Unification Of Germany

Proclamation of the German Empire (1871)

The unification of Germany was a historical process which took place over several decades in the middle of the nineteenth century as the Kingdom of Prussia managed to unite the several dozen German states, excluding Austria, under Prussian rule into a German Empire. The unification process concluded during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871 and might be said to have reached a formal conclusion at an event in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris on the 18th of January 1871, whereat the empire was formally created. The unification of Germany led to a substantial amount of migration and demographic change both in Central Europe and overseas, though much of this was the product of other socio-economic factors as well such as the industrialization of Germany and the population boom the region was experiencing.

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Unification of Germany chronology of events

The idea that much of Central Europe constituted a distinct region inhabited by people of historically German ethnicity goes back thousands of years, at least to Roman times, to whom the region east of the River Rhine and northeast of the Alps was known as Germania. In medieval times the region was united for a time under the rule of the Carolingians and then through the tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries by the Ottonian, Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties. However, at the end of the High Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire that powerful emperors like Frederick Barbarossa had ruled over in Germany fragmented into literally hundreds of states, some being large duchies and principalities, others little more than small free towns or counties. Germany would remain divided for a half a millennium as a result.

The states of Germany, c. 1850

The path to German unification came through the rise of a number of more powerful German states between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly the Kingdom of Prussia in the north, which controlled the Brandenburg-Saxony region in what is now eastern Germany and significant parts of western and northern Poland, and Austria in the south. In between were several dozen significant states like Bavaria, Baden, Hanover and Mainz. Prussia began to expand into the Rhineland in the eighteenth century and also acquired the province of Silesia from Austria in the War of the Austrian Succession.

These developments created a situation where there were just a few dozen German states by the dawn of the nineteenth century, making it much more plausible to convince the rulers of each to unite into a unified German state. The pre-eminence of Prussia and Austria also suggested that one of these two states would lead the unification process. All of this was further aided by the rise of romantic nationalism across Europe in the 1840s as groups like the Ukrainians, Serbs, Romanians, Italians and Bulgarians that had been under different forms of foreign domination for centuries began to desire to establish their own nation states.

Otto von Bismarck

By the mid-nineteenth century there was no doubt that a movement towards German unification existed and alliances between the German states had been formed. It would take one of the great statesmen of modern history to realize it though. In 1862 Otto von Bismarck was appointed as Minister President of Prussia and quickly affirmed that Prussia’s rise as a great nation would be achieved by “blood and iron.” He was not somebody though who engaged in warfare for the sake of it. In three short, sharp wars, against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866 and France in 1870 to 1871, he managed to expand Prussia’s realms and bind the smaller German states closely to Prussia through the creation of a North German Confederation. In the process he convinced powers like Bavaria, Baden, Hesse, Saxony and Brunswick that their futures lay in union with Prussia and not with Austria. The final catalyst was the Franco-Prussian War. With this it was demonstrated to Prussia’s allies that united they could easily defeat one of the great European powers. If they formalized this alliance Germany could take its place as one of the most powerful nations in Europe.

Having convinced all parties of the wisdom of the approach, Bismarck quickly negotiated a constitution for the new German Empire, one which all parties agreed to on the 1st of January 1871, by which time France was all-but defeated after a short war. Because the German states were so invested in French affairs at the time, the decision was taken to hold the formal ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, the great palace built by King Louis XIV back in the seventeenth century and where the French Revolution had begun in the summer of 1789. King Wilhelm I of Prussia reluctantly agreed to become Kaiser of the new German Empire, while Bismarck would serve as Chancellor for nearly two decades thereafter. Thus, the new German Empire that resulted from unification in 1871 was dominated by Prussia to a significant extent.

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Extent of migration associated with the unification of Germany

It is difficult to disentangle how much migration resulted from the unification of Germany. The period from German unification in 1871 to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 saw millions of Germans leave their homeland. Most headed across the Atlantic Ocean, where they settled in significant numbers in countries like Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Canada, but above all in the United States. To what extent this migration can be attributed to unification is open to debate. The key drivers of it were a population boom in Central Europe, one fuelled by medical advances such as the introduction of vaccines and major developments in natal care that drastically reduced infant mortality. These were not factors created by unification. Yet, what unification did result in was a period of more pronounced industrialization in the new German Empire, particularly in the Ruhr and Rhineland regions of the west. Industrialization and changing economic policies and patterns in Germany from 1871 onwards could be said to be factors which fuelled the exodus of millions of Germans in the 1870s, 1880s, 1890s and 1900s.

Demographic impact of unification

Map of distribution of German Americans

The demographic impact of this migration, whatever degree it was fuelled by unification, was felt most keenly in six countries: the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Canada. Of these the United States was in a class of its own. Several million Germans arrived to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their settlement was particularly intense in the region from the Great Lakes westwards and the German American community is very prominent to this day in states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. Indeed, there is an argument that the Prohibition of alcohol in America that was established in 1919 was directed primarily against the German American community that had become the managers of so many bars and saloons all across the United States. Thus, German unification had strange end-results half a century later.

See also

• Germany
• Franco-Prussian War
• German Empire
• German emigration

Explore more about the unification of Germany

• Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 records collection on MyHeritage
• Germans Immigrating to the United States records collection on MyHeritage
• Germany, Rhineland Emigrants, 1814-1939 records collection on MyHeritage
• Germany, Emigrants from Southwestern Germany, 1736-1963 records collection on MyHeritage
• Researching Your German Ancestors at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• Luther, Napoleon and the Kaiser – German History for Genealogists at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
• The Voyages of Our German Immigrants at Legacy Family Tree Webinars

References

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