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120-575: The Constitution bore a strong imprint of the German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck , who wanted a loosely organized confederation in which sovereignty rested with the individual states as a whole. The upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, as the body representing the states, was thus the Confederation's sovereign. Its members were chosen by the states' governments. The members of the lower house of parliament,

240-632: A Roman Catholic crusader state and theocracy located along the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea . The Teutonic Knights were under the leadership of a Grand Master , the last of whom, Albert , converted to Protestantism and secularized the lands, which then became the Duchy of Prussia . The Duchy was initially a vassal of the Kingdom of Poland , as a result of the terms of the Prussian Homage whereby Albert

360-586: A diplomat , he started his practical training as a lawyer in Aachen and Potsdam , and soon resigned, having first placed his career in jeopardy by taking unauthorized leave to pursue two English girls: first Laura Russell, niece of the Duke of Cleveland , and then Isabella Loraine-Smith, daughter of a wealthy clergyman. In 1838, Bismarck began a shortened compulsory military service in the Prussian Army ; actively serving as

480-477: A one-year volunteer before becoming an officer in the Landwehr (reserve). Afterwards he returned to run the family estates at Schönhausen on his mother's death in his mid-twenties. Around age 30, Bismarck formed an intense friendship with Marie von Thadden-Trieglaff, newly married to one of his friends, Moritz von Blanckenburg. A month after her death, Bismarck wrote to ask for the hand in marriage of Marie's cousin,

600-418: A "rattling of sabres in their scabbards" from Prussian officers when they learned that the king would not suppress the revolution by force. He offered numerous concessions to the liberals: he wore the black-red-gold revolutionary colours (as seen on the flag of today's Germany), promised to promulgate a constitution, agreed that Prussia and other German states should merge into a single nation-state, and appointed

720-694: A Danish duke. Prussian public opinion strongly favoured Augustenburg's claim, as the populations of Holstein and southern Schleswig were primarily German-speaking. Bismarck took an unpopular step by insisting that the territories legally belonged to the Danish monarch under the London Protocol signed a decade earlier. Nonetheless, Bismarck denounced Christian's decision to completely annex Schleswig to Denmark. With support from Austria, he issued an ultimatum for Christian IX to return Schleswig to its former status. When Denmark refused, Austria and Prussia invaded, sparking

840-464: A complete transformation of the European international order. He had told those who would listen what he intended to do, how he intended to do it, and he did it. He achieved this incredible feat without commanding an army, and without the ability to give an order to the humblest common soldier, without control of a large party, without public support, indeed, in the face of almost universal hostility, without

960-435: A decreased salary, with Bismarck having never obtained any significant wealth before die Einigung , given the lack of such received from his father. Bismarck had two siblings: his older brother Bernhard (1810–1893) and his younger sister Malwine (1827–1908). Others saw Bismarck as a typical backwoods Prussian Junker, an image that he encouraged by wearing military uniforms. However, he was well educated and cosmopolitan with

1080-518: A dispute over the Electorate of Hesse (the Hesse Crisis of 1850 ), Prussia was humiliated and forced to back down by Austria (supported by Russia) in the so-called Punctation of Olmütz ; a plan for the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership, proposed by Prussia's Foreign Minister Joseph von Radowitz , was also abandoned. In 1851, Frederick William IV appointed Bismarck as Prussia's envoy to

1200-518: A famous letter to Leopold von Gerlach, Bismarck wrote that it was foolish to play chess having first put 16 of the 64 squares out of bounds. This observation became ironic, as after 1871, France indeed became Germany's permanent enemy , and eventually allied with Russia against Germany in the 1890s. Bismarck was alarmed by Prussia's isolation during the Crimean War of the mid-1850s, in which Austria sided with Britain and France against Russia; Prussia

1320-472: A federal state that resembled a confederation of states. The state sovereign was to be the individual states united in the Bundesrat as a whole, not a personal sovereign (i.e. an emperor). The federal chancellor, who was appointed by the king of Prussia, presided over the Bundesrat and directed its business. All of the king's orders and decrees had to be countersigned by the chancellor so that he assumed responsibility for them (Articles 15 and 17). The Reichstag

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1440-726: A gift for conversation. Bismarck also knew English , French , Italian , Polish , and Russian . Bismarck was educated at Johann Ernst Plamann 's elementary school, and the Friedrich-Wilhelm and Graues Kloster secondary schools. From 1832 to 1833, he studied law at the University of Göttingen , where he was a member of the Corps Hannovera , and then enrolled at the University of Berlin (1833–1835). In 1838, while stationed as an army reservist in Greifswald , he studied agriculture at

1560-545: A healthy state life. The great questions of the time will not be resolved by speeches and majority decisions – that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 – but by iron and blood. Prior to the 1860s, Germany consisted of a multitude of principalities loosely bound together as members of the German Confederation . Bismarck used both diplomacy and the Prussian military to achieve unification, excluding Austria from

1680-449: A hero to German nationalists , who built monuments honouring him. While praised as a visionary who kept the peace in Europe through adroit diplomacy, he is criticized for his persecution of Poles and Catholics as well as the immense power centralized within his office as Chancellor. He is also criticized by opponents of German nationalism, as it became engrained in German culture, galvanizing

