The German Wars of Unification - Bismarck's Rise I GLORY & DEFEAT

After the failed revolution of 1848, the German states within the German confederation were still moving towards unification. This movement would come from the citizens this time though but from the top. Prussia's chancellor Otto von Bismarck was using clever and aggressive diplomacy to outmaneuver his biggest German rival: Austria.

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» LITERATURE
Arand, Tobias: 1870/71. Der Deutsch-Französische Krieg erzählt in Einzelschicksalen. Hamburg 2018
Bremm, Klaus-Jürgen: 1866. Bismarcks Krieg gegen die Habsburger. Darmstadt 2016
Buk-Swienty: Schlachtbank Düppel. Geschichte einer Schlacht. Hamburg 2015
Fesser, Gerd: Königgrätz – Sadowa. Bismarck Sieg über Österreich. Berlin 1994

» SOURCES
Böhme, Helmuth (Hrsg.): Die Reichsgründung. dtv-Dokumente. München 1967
Dollinger, Hans: Das Kaiserreich. Seine Geschichte in Texten, Bildern und Dokumenten. München, 1966

Hardtwig, Wolfgang /Hinze, Helmuth (Hrsg.): Deutsche Geschichte in Quellen und Darstellungen. Bd. 7: Vom Deutschen Bund zum Kaiserreich 1815 – 1871. Stuttgart 1997

Huber, Ernst Rudolf (Hrsg.): Dokumente der Verfassungsgeschichte, Bd. 2. 1851 – 1900. Stuttgart u.a. 1961

N.N.: Helmuth von Moltkes Briefe an seine Braut und Frau. Stuttgart u.a. 1911
Low, Sidney/ Sanders Lloyd C.: The History of England During the Reign of Victoria (1837-1901) Volume 12 of 12, [Part of Series: The Political History of England in Twelve Volumes, Edited by William Hunt and Reginald L. Poole], Longmans, Green, and Co., London. 1907
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»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Cathérine Pfauth, Prof. Dr. Tobias Arand, Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
Director of Photography: Toni Steller
Sound: Above Zero
Editing: Toni Steller
Motion Design: Philipp Appelt
Maps: Battlefield Design
Research by: Cathérine Pfauth, Prof. Dr. Tobias Arand
Fact checking: Cathérine Pfauth, Prof. Dr. Tobias Arand

Channel Design: Battlefield Design

Contains licensed material by getty images
All rights reserved - Real Time History GmbH 2021

[tjdent]

In 1967, as a high school sophomore, I took a class of “world history “. Two weeks before the year was over we had a paper due on any subject cover during the year. I wrote a Paper titled “the unification of the German states through the influence of Otto von Bismarck”. It was the only A+ I ever got. What surprise me was that the teacher made a copy. He asked my permission to use this as part of his teaching tools in the future and promised to remove my name. I said absolutely positively no problem. Eight years later, my brother took the same class from the same teacher. He came home one day and told me what they were studying and that it seemed like he knew something about this from the past but couldn’t put his finger on it. I dug out the original copy in my brother about poo poo his pants. From the time I wrote that first paper in 1967, I began to study German history and still do at the age of 72 whenever possible. Sometimes something hit you in the face and you know you can’t let it go. So it was for me.

[mammuchan]

Bismarck is such a mesmerising character, I can’t get enough of this story ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[brendanmcdonough]

Kudos to Jesse and the team for making this series. Many quite rightly are fascinated by the World Wars without being aware of the conflicts 1848 to 1871 that laid the foundation for these wars. I am sure the wars of Italian unification will be factored in. It is also of note that this time period had great conflicts in both China and Japan.

[mohammedsaysrashid]

excellent historical video with clearly explaining of historical events

[YitzharVered]

Thank you for making these videos, I can't wait for the weekly coverage!

[rathinmajumder]

My heart aces when you say That Prussia was the dominant state in the German Speaking world...I am a Austrian...this brings flashes in my mind that Centuries Old Empire (Holy Roman Empire>Austrian Empire>Dual Monarchy)in the Centre of Europe dominated by Austria ruled by the Habsburg's, lost its influence and prestige during Napoleonic Wars...forced out of Germany by Prussia and losing the world war at last to end that glorious chapter in history for Austria and today reduced to a small state in the centre of Europe...I just feel as bad and sorrow in my heart how did it go so wrong that we lost it all...may our glory days return.Amen!

This was the last thing my Grandfather told me before he past way...he was one of the young soldier in the Prague palace when the Czech National Council declared Independence from the Habsburg Empire...I still feel blessed my great grandfather father was a Count and he manage to bribe the recruitment officer from stoping my grandfather from being sent to the front where he most probably would have died ... fortunately enough he wasn't and at the age of 49 I can still feel my grandfather saying this story again to me when I was 17...he passed away 31 years ago

[hermanhemlig]

Thank you for bringing some clarity to the messy German history

[yorick]

0:45 "the most powerful German state.." Wait, you mean Ulm?

