The Unification of Germany

Date: 1864 - 1871
Location: Germany

18 January 1871: The proclamation of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles. Bismarck appears in white. The Grand Duke of Baden stands beside Wilhelm, leading the cheers. Crown Prince Friedrich, later Friedrich III, stands on his father's right. Painting by Anton Von Werner.

        At the time of the 1848 Revolutions, Germany was a loose confederation of states, the most powerful among them being Prussia. From 1862, Prussia's Minister-President, Otto Von Bismarck, sought to secure the supremacy of Prussia withing central Europe by encouraging the other German states to unify under its leadership. The process began in earnest in 1864, when Prussia joined forces with Austria to annex the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. Two years later, war broke out between Prussia and Austria, and a Prussian victory at Koniggratz in 1867 allowed Bismarck to exclude Austria from the German Confederation, and from any say in the constitutional course of the German principalities.

The German Empire

Date: 1871 - 1918

Location: Germany

Flag of the German Empire

        Bismarck was well aware that Napoleon III of France would never willingly accept a unified German state on his borders. He attempted to place a German Hohenzollern prince on the throne of Spain to encircle the French. As a result, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia and its German allies. Napoleon was captured after the battle of Sedan in September 1870, and though the French continued to resist under a new Republic, Bismarck soon had the victory he desired.

The German Reich
1871-1918

        In a humiliation of the French, the German empire was proclaimed at the Palace of Versailles on the outskirts of Paris on 18th of January 1871, with the Prussian ruler Wilhelm as its first emperor. The new Germany was in principle a federation of 25 states but there was no doubt that Prussia and Bismarck - champion of the unification - were very firmly in charge.