1800-573: A liberal, Gottfried Ludolf Camphausen , as Minister President . Bismarck had at first tried to rouse the peasants of his estate into an army to march on Berlin in the king's name. He travelled to Berlin in disguise to offer his services but was instead told to make himself useful by arranging food supplies for the Army from his estates in case they were needed. The king's brother, Prince Wilhelm , had fled to England; Bismarck tried to get Wilhelm's wife Augusta to place their teenage son Frederick William on

1920-728: A majority in parliament, without control of his cabinet, and without a loyal following in the bureaucracy. He no longer had the support of the powerful conservative interest groups who had helped him achieve power. The most senior diplomats in the foreign service ... were sworn enemies and he knew it. The Queen and the Royal Family hated him and the King, emotional and unreliable, would soon have his 70th birthday. ... With perfect justice, in August 1866, he punched his fist on his desk and cried "I have beaten them all! All!" Prussia's victory over Austria increased

2040-544: A minor role in causing the war. Bismarck wrote in his Memoirs that he "had no doubt that a Franco-German war must take place before the construction of a united Germany could be realised". Yet he felt confident that the French Army was not prepared to give battle to Germany's numerically larger forces: "If the French fight us alone they are lost". He was also convinced that the French would not be able to find allies since "France,

2160-592: A moderate ruler, whose friendship with liberal Britain was symbolised by the recent marriage of his son Frederick William to Queen Victoria 's eldest daughter . As part of his " New Era ", Wilhelm brought in new ministers, moderate conservatives known as the Wochenblatt after their newspaper. The Regent soon replaced Bismarck as envoy in Frankfurt and made him Prussia's ambassador to the Russian Empire. In theory, this

2280-491: A newly edited draft with 69 articles was prepared with many of Bismarck's amendments, which were removed during the course of the meeting. On 15 December 1866, the cabinet's draft was forwarded to the governments of the North German states. On 12 February 1867, the constituent Reichstag was elected; it convened for its first session on 24 February 1867. The state governments adopted Bismarck's final amendments and submitted them to

2400-545: A representative to the newly created Prussian legislature, the Vereinigter Landtag . There, he gained a reputation as a royalist and reactionary politician with a gift for stinging rhetoric; he openly advocated the idea that the monarch had a divine right to rule . His selection was arranged by the Gerlach brothers, fellow Pietist Lutherans whose ultra-conservative faction was known as the "Kreuzzeitung" after their newspaper,

2520-507: A result it was used as a counter-model and not as the prototype for the Constitution as it developed. After Bismarck made several revisions and corrections, Lothar Bucher , an aide to Bismarck, produced a draft with 65 articles on 8 December 1866, which he revised again on 9 December. The draft went to the Prussian cabinet for approval. For the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 13 December,

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2640-440: A seemingly powerful army that was allied with most of the north German and all of the south German states. Nevertheless, Prussia won the decisive Battle of Königgrätz . The king and his generals wanted to push onward, conquer Bohemia and march to Vienna, but Bismarck, worried that Prussian military luck might change or that France might intervene on Austria's side, enlisted the help of Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm, who had opposed

2760-515: A senior government official in Berlin whose family produced many civil servants along with academics. In 1816, the family moved to its Pomeranian estate, Kniephof (now Konarzewo , Poland), northeast of Stettin (now Szczecin ), in the then-Prussian province of Farther Pomerania . There, Bismarck spent his childhood in a bucolic setting. Despite the assets they held, their financial affairs were average; Ferdinand's below adequate agricultural skills led to

2880-592: A time when relations among the Great Powers (Great Britain, France, Austria and Russia) had been shattered by the Crimean War and the First Italian War of Independence . In the midst of this disarray, the European balance of power was restructured with the creation of the German Empire as the dominant power in continental Europe apart from Russia. This was achieved by Bismarck's diplomacy, Roon's reorganization of

3000-470: A two-thirds majority to change the Constitution (Article 78). The allocation of votes by state was laid out in Article 6. <== The individual states were required to vote collectively (Prussia, for example, had to cast all 17 of its votes either yea or nay), and the vote could be cast only as decided by the government of the state (Article 7). The Bundesrat participated in legislation on an equal footing with

3120-531: A unified Germany. This made Prussia the most powerful and dominant component of the new Germany, but also ensured that it remained an authoritarian state and not a liberal parliamentary democracy. Bismarck faced a diplomatic crisis when King Frederick VII of Denmark died in November 1863. The succession to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein was disputed; they were claimed by Christian IX , Frederick VII's heir as king, and also by Frederick von Augustenburg ,

3240-543: The Neue Preußische Zeitung , which was so nicknamed because it featured an Iron Cross on its cover. In March 1848, Prussia faced a revolution (one of the revolutions of 1848 across Europe), which completely overwhelmed King Frederick William IV . The monarch, though initially inclined to use armed forces to suppress the rebellion, ultimately declined to leave Berlin for the safety of military headquarters at Potsdam. Bismarck later recorded that there had been

3360-516: The Bundesrat , which met to discuss policy presented by the Chancellor, whom the emperor appointed. In the end, France had to cede Alsace and part of Lorraine , as Moltke and his generals wanted it as a buffer. Historians debate whether Bismarck wanted this annexation or was forced into it by a wave of German public and elite opinion. France was also required to pay an indemnity ; the indemnity figure

3480-735: The Diet of the German Confederation in Frankfurt . Bismarck gave up his elected seat in the Landtag but was appointed to the Prussian House of Lords a few years later. In Frankfurt he engaged in a battle of wills with the Austrian representative Count Friedrich von Thun und Hohenstein . He insisted on being treated as an equal by petty tactics such as imitating Thun when Thun claimed the privileges of smoking and removing his jacket in meetings. This episode

