Prussia And Austria: Historical Allies Or Enemies?

Austria and Prussia are two European countries with a shared history, with German being the official language of both countries. The ancestors of Austrians were the Germanic Baiuvarii (ancient German Bavarians). In early history, the Baiuvarii established the Duchy of Bavaria ruled by Francia of West Germanic Franks from 555 to 843 and including the March of Pannonia that would become Austria in c. 970. Later, the Bavarian Austria came under East Francia (Kingdom of Germany) from 843 to 962. It then separated from the Duchy of Bavaria to become a sovereign state in 1156, and from 1156 to 1806 Austria (not including its non-German lands) and other German states under the Kingdom of Germany were parts of the Holy Roman Empire which was officially a German polity from 1512 and mostly led by Austria itself.

Prussia was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians; in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights – an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders – conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Danzig. Their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany, and, in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The imposed Second Peace of Thorn (1466) split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, becoming a province of Poland, and the eastern part, called the Duchy of Prussia from 1525, a feudal fief of the Crown of Poland up to 1657. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701.

Prussia and Austria fought a series of wars over the province of Silesia (in modern-day southwestern Poland) between 1740 and 1763. Austria and Prussia co-operated in the Partitions of Poland and the Second Schleswig War, which resulted in annexations of Polish and Danish territory. The Holy Roman Empire came to an end during the Napoleonic Wars in the 1790s and 1800s, Austria and Prussia allied with each other but fought unsuccessfully against the French Empire. In 1804, Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, proclaimed the Austrian Empire, as the remaining German States had become clients of Napoleon's French Empire under the Confederation of the Rhine. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, Austria created the German Confederation as a new organisation among the German States, in which Prussia and Austria became reunited. It was during this period that the ideology of Pan-Germanism started to rise. The German Confederation lacked a monarch or a central government with real unifying force. As a result, dualism within the German Confederation laid the foundation for the diplomatic tension between Prussia and Austria, who had ambitions to create a unified Germany under their different proposals.

Austria proposed to unite the German states in a union centred on, and dominated by, the Habsburgs; Prussia, however, hoped to become the central forces in unifying the German states and to exclude Austria out of its affairs. In 1834, Prussia succeeded in creating a German Customs Union with northern German states with the hope of political union as its next step. The tension eventually gave rise to the 1866 Austro-Prussian War (Fraternal War of the Germans). Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Prussia, sided with Italy to surround Austria and bring about the latter's defeat. The Austrian Empire was dissolved into the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, with the loss of their influence over southern German states (Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria). In 1867, the new North German Confederation was declared by Bismarck. After Prussia's victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, in which the Prussian army entered and marched over Paris, Bismarck announced the creation of the German Empire and excluded Austria-Hungary solely in this unified Germany.

The Austro-Prussian War

The war was sparked by a dispute between Prussia and Austria over the administration of Schleswig-Holstein, which they had conquered from Denmark and agreed to jointly occupy at the end of the Second Schleswig War in 1864. The crisis escalated as both sides reinforced their troops along their shared frontier and eventually mobilized their armies. Prussia, led by Minister President Otto von Bismarck, formed an alliance with Italy, which committed to the war if Prussia entered into conflict with Austria within three months. This incentivized Bismarck to initiate the conflict, knowing that Italy would divert Austrian strength away from Prussia.

The main campaign of the war took place in Bohemia. Prussia, led by Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke, rapidly mobilized its army and advanced into Saxony and Bohemia, where the Austrian army was concentrating for an invasion of Silesia. The Prussian armies, led by King William I, converged and decisively defeated the Austrian and Saxon forces at the Battle of Königgrätz on July 3, 1866. Prussia's superior organization, training, and weaponry proved decisive, and Austrian battle deaths were nearly seven times higher than Prussia's.

The war concluded with an armistice between Prussia and Austria on July 22, followed by a preliminary peace agreement signed on July 26. The Peace of Prague, signed on August 23, formalized the dissolution of the German Confederation and the exclusion of Austria from German affairs. Prussia annexed several of Austria's former allies, including Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Nassau, and Frankfurt, and formed the North German Confederation in 1867. The war solidified Prussia's dominance in Germany and set the stage for the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and the eventual unification of Germany under Prussian leadership.

The German Confederation

The Confederation was a strong alliance between its member states because federal law was superior to state law. Additionally, the Confederation had been established for eternity and was impossible to dissolve, with no member states being able to leave and no new members able to join without universal consent in the Federal Convention. However, the Confederation was weakened by its structure and member states, partly because the most important decisions in the Federal Convention required unanimity and the purpose of the Confederation was limited to security matters. The functioning of the Confederation depended on the cooperation of its two most populous member states, Austria and Prussia, which were often in opposition.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire

The Empire's formation was a response to growing nationalist and liberal sentiments across the territories ruled by the Habsburgs. The Hungarians, in particular, had a strong desire for independence, which led to a brief war in 1848. While the Hungarians lost this war, it prompted the Habsburgs to grant more autonomy to Hungary. The 1867 Compromise gave Hungary back its parliament and authority over most internal affairs, while the Emperor retained control over foreign affairs, defence, and other "common" ministries.

The First Austrian Republic

The Treaty of Saint Germain angered the German population in Austria, who claimed it violated the Fourteen Points laid out by US President Woodrow Wilson, specifically the right to "self-determination" of all nations. Many Germans felt that with the loss of over 70% of the pre-war empire's territory, Austria was no longer economically or politically viable as a separate state without union with Germany. Vienna, with its population of almost 2 million, was left as an imperial capital without an empire to feed it.

The government and politics of the First Austrian Republic from 1920 to 1934 were dominated by the anti-Anschluss Christian Social Party, which retained close ties to the Roman Catholic Church. The party's first chancellor, Ignaz Seipel, came to power in May 1922 and attempted to forge a political alliance between wealthy industrialists and the Church. After the legislative elections of October 17, 1920, the Social Democrats lost their parliamentary majority and remained in opposition until 1934, when they were banned by Dollfuss.

In December 1928, the Christian Social Wilhelm Miklas was elected Federal President, and on 7 December 1929, the Constitution was amended, reducing the rights of Parliament and giving the Federal President the right to appoint the federal government and issue emergency laws. After the 1930 legislative elections, the Social Democrats emerged as the largest party with 72 seats, but Christian Social Chancellor Otto Ender created a coalition government without them.

The Anschluss

By the 1920s, the proposal for unification had strong support in both Austria and Germany, particularly among Austrian citizens of the political left and center. However, support for unification faded over time, although it remained a concept in contemporary Austrian political discourse. After Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933, the desire for unification was associated with the Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of the "Heim ins Reich" concept, which aimed to incorporate as many Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans outside Germany) as possible into a "Greater Germany".

In early 1938, under increasing pressure from pro-unification activists, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced a referendum on a possible union with Germany versus maintaining Austrian sovereignty, to be held on the 13th of March. Hitler threatened an invasion and pressured Schuschnigg to resign. On the 11th of March, the day before the planned referendum, the German army crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military. A plebiscite was held on the 10th of April, in which the ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were used to manipulate the vote, resulting in 99.7% approval for the Anschluss. While the population's true opinions are unknown, it has been estimated that about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve Austrian independence.

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