HIST2086Bismarck: The Iron Chancellor

North German Bundand Dual Monarchy,

1867-71

Lecture 1214 October 2010

North German Confederation (Norddeutscher Bund)

• Prussia (4/5 of population, most of territory)• Saxony• Hesse-Darmstadt• Braunschweig• Oldenburg• Saxe-Weimar and Coburg• Free cities of Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen• Mecklenburg-Schwerin and M.-Strelitz• Princedoms of Thuringia and Meiningen

Bismarck’s position (1)

Bismarck told Prussian Crown Prince in Jan 1867 that …

• The North German Bund is only a Provisorium• His real energies are directed toward the unification

of the whole of Germany• This objective will be gained in the not too distant

future• In order to attain it, however, it was above all

essential that the north come together in a firmer whole

Bismarck’s position (2)

• Opposed to idea of parliamentary government + of crown only of symbolic status (= no

British model)• Regarded powerful monarchy as essential• Believed in traditional loyalties of peasants to

monarchy + in concept of universal suffrage (French model “Bonapartism”)

• Kept Reichstag in weak position without real power

• NGC constitution with dual-goal: To appeal to national patriots in South + to look

favourable to Southern governments & dynasties

NGC Constitution, Jul 1867

• King of Prussia = President of NGC, commander-in-chief, power of declaring war + making peace,

appointed/dismissed Federal Chancellor

• Federal Council (Bundesrat) = Representation of NGC Federal States (Bundesstaaten)

• Parliament (Reichstag) = Elected by universal manhood suffrage (step into democracy!)

• Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzler) = Chief Minister + representative of Prussian King in Bundesrat

NGC’s economic unity

• Prussian taler to dominate over Austrian gulden• Berlin the hub of German finance• Bismarck’s initiative for fundamental

reorganisation of Customs Union (Zollverein): Bicameral legislature with certain

competences; its members elected by universal + equal manhood suffrage

= Economic ‘community of interest’ of all NGC members

= To overcome any future foreign objection to develop CU into political ‘community of interest’

Habsburg Empire• A family concern• A collection of estates on huge, international scale• Largest state in 19th c. Europe apart from Russia• Consisted mainly of kingdoms & duchies, acquired through

marriage or war• Austrian, Bohemian, Hungarian Lands + Lombardy-Venetia

most important

= Raison d’être of Habsburgs to acquire new territories

= Habsburg Empire to provide power base for family-based monarchy

Main pillars• Imperial army• Catholic church• Imperial bureaucracy

= Tools of Germanization until 1867

→ Germans 24% of population but strong dominance in all political & economic key sectors

= Slowly declining dominance of Germans after 1867

→ Germans regarded themselves as leading force + as culturally superior towards Slavs & Magyars

Franz Joseph I

• Absolutism as basic faith

• Only accepted constitutional reforms after military defeats (war with F + Piedmont, 1859) +

financial pressures in early 1860s

• Accepted Ausgleich (compromise) with Hungary (1867) as final outcome of reforms

• Became devoted adherent to Ausgleich after Austria’s final exclusion from Germany, 1871

Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich)

• Recognised 2 independent states united by common interests + monarch = Dual Monarchy

• One monarch as Emperor of Austria + King of Hungary (k. u. k. = Imperial and Royal)

• New constitution: bicameral legislature, extended basic rights but option to suspend in emergency

= Strengthened Franz Joseph in foreign policy

= Caused intense problems in domestic policy

= Gave no political rights to each nationality: Problems of Slavs, etc. remained unresolved

Position of Magyars and Slavs

• Magyars: Ausgleich as best one possible deal because Hungary strongly protected by

Austria vs. Russia or Prussia

• Slavs: Not satisfied but feared absorption by Russia or Prussia if Habsburg Empire broke up

= Habsburg Monarchy by both seen as best “Third Way” in Central Europe between much worse Russian and Prussian alternatives