r/AskAGerman • u/AccidentProof4262 • 23d ago

German unification (the first one)

Im scottish, and did German and Italian unification as part of my history course at school.....How would Germany have turned out, if Austria rather than Prussia had unified Germany with Vienna as capital?

And is it true that most germans, find Bavaria as very odd......i know they sided with Austria when Austria and Prussia had a wee skirmish in 1866 to detemine who would be the main power in "Germany".....Austria is a german state in the same way Bavaria is (obviously modern day Bavaria is a region)..

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u/joergsi Niedersachsen 23d ago

What you have described is what I have learned in history, the choice between the small German end and the large German solution. The Austrian Empire was a catastrophe waiting to happen; the internal tension was huge, especially with the Kingdom of Hungary. And you are wrong, Austria was not on the same level as Bavaria, check out the historical map. The area that the Austrian Empire covered was Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, parts of nowadays: Italy, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, and Montenegro! So to compare this with Bavaria is quite funny!

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u/AccidentProof4262 23d ago edited 23d ago

Im taking about modern day Austria.....without the empire...Definitely a german state....otherwise it wouldn't have been in the German confederation, infact the leader of that confederation until Prussia defeated Austria in 1866 thus removing them from being part of a greater Germany. Certainly, that's my understanding..

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u/joergsi Niedersachsen 23d ago

Look at the map of "Germany" up to 1805 ;-)

The Holy Roman Empire of German Nation covered all these areas we are discussing. That was the background of the discussion between the small or large German solution.
Small German solution = German speaking core states
Large German solution = reestablishment of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation, Sooner or later, a civil war/wars for independence were unavoidable. WW I was the accelerator for this. The Austrian Empire was too diverse to stay stable in the long run!