Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [14]
At the behest of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars, an imperial deputation secularised and reconstituted German territory between 1801 and 1803. In 1806 the Confederation of the Rhine eradicated about 100 principalities. Sniffing the end of the Holy Roman Empire, Kaiser Franz II (r 1792–1806) packed his bags for Austria, renamed himself Franz I of Austria and abdicated the throne. That same year Brandenburg-Prussia fell to the French, but humiliating defeat prompted reforms that brought it closer to civil statehood: Jews were granted equality and bonded labour was abolished.
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For a comprehensive overview of German history, see the German Culture website www.germanculture.com.ua.
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In 1813, with French troops driven back by the Russians, Leipzig witnessed one of Napoleon’s most significant defeats. At the Congress of Vienna (1815), Germany was reorganised into a confederation of 35 states and an ineffective Reichstag (legislative assembly) was established in Frankfurt, an unsatisfactory solution that only minimally improved on the Holy Roman Empire. The Reichstag poorly represented the most populous states and failed to rein in Austro-Prussian rivalry.
By the mid-19th century, the engines of the modern, industrial age were purring across the country. A newly created urban proletarian movement fuelled calls for central government, while the Young Germany movement of satirists lampooned the powerful of the day and called for a central state.
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Did you know that 9 November is Germany’s ‘destiny date’? It was the day of the uprising in 1848, the failed revolution in 1918, Hitler’s Munich Putsch in 1923, the Night of Broken Glass in 1938, and the day the Wall fell in 1989.
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Berlin, along with much of the southwest, erupted in riots in 1848, prompting German leaders to bring together Germany’s first ever freely elected parliamentary delegation in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche. Austria, meanwhile, broke away from Germany, came up with its own constitution and promptly relapsed into monarchism. As revolution fizzled in 1850, Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV drafted his own constitution, which would remain in force until 1918.
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‘Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.’
OTTO VON BISMARCK
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‘HONEST OTTO’ VON BISMARCK
The creation of a unified Germany with Prussia at the helm was the glorious ambition of Otto von Bismarck (1815–98), a former member of the Reichstag and Prussian prime minister. An old-guard militarist, he used intricate diplomacy and a series of wars with neighbours Denmark and France to achieve his aims. In 1871 – later than most other European countries – Germany was unified, with Berlin the proud capital of Western Europe’s largest state. At that time, Germany extended from Memel (Klaipėda in present-day Lithuania) to the Dutch border, including Alsace-Lorraine (southwest) in present-day France and Silesia (southeast) in present-day Poland. The Prussian king was crowned Kaiser of the Reich – a bicameral, constitutional monarchy – at Versailles on 18 January 1871 and Bismarck became its ‘Iron Chancellor’. Suffrage was limited to men in the new Reich and the national colours were black, white and red.
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The record for longevity in Germany is held by Maria Laqua (1889–2002), born just after Germany’s last Kaiser, Wilhelm II, was crowned. She died at the age of 112, three days before her 113th birthday.
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Bismarck’s power was based on the support of merchants and Junker, a noble class of nonknighted landowners. An ever-skilful diplomat and power broker, Bismarck achieved much through a dubious ‘honest Otto’ policy, whereby he brokered deals between European powers and encouraged colonial vanities to distract others from his own deeds. He belatedly graced the Reich of Kaiser Wilhelm