Establishment of the North German Confederation

With the decisive defeat of Austria, Prussia was now the sole power in Germany. Bismarck was limited only by a promise given to Napoleon III that the states south of the Main should have “an internationally independent existence.” All of Germany north of the Main had been virtually conquered by Prussia, but Bismarck was anxious to conciliate South German opinion. He also dreaded the possibility of inflammation of radical feeling in a unitary German state. Therefore he tried to change as little as possible, and the North German Confederation which he created in 1867 had curious echoes of the Austrian-dominated German Confederation which had vanished in 1866. Indeed, Bismarck still thought of German unification as primarily an affair of foreign policy: German interests could best be represented by a single, united power abroad. For him the only difference from the period before the Seven Weeks’ War was that, instead of being balanced by Austria, Prussia now dominated. However, since this domination was exercised in the interests of conservatism, he expected little change.

The federal constitution which he hastily drafted early in 1867 was not a sham. It contained genuine federal guarantees for the individual states. Nevertheless, it was a pretense in that the reality on which it rested was not federal. A federation must be an association of states more or less equal in power. In the North German Confederation, Prussia overshadowed the other parties so decisively that Prussian will was always likely to prevail.

The federal constitution was adopted by the North German Reichstag on April 17, 1867. Four years later it became, almost without change, the constitution of the German Empire. Two principles were balanced against each other—the sovereignty of the German states and the national unity of the German people. In constitutional theory the first carried the day. The Bundesrat (Federal Council), its members nominated by the state governments, initiated laws, conducted the federal government, and could alter the constitution by a two-thirds majority. (Prussia, which had 17 members out of 43, could thus veto any constitutional change.) The king of Prussia, as president of the federation, nominated the chancellor, who was to carry out federal affairs under the direction of the Bundesrat.

The Reichstag, on the other hand, elected by direct universal manhood suffrage, was strictly limited to legislative activities. There was no provision by which it could interfere with the activities of the federal government. Even its control of finance was limited to an approval of expenditure other than that permanently authorized by the constitution (court expenses, chancellor’s salary, etc.). Since the member states were to supplement the regular federal revenue by “matricular” contributions, the Reichstag did not possess the usual parliamentary sanction of being able to cut off the government’s income. Yet, despite these provisions, the Bundesrat soon lost all importance, and the German government became as much in need of a parliamentary majority as if Germany were a thoroughly liberal state. The federal element counted for more in the sphere of administration, where there was a real division of duties. The federal authority controlled foreign affairs, the army, and economic affairs, and there was to be a single judicial system and a single legal code. The states conducted ordinary administration and remained in control of educational and religious matters.

The Seven Weeks’ War had destroyed the Zollverein, the Prussian-led customs union that had been in place since 1834. In July 1867 Bismarck offered to all German states a new customs union on condition that they accepted a customs parliament. As this parliament was to consist of the members of the North German Reichstag with members from southern Germany added, this was, in essence, a way of smuggling in German unity by a side door. Thus the “line of the Main” was weakened, though not removed, within a year of its establishment as an international boundary. The North German Confederation was regarded by many, including Bismarck, as a halfway house to German unification which would stand for a long time. Indeed, between 1867 and 1870 the movement for German unity lost ground in southern Germany.

Early in 1870 the pro-Prussian government of Chlodwig Karl Viktor, Fürst (prince) zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, in Bavaria was replaced by a clericalist government under Otto Camillus Hugo, Graf (count) von Bray-Steinburg. Bray-Steinburg’s government pushed ahead with plans for a separate South German confederation, predominantly Roman Catholic and under the protection of France and Austria. This underlined the precariousness of the existing situation, and the deciding question between 1867 and 1870 was not German opinion but whether France and Austria would come together in order to oppose Bismarck’s policy or even to undo his work.

Tension with France (1867–70)

The first alarm came in 1867, when Napoleon III raised the question of Luxembourg. Luxembourg had been a member of the old confederation, and a Prussian garrison still remained there. Napoleon III proposed to buy the grand duchy from its ruler, the king of the Netherlands. The response was an outcry in Germany and questions in the Reichstag. Bismarck felt that no essentially German issue was at stake and probably held too that Prussia was not ready for a new war. There was an uproar in Germany and other European powers protested. After a conference in London, Luxembourg became an independent neutral state with its fortifications dismantled. Thereafter Napoleon sought more actively for an alliance with Austria but without effect. The Austrian government would not risk a new defeat, and its real interest in the French alliance was to resist Russia in the Middle East—a concern far removed from Napoleon’s preoccupation with Germany and the Rhine.

Early in 1870 Bismarck made a move against France which has been variously interpreted. The Spanish throne had been vacant since Isabella II fled to Paris in the wake of the Revolution of 1868. Bismarck hinted unofficially to the provisional rulers of Spain that they should offer the throne to Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a member of the Roman Catholic branch of the Hohenzollern family. It has been argued that Bismarck gave this advice in order to provoke France into war and that he was driven to do so by the trend of opinion hostile to Prussia in southern Germany, There is little evidence for this. It is just as likely that he promoted the candidature to increase the prestige of the Hohenzollern dynasty or to keep out some rival prince. At all events, he could not have foreseen the folly of the French government, which deliberately forced a crisis when it had already received satisfaction. Bismarck’s intention had been to present the French with a fait accompli. They were to know nothing until Prince Leopold was actually elected. The blunder of a cipher clerk led to the Spanish Cortes being adjourned before Leopold’s answer of acceptance had arrived, and the French government had to be told on July 3 why the Cortes was being recalled. There were wild protests in Paris and an immediate demand that Leopold be ordered to withdraw.

On July 12 Leopold’s father, Prince Karl Anton, renounced the Spanish candidature on his behalf. This was not enough for the French government, and it insisted that King William, as head of the Hohenzollern family, should promise that the candidature would never be renewed. This demand was presented to the king at Ems by the French ambassador, Vincent Benedetti, on July 13. Though William refused to give a promise, he dismissed Benedetti in a friendly enough way. When the “Ems telegram” reached Bismarck, he shortened it in such a way as to imply that the king had refused to see the French ambassador again. This version provoked a French declaration of war on July 19. Although the Ems telegram gave the occasion for war, the root cause was to be found in the French determination to check Prussia’s expansion and to restore the fading glory of Napoleon III’s empire by a renewal of prestige in foreign policy.