The above graphic seems appropriate for these titles* on the subject of politics and political history in Germany from the mid-19th century onwards.

Alongside the growing nationalism, the rise of socialism and communism were also dominant themes. Liberation struggles were also significant – for example, the founding of the Swiss Confederation in 1848, the national unification of Italy in 1868. And Bulgaria, with the help of Russia, became victorious over the Ottoman Empire in the year 1878. In Germany and Austria, after the Congress of Vienna (1815), the creation of a ‘Kleindeutsche Loesung’ versus a ‘Grossdeutsche Loesung’ as a national future form was a dominant political theme – also known as the German Question. The difference between these two options laid in the inclusion / exclusion of Austria.

After the Battle of Koenigsgrätz (1866) it was clear that Prussia with its Capital Berlin and its Chancelor Bismarck, will be ‘the leader of the pack. In 1870/1871 France was decisively defeated militarily and this German victory over France paved the way for the founding of the “second deutsches Reich” (in the Palace of Versailles). On January 31, 1871, Germany was united under the rules and regulations from Bismarck and Prussia, without the Prussian Parliament voting for it.