!!!Deutscher Bund

Deutscher Bund (German Confederation): confederation of the German 
sovereign principalities and the free cities, established under the 
Act of the German Confederation during the Congress Of Vienna in 1815; 
it was dissolved in 1866. The members of the Deutscher Bund - 
initially 41, towards the end 33 - had internal power of decision; 
externally, however, they had to abide by the majority decisions of 
the confederation. Not all of Austrian territory was part of the 
Deutscher Bund; excluded were the lands of the Hungarian Crown, 
Galicia, Bukovinia, Istria, Dalmatia, Venetia and Lombardy. The kings 
of Denmark (for Holstein), England (for Hanover) and the Netherlands 
(for Luxembourg) were also members of the confederation. Federal organ 
was the Diet of the Deutscher Bund at Frankfurt, presided over by 
Austria, where all the delegates met; however, their work was largely 
dependent on the relationship between Austria and Prussia. 
Particularly due to the influence of  Metternich, the Deutscher Bund 
turned more and more into a means of suppressing the reform movement 
which pleaded for greater unity and a German constitution. After the 
revolution of 1848 - in the course of which the Deutscher Bund was 
temporarily substituted by the German National Assembly - it was 
re-established in 1850 by Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, at first without 
the participation of Prussia. But in the Punctation of Olmuetz 
(Olomouc), Prussia decided to re-enter the Deutscher Bund. The 
controversy over the "grossdeutsch" (or Pan-German solution, i.e. 
Austria as leader of the Deutscher Bund) and the "kleindeutsch" (i.e. 
Prussia as leader) solutions widened the gap between Prussia and 
Austria, which after the  Austro-Prussian War of 1866 led to the end 
of the Confederation. By the Treaty of Prague, Austria had to 
acquiesce in the dissolution of the Deutscher Bund.

!Literature
K. O. Freiherr von Aretin, Vom Deutschen Reich zum 
Deutschen Bund, 1980; L. Benfeldt, Der Deutsche Bund als 
nationales Band, 1985; H. Rumpler (ed.), Deutscher Bund und 
deutsche Frage 1815-1866, 1990; A. Kaernbach, Bismarcks Konzepte zur 
Reform des Deutschen Bundes, 1991.


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