The German Question, Part Forty-Two

"Revolution...Sort Of" Part Two

Street demonstrations in Berlin (the capital of Prussia) brought about counter measures from the Prussian government, which led to armed conflict in the barricaded streets. There were hundreds of casualties, including many dead. The Prussian military was pulled back and the king, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, promised a constitution with some basic rights and an elected Prussian assembly, and he offered support for a "national" German parliament.

Matters calmed down for awhile, and a National Assembly ("Nationalversammlung," in German) met at the "Paulskirche" (Paul's Church, which still exists, although it virtually had to be rebuilt after destruction in World War II) in Frankfurt to attempt to work out details for the establishment of a truly unified German nation with a constitution. The Archduke of Austria, Johann,* was made a sort of temporary leader, and eventually the Prussian king was offered the position of "emperor," but he turned it down, as the position was not being offered to him by the German princes, whom he viewed as the legitimate representatives of the German states, but rather by constitutionalists and revolutionaries. The assembly battled over all sorts of things, but the main problems were about how a united Germany would be ruled; that is, by an emperor (Kaiser, in German) whose position would then be hereditary (passed on to sons or other eligible relatives), or by election. The real main issue was the question of Austria. Over the centuries Habsburg rulers had acquired so many non-German territories, that many Germans saw this as unacceptable for inclusion in a "German" nation. Would the Habsburgs separate their German lands from their Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Italian, and a multitude of other ethnic groups? The issue was thornier than a brier patch, with the inclusion of German Austria being called the "Grossdeutschland" (Large Germany) solution, and the exclusion of Austria being called for some strange reason the "Kleindeutschland" (Small Germany) solution (Hmm, what a coincidence! "Large and small"). The "Small Germany" solution would have given German leadership to Prussia, since Austria would have been outside the new nation. This issue cannot easily be seen without now moving on to what was happening in the Habsburg lands during the Revolution of 1848.

In "Part One," we learned that Germans took to the streets prompted by the abdication of the French king. In Vienna, the demonstrations brought about the resignation of long time Habsburg adviser and leading government minister, Klemens von Metternich. The Habsburg emperor,** Ferdinand I, in an effort to stabilize the situation, appointed new government ministers, in theory, men more acceptable to the general populace, as they didn't have the very conservative reputations of their predecessors. The problems grew, however, as Austria's non-German possessions began to go into revolt. The Hungarians wanted a separate country, but with the Habsburg ruler as their king. Similar feelings were expressed by Polish and (Western) Ukrainians (also known as Ruthenians) minorities,***and many of the Habsburg Italian possessions wanted to join a united Italian nation.**** In Bohemia/Moravia, where Czechs were a significant majority, but often dominated by the German minority (which was largely middle class), the German population wanted the region to be a part of any new German national state, but this was based not upon the ethnic make up of the area, but rather the historical fact that Bohemia had long been a part (and a significant part, at that) of the old German Empire. The Czechs saw this very differently, desiring a separate Czech nation. Slovaks, close kin to the Czechs, were in a different struggle. Hungarian moves toward independence from the Austrian Empire left the Slovaks in a position of being dominated by the Hungarians, as what we now call "Slovakia," was considered a part of Hungary in those times. Further unrest developed in the Serbian, Croat and Rumanian areas, but this unrest was largely directed, as was the Slovak uprising, against the Hungarians, which in turn then helped the Austrians against the Hungarians. ***** Put simply, it was a MESS!

So all of these "ethnic" disputes/uprisings were going on within the Austrian Empire at the same time that German Austria****** was in the midst of its own revolution, and all of these events were in some stage of development/occurrence while the National Assembly was meeting to decide German nationhood. If the Hungarians had succeeded in breaking away from Austria's hold, and they made the strongest moves of the non-German regions to do so, this may well have led to success for some or all of the other non-German areas. With such a development, the "Large Germany, Small Germany" question would have been solved, and German Austria's inclusion in any new German nation pretty much assured.

One more "part" in this segment to tie up some things.... (A Word History is below the notes)

* Archduke Johann was a member of the Habsburg family, but not the leading member. He was more liberal in outlook than most of the family, thus putting him in opposition to many of the other Habsburgs at times. 

** The Habsburg ruler, Franz, had declared Austria to be the "Austrian Empire" a few decades earlier (1804), thus making the ruler an "emperor," by title. The Habsburg "emperor" was simultaneously German emperor, as the German Empire (Holy Roman Empire) was still in existence at that time.

*** (Western) Ukrainians/Ruthenians were not typically Eastern Orthodox, as many other Ukrainians were. They had their own Christian denomination, Uniate/Ukrainian Catholic, which still had ties to Rome.

**** Like the Germans, the Italians did not have a truly united nation at that time, but rather a number of independent "states." Also like the Germans, they were trying to establish a modern nation. In those times, unlike what we think of today, "Italy" was really just a geographic term, not a term for a nation.

***** To keep all of this manageable, suffice it to say that these various uprisings in the ethnic territories failed, although the Hungarians came closest to success. Austria's army and most army commanders remained loyal to the Habsburgs, giving the monarchy a distinct advantage over the rebels. Further, the various ethnic factions often had fears of one another, allowing the Austrians to use the dissension to their advantage. While these rebellions failed at that time, the contentiousness remained, and we will be dealing with it again shortly.

****** I'm using the term "German Austria" to mean essentially what had been the traditional German state of the old German Empire, and to show a distinction between this area and the non-German areas of the "Austrian Empire," as it was this "state" that most Germans wanted included in a new German nation, and not the other parts of the Austrian Empire, although there were supporters for the entire Austrian Empire to enter a new German nation.

WORD HISTORY:
Pretzel-This goes back to Indo European "mregh-u" or "mrehu," which had the notion of "short." (Note: Remember that the Indo European forms have been reconstructed by linguists, and while you may wonder how a modern word beginning with "p" could have come from a root beginning with "m" or "mr," just as today, not all sounds were made exactly the same by everyone. Even with so many people having at least some schooling in more modern times, and radio and television having given us "examples" to follow, pronunciation differences remain, and in ancient times, education was much more scant.) The Indo European form gave Old Greek "brakhion," which meant "upper arm;" that is, the "shorter" part of the arm, compared to the longer lower forearm. Latin took on the Greek word as "bracchium," but as "arm," in general. From this Latin later developed "brachitellum," which apparently meant "little arms, branches." Old High German took the word from Latin as "brezitella," which then later became "brezel/prezel" (there are those sound/pronunciation variances again; in this case "b" and "p"), and eventually "Brezel/Bretzel" in modern German (all German nouns are capitalized, and the "z" is pronounced "ts," as when we say the plural of hit; hits.). There are many different pronunciations in German dialects, including "Brezn" in Bavaria/Austria, except for Vienna ("Wienerisch") where it is "Brezerl," and around Heidelberg they say "Bretschl," but there are other pronunciations, too. German bakers used the crossed dough patterns to simulate "folded arms," supposedly for religious purposes; thus the relation to the Latin form for "arm." English got the word from German in the mid 1800s, if not earlier.