The Germanic Confederation and the Zollverein
There is general agreement that the First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire, and the Third Reich was Nazi Germany. In 1923, a German fiction writer named Arthur Moeller van den Bruck coined the term “Second Reich” to tag the years between 1871 and 1918; however, German-language historians rarely, if ever, use the term Second Reich. If not the Second Reich, what then was imperial Germany? Was it Wilhelmine Germany, based on the reign of Wilhelm II, the last German Kaiser, who came to the throne on his father’s death in 1888 and abdicated in November 1918? Is the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, the beginning of imperial Germany? In fact, these arbitrary dates define what is called imperial Germany too narrowly. The beginnings of a German cultural identity begin much earlier
The Germanic Confederation was born after the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna. It replaced the Holy Roman Empire, which Voltaire had already declared neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. Napoleon’s conquests had previously reduced the independent state status of the Holy Roman Empire from 380 entities to 39 that included 35 different monarchies. This Confederation (also known as the Deutsche Bund) was more of a cultural concept than a political reality. Membership was not clearly defined and most often centered on a particular monarch, who defined the state’s identity.
Not all monarchs were bound by the provisions of the Confederation. The King of England, who owned Hanover; the King of Holland, who owned Luxembourg; and the King of Denmark, who owned Holstein were exempt from mutual defense. The Germanic Confederation included both the Hapsburg (Austrian) and the Hohenzollern (Prussian) dynasties, while Austria provided the president of the Bund. Some British observers have referred to this organization as that of the “Germanys.”
Eventually, the remaining members of the Bund were held together through a loose series of treaties that had little in the way of teeth. The principal cause of inefficiency was a rivalry between the two leading states of Austria and Prussia. Because the Hapsburg dynasty (Austria) included both Germanic and non-Germanic peoples, the boundary of the Germanic Confederation ran through the middle of the Hapsburg Empire.
Supporters of unification inside the Germanic Confederation boundaries endorsed a concept called Großdeutschland. It would include all German-speaking peoples, Austria would lead the organization, and the Habsburg Empire would be divided.
Those on the other side of the unification argument supported a concept called Kleindeutschland. This organization would include all Germanic states, excluding Austria. Prussia would be the dominant state and lead this unification. In 1848-49, the years of liberal revolutions in Europe, the Germanic Confederation’s left-leaning parliament adopted a Constitution of the German Empirein something known as St. Paul’s Parliament. This constitution excluded Austria, and the German Emperor’s crown was offered to Frederic William IV of Prussia, who declined to accept it, because he did not wish to go to war with Austria.
There was another abortive attempt by Prussia to take the lead in a treaty among three kingdoms known as the Dreikönigsbund, but the States of Hanover and Saxony hesitated and the Dreikönigsbund became a short-term side note. Despite this maneuvering, Austria continued to dominate the Germanic Confederation.
It was then that Otto von Bismarck emerged on the scene and began moving Prussia towards German unity and a German Empire. Bismarck used an existing organization called the Deutsche Zollvereinfounded in 1834. Prussia pressured its neighbors to join the organization that allowed tariff-free trade among the members. This move went a long way to make Kleindeutschland a reality. As tariffs represented about 50 percent of a state’s income, Prussia surrendered a substantial income but gained dominance in foreign policy.
The smaller states also prospered from membership in the Zollverein; consequently, most states wanted to join. Saxony, which had suffered after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, recovered substantially as a member. By 1854, all states of the Germanic Confederation were members of the Zollverein except the three Hanseatic cities, the Mecklenburgs, Holstein, and Austria. Austria’s growing economic isolation would soon take its toll as Prussia continued to control the Zollverein. A common cliché was that there was a fictitious Germany called the Confederation (really dominated by Austria) and a working Germany called the Zollverein (run by Prussia).
Saxony was dependent on Prussian grain. Baden and Württemberg imported Prussian coal and iron. Prussia imported wine and tobacco from Hesse-Darmstadt. Leaving the Zollverein simply was economically not feasible so, through increased interdependence, Prussia gained support for its economic leadership.
The Zollverein itself was not enough of a stimulus to ensure German unification, nor did unification complete the Zollverein. Hamburg did not join until 1881, nor Bremen until 1884. What came next was a series of wars of German pre-unification. The war with Denmark in 1864 and the war with Austria in 1866 were indeed steps towards the unification of Germany.