Otto von Bismarck in the 1860s

GERMANY’SWARS OF UNIFICATION

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

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

September 1866: Indemnity Bill ends the Prussian Constitutional Crisis

1867: Foundation of North German Confederation; Liberals and Conservatives split between pro- and anti-Bismarck factions.

July 15, 1870: The Ems Dispatch prompts Napoleon III to declare war on Prussia

September 2, 1870: Battle of Sedan & capture of Napoleon III

January 1871: Foundation of the German Empire

Schleswig-Holstein

on the eve of the war of 1864.

See Lerman, 95-99

Prussian troops storm Dybbel on the Baltic Coast, April 18, 1864

Destroyed bulwark with blockhouse at Dybbel

Count Helmuth von Moltke

(1800-1891). Appointed chief of the Prussian Army

general staff in 1858, he

expanded the authority of that office in 1864.

Bismarck at the conference table with Austria’s Graf Rechberg, June 1864

Victory parade through the Brandenburg Gate, December 7, 1864--- but Crown and Parliament

remained at odds.

“Fateful Encounter,” Kladderadatsch, March 19, 1865:Bismarck and the

Speaker of the Prussian House of Representatives, Wilhelm Grabow, meet on the “Via

mala,” a path through the Swiss

Alps next to a 2,000-foot drop….

“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.Why did Bismarck

seek war with Austria?

(See Lerman, 102-09)

“The Opportunity is Favorable” (June 1866): Bismarck could become “great” by implementing reforms, but he

would instantly become the most popular man in Germany if he simply resigned!

THE SEVEN WEEKS’ WAR,June-July 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 Saxon troops

A fanciful vision of King William, Bismarck, and Moltke leading a cavalry charge at Königgratz

Wounded soldiers at Königgratz

Victory Parade, Berlin,

21 September 1866

After Königgrätz the 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.

First meeting of the “Reichstag” of the North German Confederation, February 1867 (see Lerman, 128-30)

“The German Pasture” Kladderadatsch, 31 March 1867:

Germania tells Bismarck, “Protect my flock!”

French cartoon of King William as a cannibal, devouring the

princes of northern

Germany (early 1867)

“The Black Ghost,” Kladderadatsch, 20 June 1869: Did Bismarck exploit fears of France for his own ends?

“The National Liberal

Gravediggers:All this now rests

in peace.Freedom of

speech;Struggle to control the

military budget;Self-

determination for Schleswig-

Holstein; the Hessian

constitution”(Munich, April

1868)

Anti-Prussian sentiment: Election Day in the Bavarian Alps, February 1870, when the clericalist “Patriot

Party” won big

Bismarck sensed an opening when the French Ambassador Benedetti approached King William I in

Bad Ems on July 13, 1870, with a strident demand….

King William I Departs for War, 31 July 1870

THE GERMAN INVASION OF FRANCE, AUGUST-OCTOBER 1870

THE ENCIRCLEMENT OF THE FRENCH ARMY AT SEDAN,

SEPTEMBER 1, 1870 (German units in black)

German artillery park at Sedan, September 1870:The new Krupp breech-loading steel cannon

Bismarck accompanies Napoleon III to meetKing William I on the morning of September 2, 1870

Anton von Werner, “The German Headquarters in Versailles” (December

1870):Bismarck & the Crown Prince quarrel with Moltke &

Roon

The Proclamation of William I as German Kaiser in the Palace of Versailles, 18 January 1871

John Trumbull, “The Declaration of Independence” (1819)

Eugen Adam, “The German Flag is Hoisted at Fort Vauves, Outside Paris, 19 January 1871”

The German victory parade down the Champs Elysées,

March 1, 1871

Prussia’s annexations in 1866

PARADE AT THE “VICTORY COLUMN,” BERLIN, 1873

THE SIEGESÄULE

Constitution of 1871

September 2, the day of Sedan, became Imperial Germany’s national holiday (the Brandenburg Gate,

1895)

But Germany remained divided along religious, regional, and class lines….