3600-538: The Frankfurt Parliament offered the title of Emperor to King Frederick William IV. Fearing the opposition of the other German princes and the military intervention of Austria and Russia, the king renounced this popular mandate, citing his concerns over the legitimacy of the parliament to offer him the crown without the consent of the various German rulers. Thus, the Frankfurt Parliament ended in failure for

3720-502: The Hall of Mirrors in the Château de Versailles . The new German Empire was a federation: each of its 25 constituent states (kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, and free cities) retained some autonomy. The King of Prussia, as German Emperor, was not sovereign over the entirety of Germany; he was only primus inter pares , or first among equals. However, he held the presidency of

North German Constitution - Misplaced Pages Continue

3840-626: The Holy Roman Empire , the two states are known together historiographically as Brandenburg-Prussia . Following the third Northern War , a series of treaties freed the Duchy of Prussia from vassalage to any other state, making it a fully sovereign Duchy in its own right. This complex situation (where the Hohenzollern ruler of the independent Duchy of Prussia was also a subject of the Holy Roman Emperor as Elector of Brandenburg) laid

3960-686: The House of Hohenzollern , assure that no Hohenzollern would ever seek the Spanish crown again. To provoke France into declaring war with Prussia, Bismarck published the Ems Dispatch , a carefully edited version of a conversation between King Wilhelm and the French ambassador to Prussia, Count Benedetti . This conversation had been edited so that each nation felt that its ambassador had been slighted and ridiculed, thus inflaming popular sentiment on both sides in favor of war. Langer, however, argues that this episode played

4080-550: The Imperial Reichstag was elected by universal male suffrage but did not control government policy. A staunch monarchist, Bismarck inherently distrusted democracy and ruled through a strong, well-trained bureaucracy with power concentrated in the hands of the Junker elite. After being dismissed from office by Wilhelm II , he retired to write his memoirs. Otto von Bismarck is most famous for his role in German unification. He became

4200-544: The North German Confederation through the Treaty of 18 August 1866 . On 10 June 1866, four days before the start of the war, the Prussian government had presented the other German states with the outlines of a new federal constitution containing ten articles that formulated its key principles. A Reichstag was to be elected as a constituent assembly according to equal, secret and universal manhood suffrage, which had been

4320-548: The Prussian parliament . From 1862 to 1890, he held office as the minister president and foreign minister of Prussia . Under Bismarck's leadership, Prussia provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark , Austria , and France . After Austria 's defeat in 1866, he replaced the German Confederation with the North German Confederation , which aligned the smaller North German states with Prussia while excluding Austria . In 1870, Bismarck secured France's defeat with support from

4440-463: The Reichstag , were elected by universal manhood suffrage. The Reichstag participated on an equal footing with the Bundesrat in legislation for the Confederation. The chancellor, who presided over the Bundesrat, was appointed by the king of Prussia and was responsible only to him. The king was head of state and was responsible for executing federal laws passed by the parliament but had no veto right. He

4560-512: The Second Schleswig War . Denmark was ultimately forced to renounce its claim on both duchies. At first this seemed like a victory for Augustenburg, but Bismarck soon removed him from power by making a series of unworkable demands, namely that Prussia should have control over the army and navy of the duchies. Originally, it had been proposed that the Diet of the German Confederation, in which all

4680-570: The University of Greifswald . At Göttingen, Bismarck befriended the American student John Lothrop Motley . Motley, who later became an eminent historian and diplomat while remaining close to Bismarck, wrote a novel in 1839, Morton's Hope, or the Memoirs of a Provincial , about life in a German university. In it he described Bismarck as a reckless and dashing eccentric, but also as an extremely gifted and charming young man. Although Bismarck hoped to become

4800-588: The Bundesrat, or, if necessary, federal laws, unless the state constitutions had their own regulations (Article 76). Since the Constitution also did not provide for fundamental rights, it left jurisdiction with the individual states, initially to an even greater extent than administrative jurisdiction. In 1869, the Federal Supreme Commercial Court ( Bundesoberhandelsgericht ) was established with its seat in Leipzig . In commercial matters, it replaced

4920-476: The Bundesrat, the chancellor and the president of the federal chancellery, Rudolf von Delbrück , were able to create the long-sought unified economic area in just four years. The unresolved opposition between the chancellor, Bundesrat and Reichstag did not come to the fore because of the liberal majority and its successes. It was only later, under the German Empire and its constitution that the limited influence of

North German Constitution - Misplaced Pages Continue

5040-419: The Confederation. The individual states retained their statehood, constitutions, succession to the throne and their electoral rights, which were restricted to certain groups of people. The Constitution also left untouched the previous responsibilities of the individual states such as policing, budgetary law, religion, schools and universities. The Constitution did not prohibit the individual states from changing

5160-401: The German Empire that: the first phase of [his] great career had been concluded. The genius-statesmen had transformed European politics and had unified Germany in eight and a half years. And he had done so by sheer force of personality, by his brilliance, ruthlessness, and flexibility of principle. ... [It] marked the high point of [his] career. He had achieved the impossible, and his genius and

