Toward a Greater Germany?

Nationalists in the many, small German-speaking countries that had once been part of the Holy Roman Empire hoped that they could build a German nation-state. They hoped to start by expanding on the economic alliance, known as the Zollverein, that had existed since 1806. They hoped that the King of Prussia, the largest and most powerful country in this union, would one day unify all German speakers in into a single, modern country, called "Germany." They knew however that the most powerful leader in central Europe was the Hapsburg Emperor, based in Vienna, who opposed a greater Germany and would prevent any king of Prussia from acting to form one.

In the spring 1848, the news of the successful Revolution in France, came to cities in this region. Cities in this region, like Paris, were experiencing a wave of unemployment and food shortages, which led workers to demonstrate. In Vienna, this demonstration, joined by liberal-minded students from the University, became a full-scale insurrection, forcing the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand and his minister, Prince Clement von Metternich, to flee the city and leaving the entire government of the Empire disoriented. Although they would return a few weeks later to Vienna and put down the uprisings, by force, this momentary loss of control opened the way for the nationalists across central Europe to act, beginning in Frankfurt.