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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
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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
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 power 1818: All internal tariffs abolished, and external tariffs lowered 1818-34: Prussia unites most German states in Zollverein 1842: 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 handicrafts 1861/63: 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: • Retain confidence in Austria? • Or exclude Austria from Germany? • Follow Bavaria and the middling states? • Or should Germany merge completely with Prussia? • At any rate, we must soon agree, OR ELSE….
William of Hohenzollern, born 1797, appointed regent of Prussia 1859, reigned as King William I, 1861-1888Adolph 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
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
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
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
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.
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)