5280-546: The German army, controlled by Chief of Staff Moltke, won victory after victory. The major battles were all fought in one month (7 August to 1 September), and both French armies were captured at Sedan and Metz , the latter after a siege of some weeks. Napoleon III was taken prisoner at Sedan and kept in Germany for a time in case Bismarck had need of him to head the French regime; he later died in exile in England in 1873. The remainder of

5400-578: The German liberals. On 30 September 1862, Bismarck made a famous speech to the Budget Committee of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies in which he expounded on the use of " iron and blood " to achieve Prussia's goals: Prussia must concentrate and maintain its power for the favorable moment which has already slipped by several times. Prussia's boundaries according to the Vienna treaties are not favorable to

5520-601: The King of Prussia. To achieve this, he kept Napoleon III involved in various intrigues, whereby France might gain territory from Luxembourg or Belgium. France never achieved any such gain, but it was made to look greedy and untrustworthy. A suitable pretext for war arose in 1870, when the German Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was offered the Spanish throne, vacant since a revolution in 1868 . France pressured Leopold into withdrawing his candidacy. Not content with this, Paris demanded that Wilhelm, as head of

5640-460: The Prussian Army, and Albrecht von Roon as Minister of War with the job of reorganizing the army. Over the next twelve years, Bismarck, Moltke and Roon transformed Prussia. Despite his lengthy stay abroad, Bismarck was not entirely detached from German domestic affairs. He remained well-informed due to Roon, with whom Bismarck formed a lasting friendship and political alliance. In May 1862, he

5760-492: The Prussian throne in Frederick William IV's place. Augusta would have none of it, and detested Bismarck thereafter, despite the fact that he later helped restore a working relationship between Wilhelm and his brother the king. Bismarck was not yet a member of the House of Representatives , the lower house of the new Prussian legislature . The liberal movement perished by the end of 1848 amid internal fighting. Meanwhile,

5880-456: The Reichstag (Article 12). The Bundesrat could dissolve the Reichstag by mutual agreement with the king (Article 24). The Reichstag had no general authority to approve international treaties, a limitation that was imposed to allow secret diplomacy (per Article 22, Reichstag meetings were open to the public). The king alone was responsible for concluding all international treaties, but they required

6000-424: The Reichstag could not be prosecuted under civil or criminal law for their statements in the Reichstag (Article 30), nor could journalists who reported on them (Article 22). For a federal bill to be passed, there had to be concurring resolutions from both the Reichstag and the Bundesrat (Article 5), either of which could block the other. In order to end impasses, it was permissible for the Bundesrat, in agreement with

6120-422: The Reichstag. No law could enter into force without the consent of the Bundesrat (Article 5). Both the Bundesrat and the Reichstag thus had the implicit right of veto by voting against a proposal. The Bundesrat did not have the right to issue general administrative regulations on federal laws or to determine the organisation of the administrative authorities. It was nevertheless able to exercise general control over

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6240-645: The Rhineland to deter further French advances into Venetia . Bismarck stayed in St Petersburg for four years, during which he almost lost his leg to botched medical treatment and once again met his future adversary, the Russian Prince Alexander Gorchakov , who had been the Russian representative in Frankfurt in the early 1850s. The Regent also appointed Helmuth von Moltke as the new Chief of Staff of

6360-557: The advice of his wife, Empress Augusta , and son, Crown Prince Frederick . As the architect of Germany's domestic policies, Bismarck created the first modern welfare state , which also had the effect of undermining his socialist opponents . In the 1870s, he allied himself with the anti- tariff , anti- Catholic Liberals while repressing the Catholic Church in the Kulturkampf ("culture struggle"). Additionally, under his governance,

6480-599: The agreement and demanded that the Diet determine the Schleswig–Holstein issue. Bismarck used this as an excuse to start a war with Austria by accusing them of violating the Gastein Convention. Bismarck sent Prussian troops to occupy Holstein. Provoked, Austria called for the aid of other German states, who quickly became involved in the Austro-Prussian War . Thanks to Roon's reorganization, the Prussian Army

6600-544: The already existing tensions with France. The Emperor of France, Napoleon III , had tried to gain territory for France (in Belgium and on the left bank of the Rhine ) as a compensation for not joining the war against Prussia and was disappointed by the surprisingly quick outcome of the war. Accordingly, opposition politician Adolphe Thiers claimed that it was France, not Austria, who had really been defeated at Königgrätz. Bismarck, at

6720-403: The approval of both the Bundesrat and the Reichstag if their content was subject to federal legislation (Article 11). The Reichstag could neither elect nor remove the government (i.e. ministers). Bismarck wanted to avoid a government because he feared that it would become accountable to the Reichstag. He also disliked the model of the collegial Prussian Council of Ministers because it did not give

6840-423: The aristocracies that still ruled in them. The Prussian government made itself an advocate of the unification movement in order to preserve the Prussian, anti-democratic state and social order. Prussia's victory over Austria in the Austro-Prussian War , which ended on 22 July 1866 with the Treaty of Prague , dissolved the German Confederation and allowed Prussia to annex many of the smaller German states to form

6960-418: The army and Moltke's military strategy. Despite the initial distrust of the king and crown prince and the loathing of Queen Augusta, Bismarck soon acquired a powerful hold over the king by force of personality and powers of persuasion. Bismarck was intent on maintaining royal supremacy by ending the budget deadlock in the king's favour, even if he had to use extra-legal means to do so. Under the constitution ,

