In Central Europe Men Are Marching

A PROLOGUE TO A SERIES.

The Frankfurt Parliament, Public Domain

In the same year of the publication of The Communist Manifesto the Western hemisphere experienced a wave of revolutionary upheaval akin to contemporary events in the Middle East. The 1848 revolutions were about many things to many people - democracy, nationalism, liberalism, socialism. As I draw my series of essays on my political outlook, in particular the evolution of my relationship with revolutionary socialism (ie, Marxism), to an eventual close after two years; on this national day I look to begin a new series on another of the major ideologies of 1848 - nationalism.

As the European Union appears to be unfurling and prominent independence movements are afoot in Scotland and Catalonia; it seems relevant to discuss ethnicity and nationalism. The primary aim of the series will be to identify the origin of national identity - the interplay of history, geography, culture, and language in binding populations together in shared character. In the same vein as my political series this set on nationalism will start with a republished college essay - in this case an essay on Bismarck's role in the unification of Germany from HND History. While it doesn't deal with issues of national identity, it does discuss the historical processes that led to the unification of one of Europe's last fractured lands into a great power.

Originally Written and Published 30th November 2005

The German National Assembly (commonly known as the Frankfurt Parliament) was founded and asked to seek democratic means to unite Germany. In 1849 it attempted to crown the Prussian King Frederick William IV as German Emperor. He declined. The weak Assembly, devoid of legal power and military force to support its laws, quickly disintegrated over the details of the proposed German constitution: whether to remain a monarchy, and the composition of future Germany - Großdeutschland consisting of all the German states or Kleindesutschland excluding Austria and its multi-ethnic empire. Twenty-two years later the German states were united as the German Empire. However, the cause of this eventual unification is still debated and two theories have emerged which seek to explain unification. The first this essay shall explore is referred to as the "Coal & Iron" theory which concentrates on the economic conditions of Prussia.

As Prussia expanded once more in the early 19th Century, it continued to acquire extensive natural resources, particularly coal and iron. Private and foreign investment was crucial to the foundation of industry in the resource-rich state, but it was the Prussian government which fully developed the initial investment. It reformed the taxation laws, built roads, encouraged practical skill-based education and overhauled the Bank of Prussia. The formation in 1834 of the Zollverein (German: Customs Union) consolidated Prussian influence over the other German States. The founding of a 'common market' ended the trade barriers between the states and led to standardisation throughout all, with the exception of protectionist Austria (the other powerful German state, its influence waning when the Prussian government was permitted to negotiate for the customs union and sealed several favourable trading deals), Piedemont, Holland (1851) and Belgium (1852).

Throughout the 1850s and 60s, heavy industry was stimulated by military orders and emerging technologies. In the five years of 1852-57, iron output jumped from 0.5 million to 1.29 million tons - partly due to the government's halving of output taxes in 1851. To its benefit, German industry built on the industrial experience of Britain with new and more efficient technology.
The Prussian Army was also interested in new technology, quickly drawing level with rival Austria after the appointment of Helmut von Moltke as the new Chief of Staff in 1857, and reforms in 1862 . When the war with Austria began in June 1866, they were far ahead in total troop numbers (on the Bohemian front) - 370,000 to Austria's 270,000. Not only was the army larger than Austria's, it was also far more competent. Von Moltke's army was modern and reflective of the new industrial age, and run by expert officers who had proven their ability. Of course, an army is useless unless it can be mobilised: The Prussian military embraced industrialisation and particularly seized on the use of railways as a means to quickly deploy armaments and troops. For example, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Austria required 45 days to move its troops to the Bohemian front, whereas it took only 25 for the Prussians to deploy a roughly equal number - the telegraph being used to co-ordinate troop movements over the rail network. The high rate of fire and accuracy of the Needle Gun and Krupp's breech-loading cast-steel cannon were all made possible by the precision machining made possible by industrialisation. These two weapons are considered prominent reasons why Prussia succeeded on the battle field.

The Zollverein was a result of Prussian geography - it initially served as a way to move products between non-contiguous Eastern and Western Prussia. As Prussia had economic control, it follows that political and military power would also be controlled by Prussia, and that unification was inevitable once the German states had come together. The exclusion of Austria left only Prussia to look to. The second view, Blood & Iron, sees Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) and his actions as Minister-President responsible for the unification of the German States.

Bismarck, bill barber, 2007

Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen was born into a noble family on April 1st 1815. As a Junker (the landed aristocracy of Prussia) he was unsurprisingly a monarchist and a conservative. After managing his estate for eight years after his mother's death, he moved back to the place of his birth and entered into local politics in 1847. He became a representative in the new Prussian legislature, marking himself a proponent of Divine Rights. In the aftermath of the unsuccessful 1848 Revolutions, he was voted into the lower house of the Prussian legislature and stood in opposition to German Unification. After three years, King Friedrich Wilhelm selected Bismarck as the Prussian envoy to the German Confederation Diet. His time as envoy separated him from his conservative colleagues, and his politics emerged moderated.
In order to isolate Austria (the threat to Prussian dominance) among the German states, Bismarck recognised the Prussia must bring the other states out of the Austrian sphere of influence and into Prussia's sphere.

