Prussia and the Unification of Germany
After three wars led by Prussia, the German Empire is proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
- Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 — Christopher Clark, Allen Lane (2006)
- Bismarck: A Life — Jonathan Steinberg, Oxford University Press (2011)
- A Concise History of Germany — Mary Fulbrook, Cambridge University Press (2019)
- Germany: Memories of a Nation — Neil MacGregor, Allen Lane (2014)
Prussia began as a poor, scattered state around Berlin and Königsberg. In the eighteenth century its kings, above all Frederick the Great (r. 1740–86), built a disciplined army and an efficient bureaucracy that made it a great power.
- Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 — Christopher Clark, Allen Lane (2006)
- Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 — Christopher Clark, Allen Lane (2006)
- A Concise History of Germany — Mary Fulbrook, Cambridge University Press (2019)
In 1848 liberal revolutionaries met in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche to write a constitution for a united, democratic Germany under the colours black, red and gold. The Prussian king refused the crown they offered him, and the revolution failed.
- A Concise History of Germany — Mary Fulbrook, Cambridge University Press (2019)
- Germany: Memories of a Nation — Neil MacGregor, Allen Lane (2014)
Unity came another way. Otto von Bismarck, Prussia’s minister-president from 1862, said the great questions of the day would be decided “by iron and blood”. Wars against Denmark (1864), Austria (1866) and France (1870–71) shut Austria out and drew the southern states into a Prussian-led union. On 18 January 1871 King Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, a humiliation France never forgot. The new Reich was a federation of kings and dukes dominated by Prussia, with a parliament elected by all adult men but a government answerable to the emperor.
- Bismarck: A Life — Jonathan Steinberg, Oxford University Press (2011)
- Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 — Christopher Clark, Allen Lane (2006)
Some historians, notably Hans-Ulrich Wehler, argued that unification under Prussian militarism and a weak parliament set Germany on a Sonderweg, a special path toward 1933. Others, such as David Blackbourn and Christopher Clark, reject this as too tidy, pointing to Imperial Germany's vigorous press, mass parties and rule of law.
- Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 — Christopher Clark, Allen Lane (2006)
- A Concise History of Germany — Mary Fulbrook, Cambridge University Press (2019)
Why it matters today
Germany as a single state is only about 150 years old, younger than the United States. It was made from above by Prussian arms rather than from below by the liberal revolutionaries of 1848, and historians still debate what that meant for Germany's path. The black-red-gold flag of 1848, not the black-white-red of 1871, is the flag of today's democracy.