Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / The Erfurt Union: Prussia's Failed Bid for German Unity Before Bismarck
Transcript
- Luna: So we've talked a lot about the run-up to German unification — Bismarck, the wars, the Reich. But I remember you mentioned once there was a whole other attempt before Bismarck that just sort of fizzled out. Lucas: Yes, and it's one of those turning points that could have changed everything. I'm talking about the Erfurt Union — the Erfurter Union — in 1849 and 1850. After the failed revolution of 1848, when the Frankfurt Parliament's liberal constitution was rejected by Frederick William IV of Prussia, there was still a window for a unified Germany under Prussian leadership — just without the liberal trappings. And Prussia tried it. They called it the Union, and it was supposed to be a federal state of German princes, excluding Austria, with a constitution that looked a lot more conservative than Frankfurt's. Luna: So Prussia wanted to be the leader of a 'little German' solution — kleindeutsch — but on their own terms? Lucas: Exactly. The phrase kleindeutsch versus großdeutsch — little Germany versus greater Germany — that debate was already raging. And the man behind this Prussian push was General Joseph Maria von Radowitz. He was a conservative, a friend of the king, but also a pragmatist. He saw that the Frankfurt Parliament had failed because it tried to impose a constitution from below. So his idea was to build unity from above — through treaties between the princes. In May 1849, Prussia, Saxony, and Hanover signed the Dreikönigsbündnis — the Three Kings' Alliance — creating the core of what became the Erfurt Union. Luna: Was that all three kingdoms? Saxony and Hanover were pretty significant. Lucas: They were. And they weren't the only ones. Over the next few months, about 28 German states joined the Union, mostly the smaller ones. But immediately, there was pushback. The bigger middle states — Bavaria, Württemberg, the two Hesses — they held out. They didn't trust Prussian dominance, and they still felt a loyalty to the German Confederation, which Austria still controlled. So Radowitz's plan was to convene a Union parliament in Erfurt, a city in Thuringia, to draft a constitution that would be acceptable to the princes and the people. Luna: So they actually met in Erfurt? I've been there — beautiful old city. Lucas: Yes, it was chosen partly because it was centrally located and had a historic Reichstag building. So in March 1850, the Erfurt Union Parliament assembled. But it was a strange body. It was elected by the member states, but the franchise was very restricted — property qualifications, indirect voting. So it was nowhere near as democratic as the earlier Frankfurt Parliament. And it was split between two main groups: the conservatives, who wanted a strong monarchy, and a liberal rump called the Gotha Post-Parliament — the Gothaer Nachparlament — which was made up of former Frankfurt liberals who had accepted Prussian leadership as a compromise. Luna: Wait — the Gotha Post-Parliament? That sounds like a splinter group. Lucas: Exactly. In June 1849, after Frederick William IV rejected the imperial crown from Frankfurt, about 150 liberal delegates walked out and met in Gotha. They formed a kind of shadow parliament, urging Germans to support the Prussian Union as the next best thing. So when the Erfurt Parliament met, these Gotha liberals were a vocal minority, pushing for more democratic elements in the constitution. But the king and Radowitz wanted a constitution that kept real power in the hands of the monarch and the upper house. The final document was a compromise — it created a federal state with a hereditary emperor, a council of princes, and a lower house elected by limited suffrage. But it was never implemented. Luna: Why not? What stopped it? Lucas: Austria. The Austrian Empire, under Emperor Franz Joseph and his minister Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg, saw the Erfurt Union as a direct challenge to Austrian hegemony in Germany. And Austria wasn't alone. Russia, under Tsar Nicholas I, also opposed any German unity that might create a powerful rival on its border. So Schwarzenberg began a diplomatic counteroffensive. He revived the old German Confederation, which had been dormant since 1848, and called for a federal diet to meet in Frankfurt. Then he threatened military action against any state that stayed in the Prussian Union. By autumn 1850, tensions were high. There were even skirmishes — small military confrontations — in Hesse and Holstein. Luna: So it almost came to war between Prussia and Austria? Lucas: It did. In November 1850, the situation was critical. Frederick William IV was a romantic, not a warrior. He hesitated. Radowitz pushed for mobilization, but the king's more cautious advisors, including Otto von Bismarck — then a young diplomat — advised backing down. Bismarck was serving as a representative to the restored German Confederation, and he argued that Prussia wasn't ready for a war with Austria, especially with Russia backing Austria. So on November 29, 1850, Prussia signed the Olmütz Agreement — in