German Confederation

German Confederation Deutscher Bund (German)
1815–1848 1850–1866
Coat of arms
The German Confederation in 1816
States part of the German Confederation, 1816–1866
Status	Confederation
Capital	Frankfurt
Common languages	German Low German Czech Slovene Polish Limburgish and others
Religion	Catholic, Protestant
Head of the Präsidialmacht Austria
• 1815–1835	Francis I
• 1835–1848	Ferdinand I
• 1850–1866	Franz Joseph I
Legislature	Federal Convention
History
• Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire	6 August 1806
• German campaign	17 March 1813
• Collapse of Confederation of the Rhine	18 October 1813
• Constitution adopted	8 June 1815
• Final Act of the Ministerial Conferences	15 May 1820
• German Revolutions	13 March 1848
• Punctation of Olmütz	29 November 1850
• Austro-Prussian War	14 June 1866
• North German Confederation Treaty	18 August 1866
• Peace of Prague	23 August 1866
Currency	Reichsthaler (to 1857) Conventionsthaler (to 1857) Vereinsthaler (from 1857)
Preceded by Succeeded by Holy Roman Empire Confederation of the Rhine Kingdom of Prussia (territories in HRE until 1806 or listed below only) Lauenburg-Bütow (Province of Pomerania) Draheim (Province of Pomerania) Province of Limburg (1815–1839) Austrian Empire (territories in HRE until 1806 or listed below only) Duchy of Oświęcim (after 1818) Duchy of Zator (after 1818) German Empire (1848–1849) German Empire (1848–1849) Duchy of Oświęcim (after 1850) Duchy of Zator (after 1850) Following dissolution: North German Confederation Austria as a whole Kingdom of Bavaria Kingdom of Württemberg Grand Duchy of Baden Duchy of Limburg (1839–1867) Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as a whole Principality of Liechtenstein Grand Duchy of Hesse

The German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund [ˈdɔʏtʃɐ ˈbʊnt] ^ⓘ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe from 1815 to 1866. It was created by the Congress of Vienna to replace the Holy Roman Empire, which dissolved in 1806 as a result of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Confederation had only one organ, the Bundesversammlung, or Federal Convention (also Federal Assembly or Confederate Diet). The Convention consisted of the representatives of the member states. The most important issues had to be decided unanimously. The Convention was presided over by the representative of Austria, but this was a formality, as the Confederation had no head of state, since it was not a state.

The Confederation was a strong alliance among its member states because federal law was superior to state law. (The decisions of the Federal Convention were binding for the member states.) Additionally, the Confederation had been established for eternity and was impossible to dissolve (legally), with no member states able to leave it and no new member able to join without universal consent in the Federal Convention. But the Confederation was weakened by its very structure and member states, partly because its most important decisions required unanimity and the purpose of the Confederation was limited to security matters. Moreover, the functioning of the Confederation depended on the cooperation of the two most populous member states, Austria and Prussia, which were often in opposition.

The German revolutions of 1848–1849, motivated by liberal, democratic, socialist, and nationalist sentiments, attempted to transform the Confederation into a unified German federal state with a liberal constitution (usually called the Frankfurt Constitution in English). The Federal Convention dissolved on 12 July 1848 but was reestablished in 1850 after the revolution was crushed by Austria, Prussia, and other states.

The Confederation dissolved after the victory of the Kingdom of Prussia over the Austrian Empire in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. The dispute over which country would dominate the German states ended in Prussia's favour, leading to the creation of the North German Confederation under Prussian leadership in 1867. A number of south German states remained independent until they joined the North German Confederation during the Franco-Prussian War. After the German victory, the Confederation was renamed and proclaimed as the German Empire in 1871. It unified Germany (aside from Austria), with the Prussian king as emperor (Kaiser).

Frontispiece of the Acts of the Congress of Vienna

Monarchs of the member states of the German Confederation (with the exception of the Prussian king) meeting at Frankfurt in 1863

Most historians consider the Confederation to have been weak and ineffective, as well as an obstacle to the creation of a German nation-state. This weakness was part of its design, as the European Great Powers, including Prussia and especially Austria, did not want it to become a nation-state. But the Confederation was not a loose tie between the German states, as it was impossible to leave, and as Confederation law stood above the law of the aligned states. Its constitutional weakness lay in the principle of unanimity in the Diet and the limits of the Confederation's scope: it was essentially a military alliance to defend Germany against external attacks and internal riots. The War of 1866 proved its ineffectiveness, as it was unable to combine the federal troops to fight the Prussian secession.