Now came the difficult task of reconstruction and redistribution of
territory. In what form should they arise out of this chaos? The
dream of the people, like that of Hermann eighteen hundred years
before, was of a German UNITY; not a renewal of the empire, but a great
and new national life, in some firmer and truer form than it had yet
known. But these were only dreams, vague and without any practical
ideas as to their realization.
In the meantime men well versed in the arts and tricks of governing
were deciding how all should be arranged. The plan proposed by
Metternich, that master of diplomacy, who was minister to the Emperor
of Austria, was the one adopted.
There was to be a confederation of thirty-nine German states. The _Act
of Union_, by which this was effected, had a pleasant sound to the ear
of the German people. But the Union existed only in a mutual defense
against foreign foes, and a mutual aid in keeping the people of Germany
well in check! The one outward and visible expression of this _Unity_
was in a _General Diet_, to be held at Frankfort, under the presidency
of Austria!
And this was what the _people_ who had liberated their country were to
receive as their reward! They were in no way recognized; were to
possess no political power; the right of suffrage was not bestowed, and
the Diet was prohibited from making any change in this form of
confederation, except by a _unanimous_ (_!_) vote. The German people
were practically effaced and lost sight of in an autocratic
confederation of states, with the Austrian Empire at its head.
That empire had received back its Italian possessions. Prussia had
recovered Westphalia and her territory on the Rhine, and given up her
Polish territory to Russia. Belgium and Holland had been merged into a
kingdom of the Netherlands. Saxony, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, which
states had been made kingdoms by Napoleon, were permitted to remain
such. Switzerland was a republic; and by the successful diplomacy of
Talleyrand, Alsace and Lorraine, those insecure possessions, passed to
France.
Such were some of the territorial adjustments. That the rulers of
these kingdoms were reactionary in their purposes soon became apparent.
One of the first acts of the King of Wurtemberg was to court-martial
and cashier the general who had gone over to the German side at the
battle of Leipzig! If none had gone over to the German side, where
would have been the kingdom of Wurtemberg? In Mecklenburg the people
were openly declared serfs. The Elector of Hesse-Cassel gave evidence
that he was looking backward by putting his soldiers into the dress of
the last century and powdered queues, and almost without exception the
sovereigns were trying to construe the provisions of the _Act of Union_
in a way to give the least liberty to the German people.
The currents of German thought and feeling move slowly, but they are
deep and persistent. They had never been intemperate in their desires
for freedom, but had simply asked for a government which should be more
in conformity with the existing views of human rights. Their
disappointment had been profound and bitter. The fathers earnestly
talked over their wrongs at home, while their more fiery sons at the
universities made speeches, sang songs, and banded themselves together
into societies, with mottoes and badges and insignia, all under the
same inspiring ideas,--UNION AND FREEDOM.
This began to look like Revolution. The freedom of the press was
abolished. The formation of societies among students and mechanics was
prohibited, and the universities were placed under the immediate
control of the government. A savage police system was established.
Hundreds of young men were thrown into prison, and hundreds more fled
the country.
But while this repression produced a calm surface, it did not change
the conditions beneath. In the meantime a "Holy Alliance" had been
formed between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, for the purpose of
repressing aspirations toward liberty in other lands, where this
pestilential modern spirit was also rife.
But in 1830 there was a popular uprising in France. Charles X.,
another brother of the murdered Louis, had been pursuing a reactionary
policy precisely similar to the one employed by the sovereigns in
Germany. It was too late to do that in France. The people with small
ceremony flung the Bourbon aside, and set up a constitutional monarchy
with Louis Philippe at its head. This stirred anew the latent feeling
in Germany. The people did not rise in a body, but so threatening did
it appear that the Diet quickly yielded certain reforms and concessions
for fear of more extreme resistance.
Francis II. died in 1835, and was succeeded by an almost imbecile son,
Ferdinand I. In 1840 Frederick William III. of Prussia also died, and
Frederick William IV., his son, became King. Metternich was now
guiding the affairs of Austria, and William von Humboldt was the
adviser of the new Prussian King, who inspired the people with a hope
of better things. But while this King fostered science and art, he
gave little care to the redressing of political wrongs, and things
drifted toward a crisis.
Again a revolution in France reacted upon Germany. In 1848, Louis
Philippe was cast aside as unceremoniously as had been his predecessor,
and a Republic was proclaimed, with Louis Napoleon, nephew of the great
Napoleon, at its head.
This new Bonaparte was a son of Louis Bonaparte, whom his imperial
brother had made King of Holland. He married Hortense, the daughter of
Josephine. So Fate intended that a child of the discarded Josephine,
and not of Napoleon, should rule over France.