German, the Punktation von Olmütz. It was a complete diplomatic capitulation. Prussia agreed to abandon the Erfurt Union, dissolve the Three Kings' Alliance, and accept the re-establishment of the German Confederation under Austrian leadership. Luna: Olmütz — that's in Moravia, right? It must have been humiliating. Lucas: It was known as the 'Humiliation of Olmütz'. For Prussia, it was a bitter defeat. The Union was dead. Radowitz resigned. Frederick William IV retreated into conservatism and mysticism. And the dream of a unified Germany under liberal or even conservative Prussian leadership seemed shattered. But here's the irony: that humiliation taught Prussia a lesson. It convinced men like Bismarck that unity could only be achieved through 'blood and iron' — through military strength and diplomatic ruthlessness, not through treaties and parliaments. In a way, Olmütz was the seed that grew into the wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870. Luna: So the Erfurt Union was a failure, but it shaped Bismarck's approach? Lucas: Absolutely. Bismarck himself later said that the Union was a 'phantom' that had to be exorcised. But he also learned from its mistakes. The Union had tried to unite Germany without Austria, but it had done so by consensus and compromise. Bismarck realized that consensus was weak; you needed force. And he also saw that Austria would never voluntarily give up its role in Germany. So when he became minister-president in 1862, he pursued a policy of isolating Austria diplomatically and then defeating it militarily. The Erfurt Union was a dress rehearsal for the North German Confederation of 1866, which was also a union of German states without Austria — but this time, it was backed by the Prussian army. Luna: And what happened to Radowitz? Did he just disappear? Lucas: He retired from politics, but he remained close to the king. He died in 1853, just three years later, at the age of 56. He never saw the unification he'd worked for. But his ideas — of a federal German state under Prussia, with a constitution and a parliament — those ideas didn't die. They were picked up by the National Liberal movement later. And even the Gotha Post-Parliament, that liberal rump, its members became the core of the National Liberal Party that later supported Bismarck. So the Erfurt Union was a failure in the short term, but it kept the idea of kleindeutsch unification alive. Luna: It's fascinating that something so pivotal is so little known. I'd never heard of the Erfurt Union before. Lucas: It's one of those episodes that historians know, but it rarely makes it into popular history. And it's so important because it shows that unification wasn't inevitable — it was contingent on decisions, on personalities, on luck. If Frederick William IV had been more decisive, if Radowitz had had more support, if Austria had been weaker — the map of Europe might look very different. But instead, we got Olmütz, and then Bismarck, and then the wars. Luna: Speaking of support — and I don't mean to derail — but it strikes me that shows like this, that dig into these forgotten corners, they take a lot of research. And I know you do this without any big network behind it. Lucas: Yeah, it's just me and a library card, basically. And a few good sources. But you're right — it does take time. And if anyone listening enjoys stepping into these stories with us, well, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. It's at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That really does make a difference — keeps the research time free, keeps the podcast ad-free. Luna: Absolutely. And it's a small thing that adds up. So if you've gotten something out of these episodes, consider it. Lucas: Thanks for that. Anyway — back to the Union. One last thing I want to mention: the Erfurt Union also had a cultural side. The parliament met in the same building where, decades earlier, the Congress of Erfurt had taken place — that was Napoleon and Tsar Alexander in 1808. So there's this continuity of German political history in that one city. And the constitution they drafted, the Erfurter Unionsverfassung, was actually quite detailed. It had a bill of rights, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly — but all subject to 'the limits of general law', which was a loophole. Still, it was more liberal than most German states had at the time. Luna: So if it had gone through, Germany might have had constitutional monarchy much earlier? Lucas: That's the tantalizing 'what if'. A unified Germany under a constitutional monarchy, with a parliament, in 1850. It would have changed everything — the revolutions of 1848 would have been a success in a sense, even if the constitution wasn't as democratic as the liberals wanted. But instead, we got the reactionary 1850s, the Crimean War, and then the real unification under Bismarck. Still, the Erfurt Union is a reminder that history is full of roads not taken. Luna: And we're still living with the ones that were taken. Lucas: Exactly. So next time you hear about German unification, remember: there was an earlier attempt, and it almost worked. Thanks for coming along on that detour.