The rise of Prussia : Germany

The 1850s were years of great economic upswing. Germany became an industrial country. Although its production output still lagged far behind England’s, it was growing faster. Pacemakers were heavy industry and mechanical engineering. Prussia also became the predominant economic power of Germany. Industrial power strengthened the political self-confidence of the liberal middle class.

The German Progress Party (Deutsche Fortschrittspartei), formed in 1861, became the strongest party in the Prussian Diet and denied the government the funds when it wanted to make reactionary changes to the structure of the army. The newly appointed Prime Minister (Ministerprasident), Otto von Bismarck (1862), took up the challenge and for some years governed without the parliamentary approval of the budget which was required by the constitution. The Progress Party dared offer no further resistance than parliamentary opposition, however.

Bismarck was able to offset his precarious position on the domestic front by foreign policy successes. In the German-Danish War (1864), Prussia and Austria forced the Danes to cede the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which they initially administered jointly. But Bismarck had from the outset pursued the annexation of the two duchies and steered for open conflict with Austria. In the Austro-Prussian War (1866), Austria was defeated and had to leave the German stage. The German Confederation was dissolved and replaced by the North German Confederation (Norddeutscher Bund) of states north of the Main River, with Bismarck as Federal Chancellor (prime minister).