The proclamation of a republic in France awoke the slumbering forces of
revolution in Europe. Not in one place, nor in two, did the fires
spring up, but simultaneously in every German state. Hungary, led by
Kossuth, was in revolt, and fighting to the death to be freed from the
Hapsburgs. In Italy Victor Emmanuel, the young King of Sardinia, was
trying to drive the Austrian governor of Milan out of the kingdom, and
when checked, he shook his sword at the advancing Austrians and said
prophetically, "_There shall yet be an Italy!_" And while these things
were going on in Italy and in Hungary, men were fighting in the streets
of Vienna. The ozone of freedom had penetrated even to that last
stronghold of despotic sentiment. The Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in
this time of agitation, and his young nephew, Francis Joseph, ascended
the Austrian throne.
The things the people were demanding in every state were: freedom of
speech and of the press; the right of every man to bear arms; of all to
assemble when and where they liked for political or other purposes;
trial by jury; and the abolition of the hated Diet, with a complete
reorganization of the state governments.
The princes were terrified. It seemed as if their expulsion, like that
of Louis Philippe, was at hand.
And so it was, and would have ensued, had the people known their power
or how to use it. But gradually the opportunity was lost. Concessions
were made, new liberties were gained, but the _Unity_ they hungered for
was to come in another and unexpected way, and for ten years the
confederation was to exist practically unchanged.
Still, although the fruits of their efforts seemed meager in comparison
with what had been hoped, there had been one great concession made.
The Diet, under the pressure of the crisis, had consented to steps
which led finally to the formation of a National Parliament.
When that parliament met at Frankfort, German patriots believed the
hour of liberation had struck. Full of hope and confidence they
thought the end was attained, when six hundred men of character and
intelligence came together to formulate a new plan of union based upon
_The Sovereignty of the People_!
But such a task requires something more than patriotism and enthusiasm,
and theoretic views about human rights. It needs practical political
experience, and clearly defined plans for action. After vainly trying
to harmonize conflicting opinions a plan of union was finally adopted,
and Frederick William IV. was elected "Hereditary Emperor of Germany."
All save the smaller states refused to accede to the proposed plan, and
Frederick William himself declined the proffered title, saying, "They
forget that there are princes still in Germany, and that I am one of
them."
So the attempt at reorganization was a miserable failure, and the
national parliament gradually dissolved. In the meantime the
revolutionary fires in Europe had burned out. Hungary was again
submissive in the grasp of the Hapsburgs, and Austria was also once
more supreme in Italy; while the French republic, which had lighted
this conflagration, had become a monarchy.
The national party had developed no great leader, had shown no ability
to grasp its opportunity. The people, disheartened and in sullen
disappointment, saw the old Bund-Diet restored at Frankfort, in 1851,
and found themselves back in a slightly improved and amended
confederation, still under the headship of Austria.
Then Louis Napoleon's assumption of Imperial power, in 1851, gave
renewed strength to the German rulers. It demonstrated the instability
of popular governments, and the sure return to the good old methods of
their fathers, as soon as the temporary madness of the people had
subsided.
So all things conspired to depress aspiration and to make the hopes
awakened in 1848 a tantalizing delusion. It was not night, but it was
a very dark and dreary day for patriotism in Germany. The country was
under a spell which no one knew how to break.
In 1857 Frederick William IV. was stricken with apoplexy, and his
brother, Prince William, was appointed Prince Regent.
The new emperor of the French, with oppressive sense of the greatness
of his name, was looking about for opportunities to be Napoleonic. In
1856 he had formed an alliance with England against Russia. The fact
of the alliance of itself gave weight to the rather flimsy fabric of
his greatness, while the results of the Crimean War added much to its
solidity. In the year 1859 Italy was vainly struggling to free herself
from the grasp of Austria. Mazzini, the exalted dreamer, and
Garibaldi, the soldier and patriot, with Cavour, the no less patriotic
statesman, though with different ends in view, were working together
for the destruction of the Austrian yoke, which must be preliminary to
any form of Italian nationality. The astute statesman saw in the
ambition of Napoleon III. a means to that end.
When Napoleon promised an "Italy free from the Alps to the Apennines,"
and when the splendid victory of Magenta was quickly followed by that
of Solferino, and when the young Francis Joseph, with tears in his
eyes, ordered the retreat of his defeated army over the Mincio, the
dream of centuries seemed about to be realized. Then came the
startling news that the two emperors were in consultation at
Villafranca over the terms of peace! Venice was not to be liberated.
There was to be a consolidation of the Italian kingdoms "under the
honorary Presidency of the Pope"--whatever that meant--and a "general
amnesty" was declared. It was with sullen rage that the disappointed
patriots saw Nice and Savoy handed over to France, and Rome garrisoned
with French troops, while a French emperor was posing as the liberator
of an Italy which was not liberated! But although the mills of the
gods were moving slowly, they were going to grind exceeding fine.
Victor Emmanuel and a regenerated Italy were not far off, and for
Germany there was at hand a new era.
Frederick William IV. died, and in 1861 William I. was crowned King of
Prussia.