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The term German Empire (the translation from German of Deutsches Reich) commonly refers to Germany, from its consolidation as a unified nation-state in January 1871, until the abdication of Kaiser ( Emperor) Wilhelm II in November 1918. Germans, when referring to the Reich in this period under the Kaisers, typically use the term Kaiserreich and this term has often been used by non-German historians. Sometimes in English (but rarely in German) the name Second Reich is used, based on counting the Holy Roman Empire as the first German empire (and, as Nazi ideology insisted, Nazi Germany as the third).
It should however be noted that Deutsches Reich was the state's official name both in this period and until the occupation of Nazi Germany in 1945 that ended World War II in Europe; thus the next two articles of the History of Germany series (see the box near the upper right corner of this page) also cover the official Deutsches Reich.
Under the guise of idealism giving way to realism, German nationalism rapidly shifted from its liberal and democratic character in 18481848 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). Events Sri Lanka The Revolution of 1848 (qv. a series of widespread but failed struggles for more liberal governments, from Brazil to Hungary. January 24 California gold rush: Jame to PrussianThe word Prussia ( German: Preussen (Preussen Polish: Prusy Lithuanian: Prusai Latin: Borussia has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia chancellor Otto von BismarckAlternate meanings: See Bismarck (disambiguation . Prince Otto von Bismarck Duke of Lauenburg ( April 1, 1815 July 30, 1898) was one of the most prominent leaders of the 19th century; as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia ( 1862 1890) he unified Ger's authoritarian RealpolitikRealpolitik ( German for "politics of reality") is foreign politics based on practical concerns rather than theory or ethics. Realpolitik in many cases has been for the advancement of the national interests of a country over ethical or principled concerns. Bismarck wanted unification to achieve his aim of a conservative, Prussian-dominated German state. He accomplished this through three military successes:
Bismarck himself prepared in broad outline the 1866 North German Constitution , to become the 1871 Constitution of the German Empire with some adjustments. Germany, along with the other authoritarian governments of Italy and Japan, acquired some democratic features: notably the Reichstag, a parliament with limited powers elected by direct manhood suffrage. However, legislation also required the consent of the Bundesrat, the federal council of deputies from the states, in which Prussia dominated. Behind a constitutional façade, Prussia thus exercised predominant influence in both bodies with executive power vested in the Kaiser, who appointed the federal chancellor – Otto von Bismarck. While the minor states retained their own governments, the military forces were controlled by the federal government, in fact, Prussia. Although authoritarian in many respects, the empire permitted the development of political parties.
The evolution of the authoritarian German Empire is somewhat in line with parallel developments in Italy and Japan. Similarly to Bismarck, Count Camillo Benso di Cavour in Italy used diplomacy and war to achieve his objectives: he allied with France before attacking Austria, securing the unification of Italy except for Venice and the Papal States by 1861. In the interests of Piedmont-Sardinia, Cavour, hostile to the more revolutionary nationalism of liberal republicans such as Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini, sought the unification of Italy along conservative lines. Similarly, Japan would follow a course of conservative modernization from the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration to 1918 along with Cavour's Italy. In fact, Japan issued a commission in 1882 to study various governmental structures throughout the world and were particularly impressed by Bismarck's Germany, issuing a constitution in 1889 that formed a premiership with powers analogous to Bismarck's position as chancellor with a cabinet responsible to the emperor alone.
The unification of Germany meant also absorption the whole Kingdom of Prussia into it. The 3 new provinces: East Prussia, West Prussia, and Provinz Posen, that before was outside German Confederation were incorporated into would-be national Germany. Another province Silesia, was the part of Holy Roman Empire together with Bohemia. However, those provinces had large Polish populations. Annexation of those 4 provinces put Germany into conflict with the Poles. Since the Polish population was growing more rapidly, and Germans were migrating from eastern to western Germany in the Ostflucht, eastern provinces gradually become more and more Polish in character.
One factor, but only one, in the social anatomy of these governments had been the retention of a very substantial share in political power by the landed elite, due to the absence of a revolutionary breakthrough by the peasants in combination with urban areas.
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