Imperial plan 1870

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The Kaiserplan of 1870 was a diplomatic initiative of the Prussian Prime Minister and Federal Chancellor of the North German Confederation Otto von Bismarck . Accordingly, the Prussian King Wilhelm I should accept the title of emperor .

Starting position and reactions

Since the end of the German War in 1866 and the founding of the North German Confederation by Prussia in 1867, the unification policy had stalled. The southern German states were usually not impressed by the idea of ​​joining the North German Confederation soon. In this situation Bismarck considered how he could keep the German question in motion.

On January 7, 1870, Bismarck discussed his plan with the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich , as he had good connections to England. The British ambassador, who had spoken to the Crown Prince, later showed his benevolence and agreed to contact France. As expected, Paris responded with protest. Bismarck had already assumed that his initiative would take a long time.

Surprisingly, the anti-Prussian politician Nepomuk Sepp expressed himself cautiously positive, at least not negative, about a German emperor in the Bavarian Second Chamber. If it came to a new National Assembly like the one in Frankfurt, then he could also believe in a united Germany. Bismarck received the help of Julius Froebel with the intention of first finding the impetus for the imperial title in southern Germany and mainly in Bavaria, and only then to return to the European level.

However, the Imperial Plan had been overshadowed by the question of the potential Hohenzollern succession to the throne in Spain since April 1870 . Later, in December during the Franco-Prussian War , the Reichstag approved the Federal Council's proposal to include the title of German Emperor in the constitution of the German Confederation , and on January 18, 1871, the Prussian King Wilhelm I was proclaimed Emperor at Versailles ( Imperial proclamation ).

Motifs

The reason for the Imperial Plan was the renaming of the Prussian Foreign Office to the North German one; this also raised the question of the further expansion of the north German federal level. Bismarck's considerations for the Kaiserplan were:

  • The idea of ​​German unity will be fired;
  • Before the upcoming Reichstag debates on the military budget later in 1870, a gain in prestige for the king would have been an advantage;
  • the previous title of Prussian King in the North German Confederation, Presidium , was impractical in diplomatic dealings.

At the end of 1870, the Prussian King Wilhelm was still vehemently opposed to the imperial title. His concern was that this title would be artificial, overshadow the Prussian title of king and would not be properly recognized by the other monarchs.

See also

supporting documents

  1. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber : German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1963, pp. 705-708.
  2. ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber: German constitutional history since 1789. Volume III: Bismarck and the realm. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1963, pp. 708/709.