Editing History of Germany (section)

====After Napoleon====
[[File:Hambacher Fest 1832.jpg|thumb|At the [[Hambach Festival]] at [[Hambach Castle]] in 1832, intellectuals with various political backgrounds were among the first to use the future [[Flag of Germany]] and called for a [[German question|unified German nation]].]]
[[File:Nationalversammlung in der Paulskirche.jpg|thumb|[[Frankfurt Parliament]], [[Paulskirche]], [[Frankfurt]] 1848]]
[[File:Maerz1848 berlin.jpg|thumb|Cheering the Revolutions of 1848 in [[Berlin]], [[Berlin Palace]] in the background. Liberal and nationalist pressure led to the unsuccessful [[The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states|Revolution of 1848 in the German states]].]]
[[File:BismarckRoonMoltke.jpg|thumb|[[Otto von Bismarck]], [[Albrecht Graf von Roon]] and [[Helmut von Moltke]], the senior political and military strategists of Prussia during the 1860s]]

After the fall of Napoleon, Europe's statesmen convened in Vienna in 1815 for the reorganisation of European affairs, under the leadership of the [[Klemens Wenzel von Metternich|Austrian Prince Metternich]]. The political principles agreed upon at this [[Congress of Vienna]] included the restoration, legitimacy and solidarity of rulers for the repression of revolutionary and nationalist ideas.

The [[German Confederation]] ({{Langx|de|Deutscher Bund}}) was founded, a loose union of 39 states (35 ruling princes and 4 free cities) under Austrian leadership, with a Federal Diet ({{Langx|de|[[Bundesversammlung (German Confederation)|Bundestag]]}}) meeting in [[Frankfurt am Main]]. It was a loose coalition that failed to satisfy most nationalists. The member states largely went their own way, and Austria had its own interests.

In 1819, a student radical assassinated the reactionary playwright [[August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue|August von Kotzebue]], who had scoffed at liberal student organisations. In one of the few major actions of the German Confederation, Prince Metternich called a conference that issued the repressive [[Carlsbad Decrees]], designed to suppress liberal agitation against the conservative governments of the German states.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=A.J.P. |url=https://archive.org/details/coursegermanhist1815tayl |title=The Course of German History |date=2001 |page=[https://archive.org/details/coursegermanhist1815tayl/page/n74 52] |url-access=limited}}</ref> The Decrees terminated the fast-fading nationalist fraternities ({{Langx|de|[[Burschenschaft]]en}}), removed liberal university professors, and expanded the censorship of the press. The decrees began the "persecution of the demagogues", which was directed against individuals who were accused of spreading revolutionary and nationalist ideas. Among the persecuted were the poet [[Ernst Moritz Arndt]], the publisher Johann Joseph Görres and the "Father of Gymnastics" Ludwig Jahn.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Williamson |first=George S. |date=Dec 2000 |title=What Killed August von Kotzebue? The Temptations of Virtue and the Political Theology of German Nationalism, 1789–1819 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-modern-history_2000-12_72_4/page/890 |journal=Journal of Modern History |volume=72 |issue=4 |pages=890–943 |doi=10.1086/318549 |jstor=10.1086/318549 |s2cid=144652797}}</ref>

In 1834, the [[Zollverein]] was established, a customs union between Prussia and most other German states, but excluding Austria. As industrialisation developed, the need for a unified German state with a uniform currency, legal system, and government became more and more obvious.