becomes Prime Minister

“The New Peter of Amiens”

(Kladderadatsch, 1849):

The founders of the conservative Kreuz-Zeitung:

Otto von Bismarck, Ernst

Ludwig von Gerlach, &

Friedrich Julius Stahl

Otto von Bismarck in the 1860s

BISMARCK’S “BLOOD AND IRON” SPEECH(Prussian House of Representatives, September 30,

1862;compare Rich, p. 190)

“Germany does not look to Prussia’s liberalism but to its power. Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden may indulge liberal impulses, but nobody will cast them in Prussia’s role for that reason. Prussia must gather its forces and maintain them for the favorable moment, which has already been missed several times. The borders established for Prussia at the Vienna Congress are not favorable for the healthy life of the state. The great issues of the day are not decided through speeches and majority resolutions---that was the great error of 1848 and 1849---but through blood and iron.”

“In the Circus”-- Bismarck tames the Progressive opposition in

the Prussian House of Representatives (January 1864)

War Minister Albrecht

von Roon

Napoleon III offers advice

Schleswig-Holstein

on the eve of the war of 1864

The Danish bulwark at Düppeln was considered impervious to artillery, but Prussian siege guns silenced the batteries in April

1864, and it was then stormed by Prussian infantry

Count Helmuth von Moltke,Chief of the

Prussian General Staff,

1859-1891

“The Positions of Austria and Prussia in the Matter of Schleswig-Holstein,” Kladderadatsch, 20 August

1865

“The Art of Cooking of the

Great: What They Cook Up Above

Must Be Eaten by Those Below,”

Kladderadatsch, 20 May 1866

THE SEVEN WEEKS’ WAR,June-July 1866

Prussian troops invaded Bohemia through four mountain passes

Austrian & Saxon Artillery on the Problus Heights,

Battle of Königgrätz, July 3, 1866

Georg Bleibtreu, “The Battle of Königgratz, July 3, 1866”(William I, Bismarck, and Moltke observe the final phase of

the struggle between 200,000 Prussian and 180,000 Austrian and Prussian troops)

Adolph Menzel, “Dying Soldier,” 1866:Prussia lost 9,000 men killed or severely wounded in

the battle; Austria, 24,000, plus 20,000 captured

Victory Parade, Berlin,

21 September 1866

After Königgrätz the Prussian liberals insist that they had always been “pulling on the same rope”

as Bismarck

THE INDEMNITY BILL(passed by a vote of 230 : 75 in the Prussian

Houseof Representatives on September 3, 1866)

ARTICLE 1. The government is granted indemnity for all administrative acts undertaken since the beginning of the year 1862 without a legally established state budget, on the condition that the Landtag approves the accounts presented by the government for this period.

ARTICLE 2. The government is authorized to expend up to 154 million Taler on administration for the year 1866.

Prussia’s annexations in 1866

First meeting of the “Reichstag” (February 1867):

Now “National Liberal” and “Free Conservative” parties had formed to support Bismarck

“Germany’s Future” (German cartoon from the late summer of

1866)

French cartoon of King William as a cannibal, devouring the

princes of northern

Germany (early 1867)

“The German Pasture” Kladderadatsch, 31 March 1867

“The Black Ghost,” Kladderadatsch, 20 June 1869