Restauration
Prussia 1815-1848 		Germany's Unification, 1862-1871



Prussia 1848-1862



A.) Politics, 1849-62

The REVOLUTION OF 1848 had a lasting impact on Prussian policy. The administration was more cautious, tried in some aspects to appease public opinion. The UNIFIED DIET remained, as did the office of PRIME MINISTER. However, Prussia applied the DREIKLASSENWAHLRECHT - elections were held in three classes, according to the taxes paid. I.e. 1/3 of the representatives was elected by the minority of (noble) owners of large estates and the (bourgeois) owners of factories etc., another 1/3 by the middle class and the last 1/3 by the vast majority of the populace.
The prime minister was not elected by parliament, by appointed by the king. Parliament was a forum to discuss politics, to voice dissatisfaction, but parliament had little authority - it could turn down or approve a budget and demand a portfolio minister to resign (but not the prime minister).
Although Prussia had begun as a state built around the army, in 1850 it was perceived militarily weak. The strong force of the state, besides the king, was the administration, consisting of a corps of devoted civil servants, many of them offsprings of the country's nobility, the JUNKERS, loyal to the king. Among them, however, political opinions varied, and the head of administration was frequently changed.
France's interference in the war between Savoy and Austria in 1859, which kickstarted the Italian unification, was observed in Berlin with extreme concern. Prussia felt threatened (France, as late as 1840, had discussed the annexion of the left bank of the Rhine). Further, the events in Italy showed to German nationalists that the present situation, Germany's partition in many petty states was artificial and could be overcome.
In 1856/57 war almost broke out in a dispute over NEUCHATEL, a county in dynastic union with Prussia, the population of which however was predominantly republican and nationalistic-Swiss; King Frederick William made concessions when France and Britain showed support of the republicans; Neuchatel was integrated into the Swiss Confederation, Frederick William only keeping a nominal title.
The hopes of German partiots desiring unification lasted on Prussia, which economically already lead in the ZOLLVEREIN (a body whose outside borders very much resembled those of the Reich founded in 1871).


List of Kings of Prussia, 1800-1815
1840-1861
1861-1888 		Frederick William IV.
William I. 		born 1795
born 1797 		Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
Wilhelm I.



Prussia, Prime Ministers, 1848-1862
1848-1850
1850-1858
1858-1862
1862 		Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg
Otto Theodor Baron von Manteuffel
Karl Anton Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Adolf Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen





EXTERNAL
FILES 		The Constitutional Conflict in Prussia, by G. Rempel
Insurrection at Neuchatel in Switzerland 1856/1857, from Armed Conflict Events Data
DOCUMENTS Prussia, constitution of 1850, from heraldica.org, excerpt, in German
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on January 1st 2002

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