Age of Bismarck #10: Winning the Germans (Patreon)

[PATRONS]

Austria may have been defeated, but for Prussia to consolidate her triumph, Bismarck believed nothing less than the annexation of several of her allies would do. But how would he realise this dramatic mission, and would Europe allow him to extinguish the independence of such states as Hesse, Schleswig Holstein or Hanover? Why did Bismarck seem to hold a special resentment for the historic city of Frankfurt, where he had once cut his teeth as envoy to the German Confederation, and what treatment could its city fathers expect? Here we explore these understated questions, because despite what you may have been led to believe, the victory at Konnigratz was only the beginning. He may have won the war, but winning the Germans was a struggle on another level altogether...