Germany Unification

German unification was not possible without the iron hand of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. He made it possible for the various German states with different backgrounds and history to consolidate and become a major European power during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the reasons why Bismarck was successful was because he was clever and brought both the conservatives and the liberals to support his policies. Bismarck was able to convince the conservatives and the liberals that "National Unity" was first and it needed solid backing from both groups in order for the German states to unite as one nation. When Germany was finally formed, the German parliament was divided into two houses, the upper house Bundesrat was to accomodate royal nobles and elites while the lower house, Reichstag was elected by universal manhood suffrage. Germany also adopted federalism in which the central government shared power with the states in governing the people. Another reason why Bismarck was successful in making Germany unified was he made Prussia responsible for the unification. While Bismarck used political pragmatism to win liberals as well as radicals over to his side, he also knew Prussia was the most powerful German state. It had already reformed its army and its weapons were much superior than German state. Kitchen wrote, "The Prussian army was equipped with the needle gun which could release seven rounds a minute and could be fired lying down." When Prussia went to war against Austria, several German states joined the Austrian empire including Saxony, Hanover, and Electoral Hesse, all of them were attacked the Prussian army. Prussia was so strong that in less than three weeks, it defeated Austria at Koniggratz on July 3rd. Austria lost 45,000 soldiers compared to Prussia losing 9,000 lives. Such victory for Prussia made it possible to annex the Northern German states and eventually use its new political clout to merge the southern nation states into the new union.