Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 50
On March 1, 1848, a conference of various states was held in Heidelberg on the initiative of the liberals in Baden and Württemberg.
A total of 51 people attended the meeting, most of whom were representatives of the South German states, including four Prussians and only one Austrian.
The meeting voted on the “Declaration of the German People” and decided to set up a seven-member committee to prepare for the German Preparatory Parliament (the predecessor to the Frankfurt Conference).
There was no doubt that this conference did not get the permission of Austria before it happened.
No matter what others thought, Franz would not admit the legitimacy of this meeting. He had been busy dealing with domestic problems and could not take these problems into consideration. However, once the internal crisis was under control, it was time for him to intervene in the affairs of the German region.
The situation was different than it had been in history: the Austrian capitalists had been hit hard, and the rest of the people were trembling, fearing that they would be killed by the government. Under these conditions, who dared stand out and take responsibility for dealing with anything at all?
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The Frankfurt Conference was coming, but no representatives of Austria had been selected. Instead, a group of wanted criminals were going to attend the meeting.
Franz didn’t even know what the capitalists were thinking. From the beginning, this plan was doomed to failure. Without recognition of all neighboring governments, where would their legitimacy come from?
“Prime Minister, what do you think of this conference, or should I say, the mess stirred up by capitalists?” Franz asked.
“Your Highness, I think we can just ignore them since this meeting is technically illegal. We can just deny it!” Prime Minister Felix said calmly.
At that time, Austria still had powerful capital, and among the many German states, Austria had the greatest national strength.
Franz frowned. Obviously, he was not satisfied with that answer. The Austrian government had done the same thing in history, and the consequences had been quite serious. The Parliament passed the proposal of “Little Germany,” without considering Austria’s opinion.
To Franz, it seemed that the Kingdom of Prussia was surely behind the scenes of this conference; otherwise, Austria would not have been excluded from the beginning.
“Prime Minister, do you really think so? If we don’t intervene, I expect that the result of the conference will be the establishment of a small German Empire without any consideration of Austria.
Regardless of whether the meeting is legal or not, its influence on the people is beyond doubt, though perhaps there is no obvious reaction in Austria.
However, in other regions, its influence has begun to spread. Once the public accepts this theory, it will lay a foundation for Prussia to unify those regions in the future,” Foreign Secretary Metternich said with a frown.
Metternich was not called the “European Coachman” for nothing. Although he didn’t think that the German region could be unified, Metternich, who pursued a balanced Europe, would still oppose anyone who tried to unify Germany.
At that time, the Kingdom of Prussia was already very strong. If Austria continued to create opportunities for them, they would have no problem annexing the northern German region.
This was a very big threat to Austria. In history, Metternich had left the political circle during this period, lost his voice, and become unable to prevent all this from happening.
This time, since he was still the foreign minister of Austria, he had to do something. Disrupting the Frankfurt Conference was the first step.
This was also the purpose for which Franz had put him in the cabinet. Few people in the whole world could compare with his diplomacy, although the “Vienna System” he’d created had collapsed.
“Mr. Metternich, please don’t be alarmist here. What are these capitalists? Do you think they can represent public opinion?
No government will admit their legitimacy. This so-called German Parliament does not even have any power outside Frankfurt!” Felix said in response.
“Don’t you forget the influence of the capitalists on the public! They can control public opinion in a region through the newspapers in their hands. As far as I know, the Prussian government had a secret contact with them.
Once the conditions of both sides are met, the capitalists will support the Kingdom of Prussia to unify the German region, and then we will surely have a war to fight with the Kingdom of Prussia!” said Metternich, almost growling.
…
Looking at the red faces of the two men, who were practically about to fight, Franz quickly scolded, “Shut up, both of you. Today I am here to hear your discussion, not to listen to your quarrel!”
On the surface, Franz was very angry, but in fact he was happy inside. No monarch wanted his men to be monolithic, not to mention that Franz was not the emperor yet.
As the regent, once the cabinet was united, then Franz would perform practically no function. To maintain the balance of power, he could not let the cabinet members come together in agreement.
One was the former Prime Minister who had been in charge of Austria for more than twenty years, and the other was the powerful present Prime Minister.
When two powerful people had different political views, they would inevitably have conflicts.
“Well, to be on the safe side, whether it is a Prussian plot or not, we must destroy this meeting, at least to minimize its influence.
If any of you have any ideas, please share them. Our time is very precious, and any minute we waste here is a crime!”
Franz actually favored Metternich’s opinion: the status of the Frankfurt Conference was artificially magnified when the small German Empire was established in later generations.
As for how great the influence of this conference was, probably only those who had experienced it personally would know. Franz didn’t want to get involved, so he just destroyed it.
Because of the Customs Union, Austria had limited influence among the capitalists in the German region, far less than the Kingdom of Prussia. It was undoubtedly impossible to reach an agreement in favor of his own side at such a meeting.
“Perhaps we can send people to propose the formation of a North and South German Empire. If we promise the South German states that we won’t interfere in their internal affairs, the chance of success is very high!” Finance Minister Carl said tentatively.
“That definitely won’t work. We may have a slight chance to persuade the South German states, but we’d never get it through the meeting of capitalist representatives!
Besides, we’d have to pay too high a price to convince them, and in the end, it would still only be a nominal unity,” Metternich said, shaking his head.
Franz was tempted a little bit by that thought. If the Federal Empire of South Germany was established, there would be no issue with the Prussians there. Because of religious beliefs, there was actually an obvious gap between the north and the south of Germany.
Even if there was a nominal unity, in fact, each side would still act in their own ways and use economic means to infiltrate and slowly influence the politics of the other.
Unfortunately, it was not the right time yet. At the very least, Franz had to wait for Austria to resolve its internal conflicts; otherwise, he’d have no confidence in his ability to handle this affair.