In 1861 Wilhelm I become Prussian king after the death of his brother, but his proposals (e.g., to increase funding for a reorganisation of the army) clashed with the liberal Prussian Diet. Such differences of opinions brought governance to a halt and the outright rejection of the proposed budget marked the low point in September 1862. Wilhelm I believed only Bismarck could break the deadlock caused by the entrenched positions of the King and Diet, thus appointing him as Minister-President and Foreign Minister (on Bismarck's insistence) on September 23rd. Legislators felt they could no longer work with Bismarck when he sided with the King over the budget in 1863. This prompted the King to dissolve the Diet and Bismarck restricted press freedom - a highly unpopular move for an unpopular politician. Later in the year, Liberal parties won two thirds of the House of Deputies, but Bismarck continued to have Wilhelm's support for fear the popular liberals might come to ministerial power. In his first speech as Minister-President, he had said "the great questions of the day [German unification] will not be decided by speeches and the resolutions of majorities - that was the great mistake from 1848 to 1849 - but by iron and blood". This indicates that Bismarck has realised the need for the Confederation to unite in the Kleindesutschland model.

The King of Denmark died in November 1863 and the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were claimed by the heir to the Danish throne and a German duke simultaneously. Significantly, Holstein had a German majority population but Schleswig had a Danish majority. Austria joined Bismarck in protesting the Danish claim on Schleswig. When the Danes refused Austria and Prussia invaded and forced Denmark to cede both duchies to the Confederation. However, Bismarck had Austria sign the Gastein Convention in which Schleswig and Holstein were given to Prussia and Austria respectively - against the original plan for the Confederation Diet to determine the post-war details. Two years later (1866), Austria demanded the Confederation Diet determine the status of the duchies. This went against Bismarck's convention, claiming Austria had violated it and had Holstein occupied. Austria responded by rallying support amongst other German states against Prussia. This quickly descended into the Seven-Weeks War, but Prussia's superior organisation and arming of the military, and an alliance with the Italians opening a second front in the South resulted in quick defeat for Austria.

The Hapsburg lands agreed to exclude itself from German affairs and the German Confederation was dissolved and replaced by the North German Confederation - a body under extensive Prussian control. Military success greatly improved Bismarck's popularity and the liberal parties lost their majority in the House of Deputies elections in 1866. Now the House consisted of conservatives who were more receptive to Bismarck's views - going so far as to approve the 4 year backlog of budgets unilaterally passed by the Minister-President. Whilst the Austrian issue had been dealt with, France saw this as a threat to the Balance of Power between the European powers. It was now obvious to Bismarck that lasting Prussian control over the German states could only come about by unification, but it required suitable conditions to come about - if France appeared aggressive, the vulnerable Southern states would seek protection from Prussia. He had not engineered the Franco-Prussian war as he had on previous occasions, but he manipulated the situation to Prussia's benefit.

In 1867, France was in the process of purchasing Luxembourg from the Netherlands. The North German Confederation, rather than remain quiet as the French has expected, was threatening war should the sale of Luxembourg be complete - as it was a strategic location through which any Prussian invasion of France would travel. Britain hosted the London Conference in which the European powers agreed to the independence of Luxembourg - thus preventing a war over the issue. French Emperor Napoléon III was facing numerous problems domestic (demand for reform) and foreign (intervention in Mexico) and saw the acquisition of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Rhineland through war as a way to unite the country behind him. Bismarck, similarly, was seeking to bring the Southern German states into union with the North and war with France (which he viewed as inevitable since it would not tolerate a powerful state on its border) presented itself as a means to achieve unity.

A suitable casus belli occurred in 1870 when the vacant Spanish throne was offered to the German House of Hohenzollern. If a German acceded to the Spanish throne, France would be faced with a possible German ally in the South in addition to the Prussian satellite states on its Eastern border along Alsace-Lorraine. France vehemently opposed the proposition and Bismarck used the mood to release an altered transcript of a conversation between Wilhelm I and the French Ambassador (the Ems Dispatch). This succeeded in provoking both Prussia and France into war on July 19th 1870. Prussia gained the support of the other German states and, again, easily defeated the enemy within a year. France handed over the disputed Alsace-Lorraine territory and paid reparations. Bismarck went on the offensive and quickly struck deals with the Southern states for unification. On January 18th 1871, Wilhelm I of Prussia was crowned German Emperor in Versailles (then recently annexed from France).

The proclamation of the German Empire, Public Domain, 1885

The belief that Bismarck's wars and clever diplomacy were responsible for the unification of Germany, is largely the result of his memoirs - Gedanken und Erinnerungen (Thought and Memories). In reality, the Zollverein (Customs Union) was so beneficial to the German States that dismantling it was unthinkable - as with the European Union. And as with the EU (a model widely emulated in Africa, South East Asia, and South America), resulting political integration was an inevitable outgrowth of economic integration - Bismarck merely forced it to happen earlier through manipulation than it would have solely through economics.

[2003]