North German Confederation

The North German Confederation. The southern German states that joined in 1871 to form the German Empire are in orange. Alsace-Lorraine, the territory annexed following the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, is in a paler orange.

The North German Confederation (Norddeutscher Bund), came into existence in August 1866 as a military alliance of 22 states of northern Germany with the Kingdom of Prussia as the leading state. In July 1867 it was transformed into a federal state. It provided the country with a constitution and was the building block of the German Empire, which adopted most parts of the federation's constitution and its flag. Unlike the German Confederation, the North German Confederation was in fact a true state. Its territory comprised the parts of the German Confederation north of the river Main, plus Prussia's eastern territories and the Duchy of Schleswig, but excluded Austria, Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and the southern parts of the Grand Duchy of Hesse.

Historical Background=

When the Holy Roman Empire was wound up in 1806, the German speaking states decided to form a Confederation as a step towards German re-unification. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, tasked with re-drawing Europe's borders after the Napoleonic Wars under the Presidency of the House of Habsburg. Under the empire, about 200 small German states had existed. The Confederacy comprised 38 states and three free-cities, due to the merging of states no longer regarded as viable. The confederation was briefly suspended in 1848 due to dispute about the shape that unification should take but it was reconstituted in 1850. During this period, Prussia vied with Austria as the dominant power. Many very small principalities formed part of this Confederation. However, Prussia's Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck preferred a more unified state, one that would resemble France and Great Britain more closely. Austria-Hungary was a large multi-ethnic state that would, if part of a new German state, dominate and compromise its German identity. In order to exclude Austria from the process, Prussia and her allies declared war on Austria in 1866. The formation in 1866 of the North German confederation was a major step towards German re-unification. It cemented Prussian control over northern Germany, and through the Zollverein (Customs Union) and secret peace treaties, agreed with the southern states the day before the Peace of Prague it extended Prussia's zone of influence into southern Germany as well.

Constitution

The federation came into force on July 1, 1867, with the King of Prussia, William I, as its President, and Bismarck as Chancellor.Bismarck was tasked with drafting a Constitution for the Confederation. This constitution granted huge powers to the chancellor, who was appointed by the President of the Bundesrat (Prussia). This was because the constitution made the chancellor 'responsible,' but not accountable, to the Reichstag. This therefore allowed him the benefit of being the link between the emperor and the people. The Chancellor retained powers over the military budget. Laws also prevented certain civil servants becoming members of the Reichstag, those who were Bismarck's main opposition in the 1860's.

The states were represented in the Bundesrat (Federal Council) with 43 seats (of which Prussia held 17). Most notably, Bismarck introduced universal male suffrage into the confederation for elections to the Reichstag. The Bundesrat membership was extended before 1871 with the creation of the Zollverein Parliament in 1867, an attempt to create closer unity with the southern states by permitting representatives to be sent to the Bundersrat. Each state retained its own government but the military was controlled by the Confederation.

Following Prussia's victory over the Second French Empire in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, Bavaria, Württemberg, and Baden (together with parts of the Grand Duchy of Hesse which had not originally joined the federation), now grouped together with the various states of the Federation to form the German Empire, with William I taking the new title of German Emperor (rather than Emperor of Germany as Austria was not included). When the Southern States formally joined in 1871, following the French-German victory in the Franco-Prussian War the Confederacy was wound up and the German Empire was born.

Postal Union

One of the functions of the confederation was to handle mail and issue postage stamps; for details.

List of member states

1. Prussia (Preußen)

(including Lauenburg)

1. Saxony (Sachsen)

Grand duchies (Großherzogtümer)

1. Hesse (Hessen) (Only Upper Hesse, the province north of the Main River)
2. Mecklenburg-Schwerin
3. Mecklenburg-Strelitz
4. Oldenburg Oldenburg
5. Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach)

Duchies (Herzogtümer)

1. Anhalt
2. Brunswick (Braunschweig)
3. Saxe-Altenburg (Sachsen-Altenburg)
4. Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha)
5. Saxe-Meiningen (Sachsen-Meiningen) Meiningen

Principalities (Fürstentümer)

1. Lippe Detmold
2. Reuss, junior line Gera
3. Reuss, senior line Greiz
4. Schaumburg-Lippe Bückeburg
5. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt Rudolstadt
6. Schwarzburg-Sondershausen Sondershausen

$Waldeck-Pyrmont Arolsen Free Hanseatic cities (Freie Hansestädte)

1. Bremen
2. Hamburg
3. Lübeck

Legacy

The constitution of the North German Federation, "with slight changes" continued to serve as the constitution of the German Empire.<re>Drill, page 140</ref> Both the Confederation and the empire have been described as "Prussia writ large." The constitution gave little power to parliament, which was consequently "the most distinguished debating chamber in Europe." The King of Prussia, as President, appointed the Chancellor and with the Prussia's King at the center and the military under Prussian control, the militaristic traditions of the Prussian House of Hohenzollern also took center stage.

Prussia has been described as an army with a state rather than a state with an army.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Dill, Marshall. 1970. Germany; a modern history. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472071012.
• Eley, Geoff. 1986. From unification to Nazism: reinterpreting the German past. Boston: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9780049430389.
• Feuchtwanger, E. J. 2001. Imperial Germany, 1850-1918. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415207Pinnow, Hermann, and Mabel Richmond
• Kitson, Alison. 2001. Germany, 1858-1990: hope, terror, and revival. Oxford advanced history. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199134175.
• Taylor, A. J. P. 2003. Bismarck, the man and the statesman. Phoenix Mill: Sutton Pub. 9780750932745.

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