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The unification of Germany (German: Deutsche Einigung, pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈʔaɪnɪɡʊŋ] ⓘ) was a process of building the first nation-state for Germans with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without Habsburgs' multi-ethnic Austria or its German-speaking part).
Minister President Bismarck, 1862. Blood and Iron (German: Blut und Eisen) is the name given to a speech made by Otto von Bismarck given on 30 September 1862, at the time when he was Minister President of Prussia, about the unification of the German territories. It is also a transposed phrase that Bismarck uttered near the end of the speech ...
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 a senior government official in Berlin whose family produced ...
Bismarck sought to extend Hohenzollern hegemony throughout the German states; to do so meant unification of the German states and the exclusion of Prussia's main German rival, Austria, from the subsequent German Empire. He envisioned a conservative, Prussian-dominated Germany.
Bismarck maintained that he orchestrated the conflict in order to bring about the North German Confederation, the Franco-Prussian War and the eventual unification of Germany. [ 16 ] On 22 February 1866, Count Károlyi , Austrian ambassador in Berlin , sent a dispatch to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Alexander Mensdorff-Pouilly .
The unification of Germany was made possible by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in which the smaller states joined behind Prussia in a smashing victory over France. The German Empire was put together in 1871 by Otto von Bismarck, who dominated German and indeed all of European diplomatic history until he was forced to resign in 1890.
German unity as fiasco with each state viewing itself separate. Cartoon from Münchner Leuchtkugeln, 1848. Caption reads: "German Unity. A Tragedy in one Act." The "German question" was a debate in the 19th century, especially during the Revolutions of 1848, over the best way to achieve a unification of all or most lands inhabited by Germans. [1]
The new German command structure wanted to sign a peace treaty to gain France's colonial possessions; however, Bismarck opted for an immediate truce as his primary reason for war, German unification, had already been accomplished. He was concerned that further violence would render more German casualties and draw French resentment.