German Unification was one of the seminal events in modern history. It has impacted and been instrumental in both world wars, the later half of the twentieth century, acting as a microcosm of the Cold War (ironically through its partition) and into the modern day, as the leading country in the EU. This momentous event was far from certain, however, prior to the French Revolution it was unthinkable that the German Speaking peoples would be unified into a cohesive whole and the remarkable manner in which it was achieved is more the rarer for the audacity with which it was accomplished.
The Factors Involved
To understand what made German unification possible, several factors must be looked at: German nationalism during the 19th century, Otto Von Bismarck, the interest of exterior great powers in Germany (France, The UK and Russia), Prussian Power and possible alternatives to Prussia as the centre of German unification.
Without German nationalism it wouldâve been impossible for Prussia to unify the smaller states under its aegis for any length of time, as the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires show. Otto Von Bismarck was the (arguably) genius who manipulated circumstances on the World Stage skilfully enough to allow Prussia to isolate and defeat its enemies without concerted intervention from the next factor, the other European Great Powers. The European Great Powers had the potential to stop German unification in its tracks if they so chose and yet, they did not, what prevented them from noticing and mustering the force to stamp out the empire that would turn out to be such a fearsome competitor? Prussia was the unifier of Germany, but this wasn't an inevitable or even a likely fate for a kingdom which had less than auspicious circumstances surrounding its creation. There is also the issue of other possible states around which Germany may have unified, the most obvious of these was Austria. For the first half of the 19th century Austria was the dominant member of the German Confederation and Prussia ,while powerful, was still subordinate to Austria which begs the question, why didn't Germany unify under Austria?
Prussia
Prussia was instrumental in if not German Unification itself then certainly in the manner which it was unified and yet its creation was a much more unlikely one than that of Germany's. There were three elements that needed to come together to produce the Prussian state: The March of Brandenburg, the Hohenzollern dynasty and Teutonic knight's petty kingdoms in the Baltics. (Feuchtwanger 1970:13).
The first, Brandenburg, was granted to Frederick Hohenzollern in 1411, he was granted the land by the grateful Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund who had been aided in his acquisition of the title by Frederick. In 1415 Frederick was granted the title prince elector of Brandenburg and was fully invested as Margrave and Elector Frederick 1st in 1417, cementing the centre of Hohenzollern power.