7080-445: The budget could be passed only after the king and legislature agreed on its terms. Bismarck contended that since the constitution did not provide for cases in which legislators failed to approve a budget, there was a "legal loophole " in the constitution and so he could apply the previous year's budget to keep the government running. Thus, on the basis of the 1861 budget, tax collection continued for four years. Bismarck's conflict with

7200-478: The chancellor and Reichstag on foreign policy became noticeable, and it was not until the 20th century that an incorrectly composed Reich leadership and an uncontrolled Supreme Army Command caused the monarchical federal state to fall into a deep decline. Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg ( / ˈ b ɪ z m ɑːr k / ; born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898)

7320-449: The conservatives regrouped, formed an inner group of advisers—including the Gerlach brothers, known as the " Camarilla "—around the king, and retook control of Berlin. Although a constitution was granted, its provisions fell far short of the demands of the revolutionaries. In 1849, Bismarck was elected to the Landtag . At this stage in his career, he opposed the unification of Germany , arguing that Prussia would lose its independence in

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7440-489: The constituent Reichstag on 4 March 1867. The Reichstag then made significant changes to the founding governments' draft. Under the final form of the Constitution, the constituent states sent representatives to a Bundesrat (Federal Council), which participated in legislation on an equal footing with the Reichstag . Prussia was entitled to 17 out of 43 votes, which secured it a hegemonic position. No constitutional amendment could be passed against Prussia's will, since it required

7560-416: The constituent states retained their independence except where Constitution provided for restrictions. The clause in Article 2 stating that "within the federal territory, the Confederation shall exercise the right of legislation in accordance with the content of this Constitution" suggested the inverse conclusion that the constituent states retained the right to legislate insofar as the right was not assigned to

7680-529: The costs of the navy alone (Article 53). The budget period was normally for one year (Article 71), and the king was required to render an annual account of expenditures to the Reichsrat and Reichstag (Article 72). The North German Constitution did not provide for federal courts. Disputes between individual states were to be settled by the Bundesrat. For internal state constitutional disputes, the federal constitution provided for expert recommendations or settlements by

7800-473: The country to aggressively pursue nationalistic policies in both World Wars. Bismarck was born in 1815 at Schönhausen , a noble family estate west of Berlin in Prussian Saxony . His father, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Bismarck (1771–1845), was a Swabian -descendant Junker estate owner and a former Prussian military officer; his mother, Wilhelmine Luise Mencken (1789–1839), was the well-educated daughter of

7920-459: The cult of genius had no limits. ... When he returned to Berlin in March 1871, he had become immortal ... Defunct Defunct In 1871, Bismarck was raised to the rank of Fürst (Prince). He was also appointed as the first Imperial Chancellor ( Reichskanzler ) of the German Empire, but retained his Prussian offices, including those of Minister-President and Foreign Minister. He was also promoted to

8040-503: The electoral law of the 1848 revolution. The governments of the states of the new North German Confederation were then to submit a draft constitution to the assembly for final approval. Maximilian Duncker, a liberal member of the Prussian House of Representatives , produced a draft constitution at the request of Prussian minister president Otto von Bismarck in September 1866. He considered the proposal too cumbersome and centralistic, and as

8160-604: The end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, reflecting the legal fiction that their domains within the empire were still under the ultimate overlordship of the Emperor. Legally, the Hohenzollerns ruled Brandenburg in personal union with their Prussian kingdom, but in practice they treated their domains as a single unit. The Hohenzollerns gained de jure sovereignty over Brandenburg when the empire dissolved in 1806, and Brandenburg

8280-407: The entire Prussian region, parts of which were still part of Poland . As the Prussian state grew through several wars and diplomatic moves throughout the 18th century, it became apparent that Prussia had become a Great Power in its own right. By 1772, the pretense was dropped, and the style "King of Prussia" was adopted. The Prussian kings continued to use the title "Elector of Brandenburg" until

8400-435: The eventual groundwork for the establishment of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. For diplomatic reasons, the rulers of Prussia called themselves King in Prussia from 1701 to 1772. They still nominally owed fealty to the Emperor as Electors of Brandenburg, so the "King in Prussia" title (as opposed to "King of Prussia") avoided offending the Emperor. Additionally, calling themselves "King of Prussia" implied sovereignty over

8520-464: The federal administration. Each individual state was authorised to make proposals for the exercise of federal supervision, to represent them and to have them discussed in plenary session (Article 7). The orders and decrees concerning the federal administration were not issued by the Bundesrat but by the king of Prussia (Article 17). The Constitution did not explicitly say who was the holder of overall state power (the sovereign). Bismarck wanted to create

8640-502: The freedom of the press, an edict that even gained the public opposition of the crown prince. Despite (or perhaps because of) his attempts to silence critics, Bismarck remained a largely unpopular politician. His supporters fared poorly in the elections of October 1863, in which a liberal coalition, whose primary member was the Progress Party , won over two-thirds of the seats. The House made repeated calls for Bismarck to be dismissed, but

8760-470: The highest court with jurisdiction under the laws of the individual state. The introduction of a federal court jurisdiction was the most important constitutional amendment during the time of the North German Confederation, although the constitutional text did not provide for federal jurisdiction over the constitution of the courts (Article 4, section 13). There was no general clause stating that

8880-462: The increasingly liberal Prussian Landtag. A crisis arose in 1862, when the Landtag refused to authorize funding for a proposed re-organization of the army. The King's ministers could not convince legislators to pass the budget, and the king was unwilling to make concessions. Wilhelm threatened to abdicate in favour of his son Crown Prince Frederick William , who opposed his doing so, believing that Bismarck

