About the Austro-Prussian Dualism after the 1848–1849 Revolution in Germany

This article focuses on the contradictions between Prussia and Austria on the question of the unification of the German states immediately after the revolution of 1848–1849. The members of the Frankfurt Parliament presented the crown of a German ruler to the King of Prussia. He refused this “revolutionary“ crown because it had no legitimacy, and insisted on one given to him by the German monarchs. Prussia’s attempts to win over the German states for “Little German“ unification (the Kleindeutsch) followed, and the opposition of Austria, wishing to preserve the German Union and its presidency in it, and thus the Austro-Prussian dualism, entered a new phase.