Chapter 50: Frankfurt Conference

  Chapter 50 The Frankfurt Conference

On March 1, 1848, on the initiative of the bourgeois liberals of Baden and Württemberg, a conference of the liberals of the states was held in Heidelberg.

A total of 51 people attended the conference, mostly representatives of the South German states, including four Prussians and only one Austrian.

The conference adopted the Declaration to the German People and decided to set up a 7-member committee to prepare for the German Preparatory Congress. (Predecessor of the Frankfurt Conference)

There is no doubt that this conference belonged to the represented for Austria.

No matter what others thought, Franz would not recognize the legitimacy of this conference anyway. Before, he was too busy dealing with internal problems to take care of them, but now that the internal crisis was under control, it was time to intervene in the affairs of the German region.

Unlike in history, the Austrian bourgeoisie was hit hard, and those who were left were trembling on the sidelines, fearing that they would be killed by the government in passing, who would dare to come out and make trouble at this time?

The Frankfurt Conference was approaching, but the Austrian delegates were not elected, but instead a bunch of wanted criminals, ready to go to this conference.

Franz does not even know, what the capitalists think, from the beginning this is doomed to failure. Without recognition by governments, how could there be legitimacy?

“Prime Minister, what do you think of this capitalists’ toss?” Franz asked

“Your Highness, I think it can be disregarded, this meeting was originally illegal, we just don’t recognize it!” Prime Minister Felix said calmly

Austria in this era, there is still bullish capital, among the many states in Germany now Austria’s national strength is the strongest.

Franz frowned, obviously he was not satisfied with this answer, historically the Austrian government did the same thing, the consequences were quite serious, the parliament passed the proposal of Little Germany, excluding Austria.

This meeting, in Franz’s opinion, there was also the Kingdom of Prussia behind the scenes, otherwise it wouldn’t have excluded Austria in the first place.

“Do you really think so, Mr. Prime Minister? If we don’t intervene, I guess the result of the conference must be the creation of a small German empire that excludes Austria.

Regardless of the legality of this conference, the influence it has created in the civil world is indisputable, and perhaps not yet evident in Austria.

But in other regions, the influence caused has already begun to spread, and once the populace accepts this theory, it lays the groundwork for the future unification of the aforementioned regions by Prussia.” Foreign Minister Metternich said with a frown

“European coachman” is not called for nothing, although he does not think that the German region can be unified, but the pursuit of European balance Metternich is also opposed to anyone to unify Germany.

Prussia was already very strong, and if they continued to create opportunities, the annexation of North Germany was no longer a problem.

This was a very big threat to Austria. Historically, by this time Metternich had left politics, lost his voice and was powerless to stop this from happening.

Now that he was still serving as Austria’s foreign minister, this was certainly the time to do something about it, and stirring up the Frankfurt Conference was the first step.

This was also the purpose of Franz to put him into the cabinet, there were few people in the world who could compete with him in diplomacy, even though the “Vienna System” he had created had collapsed.

“Mr. Metternich, please don’t be so alarmist here. What are these capitalists, and do they represent public opinion?

Governments will not recognize their legitimacy, this so-called German parliament, the right can not even get out of Frankfurt!” Felix pointedly said

“Don’t forget that the capitalists have influence in the civil society, they can sway the public opinion of a region through the newspapers in their hands, as far as I know the Prussian government has had secret contacts with them.

Once the conditions of both sides are reached, the capitalists will support the Kingdom of Prussia to unify the region of Little Germany, then we and the Kingdom of Prussia will have to fight!” Metternich said in a near rant

……

Looking at the two men arguing and on the verge of a fight, Franz hastily chided, “Both shut up, today is for you to deliberate, not to listen to your quarrels!”

On the surface Franz was furious, but in reality he was happy in his heart. No monarch wants his men to be ironclad, let alone the fact that Franz is not the emperor yet.

As the regent Crown Prince, once he had the cabinet united, then Franz was on the verge of being hollowed out. For the sake of balance of power, he couldn’t let the cabinet members hold together either.

One was a former prime minister who had been in charge of Austria for more than twenty years, and the other was a strong current prime minister, and two strong people were bound to clash when their political views did not coincide.

“Well, just to be on the safe side, whether it’s a Prussian plot or not, we have to sabotage this meeting, or at least minimize its impact.

If you all have any ideas, let’s propose them. Our time is all precious, and wasting every minute is a crime!”

Franz still favored Metternich, and the status of the Frankfurt Conference was artificially magnified by the establishment of the Little German Empire in later years.

Exactly how useful it was, I guess only those who had experienced it personally knew. Franz did not want to try, simply give the destruction.

Anyway, because of the customs union, Austria in the German region of the capitalists have limited influence, far less than the Kingdom of Prussia, want to rely on this meeting to reach an agreement in favor of their own side, undoubtedly impossible.

“Why don’t we send a proposal to form a North and South German Empire, if we promise the South German states that we won’t interfere in their internal affairs, the success rate is still very high!” Finance Minister Karl said tentatively

“It’s no use, we might have a slight chance of convincing the South German states, but there’s absolutely no chance of it passing in a meeting of bourgeois representatives!

Besides, it would cost us too much to convince them, and in the end there would still be only nominal unification.” Metternich shook his head and said

Franz was moved by the fact that if the Federal Empire of South Germany were formed, there would be nothing left for the Prussians, because of religious beliefs, there was in fact a clear floodgate between North and South Germany.

Even if it was only a nominal unification, in reality, everyone still went their own way, and could still use economic means to infiltrate and slowly influence their politics.

Unfortunately, now is not the time, at least until Austria has dealt with its internal contradictions, otherwise there is no backbone to speak.

(End of chapter)