150th anniversary of German unification: Bismarck, Realpolitik, and Birth of a Nation

150th anniversary of German unification: Bismarck, Realpolitik, and Birth of a Nation

Adam Tooze
BA King’s College Cambridge, PhD London School of Economics

Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History
Director of the European Institute, Columbia University

Napoleon’s invasion smashed the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and with it what was left of the early modern/medieval frame. Class strife in the wake of the Industrial Revolution unleashed competing forces of liberalism and conservative traditionalists across the European boundaries. And the tug of war among bigger powers including the French, the Russians, and the Habsburgs meant the German aspiration for nationhood was arrested at an ineffective and weak Confederation level, the Deutscher Bund. It may have sealed the inferior fate of Germans hadn't it been for a radical and unabashed exponent of the politics of power, Otto Von Bismarck who knew that “Passive planlessness” was not an option: “We will be the anvil if we do not make ourselves into the hammer”. But how and when?

That moment came with Austria’s isolation from Russia during the Crimean war, and Bismarck's keen instinct seized upon that opportunity to challenge for dominance in Germany. Exactly on the 3rd anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg, at an equally consequential civil war battle of Königgrätz, Bismarck masterfully channeled the political capital of a Prussian victory against the Austrians, into a movement that led to the unification of Germany in 1871. Europe was never the same again.

Please join us as Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History and the Director of the European Institute at Columbia University revisits the socio-economical and geopolitical circumstances in 19th-century Europe that led to the drive for German unification. Tooze retraces the consequences of a unified and strong Germany as the center of Europe.

[susancaldwell]

Excellent! absolutely brilliant and totally a novel analysis for me.

[mjxw]

Very good. I hadn't before made the connection between the Austrian belligerence in the Crimean War and their ensuing isolation and vulnerability.

[edwardchen]

Brilliant elucidation of German modern history. It really provides an insight into understanding how contemporary Germany came about as a nation

[Amieto]

Brilliant ! I’m French, should know all of this beforehand, and yet discovered I knew nothing… Republic(s) in Europe had a such a troubled birth… We should pay hommage to our forefathers and treasure dearly what they left us with.

[lukalisjak]

Min 33:30: in reality, Austria already antagonized Russia by deciding to stay neutral (joining Russia would have been even more unwise, as it would have opened a front in northern Italy, as Piedmont-Sardinia eagerly sided with France & Britain). In the course of the war, it was then offered to occupy the Romanian principalities, as a sorts of a buffer zone. It was vital for her that neither Russia nor France take hold of that zone; but it withdrew as soon as the war was over. Austria was put in a lose-lose position: maintaining the alliance with Russia was too costly, joining the western powers would have been preposterous.

[fritzkralle]

1871 was NOT the birth of the German nation. This is just an anglo saxon few. For us it was the start of the second Reich with Austria excluded.

[cube]

Honestly one of the best talks on modern German history by a British person. One who doesn't analyse everything like a subversive moralizing Freemason like how the British are at their core.

[seanmatthews]

Super lecture - but startlingly generous spin on current Germany policy vis. China at the moment.

[MrTompahallam]

Absolutely outstanding analysis by Adam who’s work I’ve followed for a while. He’s also brilliant when talking about economics too.

The last thoughts summed up the entire story for me, I paraphrase: “Germany is not allowed to use an army to pursue its own interests”.

Germanys right to exist has always been a challenge to the older established powers of Europe - France, Britain & Russia and thus German unification was a threat to the existing power structures… from 1871 onwards, the great powers worked to bring Germany into a two front war to crush her….then Versailles & we know the outcome of that… Hitler understood this and sought to unify the German peoples & restore what he rightly or wrongly believed belonged to Germany.

Germany is the true great power of Europe and the power structures of Europe have always been all too aware…

I think more young children will wake up to this fact the more begin to study this themselves when they ignore the nonsense taught in schools.