Unification of Germany Part 2
READ SOURCE A THEN ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW
SOURCE A (From a history book published in 1986)
Many modern historians support the view that from the 1830s onwards Prussia was using the
Zollverein to achieve ‘a Prussian solution to the German question’. The argument is that those German states who found financial advantage in an economic union under Prussian leadership might be expected to take a favourable view of similar arrangements in a political union. The Zollverein was a force for unity in the 1840s and therefore a focal point for nationalist sentiments. As a result, Prussia, despite not having liberal sympathies, came to be regarded by many as the natural leader of a united Germany.
QUESTIONS
1. From the 1830s onwards, the question of how to unify Germany became known as ‘the ‘German question’. Who was using what to try to bring this about?
2. What was Prussia?
3. What was the Zollverein?
4. What was the argument put forward by the Prussians?
5. What sort of political constitution did people who were for the Zollverein want?
6. Did Prussia have liberal sympathies?
7. What other factor that helped promote and further German unity and unification eventually saw the Zollverein as a way of achieving this?
8. What is argued in this paragraph?
Unification of Germany Part 2
ANSWERS
1. From the 1830s onwards, the question of how to unify Germany became known as ‘the ‘German question’. Who was using what to try to bring this about?
The Prussians were using the Zollverein.
2. What was Prussia?
A state in north eastern Germany run by a small number of extremely rich, autocratic even authoritarian noble landowners called the Junkers.
3. What was the Zollverein?
It was an economic union between a number of german speaking states. They agreed not to have tariffs and taxes on goods traded between those states who joined the Zollverein.
4. What was the argument put forward by the Prussians?
Those German states who saw the Prussian-led Zollverein as benefitting them economically might support a similar arrangement in the form of a German political union led by Prussia.
5. What sort of political constitution did people who were for the Zollverein want?
A liberal democracy.
6. Did Prussia have liberal sympathies?
No – the Junkers were autocratic landowners who were not interested in democracy.
7. What other factor that helped promote and further German unity and unification eventually saw the Zollverein as a way of achieving this?
Nationalist sentiments
8. What is argued in this paragraph?
Prussia was using the Zollverein to win over those with liberal economic and political sympathies and those with nationalist sentiments to the idea of Germany being unified through the leadership of Prussia.