Guiding Question
- After the revolutionary movement had been crushed, what political forces were at work?
- Economic: Customs Union (Schulze's emphasis)
International: diplomacy & wars (Kitchen's emphasis)
Leadership: (William I), Bismarck, Napoleon III, Kaiser Franz Josef (b. 1830, 1848-1916)
Ideology: conservatism, divine right, liberalism, particularism, nationalism, socialism
People: new social classes (commercial & intellectual bourgeoisie, rural & urban proletariats)
Carl Schurz (b. 1829 near Cologne - 1906 in New York)
- son of a teacher; 1847 Bonn Univ.; 1848 fought in Siegburg and Baden; escaped from Rastatt
- Berlin, 1852 to US, Lincoln's campaign, envoy in Madrid, general for North, 1872 mugwump
- 1869-75 Senator from Missouri, 1877-81 Secretary of the Interior under Hayes (federal admin.)
- 1871: "Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right."
The Hohenzollerns (German wikipedia Hohenzollern page; English wikipedia)
- Frederick William IV (1795-1861), ruled 1840-1857, married Bavarian princess in 1823, childless. Incapacitated by multiple strokes in 1857. (preussen.de FW IV page; wikip.)
- his brother, "Grapeshot" Prince William I (1797-Mar. 9, 1888), ruled 1858-88; 1829 married (Auguste of Saxe-Weimar--a very cultured court); (preussen.de W I page; wikip.)
- fought in wars of liberation (1815)
- hard-liner in March 1848; fled to London; elected to Prussian Nat'l Assembly; June-July 1849 put down uprisings in Baden;
- Oct 1858 regent, Nov. liberal cabinet; 1860 army reform; Oct. 1861 coronation in Königsberg
- Dec. 1861: elections--liberal majority wouldn't fund army reform; Bismarck's intervention;
- Sept. 1862 appointed Bismarck prime minister, 1871 emperor; survived two 1878 assassination attempts.
- William's son Frederick III (1831-June 15, 1888), married eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, Victoria, who was aunt of Alexandra=wife of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and sister of British King Edward VII; (preussen.de FIII page; wikip.)
1849-52 studied at Bonn University (Arndt, 1851 London world exhibition) & Potsdam military academy;
had eight children; victorious commander in 1866 and 1870; tracheotomy Feb. 9, 1888.
- Frederick's eldest son William II (1859-1941); crippled at birth; married 1881, seven children. (preussen.de WII page; wikip.)
Events
- 1850, Nov. 29: Punctation of Olmütz (Prussia abandons Erfurt Union and Electoral Hesse, submits to Austrian leadership in the German confederation)
- 1851: German Confederation revived (Bismarck is Prussia's delegate)
- 1853: Napoleon III emperor of France
- 1854-56: Crimean War--Russia vs. Britain and France, Austria isolated (wiki Crimean War)
- 1858: William takes over from Frederick Wilhelm IV--"New Era"
- 1859: German National Association (Nationalverein) founded (no Austrians)
- 1861-2: conflict over army bill in Prussia--diet doesn't fund; Bismarck persuades WI not to abdicate & accepts Prime Minister post
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