9000-647: The independent South German states before overseeing the creation of a unified German Empire under Prussian rule. Following Germany's unification, he was given the aristocratic title, Prince of Bismarck ( German : Fürst von Bismarck ). From 1871 onwards, his balance-of-power approach to diplomacy helped maintain Germany's position in a peaceful Europe. While averse to maritime colonialism , Bismarck ultimately acquiesced to elite and popular opinion by building an overseas empire . Throughout his career as Chancellor, Prince Bismarck remained loyal to German Emperor Wilhelm I who steadfastly supported his policies against

9120-409: The individual states and the federal administration. He did not issue orders and individual regulations in the name of Prussia but for the North German Confederation. The king of Prussia had no veto right in the legislature, but he could assert his hegemonic claim in the Bundesrat through the seventeen votes Prussia had there. The Prussian votes were instructed by the minister president of Prussia, who

9240-468: The individual states were obliged to make additional levy contributions (Article 70). In cases of "extraordinary need", the federal government was authorized to borrow (Article 73). Until 31 December 1871 (which turned out to be beyond the life of the North German Confederation), the budget for the army was submitted to the Reichsrat for information only (Article 71). The federal government bore

9360-407: The influence of his ultraconservative Prussian friends, Bismarck became less reactionary and more pragmatic. He became convinced that to countervail Austria's newly restored influence, Prussia would have to ally herself with other German states. As a result, he grew to be more accepting of the notion of a united German nation. He gradually came to believe that he and his fellow conservatives had to take

9480-424: The king of Prussia and the countersigning federal chancellor, to dissolve the Reichstag (Article 24). The king of Prussia was the head of state (referred to in the Constitution as the "presidium") of the North German Confederation (Article 11). As holder of the federal presidency, he had the governmental powers of submitting proposals to the Reichstag and of enacting and executing federal laws (Articles 16 and 17). He

9600-460: The king supported him, fearing that if he did dismiss the Minister President, he would most likely be succeeded by a liberal. German unification had been a major objective of the revolutions of 1848, when representatives of the German states met in Frankfurt and drafted a constitution, creating a federal union with a national parliament to be elected by universal male suffrage. In April 1849,

9720-542: The lead in creating a unified nation to keep from being eclipsed. He also believed that the middle-class liberals wanted a unified Germany more than they wanted to break the grip of the traditional forces over society. Bismarck also worked to maintain the friendship of Russia and a working relationship with Napoleon III 's France, the latter being anathema to his conservative friends, the Gerlachs, but necessary both to threaten Austria and to prevent France allying with Russia. In

9840-507: The leading minister clear political responsibility. Election to the Reichstag was by universal, equal, direct and secret manhood suffrage (Article 20). The North German Constitution was indirectly based on the Frankfurt Imperial Election Act of 12 April 1849 in which the principles were implemented. Bismarck considered it simple and useful to dispense with the interposition of electors and the three-tier electoral system he

9960-528: The legislators intensified in the coming years. Following the Alvensleben Convention of 1863, the House of Representatives resolved that it could no longer come to terms with Bismarck; in response, the king dissolved the Landtag, accusing it of trying to obtain unconstitutional control over the ministry—which, under the constitution, was responsible solely to the king. Bismarck then issued an edict restricting

10080-590: The memory of mutual accomplishment in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly in the War of Liberation of 1813–1814. By establishing a Germany without Austria, the political and administrative unification in 1871 at least temporarily solved the problem of dualism. Historian Robert K. Massie has noted Bismarck's popular image was as "gruff" and "militaristic", while in reality "Bismarck's tool was aggressive, ruthless diplomacy." Jonathan Steinberg said of Bismarck's creation of

10200-405: The monarchical form of government to a republican one or vice versa. The Confederation was not prevented from taking on further powers by amending the Constitution and thus developing further into a unitary state. As members of a federal state, the individual states lost their sovereignty. They could, for example, no longer represent themselves in their dealings with other states; the responsibility

10320-404: The noblewoman Johanna von Puttkamer (1824–1894); they were married at Alt-Kolziglow (modern Kołczygłowy ) on 28 July 1847. Their long and happy marriage produced three children: Marie (b. 1847), Herbert (b. 1849), and Wilhelm (b. 1852). Johanna was a shy, retiring and deeply religious woman, although famed for her sharp tongue in later life. In 1847, Bismarck, aged thirty-two, was chosen as

10440-418: The prior consent of the Reichstag (Article 31). Members of the Reichstag could not be appointed as heads of the highest federal authorities (Article 21). Per diems were banned (Article 32) with the intention of keeping members of the propertyless classes out of the Reichstag. Except when the subject was either foreign or military policy, the debates of the Reichstag were open to the public.(Article 22). Members of

10560-481: The proceedings through alliances with the smaller states. This began what historians refer to as "The Misery of Austria" in which Austria served as a mere vassal to the superior Germany, a relationship that was to shape history until the end of the First World War. Jonathan Steinberg says of Bismarck's achievements to this point: The scale of Bismarck's triumph cannot be exaggerated. He alone had brought about

10680-463: The process. He accepted his appointment as one of Prussia's representatives at the Erfurt Parliament , an assembly of German states that met to discuss plans for union, but he only did so to oppose that body's proposals more effectively. The parliament failed to bring about unification, for it lacked the support of the two most important German states, Prussia and Austria . In September 1850, after

