December 2nd 1849
DIE DEUTSCHE ZEIT
The German Revolution
Was it all worth it?
be created before civil freedom could be
reached: this meant nothing less than
abolishing revolution in favor of the state. To
leave the lead to Prussia, which had promised
civil freedom and the rule of law even before
introduction of democracy may seem a safe
choice for many German states after the 1848
Revolution had failed.
However, there is a nightmare threatening
Germany and Europe: what will happen, if
Prussia shall abuse its power, break its
promises and suppress the upcoming social
unrest of the ever increasing industrial
revolution with a perverted alternative to
revolution: racism and envy against minorities
in order to cover up and protect the privileges
of the old classes.
So, was it all worth it?
Oh yes, it would have been worth much more
trouble, but we should be more than worried,
that we paid too little attention and will have
to pay with the best we have, if we cannot
prevent a perverted revolution to follow this
failed revolution.
Yes, it is almost the end of another year,
and it is time to see how far we have
come. Looking back on the year of 1849, it
is a sure thing that a lot has happened,
along with the revolution that had all
started in the beginning of 1948. Peering
back into the past, one question will surely
come into ones mind, ‘was this revolution all
worth it?’
There are several causes that lead to this
revolution. In 1846 to about 1847, we all
remember the disastrous days of the
harvest of corn and potatoes, where
Peasants demanded the ending of feudal
dues. This caused a lot of pain, despair, and
trouble. A year later, the use of machinery
started, causing a lot of artisans losing
their jobs, which led to people moving to
the city from the land to search for jobs.
The French Revolution in 1848 also
caused a domino effect on Germany.
The biggest impact on the revolution in
Germany was the French revolution,
which had spread to many small
southwest German states. The peasants, in
some places attacked their landlords and
destroyed feudal records. However, due to
German particularism, i.e. the great
number of small lords and states, there
was not a single emperor easy to grasp
and to put on the scaffold like in France
1789. The horrors of 1789 convinced
German middle-class to prefer debating
with their princes to waging civil war and
putting them on the scaffold.
However, in thousand debates with
hundred princes it was not possible to
come to one result. Thus, all the promises
of the princes to grant freedom and
democratic rights were torn to pieces by
the lack of unity of Germany. We shall
spare the reader the details of the
debates but the result shows clearly, the
German revolutionaries lacked a
satisfactory opponent, namely a German
emperor, from whom they could have
requested freedom for their scattered
states.The Large-German Solution, i.e. a
Germany including Prussia and Austria,
had three powerful enemies: Prussia,
Austria and the rest of Europe; the small
German-Solution, i.e. Germany without
Austria and Prussia as sole leader, had
only one supporter, namely Prussia and its
alliance, and all other major German
princes as opponents.
At the end, the 1848 Revolution failed, as
no state could be created where it should
take place, and led to the conclusion that
first a strong German state would have to