Blood and Iron

The Paulskirche (Francfort Parliament) had failed its attempt to found a German nation state in 1848/49. But the "German question" remained open until the Prussian-dominated German Reich was proclaimed in January 1871. Nothing was without alternative and everything could have turned out differently. But the way in which Prussia forced Germany had consequences which continue until today.

"The great questions of the day are not decided by speeches or majority decisions, but by iron and blood." With these words, Otto von Bismarck, on September 30, 1862, justified the need for higher military spending. Ten years later, the weapons had spoken - in the war against Denmark in 1864, in the inner-German war between Austria and Prussia in 1866, and finally in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. Diligent historians hastened to celebrate Prussia's mission as the inevitable fulfilment of German history. Christoph Jahr combines the dramatic events of the 1860s with the major trends of the time and the perspective from above with the experiences from below. Whether loyal to his convictions as a liberal, resolute conservative or Prussian-critical South German, Bismarck's cynical power politics found many critics and resistance to the founding of the Reich was great. Nevertheless, contemporaries saw no alternative in the end.