10800-487: The rank of lieutenant-general and bought a former hotel in Friedrichsruh near Hamburg, which became an estate. He also continued to serve as his own foreign minister. Because of both the imperial and the Prussian offices that he held, Bismarck had near complete control over domestic and foreign policy. The office of Minister President of Prussia was temporarily separated from that of Chancellor in 1873, when Albrecht von Roon

10920-448: The same time, did not avoid war with France, though he feared the French for a number of reasons. First, he feared that Austria, hungry for revenge, would ally with the French. Similarly, he feared that the Russian army would assist France to maintain a balance of power. Still, however, Bismarck believed that if the German states perceived France as the aggressor, they would then unite behind

11040-461: The short-lived Constitution of the German Confederation , which was based largely on its predecessor, went into effect on 1 January 1871. After the failure of the German revolutions of 1848–49 , the government of Prussia was convinced that the German people would continue to pursue their "redemption from fragmentation and powerlessness" regardless of the continued existence of the individual states and

11160-472: The states of Germany were represented, should determine the fate of the duchies; but before this scheme could be effected, Bismarck induced Austria to agree to the Gastein Convention . Under this agreement signed on 20 August 1865, Prussia received Schleswig, while Austria received Holstein. In that year Bismarck was given the title of Count ( Graf ) of Bismarck-Schönhausen. In 1866, Austria reneged on

11280-449: The strength of Bismarck's Realpolitik led a collection of early modern polities to reorganize political, economic, military, and diplomatic relationships in the 19th century. Reaction to Danish and French nationalism provided foci for expressions of German unity. Military successes—especially those of Prussia—in three regional wars generated enthusiasm and pride that politicians could harness to promote unification. This experience echoed

11400-405: The supreme command of the king of Prussia as Federal Field Commander ( Bundesfeldherr ). As "chiefs of the troops in their territory", the federal princes were military rulers only at need and without command authority (Article 66). The soldiers still had to take an oath of allegiance to the princes, but it had to include obedience to the king of Prussia as well (Article 64). The peacetime strength

11520-439: The unspecified and therefore unstable balance between the king of Prussia and the chancellor and between the chancellor and the Reichstag, remained hidden in the early years because Bismarck was able to exercise the office at his own political discretion. The Reichstag majority was of the opinion that the Constitution had worked brilliantly. The North German Confederation was successful because the Reichstag with its liberal majority,

11640-408: The victor, would be a danger to everybody – Prussia to nobody". He added, "That is our strong point". France mobilized and declared war on 19 July. The German states saw France as the aggressor, and—swept up by nationalism and patriotic zeal—they rallied to Prussia's side and provided troops. Both of Bismarck's sons served as officers in the Prussian cavalry. The war was a great success for Prussia as

11760-423: The war but had commanded one of the Prussian armies at Königgrätz, to dissuade his father after stormy arguments. Bismarck insisted on a "soft peace" with no annexations and no victory parades, so as to be able to quickly restore friendly relations with Austria. Prussia had only a plurality (17 out of 43 seats) in the Bundesrat despite being larger than the other 21 states combined, but Bismarck could easily control

11880-462: The war featured a Siege of Paris , the city was "ineffectually bombarded"; the new French republican regime then tried, without success, to relieve Paris with various hastily assembled armies and increasingly bitter partisan warfare. Bismarck quoted the first verse lyrics of " La Marseillaise ", amongst others, when being recorded on an Edison phonograph in 1889, the only known recording of his voice. A biographer stated that he did so, 19 years after

12000-421: The war, to mock the French. Bismarck acted immediately to secure the unification of Germany. He negotiated with representatives of the southern German states, offering special concessions if they agreed to unification. The negotiations succeeded; patriotic sentiment overwhelmed what opposition remained. While the war was in its final phase, Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor on 18 January 1871 in

12120-488: Was a Prussian statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany . Bismarck's Realpolitik and firm governance resulted in him being popularly known as the Iron Chancellor ( German : Eiserner Kanzler ). From Junker landowner origins, Otto von Bismarck rose rapidly in Prussian politics under King Wilhelm I of Prussia . He served as the Prussian ambassador to Russia and France and in both houses of

12240-515: Was a promotion, as Russia was one of Prussia's two most powerful neighbors. But Bismarck was sidelined from events in Germany and could only watch impotently as France drove Austria out of Lombardy during the Italian War of 1859 . Bismarck proposed that Prussia should exploit Austria's weakness to move her frontiers "as far south as Lake Constance " on the Swiss border; instead, Prussia mobilised troops in

12360-628: Was almost not invited to the peace talks in Paris . In the Great Eastern Crisis of the 1870s, fear of a repetition of this turn of events would later be a factor in Bismarck's signing the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879. In October 1857, Frederick William IV suffered a paralysing stroke , and his brother Wilhelm took over the Prussian government as Regent. Wilhelm was initially seen as

12480-441: Was also chancellor and chairman of the Bundesrat (Article 15). Prussia had a blocking minority for constitutional amendments (Article 78), in military and naval affairs (Article 5) and in customs and excise duties and the associated administrative regulations and administrative authorities (Articles 35 and 37). In the alliance treaty of 18 August 1866, Prussia and the other North German states had agreed that all troops would be under

12600-400: Was also concentrated in the hands of the king because neither the approval of the Reichstag nor the countersignature of the chancellor was required for acts of command and military organisation (Article 63). The most important governmental power of the king was to appoint the federal chancellor (Article 15). He also had the right to supervise the execution of federal laws by the administration of