".. of the nineteenth century." Ah Prussia, that makes more sense for this series.

[max-cedrikvollmer]

This series looks fantastic. I would like to nontheless repeat a comment I made under the previous video: On your maps only the northern part of the Großherzogzum Hessen/Grandduchy of Hesse (aka. Hessen-Darmstadt) is coloured. I know that only the northern part was technically part of the Norddeutscher Bund but through that the whole grandduchy would have been part of the military element of the treatys establishing it (as I understand it, please correct me if I´m wrong). Maybe you can look into making that visible. A very pedantic comment from a hessian. I´m looking forward to the next video.

[kayzeaza]

It’s nice to learn German history that’s not World War 1, World War 2 or the Cold War.

[paulyb]

The German Civil War (1866). The Prussians and Austrians were rivals because neither could agree on who would at first unite and lead all of Germany.

[andrewcoffman]

Cool video, but you might want to know, there's a small mistake at 7:40 where you state Napoleon III wanted to expand "west towards the Rhine" instead of "east"

Thanks for the content! :)

[barkebaat]

I've just read (and can warmly recommend) Katja Hoyer's book
"Blood and Iron - the rise and fall of the German Empire 1871 - 1918"
if you find this topic interesting.
It gives you an overview of the period and a basic understanding of the essential issues.

[thebunkerparodie]

I've visited a place related to this conflict, the "citadelle de bitche", it was well done with a documentary you watched trought the visit. I'm glad youtube gave me a reccomandation to the channel

[Artur_M.]

I really like the visual side of your videos. In particular, the (relatively) young Franz Josef on that colourized photo looks positively snazzy. :)
The map has a perfect balance between being detailed and clear to read and a detail that I personally really love - the acknowledgement that a rump Polish state (in union with Russia) still existed east of the Prussian border in 1815-1830/31.

Technically the Kingdom of Poland still existed beyond 1831, but (after a revolution and unsuccessful attempt to gain full independence - collectively known as the November Uprising) it had only a very limited autonomy within the Russian Empire and lost even that after yet another uprising in 1863/64.

[cordialspirit]

Vos cartes, avec un choix judicieux de tons de couleur pour clarifier la subtilité des relations entre territoires ou pour aider à comprendre leur évolution, m’ont aidé à avoir une idée plus claire de certains enjeux ou de certains prétextes géopolitiques. Je puise mes informations surtout de sources primaires (Ma Mission en Prusse de Benedetti étant ma référence préférée sur ce sujet) et à partir de vos cartes, justement, j’ai pu combler certains trous de compréhension. J’apprécie aussi le soin avec lequel vous choisissez les détails à connaître pour éviter d’avoir une idée trop simpliste sur les causes des évènements.

[PalleRasmussen]

The situation around Slesvig-Holsten/Schleswig-Holstein, is a bit more complex than that. They were ruled by the Danish King in his role as duke there (the dukes were a branch of the royal house and when the others died out they were also kings of Denmark). However, Holstein was part of the German Empire and populated by Germans, while Slesvig was about 50/50, with Germans in the south (south of the old Danevirke rampart), and Danes in the north.

And there is more, it was very complex indeed.

An interesting aside, Molkte was from the dutchies and recieved his military training at the Danish court and Life Guard.

[oliversherman]

I love your channel keep up the great stuff!

[justinpachi]

@realtimehistory
I feel like you should have mentioned some of the earlier flashpoints that led up to the Austro-Prussian rivalry. One of the major ones was the Erfurt Union Crisis where the various German princes all met up over the issue of German unification. Though this conference failed after Austria diplomatically outmaneuvered the Prussians during the Punctuation of Olmutz. It really humiliated the Prussians and set the stage for the next conflict.

As for the claim that Prussia was "authoritarian" for most of its history Prussia by contemporary standards was quite progressive. The government of King Wilhelm I was hardly as repressive or authoritarian as some of his other contemporaries such as Franz-Joseph's Austrian Empire which was under his Neo-Absolutism (Hungary was under martial law) or even the Russian Empire.

[lamnaa]

A note on the Dreyse needle gun, while it was decisive in the Seven Week War, that was largely because the Austrians were using the muzzle-loading Lorenz rifle, it was not a new weapon, having been introduced back in 1840's. While the needle gun was much faster than the Austrian muzzle-loaders, it was a bit of a dead-end, the delicate needle in the name punching though the paper cartridge to fire it.

In the second half of the 1860's you were starting to see breechloading rifles with metallic cartridges come onto the scene, first conversion of muzzle-loading rifles, the Springfield Trapdoor, the Snider–Enfield, Tabatière, etc, and then weapons designed from the ground up for metallic cartridges. While it gave the Prussians a big advantage over the Danes and Austrians, the Prussians would suffer from "early adopter" problems, as we will see in the coming months...