12720-475: Was appointed to the former office. But by the end of the year, Roon resigned due to ill health, and Bismarck again became Minister-President. King of Prussia The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia . The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order ,

12840-464: Was calculated on the basis of population, as the precise equivalent of the indemnity that Napoleon I had imposed on Prussia in 1807. Historians debate whether Bismarck had a master plan to expand the North German Confederation of 1866 to include the remaining independent German states into a single entity or simply to expand the power of the Kingdom of Prussia. They conclude that factors in addition to

12960-469: Was commander-in-chief of the federal army (Article 63) and navy (Article 53) and was responsible for declaring war and concluding peace in the name of the Confederation (Article 11). Because of royal rights and the restrictions on the rights of the Reichstag, the North German Confederation was established a semi-constitutional monarchy. As head of state, the king was able to conclude alliances and other foreign policy treaties (Article 11). Foreign policy power

13080-434: Was commander-in-chief of the federal army and navy and could declare war and make peace. The Constitution did not provide for federal courts. Disputes between states were to be resolved by the Bundesrat. The individual states retained their statehood, constitutions, successions to the throne and electoral rights, although they lost their sovereignty to the Confederation. The North German Constitution remained in force until

13200-495: Was familiar with. For foreign policy reasons, Bismarck adopted the universal manhood suffrage of the Frankfurt Constitution in his outlines for the new federal constitution. He hoped that Austria and Russia would not draw the attention of their populations to the suffrage withheld from them and would therefore pass over the emergence of a new power in Europe in silence. The prosecution of members of parliament required

13320-508: Was granted the Duchy as part of the terms of peace following the Prussian War . When the main line of Prussian Hohenzollerns died out in 1618, the Duchy passed to a different branch of the family, who also reigned as Electors of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire . While still nominally two different territories, Prussia under the suzerainty of Poland and Brandenburg under the suzerainty of

13440-420: Was introduced in all individual states (Article 61), as were Prussian administrative regulations (Article 63). The navy was under Prussian supreme command and was financed exclusively by the federal government (Article 63). Direct taxes, such as income tax, remained with the individual states. The revenue from customs and excise duties went to the federal treasury. If customs and excise duties were not sufficient,

13560-712: Was nearly equal in numbers to the Austrian Army . With the strategic genius of Moltke, the Prussian army fought battles it was able to win. Bismarck had also made a secret alliance with Italy , who desired Austrian-controlled Veneto . Italy's entry into the war forced the Austrians to divide their forces. Meanwhile, as the war began, a German radical named Ferdinand Cohen-Blind attempted to assassinate Bismarck in Berlin, shooting him five times at close range. Bismarck had only minor injuries. Cohen-Blind later committed suicide while in custody. The war lasted seven weeks. Austria had

13680-426: Was one per cent of the population (Article 60), and the individual states had to pay an annual contribution of 225 Thaler for each soldier to the Confederation (Article 62). The army was a federal army (Article 63) and therefore uniform in terms of administration, rations, armaments and equipment (Article 63). The king of Prussia appointed the highest commander of a contingent (Article 64). Prussian military legislation

13800-584: Was replaced in May 1871 by the Constitution of the German Empire . It, too, was an only slightly modified version of the North German Constitution. It renamed the Confederation to the German Empire , made the head of state the German emperor and added special clauses for Bavaria and Württemberg . It remained in effect until the end of World War I in November 1918. Weaknesses in the Constitution, such as

13920-610: Was sent to Paris to serve as ambassador to France, and also visited England that summer. These visits enabled him to meet and take the measure of several adversaries: Napoleon III in France, and in Britain, Prime Minister Palmerston , Foreign Secretary Earl Russell , and Conservative politician Benjamin Disraeli . Prince Wilhelm became King of Prussia upon his brother Frederick Wilhelm IV's death in 1861. The new monarch often came into conflict with

14040-417: Was the background for an altercation in the Frankfurt chamber with Georg von Vincke that led to a duel between Bismarck and Vincke with Carl von Bodelschwingh as an impartial party, which ended without injury. Bismarck's eight years in Frankfurt were marked by changes in his political opinions, detailed in the numerous lengthy memoranda, which he sent to his ministerial superiors in Berlin. No longer under

14160-447: Was the democratic body of the North German Confederation, and it participated on an equal footing with the Bundesrat in the Confederation's legislation (Articles 4 and 5). It was not a full parliament, since it was dependent on other state bodies and had no comprehensive rights of control over the government. The Reichstag also did not have the right of self-assembly. Only the king of Prussia was authorised to convene, open, adjourn and close

14280-569: Was the only politician capable of handling the crisis. However, Wilhelm was ambivalent about appointing a person who demanded unfettered control over foreign affairs. It was in September 1862, when the Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives) overwhelmingly rejected the proposed budget, that Wilhelm was persuaded to recall Bismarck to Prussia on the advice of Roon. On 23 September 1862, Wilhelm appointed Bismarck Minister President and Foreign Minister . Bismarck, Roon and Moltke took charge at

14400-493: Was transferred to the king of Prussia (Article 11). In September 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871), the North German Confederation under Prussian leadership began unification talks with the south German states. The result was the Constitution of the German Confederation , which was based largely on the 1867 North German Constitution and went into effect on 1 January 1871. That constitution

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